People's Daily - October 24, 2026

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Holds a Meeting

■ Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the seventh round of inspection work of the 20th Central Committee has been thorough, solid, and effective. Judging from the inspections, the work of central Party and state organs has made positive progress, but some problems still exist and must be given high priority and resolved seriously and conscientiously. It is necessary to consolidate the responsibility for rectification, strengthen supervision over rectification, urge the inspected Party organizations to combine the study and implementation of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, consolidate and expand the learning and education achievements in establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, earnestly implement the rectification of problems fed back by the inspections, taking decisive and tough action (动真碰硬, dong zhen peng ying - "move truth, bump hard"), and truly rectify and genuinely reform.

■ Central Party and state organs are the first echelon in practicing the Two Upholds (两个维护). It is necessary to continuously improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, strengthen the political responsibility for performing duties and fulfilling responsibilities, and resolutely implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee. Continue to deepen reform and tackle key difficulties, and conscientiously implement the tasks of reform. Enhance the sense of responsibility of always being concerned, strengthen the prevention and control of risks and hidden dangers at the source, investigate and rectify them, and better coordinate development and security. Effectively strengthen the building of leading bodies, enhance their cohesion and combat effectiveness, and urge leading cadres to take the lead in starting businesses and overcoming difficult challenges (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack key, overcome difficulty"). Strictly implement the political responsibility for governing the Party, do a good job in all aspects of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with higher standards and more practical measures, maintain the high-pressure stance against corruption, carry the strict tone through to the end, and build political organs with a clean and upright atmosphere.

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on October 23 to deliberate the "Comprehensive Report on the Seventh Round of Inspection Work of the 20th Central Committee." Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The meeting pointed out that under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the seventh round of inspection work of the 20th Central Committee has been thorough, solid, and effective. Judging from the inspections, the work of central Party and state organs has made positive progress, but some problems still exist and must be given high priority and resolved seriously and conscientiously. It is necessary to consolidate the responsibility for rectification, strengthen supervision over rectification, urge the inspected Party organizations to combine the study and implementation of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, consolidate and expand the learning and education achievements in establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, earnestly implement the rectification of problems fed back by the inspections, taking decisive and tough action, and truly rectify and genuinely reform.

The meeting emphasized that central Party and state organs are the first echelon in practicing the Two Upholds. It is necessary to continuously improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, strengthen the political responsibility for performing duties and fulfilling responsibilities, and resolutely implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee. Continue to deepen reform and tackle key difficulties, and conscientiously implement the tasks of reform. Enhance the sense of responsibility of always being concerned, strengthen the prevention and control of risks and hidden dangers at the source, investigate and rectify them, and better coordinate development and security. Effectively strengthen the building of leading bodies, enhance their cohesion and combat effectiveness, and urge leading cadres to take the lead in starting businesses and overcoming difficult challenges. Strictly implement the political responsibility for governing the Party, do a good job in all aspects of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with higher standards and more practical measures, maintain the high-pressure stance against corruption, carry the strict tone through to the end, and build political organs with a clean and upright atmosphere.

The meeting also studied other matters.

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Carry out all-out search and rescue, properly resettle disaster-affected people, and effectively protect the safety of people's lives and property

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) At approximately 22:33 on October 22, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet, causing heavy casualties.

After the earthquake occurred, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, attached great importance to the matter and made important instructions, pointing out that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet, causing heavy casualties. Full efforts must be made to carry out search and rescue of personnel, full efforts must be made to treat the injured, and casualties must be minimized to the greatest extent possible.

Xi Jinping emphasized that the disaster area is located in a high-altitude region with cold weather, and it is necessary to closely monitor the earthquake situation and weather changes, carry out rescue operations scientifically, and prevent the occurrence of secondary disasters. It is necessary to speed up the allocation of emergency rescue supplies, properly resettle the affected people, rush to repair damaged infrastructure, and effectively safeguard the safety of people's lives and property.

Li Qiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council, made instructions pointing out that it is necessary to speed up the verification of the disaster situation, make full efforts to organize emergency rescue and treatment of the injured, properly transfer and resettle the affected people, and do everything possible to reduce casualties. The disaster area of this earthquake is located in a high-altitude region with frequent aftershocks; the Ministry of Emergency Management and the China Earthquake Administration should, together with relevant parties, further strengthen earthquake monitoring and forecasting, and do meticulous work in disaster prevention and response.

In accordance with Xi Jinping's important instructions and Li Qiang's requirements, the Ministry of Emergency Management has dispatched a work team to the scene to guide emergency rescue and disaster relief work, and Tibet has organized forces to make full efforts to carry out emergency rescue and disaster relief and properly resettle the affected people. At present, all work related to earthquake relief is being carried out in an intense and orderly manner.

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Xi Jinping Sends Letter of Congratulations to 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an)

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) On October 23, President Xi Jinping sent a letter of congratulations to the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an).

Xi Jinping pointed out that at present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, and the deficits in peace, development, security, and governance are increasing without end (有增无减, you zeng wu jian - "have increase, no decrease"). I have put forward the Global Governance Initiative, which aims to promote the building of a more just and reasonable global governance system and to build a better world. China is willing to work with all parties to practice the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, to gather strength with confidence, to solve difficult problems through cooperation, to promote the implementation of the Global Governance Initiative, to inject more certainty and positive energy into a world fraught with change and turmoil, and to join hands in moving toward a community with a shared future for mankind.

The 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an) opened the same day in the Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province, under the theme "Rebuilding Confidence and Cooperation: A Century of Transformation and the Reform and Improvement of Global Governance," and was hosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs.

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The way to victory for the Party and the people's army as they march forward with vigor

By: 本报评论员

"We revisit history in order to draw from it the wisdom and strength for forging ahead."

At the conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, General Secretary Xi Jinping reviewed the great course in which our Party led the Red Army in the Long March, and pointed out that "90 years later, as we look back once again on that period of suffering and glory, we have come to recognize even more deeply that the victory of the Long March was inevitable, and that it embodies the way to victory by which the Party and the people's army have marched forward with resounding steps."

Traversing more than ten provinces, driving straight ahead for 25,000 li, and fighting more than 600 battles and engagements... The Long March of the Red Army proclaimed the complete failure of the scheme of the Kuomintang reactionaries to annihilate the Chinese Communist Party and the Red Army, successfully realized the strategic shift of marching north to resist Japan, and successfully opened up a new situation for the Chinese revolution.

How was this road of great victory realized?

"It was walked out under the correct leadership of the Party," "it was walked out by relying on firm revolutionary will," "it was walked out by relying on independence and self-reliance and seeking truth from facts," "it was walked out by relying on the support of the broad masses of the people."

The way to victory by which the Party and the people's army march forward with resounding steps, as revealed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, elucidates the fundamental guarantee, spiritual pillar, guide for action, and source of strength of this great victory. It is both a profound summary of history and a profound revelation for the future, carrying enlightening significance that transcends time and space.

Here we focus on explaining "firm revolutionary will" and "independence and self-reliance, seeking truth from facts," in order to deepen understanding.

Ideals and convictions are the spiritual pillar and political soul of Chinese Communists. "Why could the Chinese revolution succeed? The secret is that revolutionary ideals stand higher than heaven."

During the Long March, the Xiang River surged with waves, blood stained the waters and bones sank to the depths; the Four Crossings of the Chishui River achieved victory through unexpected tactics; on the Dadu River, flying troops seized the perilous crossing. Though hungry and cold, they did not take a single needle or thread from the masses; though their wounded legs were amputated, they vowed to crawl to northern Shaanxi. Relying on firm ideals and convictions and a strong revolutionary will, the Party and the Red Army time and again were reborn from desperate situations, becoming more courageous with each setback, and finally won victory, creating an incredible miracle.

"History has eloquently proven that revolutionary ideals and revolutionary convictions can burst forth with inexhaustible power to overcome fierce enemies and shake mountains, and that a contingent with lofty ideals and firm convictions is invincible."

The power of spirit transcends time and space.

Rooted in the soil of their hometowns, millions of Party members and cadres have striven with dedication, exerting every ounce of energy and thought, and with the resolve of "without complete victory, we will never withdraw our troops," they have written the "most successful story of poverty alleviation";

Scaling the heights, countless scientific researchers have struggled to tackle key problems with the tenacity of persistent effort over a long period, lifting up a vibrant "innovative China";

Guarding the passes and protecting the borders, young soldiers have put into practice the vow of "clear and pure love, only for China," using loyalty and hot blood to build an unbreakable boundary monument...

From the "great Long March" to the "new Long March," from breaking through encirclement, pursuit, obstruction, and interception to striding forward on the journey of national rejuvenation, time and again turning around crises and turning danger into safety has depended precisely on the heroic spirit and revolutionary spirit of overwhelming all enemies without being overwhelmed by any enemy, and conquering all difficulties without being conquered by any difficulty.

"As long as ideals and convictions remain, the Party's cause will surely succeed."

On the road forward, unremitting and persistent effort in using Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to unite hearts and forge souls, building a solid foundation of ideals and convictions, tempering revolutionary will, and fighting bravely and facing difficulties head-on with the conviction and courage that the more dangerous the situation, the more we must press forward, will surely turn one "impossible" after another into "certainly possible."

The process of the Long March was also a process in which our Party painstakingly explored the path of revolution. "Adhering to independence and self-reliance, seeking truth from facts, and proceeding from reality in everything" is precisely one of the important connotations of the great Long March spirit.

The Long March "surmounted the erroneous ideological obstacle of treating Marxism as an immutable dogma," and our Party began to independently and realistically resolve major issues such as which path to take and how to fight battles. It was precisely under the guidance of the Party's correct line that the Red Army successfully broke through the enemy's layer upon layer of blockade and continuously moved toward new life and new victory.

"History has eloquently proven that only when the basic principles of Marxism are closely integrated with China's concrete reality can they solve China's problems and demonstrate powerful vitality."

Since the beginning of the new era, by adhering to the Two Integrations, Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has achieved a new leap in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism.

Under the scientific guidance of the Party's innovative theory, every major decision in the new era has been grounded in China's actual conditions and responded to China's problems.

Keenly perceiving that "the environmental conditions of large-scale inflows and outflows have already changed," a strategic decision was made, assessing the situation and timing, to build the new development pattern;

Developing new quality productive forces in light of local conditions, "exploring and walking out a path of high-quality development suited to each one's own actual conditions";

Accelerating the pace of self-reliance and strength in science and technology to solve the problem of foreign countries "choking" us;

Using the "Second Integration" to consolidate cultural subjectivity and achieve spiritual independence and self-reliance...

Adhering to independence and self-reliance, seeking truth from facts, and unswervingly and steadfastly walking our own path, our Party has successfully advanced and expanded Chinese modernization and firmly grasped the leadership and initiative in the development of the cause.

Striving for the 15th Five-Year Plan and stepping onto the "new Long March of the Party and the people," the mission we bear has become more arduous and the tasks we face more numerous. The valuable experience tempered by the Long March is precisely the confidence that enables us to ride through wind and waves and make steady progress to achieve long-term goals.

Vigorously carrying forward the great Long March spirit, drawing wisdom and strength from the "way to victory," strengthening confidence, and continuing the struggle, we will surely advance from victory to new victory and continuously create new achievements worthy of the era and the people.

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Li Qiang Chairs State Council Executive Meeting

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) Premier Li Qiang of the State Council on October 23 presided over an executive meeting of the State Council, which studied work related to coordinating population and economic and social development, and heard a report on the implementation of the arrangements made at the national conference on advancing the service industry.

The meeting noted that population is the foundational condition for economic and social development. It is necessary to better coordinate the relationships between population and the economy and society, and between population and resources and the environment, further improve relevant policies, continuously accumulate and release the comprehensive demographic dividend, and better support high-quality economic and social development with high-quality population development. It is necessary to give greater prominence to the comprehensive development of people, raise the levels of the population's scientific and cultural attainment, vocational skills, and physical and mental health, accelerate the improvement of the lifelong learning mechanism for the entire people, extensively carry out skills training, strengthen the coordinated linkage among education, training, and industrial development, and promote high-quality and full employment. It is necessary to strengthen categorized guidance for regional population development, guide the orderly flow of population between urban and rural areas, steadily advance the equalization of basic public services, optimize the layout of infrastructure in light of population distribution, and promote the dynamic adaptation of public service resources to changes in the permanent resident population. It is necessary to accelerate the building of a birth-friendly society, continuously improve policies on marriage and childbearing, child rearing, and education, optimize fiscal, tax, social security, housing, and other support measures oriented toward families, and strive to stabilize the scale of newly born population.

The meeting noted that it is necessary to further bring into play the supporting role of the service industry in economic development, intensify efforts to expand capacity and improve quality in the service industry, and transform the potential and space of the service industry into development momentum. It is necessary to accelerate the resolution of difficulties and bottlenecks in the development of the service industry, focus on key areas of production and daily life and adopt policies tailored to each sector, strengthen support in financing, land use, talent, and data, steadily advance price reform in the field of public utilities, and intensify efforts to revitalize and make good use of idle resources. It is necessary, in accordance with the requirements of building the unified national market, to continuously remove barriers to market access, clear hidden barriers to private investment, and accelerate the building of regulatory approaches suited to the development of new business forms. It is necessary to fully mobilize the initiative of all parties in developing the service industry, strengthen categorized guidance and supervision and coordination, enhance the targeting and effectiveness of policies, support qualified localities in piloting and experimenting first, and explore paths for innovative development of the service industry in light of local conditions. It is necessary to encourage the expansion of investment in the service industry, release the potential of service consumption, and cultivate leading enterprises and distinctive brands. It is necessary to further improve the statistical monitoring system suited to the development of the service industry, and strengthen the work pattern of coordination between upper and lower levels and joint management by all parties.

Other matters were also studied at the meeting.

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Xiong'an New Area Integrates High-Quality Development with Efficient Governance

By: 本报记者 万秀斌 郑海鸥 邵玉姿

Autumn arrives in Xiong'an, and the scenery is magnificent and varied (气象万千, qì xiàng wàn qiān - "air, appearance, ten thousand, myriad").

Above ground, the "Millennium Forest" stretches with lush greenery, and modern buildings stand in a clean, orderly arrangement; underground, a utility corridor network of over 100 kilometers runs through; in the cloud, a digital city grows in tandem, with the "Eye of Xiong'an" keeping watch over the entire city... On the North China Plain, by the shore of Baiyangdian Lake, a city of the future is growing with calm composure.

This composure comes from having cast aside the "growing pains" and rejected the crude, sprawling expansion of the "pancake-spreading" model, embedding the modernization of governance into the entire process of urban development.

Deep concern and earnest entrustment. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly pointed the way for the construction and development of Xiong'an New Area, calling for "advancing the modernization of urban governance in tandem" and stressing that "to continuously enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity of Xiong'an New Area, we must plan systematically and integrate high-quality construction with high-efficiency governance."

Planning before construction, underground before aboveground, greening before building the city... Following Xi Jinping's guidance, Xiong'an has written its exploratory practice into every piece of land and every daily routine.

Systematic planning, with the aboveground and underground growing together in symbiosis——

Entering Rongdong Area, Xiong'an's first concentrated built-up zone, one sees lush trees and closely spaced buildings above ground, with no "spider web of overhead wires" overhead and no "road zippers" underfoot.

Underground, there is a whole new world of scenery (别有洞天, bié yǒu dòng tiān - "another, have, cave, heaven"): the underground parking garages of 95 residential communities are interconnected, and "BeiDou + 5G indoor distribution" technology brings BeiDou signals underground; the underground utility corridor houses all municipal pipelines for water, electricity, gas, heat, and networks, with intelligent sensing devices deployed throughout the corridor.

"No detours underground, no congestion above ground. Living here is comfortable and reassuring," said Zhou Qiang, a resident of Rongdong Area.

Underground before aboveground — Xiong'an plans the city's "inner workings" in advance, laying a solid foundation for urban development and governance. At the same time, relying on digital twin technology, it builds a "city in the cloud," allowing the "city above ground" and the "city underground" to integrate with each other.

The invisible "inner workings" support the visible "facade." Ma Yongjun, director of the Operations and Management Department of China Xiong'an Group Infrastructure Construction Co., Ltd., logs into the "digital twin" system as the first task of every workday. Through this system, every detail of the underground utility corridor is clearly visible, with temperature, humidity, water pressure, and gas concentration updating in real time. "When a problem arises, the system issues an automatic alert. Problems are detected in the 'cloud,' and repairs can be carried out within the corridor," Ma Yongjun said.

Ecology first, with the new city and the lake wetlands coexisting in harmony——

In the crisp and refreshing autumn weather (秋高气爽, qiū gāo qì shuǎng - "autumn, high, air, refreshing"), waterbirds gather in flocks along Yannandi of Baiyangdian Lake, and the Nanhe Hub, with its dark-tiled, upturned-eave architecture, is reflected in the water. This hub connects on one side to the vast expanse of Baiyangdian's lake wetlands, and on the other to the modern buildings of Xiong'an New Area.

Before the establishment of Xiong'an New Area, the overall water quality of Baiyangdian was below Class V, with reduced water flow and severe fragmentation of waterways. Fuhe River Estuary Wetland, the "throat" of Baiyangdian, once saw turbid water from upstream pour directly into the lake. Zhu Baofeng, head of the Water Conservancy and Water Environment Construction and Operations Division of China Xiong'an Group Ecological Construction Investment Co., Ltd., led his team to use a three-stage near-natural purification process of "pre-sedimentation ecological ponds + subsurface flow wetlands + aquatic plant ponds," bringing this wetland back to life.

In recent years, Xiong'an New Area has insisted on advancing water replenishment, pollution control, and flood prevention as an integrated whole, with the five major projects of "dredging and desilting, connecting the hundred lakes, returning farmland to wetlands, scientific water replenishment, and rigorous flood prevention" being pursued through multiple channels simultaneously.

"The original appearance of Baiyangdian is back!" Zhang Xuenong, chairman of the Baiyangdian Photographers Association of Anxin County, has documented the changes of Baiyangdian with more than 100,000 photographs. In recent years, rare birds such as the ferruginous duck have become "regular guests" in his lens. "The city and the lake merge, and the lake and the city coexist. Now a casual snapshot captures beautiful scenery."

The water quality of Baiyangdian has remained stable at Class III standards for five consecutive years. As of 2026, the number of wild bird species in Baiyangdian has increased to 296, up 90 species from before the establishment of the New Area, and fish species have recovered to 50.

Integrated advancement, with secure housing and fulfilling work complementing each other (相辅相成, xiāng fǔ xiāng chéng - "mutually, assist, mutually, complete")——

"It feels like living in a garden now." In 2023, Yuan Yuxin, a relocated resident of Rongdong Area, and his family moved into the Lixian Garden residential community in the area. "It's just a few minutes' walk downstairs to the supermarket, and my grandchildren don't have to go far to school. Every day I go to the community senior care station to play ball — life is fulfilling and comfortable."

In Nanying Community, where Yuan Yuxin's family lives, volumes of "household condition ledgers" record the warmth and cold of people's livelihoods. "More than 3,700 households have 'one file per household,' covering medical care, elderly care, and other matters, updated dynamically every two months," said Wang Weixiao, secretary of the Party General Branch of Nanying Community. The "household condition ledgers" have been organized into more than 80,000 pieces of information and three lists — the "resource list, the problem and demand list, and the responsibility list" — sorting out the huge number of complex issues (千头万绪, qiān tóu wàn xù - "thousand, heads, ten thousand, threads") of community work with perfect clarity.

In Yi'an Community in the startup zone, Guo Bingqing, a teacher at the Xiong'an campus of Beijing No. 4 Middle School, and her family have put down roots here: they rent an apartment in Huawangcheng residential complex, and her daughter attends Xiong'an Shijia Hutong Primary School nearby; relying on Xiong'an's superior water resources and well-developed cultural and sports facilities, her husband Li Nan has started art and sports training institutions, embarking on a new career. "This city of the future has fulfilled our family's imagination and expectations for life," Guo Bingqing said with emotion.

Only with secure housing can one work with peace of mind. With balanced, high-quality public services, meticulous grassroots governance, and an industrial foundation that has gathered strength over time, Xiong'an is lifting up one dream after another of living and working in peace and contentment (安居乐业, ān jū lè yè - "peacefully, settle, happily, work").

"Governance is not about 'remedial lessons' after construction is complete. Xiong'an insists on advancing planning, construction, and governance as an integrated whole, ensuring that urban governance has rules to follow from the very beginning," said Liu Zhenming, deputy director of the Xiong'an New Area Natural Resources and Planning Bureau.

One blueprint drawn to the end. A city of the future is growing apace, flourishing and prosperous (欣欣向荣, xīn xīn xiàng róng - "flourishing, flourishing, towards, prosperous").

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Autumn Grain Purchases Proceeding in an Orderly Manner

The latest agricultural situation monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that over 80 percent of the national autumn grain harvest has been completed. At present, peak-season autumn grain purchases are proceeding in an orderly manner across various regions. The photo shows on October 23, inside the reserve grain depot area in Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, grain delivery vehicles entering in an orderly manner, waiting for inspection and warehousing.

Photo by Zhou Yong (Image China)

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Racing Through the Night to Protect Lives (Today's Commentary)

By: 徐驭尧

After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet, General Secretary Xi Jinping attached great importance to the matter and issued important instructions, emphasizing that "every effort must be made to carry out search and rescue of personnel, every effort must be made to ensure the treatment of the injured, and casualties must be minimized to the greatest extent possible."

The disaster is the command. The average altitude of the quake-hit area is close to 4,800 meters, the location is remote, and the disaster struck in the dead of night, but adverse conditions did not slow the pace of rescue. On the highways and national roads in the deep night, one after another shining vehicle lights followed in succession, and rescue personnel braved the severe cold to press forward overnight. Within no more than 12 hours after the disaster, beside two villages in Maru Township, the hardest-hit area, rows of disaster-relief tents had already been set up; officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and the armed police quickly set up stoves and brought out steaming hot meals for the affected people... That night, countless sleepless people raced against time and rushed about for the sake of life.

The disaster has unleashed the strength in unity (众志成城, zhong zhi cheng cheng - "people's, will, form, city"). At present, disaster-relief supplies allocated at the four levels of the central government, the autonomous region, the city, and the county are arriving in the disaster area one after another, and rescue forces including public security, firefighting, and medical aid have all arrived at the scene. Responding at the first moment, assembling at the first moment, and arriving at the first moment, making every possible effort (全力以赴, quan li yi fu - "all, strength, go, towards") to ensure the safety of the lives and property of the affected people.

All earthquake-relief work is still proceeding intensively and in an orderly manner. Working together with one heart (万众同心, wan zhong tong xin - "ten thousand, masses, same, heart") and helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help"), we will surely overcome difficulties together (共渡难关, gong du nan guan - "together, cross, difficult, pass") and jointly greet the dawn.

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United as One, Embark on the Expedition Filled with Glory and Dreams

By: 新华社记者

"The history of the Long March has never receded into the distance, and the road of the Long March is constantly extending." "The new journey is an expedition filled with glory and dreams, a new Long March for the Party and the people."

General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech on October 22 at the conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which continues to evoke strong resonance among cadres and the masses. They expressed that they must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply comprehend the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), strengthen the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), firm up the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), vigorously carry forward the great spirit of the Long March, continue the struggle, making steady progress through hardships (砥砺前行, di li qian xing - "grind, polish; move forward"), and working together with one heart and mind (同心协力, tong xin xie li - "same, heart; together, strength") to walk the new Long March road well.

Forging firm loyalty to the Party

Upholding firm ideals and convictions

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that ideals, convictions, and purposes are the "soul" of Communists, always guiding the direction of our advance.

Once the fire of ideals and convictions is ignited, it will never be extinguished. The Memorial Park for the Xiangjiang River Campaign of the Red Army's Long March, located in Quanzhou County, Guangxi, is built against the mountains, with over ten thousand black mountain stones lying quietly among the hills. These stones were taken from the Xiang-Gui ancient road that the Red Army passed through when it urgently crossed the Xiangjiang River.

"What enabled the Red Army officers and soldiers to charge forward courageously (勇往直前, yong wang zhi qian - "brave, go; straight, forward") and risk one's life without hesitation (舍生忘死, she sheng wang si - "abandon, life; forget, death")? What enabled our Party to unite and lead the people to seize one great victory after another in one great Long March after another? General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech contains the profound answer." Zhou Yunliang, director of the Quanzhou Red Army Long March Xiangjiang River Campaign Cultural Protection and Inheritance Center, said, "Revolutionary ideals are higher than heaven. We must turn our ideals and convictions into the driving force for walking the new Long March road well."

In Diebu, Gannan, the Lazikou Campaign Monument stands tall and imposing (巍然矗立, wei ran chu li - "towering, grand; stand, erect") — this area is the jurisdiction under the responsibility of forest ranger Chen Weifeng and his colleagues.

"'The Red Army's Long March created an extraordinary human miracle.' The General Secretary's words deeply moved me. The cliffs the Red Army climbed during the Lazikou Campaign are still places few dare to go today." Chen Weifeng said that 40 years ago when he first started working, transportation here was inconvenient and supplies had to be carried by people and horses, but now the area is crowded with tourists (游人如织, you ren ru zhi - "traveler, like; weaving"), and people come to the monument to remember the martyrs. "Guarding the lucid waters and lush mountains for the motherland, protecting our homeland for future generations — this is our Long March."

Shen Xingtai, who lives in Changchun, Jilin, is the daughter of a veteran Red Army soldier. Already in her eighties, she is continuing to move forward without stopping (步履不停, bu lv bu ting - "step, pace; not, stop"), entering schools, communities, government offices, and enterprises to tell the stories of the Long March and promote red culture.

Having studied General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech on television, she said with deep emotion: "Our happy life today was won by the revolutionary predecessors with their blood and lives. Walking on the new Long March road, we must never forget the road we came from, and we must pass on the great spirit of the Long March."

From carrying out underground work at the risk of his life during the revolutionary war years, to walking through Bashan villages and stockaded villages in straw sandals after the founding of New China, to leading the masses to open up roads to prosperity after retirement, Zhou Yongkai, recipient of the "July 1 Medal" and former deputy secretary of the Daxian Prefectural Party Committee of Sichuan Province, has practiced loyalty to the Party with his entire life.

"A contingent with lofty ideals and firm convictions is invincible." Studying General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, Zhou Yongkai could not calm down for a long time: "To walk the new Long March road well, we must keep loyalty to the Party in our hearts and implement it in our actions, working for the Party and the people all our lives."

At the conference site, Liu Ronggang, director of the Seventh Research Department of the Party History and Literature Research Institute of the CPC Central Committee, listened to General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, taking notes as he listened, and further clarified the direction of his work.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the road of the great victory of the Red Army's Long March was walked out by relying on the Party's correct leadership. On the new journey, we must uphold the Party's leadership and strengthen Party building." Liu Ronggang said, "As Party history and literature workers, we must continuously arm our minds with the Party's innovative theories, keep in mind our original aspiration and founding mission, draw wisdom and strength for striving from the great spirit of the Long March, pass on the red genes, continue the red bloodline, and contribute to comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization."

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the Party's leadership and Party building are the fundamental guarantees for the development of the cause.

Studying General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, Huang Yunzhou, Party branch secretary of Xiyujia Village, Dezhou, Shandong, recalled the scene of the General Secretary's inspection visit to this village in June this year.

"When leaving the village, the General Secretary encouraged everyone to 'work together with one heart to walk the new Long March road well and create a brighter future.'" Huang Yunzhou said, "Rural revitalization in the new era is the new Long March road that we grassroots cadres in rural areas must walk well. Village development depends on both the leadership and guidance of Party organizations and the heartfelt support of the masses. Only when grassroots Party organizations think for the people in every way and sink their roots deep into the soil will there be inexhaustible and endless (取之不尽、用之不竭, qu zhi bu jin, yong zhi bu jie - "take, not, exhausted; use, not, exhausted") wisdom and strength."

"General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech is thought-provoking (发人深思, fa ren shen si - "emit, person; deep, think"). The great spirit of the Long March is a precious guide for our grassroots governance." Li Xiaona, Party committee secretary of Hailian Community, Haizhou District, Lianyungang, Jiangsu, said that by building grassroots Party organizations strong and closely uniting the masses around Party organizations, the new Long March road will have the most solid foundation. In community governance today, we must build Party branches in residential communities, base ourselves on the urgent difficulties and concerns of residents, pool the strength of multiple parties, and jointly build a harmonious and beautiful home.

Taking a firm stand on the people's side

Pooling the strength of struggle

The reluctance of "Seeing Off the Red Army Ten Times," the guardianship of the night crossing at Yudu, the warmth of the "Half a Quilt," the oath of the "Yihai Alliance"... General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "The road of the great victory of the Red Army's Long March was walked out by relying on the support of the broad masses of the people."

At the former residence of the delegates to the First National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai, the special exhibition "The Red Army Fears Not the Hardships of the Expedition — Special Exhibition Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Red Army's Long March" is on display. Chen Yinhua, curator of the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the CPC, said with emotion: "The great spirit of the Long March transcends time and space, becoming more new as time passes (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "long, time; increasingly, new"), constantly reminding us that the Party's roots are in the people and its strength is in the people. On the new Long March road, the memorial hall will continue to tell the stories of the founding of the Party and the Long March in depth, so that more people can appreciate the great power of the people embodied in the Long March."

In the southwest of the motherland, mountains surround Mugao Village, Wuding County, Yunnan Province. During the Long March, the Central Red Army passed through Wuding and wrote slogans in Mugao Village that remain clearly visible to this day.

"Winning over the masses and winning the hearts of the people through concrete actions" — General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech deeply resonated with 60-year-old villager Li Zuoyong: "What the Red Army left in the village is not just slogans; more precious is the fine tradition of being heart-to-heart with the people. Now a highland green vegetable base has been built at our doorstep. As long as we listen to the Party, feel gratitude for the Party, and follow the Party, working together with one heart and mind and doing things together, life will surely have more and more prospects."

"Born in Jinggangshan, raised in Nanniwan, fought across tens of thousands of li, and reclaimed wasteland in the Tianshan Mountains." The First Division Hospital of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, formerly the convalescent company of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, has a long heritage of red bloodline.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that to carry forward the great spirit of the Long March and walk the new Long March road well, we must unswervingly promote high-quality development and continuously meet the people's growing needs for a better life." Wang Zhiqiang, chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery at the hospital, said, "Now, our mission is to better meet the people's health needs. I will work with my team to improve our skills, carry out free clinics in the countryside, grassroots patrol consultations, health science popularization, and more, bringing quality diagnosis and treatment services to the doorsteps of people of all ethnic groups."

Zhou Yu, deputy director of the Red Culture and Dabie Mountains Spirit Research Office of the Anhui Jinzhai Cadre Academy, was deeply moved by General Secretary Xi Jinping's statement that "the people are forever the source of strength and the strong backing of the Party and the people's army": "When the Red Army won battles, the people were the mountain of support. During the revolutionary years, in Jinzhai, almost every household had Red Army soldiers and every household had martyrs. As we study red history on this red land, we must truly go to the fields and among the people, clearly explain how our Party won the heartfelt support and endorsement of the people, and clearly explain the winning code of always staying at the forefront of the times."

Not long ago, a high-speed railway was opened between Ruijin, Jiangxi, the departure point of the Central Red Army's Long March, and Yan'an, Shaanxi, its destination.

General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech made Wei Haihan, a train conductor of the Xi'an Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Xi'an Group Co., Ltd., feel that the responsibility on his shoulders was even heavier: "The General Secretary emphasized 'upholding the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly and relying closely on the people to create new historical achievements.' Speeding between Yan'an and Ruijin, I sincerely feel the great changes in the mountains and rivers and the glory of the mission. We must make the railway better empower the development of the old revolutionary base areas, make the high-speed railway carriages a moving classroom for passengers to appreciate the great spirit of the Long March, and write a new chapter of the Long March."

In Fujian, Ninghua County is comprehensively advancing the construction of the Long March National Cultural Park, with projects such as the Long March Spirit Education Base and the Long March Historical Trail successively completed.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping extended high respect to the people of all ethnic groups who supported the Red Army's Long March, especially the people of the revolutionary base areas, which makes us feel that to walk today's Long March road well, we must place the people in the highest position in our hearts." Qiu Minghua, director of the Protection Center of the Long March Departure Site Relics in Ninghua County, Sanming City, Fujian Province, said that he and his colleagues will guard the red family assets well, pass on the red genes, guide the broad ranks of cadres and the masses to fully appreciate the original aspiration and founding mission, and pool the mighty strength for the new journey of striving.

In recent years, Chongqing Normal University has continuously developed the series of thematic artistic ideological and political courses "Youth on the New Long March Road." As a member of the ideological and political course team, Li Xiaoyu, a 2026-grade master's student in the School of Geography and Tourism, has visited villages and households to trace red footprints and tell red stories.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized 'continuously strengthening the ambition, backbone, and confidence of the entire Party, the entire military, and the people of all ethnic groups across the country,' which inspires the younger generation to strive with determination and make achievements. I will continuously draw strength for striving from the great spirit of the Long March, go deep into the grassroots and among the people, and walk the Long March road of our generation well." Li Xiaoyu said.

Daring to tackle difficulties and overcome obstacles

Advancing the great cause of rejuvenation

"The road to ideals has never been smooth, and great victories are all achieved through tenacious struggle." General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech revealed the arduousness and glory of the new Long March road.

At the construction site of the Xiong'an Campus of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Zhang Pengfei, deputy director of the Cost Management Department of the project headquarters, and his colleagues studied the important speech at the first opportunity.

"There is no retreat on the Long March road, and during the critical period of tackling difficulties, we must not slacken." Looking to the future, Zhang Pengfei expressed firm confidence: "As frontline builders of Xiong'an, we must implement the word 'strict' behind every work procedure, put the great spirit of the Long March into our own work, and build a solid foundation for undertaking the relocation of Beijing's non-capital functions and serving the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region."

With a cumulative journey of more than 2,500 kilometers, covering all townships, border posts, and project sites in the county... Zhang Peng, leader of the 11th batch of aid-Tibet working groups from Yantai, Shandong Province, and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Nyalam County, Tibet, has been fighting on the border frontline for more than a year. Studying General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, he said with deep feeling: "Aiding Tibet is our Long March. I will lead the team to maintain the strategic resolve of taking root on the plateau, firm up our original aspiration, face difficulties head-on, and solidly handle practical matters concerning people's livelihoods."

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that to carry forward the great spirit of the Long March and walk the new Long March road well, we must be brave in carrying out the great struggle with many new historical features.

At State Grid Tianjin Binhai Company, Zhang Liming, a model of the times and national model worker, sat together with his colleagues in the power distribution emergency repair squad, exchanging views on their study of the General Secretary's important speech based on frontline innovation practices. He said that the Long March of power workers in the new era is to take root on the frontline, tackle difficulties, shore up technical shortcomings, let innovation achievements truly serve the production frontline, and wholeheartedly guard the lights of ten thousand households.

Yang Yanding, deputy chief engineer of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., was deeply impressed by the phrase in General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech about "overcoming difficulties, confronting risks, and meeting challenges with the spirit of historical initiative": "The older generation of Dongfeng people lived in reed mat sheds, lit kerosene lamps, and built the factory by opening up mountains, relying on self-reliance. Today, we will fight the battle of core technology with the tenacity of sustained, long-term effort, and firmly hold in our own hands the initiative in developing the national automobile industry."

The people's army will forever be the great wall of steel that defends the cause of the Party and the state.

After studying General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, Li Zhenlin, deputy director of the PLA Party History and Military History Research Center of the Military Political Work Research Institute of the Academy of Military Sciences, said: "We must both deeply research and thoroughly explain the fundamental principle of the Party's absolute leadership over the military and the unique mechanism of victory from the history of the Long March, integrating the red bloodline into contemporary practice of strengthening the military; and also, under the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought on strengthening the military, continue to exert efforts in theoretical innovation, historical research and verification, and practical service, so that the spirit of the Long March is continuously transformed into solid strength for building a world-class military."

Retired but not faded, demobilized but not losing aspiration. In Lankao, Henan, the birthplace of the Jiao Yulu spirit, the service and support network for retired military personnel continues to extend to the grassroots.

"A strong country must have a strong military, and only with a strong military can the country be secure." Zhang Zhenfang, director of the Veterans Affairs Bureau of Lankao County, said that doing the work of veterans' affairs means delivering the care of the Party and the state to the hearts of veterans, "Making service and support solid and implementing respect and tribute — this is our concrete action in carrying forward the great spirit of the Long March, and it is also the responsibility we should bear on the new journey of building a strong country and a strong military."

Not long ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to inspect the Chahar High-tech Industrial Development Zone in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia. Zhang Yu, a post-2000s project manager at the Kuaishou Ulanqab Data Center, vividly remembers General Secretary Xi Jinping's encouragement that "we are now carrying out a new Long March, and you are one of the contingents of high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology."

Having studied General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the conference this time, Zhang Yu gained a deeper understanding: "We must always maintain our learning ability and stay competitive amid rapidly changing developments. I will continuously study and innovate, contribute youthful strength to the high-quality development of the digital economy, and together with thousands upon thousands of strivers in the new era, walk the new Long March road of building a strong country and national rejuvenation well."

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23)

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Adapting to AI Technology Development to Help Build an Employment-Friendly Development Model

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Adapting to the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technology and Helping to Build an Employment-Friendly Development Model" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), making arrangements for related work.

The Opinions emphasize that it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party and the plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, adhere to the close integration of investment in things and investment in people, adhere to the overall coordination of development and security, adhere to the orientation of giving priority to employment, take artificial intelligence empowering high-quality development as an opportunity, take adapting to technological development to promote high-quality and full employment as the goal, take building an employment-friendly development model as the direction, actively enhance the positive effects of artificial intelligence in creating employment opportunities, empowering traditional positions, improving employment quality, and stimulating entrepreneurial vitality, effectively mitigate the employment substitution impact of artificial intelligence applications, and strive to achieve inclusive development in which technological progress and industrial upgrading are coordinated with employment promotion and improvement of people's livelihoods.

The Opinions deploy 18 main tasks in 6 aspects. First, strengthen the employment creation effect of artificial intelligence. Expand new space for artificial intelligence employment in emerging fields, cultivate new momentum for small, medium, and micro enterprises to stabilize positions and expand posts, create new models of employment and entrepreneurship in the artificial intelligence field, and accelerate the development of new occupations in the artificial intelligence field. Second, build an employment-friendly artificial intelligence upgrade path. Tap the employment potential of artificial intelligence in traditional fields, mitigate the employment substitution impact of artificial intelligence applications, and establish a risk assessment mechanism for the employment impact of artificial intelligence applications. Third, improve workers' digital literacy and employability. Collaboratively cultivate innovative artificial intelligence talents and implement special artificial intelligence training programs. Fourth, promote artificial intelligence empowering high-quality employment policy services. Use artificial intelligence to help implement employment policies, raise the level of intelligence in employment services, and increase support for employment in transformation and job transfer. Fifth, improve the system for protecting workers' rights and interests and the social security system. Optimize the system for protecting workers' rights and interests adapted to human-machine collaboration, improve the social security system for workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment, and improve the income distribution mechanism adapted to the development of artificial intelligence technology. Sixth, improve the system for employment monitoring, early warning, and risk response in artificial intelligence applications. Strengthen monitoring and early warning of employment risks in artificial intelligence applications, strengthen research on the employment impact of artificial intelligence applications, and improve the risk response mechanism for employment in artificial intelligence applications.

The Opinions require that the Party's leadership be implemented throughout the entire process and in all aspects of work to adapt to the development of artificial intelligence technology and promote employment and entrepreneurship. All regions and relevant departments should implement the Opinions in light of actual conditions, further strengthen the policy orientation of giving priority to employment, comprehensively consider the employment impact of artificial intelligence applications, and accelerate the building of an employment-friendly development model. Human resources and social security departments and development and reform departments at all levels should strengthen overall coordination, promote the achieving practical results (落地见效, luo di jian xiao - "land, fall, see, effect") of various policies and measures, strengthen publicity and guidance, and create a favorable social atmosphere conducive to promoting employment and entrepreneurship.

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How to Use the Medical Insurance Wallet Version 2.0 (Information Service Desk)

By: 本报记者 孙秀艳

The National Healthcare Security Administration recently upgraded the medical insurance wallet to version 2.0. Since October 16 this year, all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have fully launched and operated it. With this, the cross-provincial sharing of medical insurance personal account funds to close relatives has been fully implemented nationwide.

Cross-provincial sharing of personal accounts means sharing funds in the personal accounts of employee medical insurance with close relatives who are insured in other provinces. Relying on the unified national medical insurance information platform, the sharer and the beneficiary establish a sharing relationship, automatically activate a personal medical insurance wallet, and the sharer sets a sharing quota for the beneficiary through the medical insurance wallet. When the beneficiary incurs expenses, they can use the sharing quota they have obtained to make payments, thereby achieving mutual assistance and sharing of employee medical insurance personal account funds among close relatives insured across provinces. In short (简言之, jian yan zhi - "simple, speak, finish"), the medical insurance wallet turns employee personal account funds into a "sharing quota" that can be transferred across provinces to family members, which family members can directly use for medical treatment, purchasing medicine, and paying insurance premiums.

What is different about the upgraded medical insurance wallet version 2.0?

First, service methods have been optimized. Medical insurance wallet version 2.0 has expanded from previously supporting only the National Healthcare Security Service Platform APP (application) online to also supporting the Alipay mini-program, while retaining offline service windows and other channels for handling cross-provincial sharing business. Insured members can not only complete operations such as binding and unbinding sharing relationships, setting and using quotas, and business inquiries online, but can also handle business at offline windows.

Second, application scenarios have been expanded. Previously, sharing was mostly achieved by immediately invoking the bound person's personal account. Although medical insurance wallet version 1.0 had already been put into use in many coordination areas, its frequency and amount of use were relatively small. Medical insurance wallet version 2.0 has removed the regional restrictions on beneficiaries using shared funds, expanding from intra-provincial use to supporting cross-provincial use, and from medical treatment and medicine purchases to payment of basic medical insurance and long-term care insurance premiums for urban and rural residents, further activating the idle personal account funds of sharers and reducing the economic burden of beneficiaries seeking medical treatment in other provinces.

At present, the functions of medical insurance wallet version 2.0 for paying resident medical insurance and long-term care insurance personal premium contributions have been applied in Tianjin, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, among other places. Other regions are expected to gradually achieve application in November. In addition, it is expected that before the end of this year, beneficiaries seeking medical treatment and purchasing medicine in provinces other than their insured province, including seeking medical treatment and purchasing medicine in the sharer's insured province, will also be able to use the medical insurance wallet.

According to regulations, the sharer must be an insured person who is normally participating in basic medical insurance for employees. The beneficiary must be an insured person of employee medical insurance or resident medical insurance in another province, and must be a close relative of the sharer, including spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents, grandchildren, and maternal grandchildren. No other persons can serve as sharing beneficiaries. Medical insurance wallet version 2.0 has strengthened security controls, reinforced functions such as identity verification, sharing relationship binding, and sharing quota management, strictly limiting sharing targets to close relatives, and quotas cannot be shared onward. At the same time, it has improved the standards for settlement and clearing of cross-provincial medical insurance funds and strengthened abnormal monitoring to safeguard the security of medical insurance funds.

Activating cross-provincial sharing of personal accounts and establishing sharing relationships is the foundation for insured persons to apply the functions of medical insurance wallet version 2.0. A relevant official of the National Healthcare Security Administration introduced that to activate cross-provincial sharing of personal accounts, online, the sharer needs to submit an application and sign a personal commitment letter on the National Healthcare Security Service Platform APP or the Alipay mini-program, completing the establishment of the sharing relationship with close relatives and the setting of the sharing quota; offline, the sharer needs to bring valid identification documents and sign the "Employee Medical Insurance Personal Account Family Sharing Commitment Letter" on site.

Some insured persons who applied for cross-provincial sharing were unsuccessful. In this regard, the official stated that two situations may cause the failure to establish a sharing relationship: first, the sharer's employee medical insurance participation status is abnormal, such as suspended participation or terminated participation; second, the beneficiary has not participated in basic medical insurance (including employee medical insurance and resident medical insurance).

Some insured persons are concerned about whether the quota of medical insurance wallet version 1.0 can be retained. The official stated that unused sharing quotas from medical insurance wallet version 1.0 are always fully retained and can still be used. Opening the "Medical Insurance Wallet" in the National Healthcare Security Service Platform APP, the "Historical Quota" column displays the unused quota of medical insurance wallet version 1.0. In the future, this interface will be optimized to separately display "Medical Insurance Wallet Version 1.0 Quota," "Medical Insurance Wallet Version 2.0 Quota," and "Medical Insurance Wallet Total Quota." Insured members are encouraged to prioritize using the balance of medical insurance wallet version 1.0 when settling medical treatment and medicine purchases.

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Fiscal Operations in First Three Quarters Generally Stable

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) (Reporter Qu Zhehan) The Ministry of Finance on the 23rd released fiscal revenue and expenditure figures for the first three quarters of the year and the implementation of fiscal policy. Since the start of this year, a more proactive fiscal policy has been exerting force and improving effectiveness, incremental policies have been planned and introduced in a timely manner, scientific fiscal management has been deepened, and the efficiency of fiscal fund use has continued to improve, providing a strong guarantee for achieving the year's economic and social development goals and tasks.

In the first three quarters, fiscal operations were generally stable. National general public budget revenue was 17.23 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, with the growth rate 0.4 percentage points higher than in the first half of the year. National general public budget expenditure was 21.02 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1%. Expenditure in key areas was effectively guaranteed: health and hygiene expenditure grew by 7.7%, mainly due to increased child-rearing subsidies; social security and employment expenditure grew by 5.2%; housing security expenditure grew by 3.1%; science and technology expenditure grew by 3%; and education expenditure grew by 1.1%.

In the first three quarters, national tax revenue was 14.07 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%, with the growth rate 0.8 percentage points higher than in the first half of the year; non-tax revenue was 3.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.

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140th Canton Fair Opens Second Phase

(People's Daily, Guangzhou, October 23) (Reporters Li Gang, Hong Qiuting) On the 23rd, the second phase of the 140th Canton Fair opened in Guangzhou, Guangdong. A reporter learned from the China Foreign Trade Centre that this phase of the Canton Fair, themed "Quality Home Living," covers an exhibition area of 515,000 square meters with approximately 25,000 booths, showcasing three major sectors: household goods, gifts and decorations, and building materials and furniture. Around 11,000 enterprises are participating in the export exhibition, displaying 2.376 million products, of which over 3,600 are specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative enterprises or single-product champions.

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Li Lecheng elected Secretary of CPC Anhui Provincial Committee

(People's Daily, Hefei, October 23) (Reporters Zhang Zhifeng, Han Junjie) The First Plenary Session of the 12th Anhui Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China elected Li Lecheng as Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Wang Dongwei and Shan Xiangqian as Deputy Secretaries of the Provincial Party Committee on October 23. Also elected as members of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee were Sun Hongmei (female, Manchu), Xu Yongke, Wei Shengbin, Qin Weiguo (Zhuang), Wang Jinliang, Fan Fuzhong, He Chunkuan, Gui Zhen (female), Zhu Haodong, and Jiang Xi. The First Plenary Session of the 12th Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China elected Xu Yongke as Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, and Chen Xuedong, Li Min (female), Shi Zhiyuan, and Jin Genghua as Deputy Secretaries of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.

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Zhou Zuyi elected secretary of CPC Henan Provincial Committee

(Xinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, October 23) The First Plenary Session of the 12th Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China elected Zhou Zuyi as Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee on October 23, with Wang Lujin and Zhang Wei as Deputy Secretaries of the Provincial Party Committee. Also elected as members of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee were Qin Guowen, Wang Gang, Zhang Min (female), Wang Song, Chen Chunjiang (Mongolian), Li Tao, Zheng Haiyang, Zhang Lugang, Yang Xiaojing (female), and Xu Xiangfeng. The First Plenary Session of the 12th Henan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China elected Qin Guowen as Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, with Wang Weimin, Yu Yan (female), Song Chunbo, and Gu Hengdong as Deputy Secretaries of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.

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“The Long March spirit holds important value that transcends time and space”

On October 22, a grand meeting commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was solemnly held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech. International figures interviewed by our reporter believe that the Long March spirit belongs not only to China but also to all humanity. Chairman Xi Jinping's important speech has pointed the way for China in the new era to carry forward the great Long March spirit and embark on a new Long March. Only by remembering history can we create the future. At present, the Communist Party of China is leading the Chinese people in unremitting struggle to comprehensively advance the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. China's firm commitment to promoting high-quality development and continuously meeting the people's ever-growing needs for a better life not only brings new opportunities to the world but also offers reference value for developing countries exploring development paths suited to their own conditions.

"The Long March spirit still holds distinct inspirational significance today"

Chairman Xi Jinping pointed out that the Long March of the Red Army, an earth-shaking or sensational (惊天动地, jing tian dong di - "startle, heaven, move, earth") revolutionary feat, holds great significance in the history of our Party, our country, and our military, and has exerted a profound influence on the process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This magnificent or awe-inspiring (气壮山河, qi zhuang shan he - "breath, strengthen, mountain, river") heroic epic will forever be engraved on the monument of the Chinese revolution and forever remembered in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people.

"The Long March spirit possesses important value that transcends time and space, inspiring the Chinese people to strive unremittingly and overcome numerous difficulties and obstacles." Sergei Sanakoev, Vice Chairman of the Russia-China Friendship Association, said he believes that on the new journey, the Long March spirit will continue to inspire the Chinese people to carry on the struggle and promote new and greater development in Chinese modernization.

"The Long March spirit still holds distinct inspirational significance today." Félix Valdivieso, Director of the China Center at IE University in Spain, said that carrying forward the Long March spirit helps to calmly respond to the increasingly complex international environment as well as new challenges in the economic, scientific, technological, and social fields.

In July this year, Shakil Ramay, Advisor to the Global Development Initiative Group of the Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat of the Parliament of Pakistan, visited Yan'an in Shaanxi Province. His experience in Yan'an and his study and understanding of the Long March spirit allowed him to "understand the Communist Party of China from another dimension." Ramay said: "At the revolutionary sites such as Zaoyuan and Yangjialing, I learned about the hardships and difficulties the Communist Party of China experienced back then, and deeply appreciated the Communist Party of China's sincere devotion to its ideals and convictions, its revolutionary cause, and the masses of the people."

"The Long March was a great feat in the history of the Chinese revolution and also an important turning point in the Chinese revolution." Allawi Ssemanda, Executive Director of the Development Watch Centre in Uganda, said that the historical significance of the Long March lies not only in the fact that the Communist Party of China led the Red Army to overcome difficulties and obstacles and achieve strategic transfer, but also in its ability to adjust strategy according to actual circumstances, flexibly choosing the path forward while adhering to long-term goals. For a country to achieve development and prosperity, it must base itself on its own national conditions, adhere to independence and self-reliance, and pool the strength of development through united struggle.

"Firm ideals and convictions must be combined with exploration grounded in reality"

Chairman Xi Jinping pointed out that the great Long March spirit fully demonstrates the power of loyalty, the power of truth, the power of justice, and the power of unity. As an important component of the spiritual genealogy of Chinese Communists, it transcends time and space, becoming more new with the passage of time (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "pass, long time, even more, new"), and will forever be a precious asset and powerful driving force inspiring us to overcome difficulties and advance courageously.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Chairman of the Kuhn Foundation in the United States, said that the Long March was not only a magnificent or awe-inspiring heroic epic but also a stress test of organizational capability. The Long March was not only an extremely difficult or arduous (艰苦卓绝, jian ku zhu jue - "hard, bitter, outstanding, absolute") endurance journey but also a process of learning to adjust under heavy pressure. The deeper lesson of the Long March is that firm conviction can only play its greatest role when combined with the ability to face up to mistakes and adjust direction.

"History tells us that a team must have strong leadership so that its direction will not go wrong; it must have strict discipline so that its strength will not scatter. This is experience gained at enormous cost, and it has reference value for any country and any team." Hassan Ragab, Egyptian Director of the Confucius Institute at Suez Canal University in Egypt, said that China, now on its new journey, likewise needs to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and strengthen Party building.

Cuauhtémoc Oropeza, Director of Communications at the Historical Archive of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that the Zunyi Meeting held in 1935 was an important turning point on the Long March, reflecting the importance of summing up experience, correcting errors, and adjusting decisions according to actual circumstances. "The historical experience of the Long March shows that firm ideals and convictions must be combined with exploration grounded in reality; one cannot mechanically copy theories but should seek a development path suited to one's own conditions based on the specific national circumstances of one's own country."

Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, Director of the Asia-Pacific Think Tank in Thailand, said: "In the process of visiting many places in China and studying the history of the Long March, I have come to realize more and more deeply: the Long March was not only an extremely difficult or arduous history but also embodies the steadfast adherence to ideals and convictions, the exploration of the correct path, and profound feelings for the people. The victory of the Long March was inseparable from the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China and also inseparable from the spirit of independence and self-reliance and seeking truth from facts."

Ramay said: "The Communist Party of China has always placed the people first, has always adhered to the people-centered development philosophy, and has carried forward the great Long March spirit. This is worthy of study by every foreign scholar researching China and the Communist Party of China."

"The vitality of the Long March spirit lies in inheritance and practice"

Chairman Xi Jinping pointed out that the new journey is an expedition full of glory and dreams, and a new Long March for the Party and the people. Recalling the past and looking to the future, we must vigorously carry forward the great Long March spirit and work together with one heart to walk well the new Long March.

Iara Vidal, columnist for the "Focus on China" section of Brazil's magazine Forum, said that the Long March spirit contains important inspiration for the future. Remembering the history of the Long March is not only to honor our predecessors but also to draw wisdom from history to promote development. The firm conviction and spirit of continuous struggle embodied in the Long March help people understand how China has adhered to its established goals in the long-term development process and continuously explored development paths suited to its own national conditions.

Valdivieso noted that China attaches importance to promoting high-quality development and improving people's well-being. The effectiveness of development should not be measured only by economic growth figures but also by whether development can genuinely improve people's lives. In a world full of uncertainty and profound transformation, maintaining a long-term perspective, meeting difficulties with firm determination, and always placing the needs of society and the people in an important position are crucial for addressing current and future challenges.

Ssemanda believes that at present, African countries are actively exploring paths to modernization. "The resilient spirit and pragmatic attitude demonstrated by the Long March offer reference value for developing countries in addressing development challenges and exploring development paths suited to their own conditions."

"The victory of the Long March was inseparable from the full support of the Chinese people." Sanakoev believes that for a cause to succeed, it must be deeply rooted in the people and always share weal and woe with the people. This is not only China's experience but also a law of development and progress for many nations. "At present, China is comprehensively advancing Chinese modernization through high-quality development. I believe the Communist Party of China will unite and lead the Chinese people to continuously create new brilliance on the new Long March and make greater contributions to promoting world modernization and the cause of human progress," Sanakoev said.

Wirun said: "China's achievements in areas such as the battle against poverty, comprehensive rural revitalization, and scientific and technological innovation are vivid manifestations of the Long March spirit in the new era. What particularly moved me is that many Party members and cadres went deep into impoverished areas during the battle against poverty, and some even sacrificed their lives on the front line of poverty alleviation. They are truly cadres with 'mud on their feet and the people in their hearts.' The Long March spirit has not remained on paper but has been transformed into concrete actions to improve people's lives."

Vidal said: "When measuring the significance of development, one should look not only at what achievements have been made in science and technology but also at how the fruits of development benefit the people and continuously improve people's lives. China has set a very good example. The vitality of the Long March spirit lies in inheritance and practice. Looking to the future, adhering to a people-centered approach, promoting high-quality development, and letting the people share in the fruits of development are precisely the practical significance of the Long March spirit in the new era that deserves attention."

(People's Daily, Beijing, Cairo, Moscow, Madrid, Johannesburg, Islamabad, Washington, Mexico City, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, October 23 — reporters Yu Jinghao, Shen Xiaoxiao, Xiao Xinxin, Yan Huan, Dai Kairan, Zhao Yipu, Li Zhiwei, Wang Xiaobo, Zhang Jinruo, Chen Yiming)

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Walk Well the New Long March Road and Make Greater Contributions to Human Progress (Heyin)

Facing changes of the world, changes of the times, and changes of history, China will continue to carry forward the great Long March spirit, walk well the Long March road of the new era, and contribute to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

On October 22, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the conference commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, profoundly revealing the way to victory contained in the Long March victory for the Party and the people's army to advance with resounding steps, and putting forward the clear requirements of "five musts" for carrying forward the great Long March spirit and walking well the new Long March road. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the new journey is an expedition filled with glory and dreams, and is a new Long March for the Party and the people. Standing at the historical juncture of the 90th anniversary of the Long March victory, comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization, China will also inevitably make greater contributions to the cause of human progress in the course of its own unremitting advance.

Ninety years ago, the Long March of the Red Army, a revolutionary feat causing a tremendous sensation (惊天动地, jing tian dong di - "shock, heaven; move, earth"), was a magnificent epic written by the Communist Party of China and the Red Army, and became a window for the world to re-understand China. The Long March tempered an indestructible power of faith; relying on their steadfast adherence to ideals and convictions, the Red Army opened a path forward amid layers of encirclement and trials of desperate situations. From Edgar Snow writing "Red Star Over China" to introduce the truth of the Long March to the outside world, to German writer Thomas Klippstein riding nearly 7,000 kilometers to retrace the Long March route, over the years, batch after batch of foreign visitors have set foot on this road, touching the power of faith in that extremely difficult and arduous (艰苦卓绝, jian ku zhu jue - "hard, bitter; outstanding, excellent") expedition and exploring the inner code by which China continuously overcomes great difficulties and challenges (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack, key stronghold; overcome, difficulties") and makes steady progress to achieve long-term goals (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady; arrive, far"). Not long ago, Celso Malavoloneke, a member of the Central Committee of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, said while visiting Long March sites in Guizhou that the most important gain of this trip was to understand the spirit of the Chinese people and bring this strength back to his own country. It is precisely this power of conviction, rooted in truth and caring for the masses, that has become a spiritual bond through which people of different countries can empathize with one another.

The power of spirit can always transcend mountains and seas to resonate. The great Long March spirit, forged from the qualities of adhering to ideals, fearing no sacrifice, seeking truth from facts, being closely united, and relying on the people, as an important part of the spiritual genealogy of Chinese Communists, transcends time and space and becomes more fresh as time passes (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "pass, long time; even more, new"). British scholar Martin Jacques observed that the Long March showed the world the enormous potential contained in Chinese society. In the 90 years since the victory of the Long March, the Communist Party of China has united and led the people in continuous struggle and overcoming great difficulties and challenges in the great practices of revolution, construction, reform, and the new era, and has continuously opened up new realms for the development of the cause by relying on the valuable experience of independence and self-reliance and reliance on the people. Pan Weilian (William N. Brown), an American professor at Xiamen University who has lived in China for nearly 40 years, exclaimed that the Long March spirit is a common spiritual treasure of mankind, "belonging to everyone in the world who strives unremittingly amid uncertainty."

The road toward ideals has never been smooth. The Communist Party of China has always stood on the correct side of history and on the side of the progress of human civilization, holding high the banner of building a community with a shared future for mankind, taking the people's hearts as its own heart and the world's interests as its own interests, and continuously injecting positive energy into global stability and development. The Chinese military has participated in 26 UN peacekeeping operations, dispatching a cumulative total of more than 50,000 peacekeeping personnel; over the years, China's contribution rate to world economic growth has remained at around 30 percent, has signed 26 free trade agreements with 33 countries and regions, and a free trade network facing the world has been gradually spread out; China has proposed and taken the lead in practicing the four major global initiatives, making important contributions to eliminating the "four deficits." As José Luis Centella, chairman of the Communist Party of Spain, said, the most precious inspiration the Long March has left to today's world is the ability to hold to a set direction amid turbulent changes, anchor long-term goals, and advance unyielding in the face of setbacks (百折不挠, bai zhe bu nao - "hundred, break; not, bend").

The history of the Long March has never gone far away, and the road of the Long March is continuously extending. Facing changes of the world, changes of the times, and changes of history, China will continue to carry forward the great Long March spirit, walk well the Long March road of the new era, inject confidence into the turbulent and changing world with its own stable development, join hands with all countries to jointly respond to common challenges and share development opportunities, and contribute to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

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"Every generation must walk its own Long March"

By: 本报记者 许海林

"The Long March is not only a major event in the history of the Chinese revolution, but also a profound narrative about ideals, organization, resilience, and historical memory." In speaking about the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the connotation of the Long March spirit, Felix Valdivieso, director of the China Center at IE University in Spain, summarized his understanding in this way.

Valdivieso said that strict organizational discipline, flexible strategic adjustments, outstanding mass mobilization, and the pooling of strength in adversity are all important dimensions for understanding the victory of the Red Army's Long March. He believes that in the face of severe tests of survival, the Communist Party of China and the Red Army had to make strategic choices while also finding a way forward in a constantly changing environment. It is precisely in such difficult exploration that the historical significance of the Long March has gradually emerged.

In Valdivieso's view, the spiritual strength displayed by the Long March is reflected not only in advancing firmly in the face of difficulties and perils (艰难险阻, jian nan xian zu - "difficult, hard, dangerous, obstacle"), but also in how to form a lasting capacity for collective action around a common goal. "The road ahead is not smooth, and the final result may not be predictable, but adherence to lofty goals, responsibility toward the collective, and the ability to adjust according to reality can help people overcome the difficulties before them."

Valdivieso said that the value of history lies not only in recording the past, but also in helping people understand the present. The Long March belongs not only to China, but also provides an important window for the international community to understand China. Speaking of the practical significance of the Long March spirit, he believes that vigorously carrying forward the Long March spirit helps working together with one heart and mind (同心协力, tong xin xie li - "same, heart, cooperate, strength") to walk the new Long March well: economic transformation, technological innovation, and comprehensive rural revitalization cannot be achieved in a single step (一蹴而就, yi cu er jiu - "one, kick, and, achieve"), and require persevering with constancy (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold, this, with, perseverance") in exploration. In his view, China's development achievements over the past few decades have demonstrated the strong ability of China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China to adapt to change. In linking the Long March spirit with contemporary development, the key lies in thinking about how to face real challenges, how to maintain direction and accumulate strength in a complex environment, and how to continuously improve the ways of solving problems in practice.

"Every generation has its own Long March, and every generation must walk its own Long March well." Valdivieso said that for today's China, the Long March is no longer a march in the literal sense; the spirit of tenacity, exploration, and continuous struggle contained within it can provide strength for responding to the difficulties and challenges encountered in the course of development.

Valdivieso said that Europe and China have different historical experiences and have also formed different historical memories. By comparing how different societies understand the past, people can further understand each other's ways of viewing the present and planning for the future. "Remembering the road traveled, standing firmly in the present, and walking one's own journey well — this is precisely the inspiration the Long March spirit has left us," Valdivieso said.

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Wang Yi Attends Opening Ceremony of 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an)

(People's Daily, Xiong'an, October 23) (Reporters Chen Shangwen, Shao Yuzi) The opening ceremony of the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an) was held on the 23rd in the Xiong'an New Area, Hebei. Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended, read out President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter, and delivered a keynote speech.

Wang Yi stated that President Xi Jinping historically put forward the Global Governance Initiative, providing a plan for the times to make up for the governance deficit and jointly create a better future. We should, with more proactive responsibility and more forceful action, advance the blueprint drawn up by the Global Governance Initiative step by step and turn it into reality. We should jointly uphold the central role of the United Nations, hold fast to the value pursuit of fairness and justice, strengthen the Global South force in global governance, adhere to the correct direction of open development, and improve governance rules in emerging fields.

Wang Yi stressed that this year marks the 55th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations. China is willing to work with countries around the world to make unremitting efforts to build a more just and equitable global governance system. China will take the following practical actions: first, successfully host this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting; second, continue to deeply participate in and advance the reform of the United Nations; third, give full play to the role of the "Group of Friends for Global Governance"; fourth, promote the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction; fifth, promote the correction of global human rights governance; sixth, release China's Position Paper on Strengthening Outer Space Governance; seventh, release the Progress Report on the Global Initiative on Artificial Intelligence Capacity-Building for Good and for All; eighth, establish a Global Governance Research Center.

The forum was hosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, under the theme "Rebuilding Confidence and Cooperation: Great Changes Unseen in a Century and the Reform and Improvement of Global Governance." Nearly 400 representatives from the political, strategic, academic, business, media, and youth leadership circles of more than 90 countries and international and regional organizations including the United Nations attended the opening ceremony.

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Wang Yi Meets Guests Attending the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an) in China

(People's Daily, Xiong'an, October 23) (Reporters Wang Hailin, Zheng Haiou) Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met on October 23 in Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province, with some guests who came to China to attend the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an).

When meeting with Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Wang Yi stated that President Xi Jinping's proposal of the Global Governance Initiative has guiding significance for the international community to jointly address the refugee challenge. To eliminate the refugee crisis, peace is of primary importance. To improve the plight of refugees, development is the foundation. To improve refugee governance, international cooperation is the key. China is willing to work hand in hand with the UNHCR to make greater contributions to the cause of international humanitarianism.

Grandi stated that the UNHCR looks forward to building a close partnership with China, carrying out cooperation with a people-centered approach (以人为本, yi ren wei ben - "take, person, as, foundation"), and jointly addressing refugee challenges under the framework of the Global Governance Initiative.

Wang Yi also met with Thornton, co-chairman of the board of the Asia Society of the United States, and Friedman, columnist for The New York Times. Thornton and Friedman congratulated President Xi Jinping on the success of his visit to the United States, and expressed the hope that the United States and China will strengthen cooperation on the issue of artificial intelligence. The international community is paying close attention to China's upcoming hosting of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and expects China to play a unique and positive role in promoting responses to global challenges.

Wang Yi said that as the two leading countries in artificial intelligence, China and the United States must not only guard against risks, but also carry out cooperation, jointly discuss rules and standards applicable globally, and enable artificial intelligence to serve the promotion of common prosperity and the safeguarding of common security.

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Building Consensus and Contributing Wisdom to Reform and Improve Global Governance

By: 本报记者 许立群 陈尚文

"The holding of the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an) has built a platform for all parties to join hands in solving governance challenges and jointly discuss plans for reforming and improving global governance," said Keith Bennett, vice chair of the Britain-based 48 Group Club, in a recent exclusive interview with our reporter. "I believe this high-standard, highly significant meeting will build consensus and contribute wisdom to reforming and improving global governance."

In September 2025, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Governance Initiative. "This is another major global initiative proposed by China's leader following the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative." Bennett believes that the four major global initiatives each have their own focus while supporting one another, building a systematic and complete action framework from the four dimensions of development, security, civilization, and governance, providing clear strategic guidance for promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

In Bennett's view, the important significance of the Global Governance Initiative should also be understood within the historical depth of the evolution of the international order. "The Global Governance Initiative takes upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter as its basic guideline, while also keeping pace with the times (与时俱进, yu shi ju jin - "with, time, together, advance"), adapting to changes in the world situation and putting forward new concepts and approaches." Bennett stressed that the Global Governance Initiative is not about starting something completely anew from scratch (另起炉灶, ling qi lu zao - "another, start, stove, build"), but rather about inheriting and developing the positive achievements and wisdom of mankind. "Facing a volatile and intertwined international situation, there is a need to further practice true multilateralism and revitalize the status and role of the United Nations. The Global Governance Initiative is committed to upholding the fundamentals of the UN Charter while opening up new ground in global governance," Bennett said.

Bennett believes that this forum, with the theme "Rebuilding Confidence and Cooperation: Transformations of a Century and Reforming and Improving Global Governance," focuses on many important issues facing today's world, and conducts discussions on topics such as safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core, building consensus on accelerating development, and deepening reform of the economic and financial systems — this is precisely a positive response to the concerns of the times. Bennett said that during the forum, he will, on behalf of the 48 Group Club, present his views on topics such as revitalizing the World Trade Organization.

Bennett said that in the 1950s, British entrepreneurs represented by Jack Perry launched the "ice-breaking journey," breaking the ice of the West's trade embargo against China. "Only by visiting on the ground can one truly perceive the face and pace of China's development." In Bennett's observation, China has built a high-speed rail network covering the whole country, which barely existed more than a decade ago; China is vigorously developing smart payments, and ordering by mobile phone has become part of everyday life for the people... Bennett stressed that some Western public opinion talks too much about China's exports of goods, yet pays less attention to the opportunities that British and European enterprises are embracing in the Chinese market. "China's approach, by contrast, is different." He noted that China is the only developing country that hosts a national-level international import expo and continuously opens its market to the world, and has always actively encouraged imports. Bennett said: "To seize the China opportunity, one must understand China; to understand China, one must go to China."

Since his first visit to China in 1981, Bennett has visited China frequently. Participating in this forum is his first visit to Xiong'an. He said he is eager to further understand the "Xiong'an sample" of Chinese governance. "Xiong'an is advancing low-carbon buildings and digital city construction, among other things — these are very good ideas." Bennett said that China's development is changing with each passing day (日新月异, ri xin yue yi - "day, new, month, different"), and he looks forward to this trip to Xiong'an bringing new inspiration, and also looks forward to the two countries, Britain and China, continuously strengthening cooperation in more fields.

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Shokhrait Zakir Attends Kazakhstan Embassy Republic Day Reception

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 23) Vice Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee Shokhrait Zakir attended and addressed a reception held by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in China on October 23 to mark Republic Day, stating that China is willing to work with Kazakhstan under the guidance of implementing the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, deepen friendship, strengthen cooperation, and jointly build a China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future that is richer in substance and vitality.

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German President Steinmeier to Visit China

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) (Reporter Li Anqi) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson announced on the 23rd: At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will pay a state visit to China from October 27 to 31.

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Eighth "Friends of the Paris Agreement" High-Level Dialogue Focuses on Multilateral Climate Governance

(People's Daily, Paris, October 23) (Reporter Shang Kaiyuan) The eighth "Friends of the Paris Agreement" high-level dialogue was recently held in Paris, France, where high-level representatives from more than 20 countries exchanged views on topics including multilateralism, green transition, and climate finance. The meeting was co-chaired by Xie Zhenhua, former Chinese Special Envoy for Climate Change Affairs, and Laurence Tubiana, former French Ambassador for Climate Change Negotiations and Chief Executive Officer of the European Climate Foundation.

Participants unanimously agreed that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the signing and entry into force of the Paris Agreement, and that the goals, principles, and institutional arrangements of the Paris Agreement must not be shaken. The main problems at present are insufficient action, inadequate implementation, and insufficient support. Participants called on all countries to accelerate the implementation of existing climate commitments, strengthen international cooperation on climate governance, and make preparations for the second global stocktake. Representatives noted that 133 countries worldwide have already submitted a new round of Nationally Determined Contributions targeting 2035, and more than 130 countries and regions have put forward carbon neutrality or net-zero emission goals. This shows that, despite profound changes in the international situation, jointly addressing climate change and advancing the low-carbon transition remain a broad consensus of the international community.

Over the two-day discussion, all parties also conducted frank and in-depth discussion (坦诚深入, tancheng shenru - "frank, honest; deep, thorough") on topics including green transition, electrification, and climate finance. Participants stated that the more complex and severe the situation, the more valuable it is to cherish existing consensus and deepen practical cooperation. "Friends of the Paris Agreement" should cherish the foundation of mutual trust and cooperation accumulated over many years, uphold the distinctive features of informal dialogue and candid exchange, and continue to bring into play the unique role of this high-level, constructive dialogue platform.

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2026 China International Friendship Cities Conference Held in Xi'an

(People's Daily, Xi'an, October 23) (Reporter Gao Bing) The 2026 China International Friendship Cities Conference was successfully held in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, from October 20 to 22. More than 700 guests attended, including representatives from over 100 provinces and states and more than 140 cities across 61 countries on five continents, as well as from over 60 local government organizations and friendship organizations.

At the conference's theme forum and four parallel forums, participating guests engaged in in-depth exchanges around the theme of "Jointly Building Friendship City Cooperation, Jointly Seeking Urban Development" and the topics of "Adhering to Connotative Development, Enhancing Urban Quality," "Jointly Building a Beautiful Ecology, Jointly Sharing a Beautiful Future," "Inheriting Cultural Heritage, Promoting mutual learning among civilizations (文明互鉴, wenming hujian - "civilization, mutually, learn from each other")," and "Empowering Agriculture with Technology, Leading Development with Wisdom."

At the closing ceremony, the conference awarded the "Outstanding Contribution Award for International Friendship Cities" to 20 Chinese provinces and municipalities, awarded the "Excellent Partner Award for Cities Friendly to China" to 40 foreign provinces, states, and cities, and signed 12 agreements on friendship city establishment and practical cooperation, covering multiple fields including local economic and trade investment, urban governance, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and livelihood services between Chinese and foreign localities.

The conference was jointly hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the China International Friendship Cities Association, and the People's Government of Shaanxi Province, and jointly organized by the Xi'an Municipal People's Government and the Shaanxi Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

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From the Transformation of the Bridge Crossing to the Timeless Spiritual Strength

By: 本报记者

"The history of the Long March has never gone away; the road of the Long March is constantly extending."

More than 90 years ago, every river along the Long March route was like a dangerous pass. The Central Red Army set out in the dead of night from the floating bridge over the Yudu River built by local people with their door planks, broke through the natural barrier of the Wujiang River with waves crashing as they forced a crossing and maneuvered to break the deadlock, and charged in bloody combat across the chain bridge over the Dadu River, breaking through layer upon layer of blockades and treading a long and arduous journey with fearless courage.

More than 90 years later, natural moats have become thoroughfares, and the mountains and rivers have changed dramatically. At these three rivers, modern bridges have been erected one after another, like rainbows lying across the water, connecting mountains and seas, empowering development, and the striving stories of the new Long March continue to unfold.

"Where the spirit is, there is the strength."

The separation of rivers, the transformation of bridge crossings — what is measured is the magnificent journey of the mountains and rivers taking on a new look, what is reflected is the original aspiration of serving the people, the mettle of tackling hard problems, and the firm faith, and what is passed down is a spiritual strength that transcends time and space, endless and vigorous (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, stop").

"Bridges" See the Original Aspiration

In Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the autumn scenery along the Yudu River is as beautiful as a painting (秋景如画, qiu jing ru hua - "autumn, scenery, like, painting"). More than 90 years ago, the Central Red Army's Long March gathered and set out from here.

Guarding and telling this history well is the work of Zhong Min (钟敏), director of the Red Resources Protection and Development Center of Yudu County. In her view, the most moving part of this history is the choices made by ordinary people of Yudu —

In October 1934, more than 86,000 Red Army soldiers gathered on the north bank of the Yudu River, which was more than 600 meters wide, with no bridge to cross.

Crossing the river required building a floating bridge, but where would the timber come from? Communist Party member Liu Zhisan (刘治三) took down the door planks of his own home; when the timber was not enough, he dismantled the partition wall of the side room; in the end, he sawed off 2 of the 6 roof beams in one room and sent them to the ferry crossing.

His family members cried and tried to stop him: "If you tear it apart piece by piece, how will we live here in the future?" Liu Zhisan's answer was remembered by his family for a lifetime: "If the Red Army can't cross the river, we won't even have a place to cry!"

The local people unhesitatingly took down their own doors and bed boards, the women worked day and night to make straw sandals, and the able-bodied young men volunteered to pole boats for ferrying and serve as guides... The army and the people began building the bridge at 4 p.m. every day, completed it by 8 p.m., the Red Army crossed the river under cover of darkness, and dismantled and concealed it before dawn the next day. The 5 floating bridges were repeatedly erected and dismantled, and the enemy was completely unaware.

The door plank from Liu Zhisan's old house was never recovered. Later, when his family's circumstances improved, they still chose not to replace it, precisely so that a piece of history would not be buried by time.

"No matter how far we go forward, we must not forget the road we have traveled; no matter how far we go, no matter how glorious the future we reach, we must not forget the past we have gone through, and must not forget why we set out." "Whoever keeps the people in their hearts, the people will keep them in their hearts."

Today, the floating bridge over the Yudu River has become history, and 5 major bridges in the urban section stand in a row: the Red Army Bridge, the Long March Bridge, the Rally Bridge, the River-Crossing Bridge, and the Victory Bridge. The construction history of these 5 bridges is a vivid portrayal of practicing the original aspiration of serving the people.

In 1997, Yudu's first modern river-crossing bridge — the Long March Bridge — was completed. On the day it opened to traffic, the whole town came out to see it (万人空巷, wan ren kong xiang - "ten thousand, people, empty, alley"). On the river where the Red Army had crossed by night on their expedition, traffic now flowed without end.

Around 2000, on the south bank of the Yudu River, the Zhalin Industrial Park began planning and construction, with garment factories, canneries, and others springing up, and building a new bridge was put on the agenda.

At the time, some people questioned: "Is it necessary for a small county town to spend money building another bridge?"

"Building a new bridge is a rigid livelihood need to support urban expansion and industrial landing. Once the bridge is open, it can also radiate to surrounding counties and districts," said Duan Shaoxing (段绍兴), director of the Land Spatial Survey, Planning and Research Center of the Yudu County Natural Resources Bureau.

In 2003, the Red Army Bridge was completed and opened to traffic; in 2009, the River-Crossing Bridge was completed. After the 3 bridges opened, the south bank of the Yudu River was rapidly activated, and a new city integrating industry and urban development rose from the ground.

As the city expanded and red tourism heated up, traffic pressure on both banks of the Yudu River increased, the functional linkage between the north and south areas was insufficient, and residents had difficulty getting around. Yudu planned to build bridges again.

In 2023, the Rally Bridge was completed and opened to traffic, accelerating commercial and industrial connectivity between the two banks; in 2024, the Victory Bridge opened, linking up red landmarks such as the Memorial Park of the Central Red Army's Long March Rally and Departure Point and the Long March Academy along its route.

"The 5 bridges have opened up a new world of development — the new city has taken shape, industry is thriving, and the people are living and working in peace and contentment (安居乐业, an ju le ye - "peaceful, live, happy, work"). Such 'bridges of prosperity for the people' are worth building!" Duan Shaoxing said with emotion.

On May 20, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping traveled by plane, train, and car, making a grueling journey of more than 7 hours to reach Yudu. The General Secretary said with deep feeling: "Now that the country has developed and the people's lives have improved, we must remember the source of our water when we drink, and must not forget the revolutionary forebears and revolutionary martyrs, and must not forget the fathers and fellow villagers of the old revolutionary base areas."

The journey is long, and the original aspiration is as firm as a rock.

From the floating bridge at the start of the Long March to today's "bridges of prosperity for the people," what has changed is the way of crossing by bridge, and what has not changed is the original nature of Communists sharing weal and woe with the people and being connected by blood.

"Bridges" See the Mettle

In Weng'an, Guizhou, in the Jiangjiehe Gorge in the middle reaches of the Wujiang River, the cliffs on both banks are as if cut by knives and split by axes. Looking out from the ferry crossing, a great bridge flies across the two banks.

In March 2025, the main arch of the Wujiang Extra-Large Bridge was closed here: with a total length of 520.92 meters and a main span of 337 meters, it is the largest-span concrete arch bridge for a single-track railway in China.

"This is the battle site where the Red Army forced the crossing of the Wujiang River back then." Xie Qinglei (解庆雷), deputy production manager of the eighth bid section of the Wengma Railway project of Road & Bridge International (中交路建), pointed to the waters below and said.

Of all the roads under heaven, none is harder than the Wujiang ferry crossing. In January 1935, the wind was biting cold and the waves were surging. The Central Red Army launched the battle to force the crossing of the Wujiang River at ferry crossings including Jiangjiehe, Huilongchang, and Chashanguan.

The current was fierce and the river water was bone-chilling. The defending enemy on the opposite bank scuttled the boats along the shore, built multi-layered pillboxes relying on the cliffs, and used heavy firepower to blockade the river surface. The Red Army had no large boats, lacked boatmen, and had little heavy equipment — there was nothing but "forcing the crossing."

After the first trial crossing failed, 18 warriors took 3 bamboo rafts and risked danger again, and in the end 5 warriors managed to reach the opposite bank and lie in ambush under cover of night. The next day, when the main force forced the crossing of the Wujiang River, the officers and soldiers broke through the defense line at the risk of death, opening a path of survival for advancing into northern Guizhou and capturing Zunyi.

Forcing the crossing of the Wujiang River was an important strategic escape from difficulty on the Long March, relying on courage and on the mettle of not fearing sacrifice. More than ten days later, the Zunyi Conference was held, opening a new stage in which the Party independently solved the practical problems of the Chinese revolution, and at the most critical moment saved the Party, saved the Red Army, and saved the Chinese revolution.

Nearly 90 years later, above the same natural barrier, the builders launched another "forced crossing" — building the Wujiang Extra-Large Bridge.

The Jiangjiehe Gorge is located in a scenic area and a drinking water source protection zone, with high environmental protection requirements; the bank slopes are as steep as 85 degrees, with a relative elevation difference of 400 meters and water depths of 100 meters... What the builders faced was a "difficult pass" combining ecological protection, extreme terrain, and high-altitude operations.

To build the bridge, one must first build the road. The conventional approach of excavating the bank slope to build an access road was not permitted by water source protection; building a temporary trestle bridge could not be anchored in the gorge. The team surveyed repeatedly and cut a 245-meter-long tunnel behind the mountain on the right bank of the Wujiang River, leading directly to the arch abutment construction area.

There was no flat ground on either bank, and no dock either. The team processed and pre-assembled the steel pipe arch segments off-site, then transported them by cargo ship. The steel pipe arch segments are "oversized components," with the longest single segment nearly 11 meters, and each shipload equivalent in volume to 36 standard containers.

Such large components had never been transported on the Wujiang shipping channel. "On the day the first ship arrived, many of the builders waiting by the river had red-rimmed eyes," Xie Qinglei recalled.

During construction, "threading the needle" at a height of 100 meters, the team adapted to the mountain terrain and erected an asymmetric high-low tower cable crane system, with a height difference of about 35 meters between the tower tops. One steel pipe after another was connected in mid-air.

The contrast between past and present moved Xie Qinglei deeply: more than 90 years ago, the Red Army overcame countless difficulties in forcing the natural barrier; today, the pilot line of the cable crane was pulled across by a drone, crossing the gorge nearly 600 meters wide and 400 meters deep in just 40 seconds.

Two groups of "river crossers," the same natural barrier, wrote a victorious answer with fearless mettle in tackling hard problems.

Not only the Wujiang River — today, thousands of bridges span Guizhou, transforming it from rugged and mountainous terrain (千沟万壑, qian gou wan he - "thousand, ditch, ten thousand, valley") to a "high-speed plain," forcibly turning the former natural barriers into economic arteries connecting the outside world.

Today, the natural barriers between mountains and rivers are no more, but the "difficult passes" on the new Long March still need to be crossed. Reform and tackling hard problems, breaking through with science and technology, and self-renewal — what these manifest is precisely the mettle of "stepping forward, facing difficulties head-on, daring to struggle, and being good at struggle."

"Bridges" See the Faith

In the early morning, in Luding, Sichuan, on the Luding Bridge over the Dadu River, 13 iron chains lie across, with the chains weighing 21 tons in total. When a gust of wind passes, they ring with a clanging sound.

Wang Qixue (王其学), 65 years old, lifted the wooden cover at the head of the Luding Bridge and, tucking his body in, descended along the nearly vertical inspection ladder. The base of the bridge abutment was dark and damp. Bent over, he moved step by step by the light of a flashlight, checking each iron chain, cable buckle, and anchoring point one by one.

He has repeated these movements for 43 years.

"The Dadu Bridge spans the river with cold iron chains." On May 29, 1935, 22 Red Army warriors, braving a hail of bullets, crawled forward along the iron chains. The defending enemy set fire to the wooden planks piled at the bridgehead, a wall of fire rose up, and the iron chains were scorched hot.

Charge! Through the sea of fire, onto the bridgehead, into hand-to-hand combat, seizing the Luding Bridge — the lifeline for the Central Red Army's northward advance was thus opened. The Red Army broke through the natural barrier and tore through the blockade with their flesh and blood, winning the crucial battle of breaking out of a desperate situation.

What is faith? Faith is knowing full well that the road ahead holds only a slim chance of survival, yet still advancing without hesitation, because behind you is the path of survival for thousands upon thousands of troops, and the future of the revolution.

The bridge that the Red Army seized with their lives back then has been carefully guarded ever since.

Wang Qixue is a native of Luding, and he grew up hearing the story of the Red Army's flying capture of the Luding Bridge: faith is formless, yet it can be earth-shaking (惊天动地, jing tian dong di - "shock, heaven, move, earth").

His father was a member of the Luding Bridge repair construction team and also participated in the renovation of the Dadu River suspension bridge on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, working until retirement. In 1983, 22-year-old Wang Qixue took over the wrench from his father's hand and joined the bridge work team.

The Luding Bridge undergoes a minor repair every 3 years and a major repair every 5 years. For a minor repair, all the bridge planks are removed, the iron chains and the 9 additional reinforcing steel cables added later are checked, and then the planks are re-laid. For a major repair, all 13 iron chains must be removed and inspected for hidden damage. In the early years, without machinery, everything relied on manpower to pull the heavy iron chains to the inspection site, and then pull them back onto the bridge one by one for reinstallation.

Having done only one thing for decades, Wang Qixue holds firm to one principle: "The bridge the Red Army seized with their lives — we cannot be the slightest bit careless about it."

Now, Wang Qixue has become a technical instructor at the worksite, teaching young people hand by hand how to remove rust, apply grease, and bundle bridge planks. In his view, "repairing the bridge is not just a craft, but also a feeling, a conviction."

The Red Army seized the bridge with their lives, and the bridge keepers have guarded it with half their lives; the warriors' deeds were earth-shaking, while ordinary actions go unnoticed — the same conviction, different deeds.

Today, the Luding Bridge "family" continues to grow. On the Luding section of the Dadu River, there are 36 bridges of various types, with one spanning the river on average every 2-plus kilometers.

At the end of 2018, the Xingkang Extra-Large Bridge over the Dadu River at Luding on the Ya'an-Kangding Expressway was completed and opened to traffic. Its deck is 239 meters above the water surface of the Dadu River, equivalent to dozens of stories high, and it is hailed as the "No. 1 Bridge of Sichuan-Tibet."

"More than 1 million vehicles cross the bridge smoothly every year, and my daily job is to ensure the bridge operates healthily," said Tao Wei (陶伟), head of the Operation and Dispatch Center of the Zanggao Yakang (Lushi) Company of Shudao Group (蜀道集团).

The waters of the Dadu River surge as before, the Luding Bridge has shed the smoke of war, retaining its foundation of tackling hard problems, and modern bridges one after another span high in the air, connecting safe and smooth roads.

Crossing mountains and rivers, great roads lead everywhere. China is already the country with the most bridges in the world, and by the end of 2025, highway bridges had reached 1,144,100.

With faith in the heart, there is strength underfoot. "For the people, for the country, for the nation, for ideals and convictions, cutting through thorns and forging ahead — no matter how powerful the enemy, how dangerous the road, how severe the challenge, always without fear and never retreating."

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "The new journey is an expedition full of glory and dreams, and it is the new Long March of the Party and the people."

The rivers are silent, surging mightily onward. The changes at one bridge crossing after another are a vivid epitome of the great transformation of mountains and rivers, and the best testimony that the great Long March spirit transcends time and space.

More than 90 years ago, during the Long March, the Red Army officers and soldiers crossed nearly a hundred rivers, breaking through one natural barrier after another with their flesh and blood, and moving from one desperate situation after another toward the light. Today, we carry forward the red bloodline, shoulder the mission of the times, forever maintain the striving posture of cutting a road through mountains and building bridges across waters, and gather strength to conquer new "Loushan Passes" and "Lazikou Passes" one after another.

The times are changing, the way of crossing by bridge is changing, but the original aspiration and founding mission of Chinese Communists never changes, and the firm pace of the Chinese nation toward the great rejuvenation never changes!

(People's Daily reporters Jin Zhengbo, Li Longyi, Zhou Huan, Cheng Huan, Song Haoxin)

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CPC Central Committee Organization Department Allocates 25 Million Yuan from Party Fees to Support Tibet Earthquake Relief

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) (Reporter Shi Yiqi) To implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, recently, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee allocated a special fund of 25 million yuan from party fees managed on behalf of the Central Committee to Tibet, to be used to support earthquake relief and disaster response work.

The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee requires that party organizations at all levels in the disaster area earnestly implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, that grassroots party organizations and the broad ranks of party members and cadres fully give play to their role as fighting bastions and acting as a pioneer and role model (先锋模范, xian feng mo fan - "first, advanced; model, example"), spare no effort in carrying out search and rescue of personnel, spare no effort in treating the wounded, minimize casualties to the greatest extent possible, prevent secondary disasters, properly resettle affected people, and effectively safeguard the safety of people's lives and property. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee emphasized that this party fee should be promptly allocated to the grassroots level, invested in earthquake relief and disaster response work, and used exclusively for its designated purpose.

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Minimize casualties to the greatest extent and urgently allocate emergency rescue and relief supplies

(People's Daily, Nagqu, October 23) (Reporters Bian Minde, Xu Yuyao, Qiongda Zhuoga) Reporters learned from a press conference held by the Information Office of the Nagqu Municipal People's Government: this earthquake was of high magnitude and shallow focal depth, and the core epicentral areas such as Maryu Township and Gangqie Township in Baqing County experienced strong tremors. As of 13:00 on October 23, it had caused 16 deaths and 76 injuries, with 339 households experiencing house collapse or damage.

Implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, on-site emergency rescue and relief operations have been fully launched. The autonomous region, city, and county levels have jointly deployed more than 5,000 rescue personnel of various types, organized into task groups for search and rescue, medical treatment, resettlement, supply guarantee, and hazard elimination. As of the afternoon of the 23rd, 3 rounds of searches have been completed going from village to village and household to household (逐村逐户, zhu cun zhu hu - "each village, each household"), and 12,489 people have been transferred and resettled. Tent setup has been completed at 18 resettlement sites including Er Village in Maryu Township, and tents are still being set up at the remaining sites. In the next step, as prefabricated houses arrive in succession, people currently resettled in tents will be moved into transitional resettlement housing with better warmth conditions, ensuring they have safe shelter, warm clothing and quilts, hot meals, and clean drinking water.

From the night of the 22nd to the early morning of the 23rd, aftershocks continued in Baqing County. Nagqu police officers and auxiliary police, coordinating with fire rescue and other rescue forces from all sides, made every effort to carry out personnel search and rescue operations and the transfer and resettlement of affected residents.

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) Implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, all localities and departments have taken urgent action and made every effort to organize disaster relief and rescue work.

On the 23rd, the Office of the State Council Earthquake Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management raised the national earthquake disaster emergency response from Level IV to Level III and dispatched a work group to the earthquake-stricken area to provide guidance and assistance.

After the earthquake occurred, the national comprehensive fire rescue teams dispatched a total of 350 personnel and 83 vehicles for rescue operations. As of 16:51 on the 23rd, 307 personnel, 67 vehicles, and 15 dogs had arrived in the disaster area, and 40 personnel and 15 vehicles from the Tibet Fire Rescue Corps were en route to provide reinforcement, all having advanced to Nagqu. The National Center for Work Safety Emergency Rescue guided 2 national work safety emergency rescue teams with 15 vehicles and 34 personnel, carrying more than 100 sets (units) of equipment including reconnaissance drones, heavy-lift drones, and slope radar, rushing to the scene.

The Ministry of Transport activated a Level III emergency response for highway traffic emergencies at 9:00 on the 23rd and dispatched a work group to rush to the scene. The Department of Transport of the Tibet Autonomous Region organized local highway departments to rapidly carry out inspections of the affected road sections. Traffic control measures have been implemented on highways in the earthquake-stricken area; rescue vehicles are guaranteed passage, while social vehicles are temporarily not permitted to pass.

On the 23rd, the National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief and the Ministry of Emergency Management adjusted the national natural disaster relief emergency response level to Level III and dispatched additional joint work groups to the disaster area to guide disaster relief work. On the basis of the earlier allocation of 5,000 pieces of central disaster relief supplies, the Ministry of Emergency Management, together with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, increased the allocation to Tibet of 5,000 pieces of central disaster relief supplies including cotton tents, cotton coats, and folding beds, and activated the government-society coordinated emergency supplies guarantee mechanism, promptly allocating 43,000 pieces of supplies such as mobile toilets and heating stoves.

As of 4:00 on the 23rd, disaster relief supplies allocated at the central, autonomous region, city, and county levels had been delivered to the disaster area in succession, including 1,000 sets of prefabricated houses, 3,239 tents, 2,821 folding beds, and 4,280 quilts.

Reporters learned from relevant departments on the 23rd: the Ministry of Water Resources promptly activated its water conservancy earthquake relief dispatch and command mechanism; the China Earthquake Administration activated a Level II earthquake emergency response and dispatched 72 professional backbone personnel carrying specialized equipment to rush overnight to the earthquake-stricken area to carry out mobile monitoring, disaster situation investigation, and other work. After comprehensive analysis, it was determined that the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqing County was a tensional rupture, and there remains a possibility of felt earthquakes in the original epicentral area and nearby regions in the coming days; at 10:00 on the 23rd, the China Meteorological Administration entered a special working state for earthquake disaster meteorological service support; the National Financial Regulatory Administration activated a Level III disaster relief emergency response for the insurance industry; China Anneng urgently mobilized professional rescue forces from two directions, Lhasa and Nyingchi in Tibet, toward the epicenter.

Reporters learned on the 23rd: the National Development and Reform Commission urgently arranged 30 million yuan of central budget investment to support post-disaster emergency recovery and reconstruction of infrastructure and public service facilities in the disaster area. On the 23rd, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management urgently allocated 50 million yuan of central natural disaster relief funds to Tibet; the National Health Commission dispatched leading comrades from relevant departments and bureaus leading national-level experts to rush to the disaster area; the People's Bank of China opened a "green channel" for national treasury fund transfer and remittance; China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China immediately activated their earthquake relief emergency mechanisms; the Red Cross Society of China urgently allocated 3,800 pieces (sets) of disaster relief supplies including family relief kits, hygiene kits, and heating stoves to the affected areas, and subsequently added an allocation of 50 emergency toilets; the China Charity Federation urgently allocated 3 million yuan of disaster relief funds specifically for disaster relief in the Nagqu disaster area.

(Compiled from reports by People's Daily reporters Zhang Tianpei, Liu Wenxin, Qiu Chaoyi, Qi Yukun, Han Xin, Wang Donghui, Yu Sinan, Liu Zhiqiang, Liu Botong, Jiang Xuehong, Deng Jianyang, Shen Shaotie, Qu Zhehan, Bai Jianfeng, Wu Qiuyu, Yu Jingxian, and Qu Xinming)

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Photo Report

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Delivering Warmth to the Tents (On the Scene)

By: 本报记者 徐驭尧 人民网记者 李海霞 次仁罗布

At 22:00 on October 23, at the resettlement site of Village 2, Maru Township, Baqing County, Nagqu City, Tibet, gusts of cold wind came one after another. Outside the tents, the temperature had already dropped below zero degrees Celsius; inside the tents, stoves were lit and warmth spread.

Tang Honggang, Party secretary of Maru Township, and several staff members, holding flashlights and registration books, visited tent after tent: "Is there anything you lack? If you have any needs, be sure to tell us."

Tang Honggang walked to the bedside of an elderly woman, crouched down, felt the thickness of the quilt, and then checked whether the stove was burning well. "Ama, keep the stove a bit farther from the bed so you don't get burned, and also pay attention to ventilation." The elderly woman took his hand and said, "It's so late, and you're still busy. You've worked hard."

"Only when you are settled and at ease can we feel reassured," Tang Honggang said as he recorded the elderly woman's name, age, and physical condition in the registration book.

The elderly and children are the focus of door-to-door registration. The reporter learned on site that the special survey of "the elderly and the young" in the disaster area has been fully completed, with a total of 62 children under 16 and 15 elderly people aged 60 (inclusive) and above registered. Files have been established for each person's information, with follow-up carried out point-to-point.

"At present, disaster relief supplies at the four levels of the central government, the autonomous region, the city, and the county are continuously arriving. The supply of tents, quilts, heating stoves, cold-weather clothing, and food and drinking water is generally sufficient and can guarantee the basic living needs of the affected people," said Yongzhong Luobu, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Baqing County People's Congress.

In order to further refine and solidify the work, Tibet will properly resettle the affected people, coordinate and handle the relationship between severely affected areas and lightly affected areas, and between damaged households and undamaged households, and further clarify the paired assistance relationship between cadres and the masses, assigning the problems of the people to specific individual cadres.

Medical protection has also been delivered door-to-door to individuals. At the resettlement site, medical staff measured blood pressure and temperature for the elderly and children household by household, and established health records for key individuals. Yongzhong Luobu said that in the next step, they will continue to do a good job of dynamic tracking services for "the elderly and the young," ensuring that no household is left out and no person is missed.

The night grew deeper. Tang Honggang and the staff members, continuously moving without stopping (步履不停, bu lv bu ting - "step, foot, not, stop"), delivered warmth into tent after tent.

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Set up the panel houses as quickly as possible (on site)

By: 本报记者 徐驭尧 人民网记者 李海霞 次仁罗布

In the early hours of October 24, in the second village of Maru Township, Baqing County, Li Kun, a site construction worker with China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group, finally received the batch of prefabricated panel houses.

Li Kun is an operator for assembling the panel houses. After the earthquake struck, he was urgently transferred from another project. He was chosen because he had assembled panel houses during disaster relief in Dingri County — he had experience and was skilled at the work.

He had spent the entire previous day in anxiety. Late on the night of the 22nd, he was startled awake from sleep by the ringing of his phone; he threw on his thickest clothes and walked out the door. The vehicle jolted through the darkness of the plateau, and as he gazed at the pitch-black mountain silhouettes outside the window, his heart burned with urgency. "The disaster area is at high altitude with low nighttime temperatures. For every day the panel houses go up earlier, the people get warm one day sooner," he thought.

Around noon on the 23rd, Li Kun and his team members arrived at the site. Not stopping to rest (顾不上歇脚, gu bu shang xie jiao - "not care about, rest feet"), he jumped onto the machinery and began leveling the ground. Li Kun said that once the ground was prepared first, work could begin as soon as the panel house materials arrived.

"The pastoral area is not like Dingri — here the villages are small and the people live scattered," said Liu Mingyuan, frontline commander-in-chief of China Railway Group. "Excavators have to go level the site, workers have to run back and forth, so efficiency is not high." What to do? Liu Mingyuan's approach was "saturation-style" — saturated equipment allocation, saturated manpower input, and parallel operations wherever possible. When daylight hours were insufficient, they worked in 24-hour shifts, with people resting but machines never stopping.

As night deepened, the resettlement site instead grew brighter. Generators hummed, 24-hour lighting fixtures had already been erected, and electrical wires had been pulled into the site. Liu Mingyuan said: "Get the power on first, get the lights on first — when the people move in, it will be bright and warm."

Sonam Lhagyal, a 17-year-old villager, eagerly awaits the completion and occupancy of the panel houses: "Although this is a village in a remote mountainous area of Tibet, after the disaster struck, the state immediately set up tents for us and brought us warmth, and is now quickly building panel houses. We are deeply grateful."

According to plan, all 500 panel houses will be in place within these two days, and 1,000 tents will be spread out before dawn on the 24th. For the people, the panel houses are temporary homes; for these builders who rushed over through the night, making the homes be completed and lit up as early as possible is their greatest wish at this moment.

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Feeling the Weight of Life in a Race Against Time (Reporter's Notebook)

By: 徐驭尧

At midnight on October 23, we drove out of Lhasa, heading toward the disaster area through the cold night, and pulled into a gas station along the road at 3 a.m.

At this hour, the gas station would normally be empty, but on this day it was packed with vehicles. Trucks, cars, and special-purpose vehicles arrived one after another, all rushing to provide disaster relief. Fuel nozzles were hung up and pulled down, car doors opened and closed, and the figures hurrying to and fro were eager yet resolute. Countless headlights formed a river that, without pausing to rest, continued flowing toward Baqing. This was a silent speed, and within that silence lay something extremely urgent and critical (十万火急, shi wan huo ji - "ten, ten thousand, fire, urgent").

When we reached the epicenter, less than 12 hours had passed since the disaster struck, and local officials already had a clear picture of the situation, saying, "We visited every household three times and repeatedly asked about the people's condition, all to get a true grasp of the disaster's impact." Through the night that had just passed, they conducted repeated surveys and visits, their voices already hoarse, yet still full of patience. This was a somewhat stubborn resolve that made one's heart burn warm.

Looking up at the sky, the plateau's starry sky hung so low it seemed within arm's reach, every star blazingly bright; looking down at the ground, the light of headlights and flashlights spread across the earth, forming another river of stars, delivering hope inch by inch to the disaster area.

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Page 1 editors: Yang Xu, Zhang Shuaizhen, Zhang Yujie; Page 2 editors: Lin Lin, Qi Jiarun, Zhang Anyu; Page 3 editors: Wu Gang, Zhou Zhou, Xie Jianing; Page 4 editors: Yuan Zhenxi, Han Chunyao, Liu Jingwen

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Safeguard the "granary of a major country" with the power of the rule of law

By: 本报记者 倪 弋

Food security is an important foundation for China's economic development, social stability, and national security. The Food Security Guarantee Law, which took effect on June 1, 2024, is a foundational and overarching law in China's food security field, providing strong legal safeguards for ensuring food security.

From May to September this year, law enforcement inspection teams of the NPC Standing Committee traveled to six provinces — Anhui, Henan, Shandong, Jilin, Shanxi, and Hubei — to conduct inspections on the implementation of the Food Security Guarantee Law. The inspections show that all localities and departments have conscientiously implemented the relevant provisions of the law, using legal means to build a strong line of defense for food security. The law's implementation has achieved phased results and gotten off to a good start. At the same time, safeguarding national food security still faces certain risks and challenges, and there remain some shortcomings and weaknesses in the law's implementation.

Consolidating the Foundation of Cultivated Land for Grain Production

Cultivated land is the lifeline of grain production. Chapter II of the Food Security Guarantee Law contains dedicated provisions on "cultivated land protection." The law enforcement inspection teams conducted careful inspections on matters such as how well high-standard farmland has been built, the effectiveness of black soil protection, and how to address the problem of cultivated land being diverted away from grain cultivation.

Recently, the 10,000-mu high-standard farmland in Xiangyanghu Town, Xian'an District, Xianning City, Hubei Province, welcomed a bountiful harvest. However, three years ago, this was still fragmented land crisscrossed with ridges where agricultural machinery could hardly enter.

To address the problems of cultivated land being "fragmented, disordered, scattered, and thin," Xian'an District began in 2023 to carry out systematic comprehensive treatment of 21,000 mu of low-lying cultivated land in the Xiangyanghu area. Through land leveling, field shape optimization, and removal of abandoned field ridges, the original 334 fragmented plots were consolidated into 111 standardized large fields, greatly enhancing the region's capacity for flood prevention, drought resistance, and disaster mitigation in agriculture.

High-standard farmland requires not only "construction" but also, more importantly, "management." The law enforcement inspection teams found that the post-construction management and maintenance mechanisms for high-standard farmland still need improvement, with some localities experiencing situations such as townships lacking the capacity to manage, village collectives being unwilling to manage, and beneficiary farmers lacking enthusiasm for participating in management and maintenance.

In response, the law enforcement inspection teams recommended further strengthening the farmland construction and management workforce, filling the gap in professional capacity at the grassroots level, and enriching local professional talent teams, so as to provide solid talent support for the construction, upgrading, and long-term management and maintenance of high-standard farmland, and to meet the practical needs of modern agricultural high-standard farmland construction and management.

Black soil is hailed as "the giant panda of cultivated land." The Food Security Guarantee Law clearly stipulates that the state shall establish a black soil protection system to protect the excellent production capacity of black soil.

In Linjiang Village, Wukeshu Town, Yushu City, Jilin Province, on the 100-hectare plot of the high-yield corn demonstration base, just after the autumn harvest, straw returning operations are in full swing. Several deep-plowing plowshares plunge into the soil, neatly turning last season's corn stalks into the black soil layer, while the black soil turned up is moist, glossy, and very fertile.

A technician at the demonstration base bent down, grabbed a handful of soil from a freshly plowed furrow, and introduced it to the law enforcement inspection teams: "Look at this soil — it's loose, soft, and has a granular structure. In the past, straw was either burned or hauled away, and the more the land was cultivated, the more compacted it became, with the plow pan as hard as brick. Now we do full-volume deep plowing and straw returning, plus composted manure turned in together. The straw rots into organic matter in the field — it retains moisture in drought, drains water in floods, and the corn root system grows deep, resisting lodging."

The law enforcement inspection teams recommended implementing the strictest cultivated land protection system, strengthening cultivated land quality construction, promoting measures such as straw returning, crop-livestock recycling, and soil testing and formula fertilization in light of local conditions, strengthening source control of cultivated land pollution, and continuously consolidating the foundation for long-term stable and increased grain production.

Enhancing Grain Supply Capacity, Quality, and Efficiency

Ensuring food security requires not only "good output" but also "stable supply" and "high quality." From grain reserves to circulation, from grain processing to the food end-market, the law enforcement inspection teams kept a close eye on the entire industrial chain from field to table.

At Taiyuan Reserve Grain Management Group Co., Ltd. in Yangqu County, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, staff demonstrated the working model of the "one-stop" platform to the law enforcement inspection teams: "Before trucks enter the depot area, the registration system collects vehicle information and driver identity information, which is uploaded to the Shanxi Province grain purchase and sales supervision platform. After all relevant procedures are completed, we notify the driver to go to the sampling room to take samples."

"The sampling machine can take samples from 6 points at one time, taking only 70 seconds in total. After the samples are sent to the laboratory, the lab technicians do not know which truck the samples came from, avoiding human error and bias," the staff member explained. Throughout the weighing process, three cameras at the front, middle, and rear of the truck scale capture and archive images, while the weighing data is simultaneously uploaded to the Shanxi Province grain purchase and sales supervision platform.

"In the past, selling grain meant waiting a long time; now, as soon as the phone rings, the money arrives." A grain farmer from Wangjia Village, Xiaojia Township, Fuyu City, Jilin Province, said this. During the grain purchase process, COFCO Trading Fuyu Grain Storage and Transportation Co., Ltd. sets up price and quality bulletin boards in prominent locations; the unloading area uses automatic hydraulic flip-plate unloaders, greatly reducing farmers' waiting time for unloading; settlement uses "UnionPay QuickPass," and after the empty grain truck is weighed, the grain payment can be transferred to the farmer's bank card within seconds.

How many products can one ear of corn be transformed into? On the production line of COFCO Biochemical Energy (Yushu) Co., Ltd. in Yushu City, Jilin Province, corn entering the plant first undergoes degerming, peeling, and milling to become edible corn starch; the starch undergoes liquefaction, saccharification, and isomerization to become glucose syrup, maltose syrup, and high-fructose corn syrup; going further, allulose is extracted from the corn starch — a sugar that is the new favorite in the sugar substitute market. Corn husks, corn cobs, and protein slurry are sent to the feed workshop and bio-based materials line, becoming feed for farms and raw materials for biodegradable packaging.

The law enforcement inspection teams recommended doing a good job of the value-added articles of "grain head, food tail" and "agriculture head, industry tail," systematically advancing primary processing, deep processing, and comprehensive utilization of by-products in grain.

Strengthening Technological Innovation and the Application of Results

The Food Security Guarantee Law clearly stipulates enhancing the scientific and technological support capacity and application level of grain production, reserves, circulation, and processing.

In Shandong, the law enforcement inspection teams visited the China Agricultural University Qihe Science and Technology Backyard for Ultra-High-Yield Cropping Systems in Shandong, where corn, wheat, and other crops were growing vigorously. Since its launch in 2023, the Science and Technology Backyard has broken through a number of key technologies for high and stable grain yields, achieving new progress of 1.7 tons per mu per year in the wheat-corn double-cropping system. Compared with traditional cropping models, yield per mu has increased by 15% and irrigation water use efficiency has improved by 36.4%.

Digital technology and intelligent equipment are accelerating their penetration into the grain industry chain. In Xiawu Village, Quwo County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, Hu Jinjin, a "post-90s" new-generation farmer, operates a monitoring system equipped with artificial intelligence functions to achieve early warning of anomalies such as intrusions into farmland, fires, and large-scale pest infestations. Relying on an integrated water-fertilizer system combined with sprinkler and drip irrigation facilities, he precisely applies water and fertilizer, connecting "fragmented" land into modern well-managed fields. After removing field ridges, every 100 mu can gain 8 mu of additional cultivable area.

On the grain processing end, technology is turning "raw grain" into "products" and "products" into "brands." At WolKangYuan (Shanxi) Functional Food Co., Ltd. in Quwo County, the production workshop is filled with a dazzling array of functional foods rich in organic selenium, folic acid, and potassium. The company's general manager, Yang Xiaohui, picked up a biscuit shaped like the Jin Hou Bird Zun: "This series of products is themed around ancient culture. While children taste the biscuits and pastries, they subtly absorb knowledge of traditional history and culture."

The law enforcement inspection teams recommended further strengthening the principal role of enterprises in innovation, encouraging seed industry enterprises and research institutes to jointly build R&D platforms, and accelerating the transformation and application of new varieties and new technologies; promoting the large-scale application of frontier technologies such as biological breeding and smart agriculture in field production, so that scientific and technological achievements are truly transformed into productive forces in the fields, injecting strong momentum into comprehensively consolidating the foundation of food security.

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Oaths Passed Down Through Generations, Cultural Heritage Nourishes the Heart (Forging a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation, All Chinese Are One Family)

By: 本报记者 杨 昊 张 驰

In the golden autumn season, at the Ethnic Unity Park in Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, the first monument to ethnic unity in New China—the Ethnic Unity Oath Monument—stands tall and imposing.

In 1951, people of all ethnic groups in the Pu'er Prefecture held a swearing-in rally and, following the customs and practices of ethnic minorities, erected the oath monument: "With one heart and one virtue, unite to the end, and under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, vow to strive for the building of an equal, free, and happy big family!" After more than seventy years, the oath still resounds with vigor.

"My father often said that carving his own name on the oath monument was the proudest and most glorious thing in his life." Stroking the oath monument, Fang Caibing, a 56-year-old Hani man, said.

Fang Caibing's father, Fang Youfu, was once one of the Hani representatives who participated in the swearing-in rally. Back then, after retiring from military service, Fang Youfu led his fellow villagers in building a hydropower station, changing the backward appearance of his hometown, and persistently told people of all ethnic groups the story of the oath monument. Before his death, his father entrusted Fang Caibing with this task: to continue telling the story of the oath monument.

Now, Fang Caibing works as a ride-hailing driver while also serving as a volunteer docent. A single stone monument not only carries a piece of history, but is also a portrayal of people of all ethnic groups being of one heart with the Party and uniting in struggle.

A rendition of the national anthem sings out a shared feeling of family and country.

On an early Monday morning, Feng Boyue, a student at Nie'er Primary School in Yuxi, Yunnan, and his orchestra companions performed the "March of the Volunteers" at the flag-raising ceremony. Having studied the piano for six years, he is not only familiar through constant hearing (耳熟能详, er shu neng xiang - "ear, listen, can, familiar") with the story of Nie'er, the composer of the national anthem, but also has a deeper understanding of the anthem's significance.

"Our school brings together students from nearly 20 ethnic groups. Everyone raises the same flag, sings the same song, and is one family." Yang Cuiying, Party Secretary of Yuxi Nie'er Primary School, introduced that, relying on the unique red resources of Nie'er's hometown, the school integrates national anthem education into flag-raising ceremonies, themed lectures, art courses such as music and fine arts, and campus culture building, and links up with schools in multiple places to carry out cloud-based ideological and political courses, influencing students imperceptibly (潜移默化, qian yi mo hua - "subtly, move, silently, transform") to cultivate deep feelings of family and country.

A piece of Yongzi, inheriting the fine traditional Chinese culture.

At the Yongzi Cultural Park in Jinji Township, Longyang District, Baoshan, electric fans whirred loudly. Beside the kiln opening with temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius, craftsmen held special dipping rods, stirring and dipping them into the pool of molten jade material, gently dripping. With a dip and a lift, a round, glossy black Yongzi piece took shape.

This is the "Dian Dan" (dotting cinnabar) technique in the production craftsmanship of Yunnan Go pieces (Yongzi), a representative item of national-level intangible cultural heritage. Yongzi pieces are made from southern red agate, yellow dragon jade, jadeite, and other materials, and are renowned for their hard texture, lustrous color, and fineness like jade.

In the local area, Go culture has been passed down for a thousand years, continuing without interruption (绵延不息, mian yan bu xi - "extend, stretch, not, cease"). Tao Xiaochang, Dean of the Baoshan Yongzi Go Academy and Chairman of Baoshan Yongzi Cultural Industry Co., Ltd., said: "Every year, we organize youth Go exchange competitions for players from within and outside the province, combined with the 'Making a Set of Go Pieces Together' intangible cultural heritage experience activity, so that young people of all ethnic groups can enhance their understanding of Go and continuously raise their sense of identification with the fine traditional Chinese culture."

A wisp of tea fragrance gives new life to an ancient post station.

Green flagstone roads, babbling brooks. Nake Li Village in Ning'er County is an important post station on the Ancient Tea Horse Road. In front of the Ning'er Nake Li Ancient Tea House, baskets of tea leaves are laid out; stepping inside, the aroma of tea curls gently in the air.

Gao Li, the 32-year-old shop manager and a Yi ethnic girl, was busy attending to customers. Here, visitors can pick tea leaves by hand, wither them, and roll them, pressing the flavor of Pu'er tea into a cake of tea they have made themselves.

In recent years, Nake Li Village has relied on the Ancient Tea Horse Road culture to promote the integration of rural tourism with cultural heritage and industrial development, cultivating various business forms such as farm stays, homestays, and tea shops. In 2025, the village received 1.006 million tourists, achieving a total tourism revenue of 167 million yuan.

The ancient road remains, but life has been renewed. People of all ethnic groups have turned their cultural identity into a conscious action of unity and striving, forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.

Today, across the land of Yunnan, people of all ethnic groups are united in heart and spirit, and the flower of ethnic unity and progress is blooming ever more brilliantly.

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Ceremony for Import of Taiwan Fishery Products into Mainland Held in Xiamen

(People's Daily, Xiamen, October 23) (Reporter Zhong Ziwei) A ceremony for the import of Taiwan fishery products into the mainland was held in Xiamen on the 23rd, with more than 200 people from all walks of life on both sides of the strait participating in the event.

Song Tao, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, attended the event and delivered a speech, stating that in order to implement the important spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's meeting with Kuomintang Chairman Cheng Li-wen, the Central Taiwan Work Office was authorized to release ten policy measures to promote cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, and, together with relevant parties on the island, on the political basis of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence," has continued to promote the ten measures toward achieving practical results and effectiveness (落地见效, luo di jian xiao - "land, fall; see, effect"), making positive progress. With the joint efforts of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, and of compatriots on both sides of the strait, it is entirely possible to solve difficulties for Taiwan's farmers and fishermen, find a way out for them, secure their livelihoods, and increase their well-being. It is hoped that the broad masses of Taiwan compatriots will uphold the greater national interest, resolutely oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and interference by external forces, join hands with mainland compatriots in safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, protecting the common homeland of the Chinese nation, promoting the peaceful development and integrated development of cross-strait relations, and jointly creating a bright future of national rejuvenation and national reunification.

Wu Xielin, member of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and Secretary-General, stated in his speech that Fujian, as the main channel for the import of Taiwan fishery products into the mainland, has always regarded "promoting the development of Taiwan's fishery industry and small and medium-sized enterprises in Fujian" as a key task in the construction of the cross-strait integrated development demonstration zone. In the next step, it will continue to implement the ten measures in detail and concretely, promote Fujian-Taiwan fishery cooperation making progress in a profound and substantive manner (走深走实, zou shen zou shi - "walk, deep; walk, solid"), and accelerate the building of the first home for Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan enterprises to land on the mainland.

Chang Jung-kung, vice chairman of the Kuomintang, said that Taiwan's fishery products being sold to the mainland not only enhances the well-being of grassroots fishermen in Taiwan, but also gives mainland consumers one more choice. Compatriots on both sides of the strait can benefit each other and enjoy a happier and better life. The Kuomintang is willing to work with everyone to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and enhance the well-being of people's livelihoods on both sides of the strait.

Su Ching-chuan, chairman of the Kuomintang's Pingtung County Party Committee, said in a video congratulation that the two sides of the strait have a high degree of complementarity in fishery resources and market demand, and have established a deep and indispensable foundation for cooperation. It is hoped that both sides of the strait will jointly promote economic prosperity and create a more brilliant Greater China economy for the next generation.

Hsieh Lung-yin, chairman of the Taiwan Fishermen's Association, and other fishery operators on the island said that both sides of the strait belong to one China, and compatriots on both sides of the strait are one family. The ten policy measures to promote cross-strait exchanges and cooperation fully reflect the mainland's concern for the well-being of grassroots fishermen in Taiwan, and they look forward to new achievements in cross-strait fishery cooperation and integrated development.

During the event, guests from both sides of the strait unveiled the plaque of the Xiamen Taiwan Fishery Products Exhibition and Sales Center and visited the cross-strait marine food market. According to statistics, in recent days, approximately 350 tons of Taiwan's specialty fishery products, including grouper and fourfinger threadfin, have been shipped to Xiamen one after another.

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Photo Report

Chishui City, Guizhou Province, relying on its abundant bamboo resources and intangible cultural heritage resources, has adopted a model of "Party building leadership + local talent + intangible cultural heritage bamboo weaving" to provide free training to local rural women. Centering on the market demand for replacing plastic products with bamboo products (以竹代塑, yi zhu dai su - "use, bamboo, replace, plastic"), it enhances the added value of bamboo resources, drives local people to find employment and increase income at their doorsteps, and helps promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. The photo shows bamboo weaving artisan Yang Changqin (second from right) instructing workers in making bamboo weaving utensils at the Jizhutang intangible cultural heritage bamboo weaving base in Datong Town on October 22.

Photo by Wang Changyu (China Image)

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Xiong'an New Area Integrates High-Quality Development with Efficient Governance

By: 本报记者 万秀斌 郑海鸥 邵玉姿

Autumn arrives in Xiong'an, and the scenery is magnificent and varied (气象万千, qì xiàng wàn qiān - "air, appearance, ten thousand, myriad").

Above ground, the "Millennium Forest" stretches with lush greenery, and modern buildings stand in a clean, orderly arrangement; underground, a utility corridor network of over 100 kilometers runs through; in the cloud, a digital city grows in tandem, with the "Eye of Xiong'an" keeping watch over the entire city... On the North China Plain, by the shore of Baiyangdian Lake, a city of the future is growing with calm composure.

This composure comes from having cast aside the "growing pains" and rejected the crude, sprawling expansion of the "pancake-spreading" model, embedding the modernization of governance into the entire process of urban development.

Deep concern and earnest entrustment. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly pointed the way for the construction and development of Xiong'an New Area, calling for "advancing the modernization of urban governance in tandem" and stressing that "to continuously enhance the comprehensive carrying capacity of Xiong'an New Area, we must plan systematically and integrate high-quality construction with high-efficiency governance."

Planning before construction, underground before aboveground, greening before building the city... Following Xi Jinping's guidance, Xiong'an has written its exploratory practice into every piece of land and every daily routine.

Systematic planning, with the aboveground and underground growing together in symbiosis——

Entering Rongdong Area, Xiong'an's first concentrated built-up zone, one sees lush trees and closely spaced buildings above ground, with no "spider web of overhead wires" overhead and no "road zippers" underfoot.

Underground, there is a whole new world of scenery (别有洞天, bié yǒu dòng tiān - "another, have, cave, heaven"): the underground parking garages of 95 residential communities are interconnected, and "BeiDou + 5G indoor distribution" technology brings BeiDou signals underground; the underground utility corridor houses all municipal pipelines for water, electricity, gas, heat, and networks, with intelligent sensing devices deployed throughout the corridor.

"No detours underground, no congestion above ground. Living here is comfortable and reassuring," said Zhou Qiang, a resident of Rongdong Area.

Underground before aboveground — Xiong'an plans the city's "inner workings" in advance, laying a solid foundation for urban development and governance. At the same time, relying on digital twin technology, it builds a "city in the cloud," allowing the "city above ground" and the "city underground" to integrate with each other.

The invisible "inner workings" support the visible "facade." Ma Yongjun, director of the Operations and Management Department of China Xiong'an Group Infrastructure Construction Co., Ltd., logs into the "digital twin" system as the first task of every workday. Through this system, every detail of the underground utility corridor is clearly visible, with temperature, humidity, water pressure, and gas concentration updating in real time. "When a problem arises, the system issues an automatic alert. Problems are detected in the 'cloud,' and repairs can be carried out within the corridor," Ma Yongjun said.

Ecology first, with the new city and the lake wetlands coexisting in harmony——

In the crisp and refreshing autumn weather (秋高气爽, qiū gāo qì shuǎng - "autumn, high, air, refreshing"), waterbirds gather in flocks along Yannandi of Baiyangdian Lake, and the Nanhe Hub, with its dark-tiled, upturned-eave architecture, is reflected in the water. This hub connects on one side to the vast expanse of Baiyangdian's lake wetlands, and on the other to the modern buildings of Xiong'an New Area.

Before the establishment of Xiong'an New Area, the overall water quality of Baiyangdian was below Class V, with reduced water flow and severe fragmentation of waterways. Fuhe River Estuary Wetland, the "throat" of Baiyangdian, once saw turbid water from upstream pour directly into the lake. Zhu Baofeng, head of the Water Conservancy and Water Environment Construction and Operations Division of China Xiong'an Group Ecological Construction Investment Co., Ltd., led his team to use a three-stage near-natural purification process of "pre-sedimentation ecological ponds + subsurface flow wetlands + aquatic plant ponds," bringing this wetland back to life.

In recent years, Xiong'an New Area has insisted on advancing water replenishment, pollution control, and flood prevention as an integrated whole, with the five major projects of "dredging and desilting, connecting the hundred lakes, returning farmland to wetlands, scientific water replenishment, and rigorous flood prevention" being pursued through multiple channels simultaneously.

"The original appearance of Baiyangdian is back!" Zhang Xuenong, chairman of the Baiyangdian Photographers Association of Anxin County, has documented the changes of Baiyangdian with more than 100,000 photographs. In recent years, rare birds such as the ferruginous duck have become "regular guests" in his lens. "The city and the lake merge, and the lake and the city coexist. Now a casual snapshot captures beautiful scenery."

The water quality of Baiyangdian has remained stable at Class III standards for five consecutive years. As of 2026, the number of wild bird species in Baiyangdian has increased to 296, up 90 species from before the establishment of the New Area, and fish species have recovered to 50.

Integrated advancement, with secure housing and fulfilling work complementing each other (相辅相成, xiāng fǔ xiāng chéng - "mutually, assist, mutually, complete")——

"It feels like living in a garden now." In 2023, Yuan Yuxin, a relocated resident of Rongdong Area, and his family moved into the Lixian Garden residential community in the area. "It's just a few minutes' walk downstairs to the supermarket, and my grandchildren don't have to go far to school. Every day I go to the community senior care station to play ball — life is fulfilling and comfortable."

In Nanying Community, where Yuan Yuxin's family lives, volumes of "household condition ledgers" record the warmth and cold of people's livelihoods. "More than 3,700 households have 'one file per household,' covering medical care, elderly care, and other matters, updated dynamically every two months," said Wang Weixiao, secretary of the Party General Branch of Nanying Community. The "household condition ledgers" have been organized into more than 80,000 pieces of information and three lists — the "resource list, the problem and demand list, and the responsibility list" — sorting out the huge number of complex issues (千头万绪, qiān tóu wàn xù - "thousand, heads, ten thousand, threads") of community work with perfect clarity.

In Yi'an Community in the startup zone, Guo Bingqing, a teacher at the Xiong'an campus of Beijing No. 4 Middle School, and her family have put down roots here: they rent an apartment in Huawangcheng residential complex, and her daughter attends Xiong'an Shijia Hutong Primary School nearby; relying on Xiong'an's superior water resources and well-developed cultural and sports facilities, her husband Li Nan has started art and sports training institutions, embarking on a new career. "This city of the future has fulfilled our family's imagination and expectations for life," Guo Bingqing said with emotion.

Only with secure housing can one work with peace of mind. With balanced, high-quality public services, meticulous grassroots governance, and an industrial foundation that has gathered strength over time, Xiong'an is lifting up one dream after another of living and working in peace and contentment (安居乐业, ān jū lè yè - "peacefully, settle, happily, work").

"Governance is not about 'remedial lessons' after construction is complete. Xiong'an insists on advancing planning, construction, and governance as an integrated whole, ensuring that urban governance has rules to follow from the very beginning," said Liu Zhenming, deputy director of the Xiong'an New Area Natural Resources and Planning Bureau.

One blueprint drawn to the end. A city of the future is growing apace, flourishing and prosperous (欣欣向荣, xīn xīn xiàng róng - "flourishing, flourishing, towards, prosperous").

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Rooted in the Local Community, Giving Back to Society

By: 本报记者 何 聪 顾 春

Not long ago, the first municipal (suburban) railway sea-crossing bridge in China — the Xiangshan Harbor Sea-Crossing Bridge in Ningbo, Zhejiang — was officially put into service. The bridge-pier anti-ship-collision technology developed by the mechanics team of Ningbo University was applied on this bridge, making an important contribution to safeguarding maritime traffic safety.

It is no accident that a local university appears alongside a major national engineering project.

In 1984, the renowned Ningbo-born businessman Yue-Kong Pao donated US$20 million to found Ningbo University. Since then, more than 70 people of Ningbo origin have continued to lend their support, with cumulative donations exceeding 900 million yuan.

Faced with the support of all sectors of society, how can the university avoid failing its benefactors? Ningbo University's answer is to take deep root in the local area and give back to society.

Disciplines closely follow industry. Cai Ronggen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Ningbo University, introduced that the university treats industrial demand as the signpost for adjusting its disciplines: "Specialties with low compatibility are removed, and frontier-oriented specialties such as intelligent science and engineering and robotics engineering are added, with enrollment quotas and professional-title resources concentrated toward advantageous disciplines." In the past three years, Ningbo University has independently established 22 second-level and interdisciplinary disciplines, and the proportion of master's students enrolled in science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine has increased by nearly 10 percentage points over the past five years. At the beginning of this year, Ningbo University established six new "emerging engineering" colleges at once, covering mechanics, mechanical engineering, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and other fields.

Classrooms are moved into workshops. In the production workshop of Ningbo LK Technology Co., Ltd., Lin Zhixiang, a graduate student at Ningbo University, has "lived at the enterprise" for nearly three years, completing the optimization of the low-pressure casting process for subframes, with his thesis topic also coming directly from the production line. Graduate students trained in this "living at the enterprise" model number more than 170 in the School of Mechanical Engineering of Ningbo University alone; practical topics drawn from the front line of production account for 62% of the professional master's degree thesis topics in the School of Mechanical Engineering. Zhang Ruili, Party secretary of Ningbo University, said: "Integration of industry and education (产教融合, chan jiao rong he - "industry, education, merge") must ultimately feed back into cultivating students, letting students see in real industrial settings what society needs, and solving the problem of mismatch between graduates and social demand after they leave school."

Teachers move toward enterprises. Ningbo University has innovated a dual-appointment model of "identity at Ningbo University, work at the enterprise," allowing teachers to go deep into enterprises to serve as deputy chief technology officers, and piloting reforms together with the Yongjiang Laboratory. Peng Wenfei, deputy dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering, introduced that the school has jointly built more than 100 practice bases with enterprises, undertaken 50 key Ningbo municipal R&D projects in school-enterprise cooperation, with cooperation funding exceeding 60 million yuan.

Recognition from society is also flowing back to the campus. Ningbo University alumnus Liu Huaying donated 10 million yuan to establish a teaching award fund, and alumnus Wang Yong donated 5 million yuan to establish a "Future Navigator Fund" to support innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, donated funds are increasingly being directed toward innovation and entrepreneurship and the building of an ecosystem for integration of industry and education. Ningbo University is actively carrying out resource allocation reform, jointly establishing a 100 million yuan fund with local state capital in the first phase, with the university contributing 20 million yuan, to explore using donated funds to invest in innovation and entrepreneurship projects of teachers and students.

From the anti-ship-collision technology of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, to the "seafood raised on land" on the saline-alkali land of the Taklamakan Desert; from ultra-high-power energy storage devices installed in major national equipment, to the direct ionization mass spectrometer recognized as a national first (set) product... Ningbo University is integrating itself into national strategies and regional development, and through concrete actions to give back to society, is striving to advance toward the goal of building itself at a high level into a first-class local comprehensive university in China.

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National Centre for the Performing Arts Premieres New Version of Chinese Epic Opera *The Long March*

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) (Reporter Shi Fang) On the evening of October 22, the new version of the Chinese epic opera The Long March premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, with 183 screening venues nationwide broadcasting the performance simultaneously, and nearly 20,000 viewers completing a "Long March" across time and space amid the magnificent singing.

According to reports, this broadcast covered multiple red landmarks along the route of the Red Army's Long March, and for the first time entered 16 cadre education and training institutions including the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance) and the China Jinggangshan Cadre Academy, as well as 15 institutions of higher learning including Peking University and Lhasa Normal University, delivering high-quality stage art to various locations with "zero time lag." In addition to 4K ultra-high-definition and 5.1 surround sound technology, AR (augmented reality) virtual production technology was also innovatively introduced, and domestically produced high-order three-dimensional sound spherical microphones were used for the first time to capture the on-site environment, adding a blend of virtual and real elements (虚实交织, xu shi jiao zhi - "false, real, interweave") to the visual layers in scenes such as snow-capped mountains, grasslands, and warfare, bringing a more intense audiovisual impact.

The new version of the Chinese epic opera The Long March will continue to be performed until October 28.

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11th World Mazu Culture Forum to Be Held in Putian

(People's Daily, Beijing, October 23) (People's Daily Online reporter Lin Ying) The 11th World Mazu Culture Forum held a press conference in Beijing on October 23, announcing that the forum will be held from October 31 to November 2 in Putian, Fujian, with the main venue on Meizhou Island, and 13 sub-venues set up around the globe, linked simultaneously with the main venue.

This year's forum is jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region, and the People's Government of Fujian Province. It closely follows the permanent overarching theme of "Great Love and Peace · Mutual Learning Among Civilizations," designates peace and tranquility throughout the world (四海安澜, si hai an lan - "four, seas, peaceful, calm") and "Love Creates the Future" as the annual theme, and is held concurrently with the 28th Meizhou Mazu Culture and Tourism Festival.

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Page editors: Ji Yalin, Zhang Weihao, Zhai Qinqi

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Leverage Cultural Relics' Key Role in Building a Comprehensive Cultural Heritage Protection Framework

By: 陆 琼

The "15th Five-Year Plan" for Cultural Heritage Protection and Transmission (《文化遗产保护传承"十五五"规划》) emphasizes holistic thinking, providing a "roadmap" and "task book" for the systematic development of cultural relic protection, archaeological research, and museum construction.

Empowering, clarifying responsibilities, and achieving win-win outcomes, with an emphasis on combining strengths, coordinating efforts, integrating the advantages of resources from all parties, and advancing systematic protection — cultural relic protection is building an open ecosystem that moves from a single responsible entity toward departmental coordination, performing one's respective duties (各尽其职, ge jin qi zhi - "each, exhaust, their, duty"), and multi-stakeholder co-creation.

The "15th Five-Year Plan" for Cultural Heritage Protection and Transmission focuses on the central tasks of cultural heritage protection and transmission work over the next five years, emphasizes holistic thinking, coordinates the planning of various measures and engineering projects, provides a "roadmap" and "task book" for the systematic development of cultural relic protection, archaeological research, and museum construction, and highlights the construction of collaborative mechanisms and the demonstration of their role in cultural heritage work.

The plan strengthens the protection of immovable cultural relics and archaeological work. With regard to immovable cultural relics, the plan requires raising the level of protection, strengthening protection management, implementing protection in advance, and intensifying classified protection; increasing the pace of publicizing cultural relic protection units at all levels and improving the supervision system for low-level immovable cultural relics; strengthening the management of cultural relic protection and restoration, and coordinating the advancement of rescue, preventive, and research-based protection. Two special projects are established, emphasizing that the working thread of the "China Construction" Key Plan (中国营造) is to manifest the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, while the "Red Cultural Heritage Protection Project" is to build demonstration zones for the protection and utilization of revolutionary cultural relics, strictly protecting revolutionary cultural relics and their surrounding historical environments. The plan clarifies the need to deepen archaeological and research into the history of civilization; while controlling the quantity and improving the quality of proactive archaeological excavation projects, it supports the launch of major regional and thematic archaeological projects; optimizing capital construction archaeology, carrying out in an orderly manner archaeological work for major national projects and urban-rural construction, and forming a "single map" of archaeological resources; raising the level of site protection, implementing the protection and enhancement project for national archaeological site parks, and strengthening the protection and management of archaeological site parks. To maintain continuity of work, the two special projects "Chinese Civilization Origins Exploration Project" and "Archaeological China" Major Project continue to be established, and during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the implementation of these projects will continue to be advanced, deepening the thread of archaeological evidence and recreating the picture of civilization.

The plan vigorously advances the protection of movable cultural relics and comprehensively strengthens museum management. The plan requires strengthening the inventory, archival establishment, and relic grading of state-owned museum collections, and implementing full-process dynamic management of precious cultural relics in collections; strengthening the protection of the physical objects of collected cultural relics, implementing restoration plans for precious cultural relics in collections, and carrying out rescue protection and restoration for endangered and fragile cultural relics in collections; improving museum management systems and perfecting museum construction standards; deeply implementing the small and medium-sized museum enhancement plan to raise the level of public cultural services provided by museums; optimizing resource allocation, revitalizing collected cultural relics, and promoting the direct reach of high-quality cultural resources to the grassroots; strengthening the sharing of collection resources and advancing inter-museum exchange and cooperation. In the section on deepening international exchange and cooperation, it is specifically proposed to "deepen museum exchanges and hold high-level international touring exhibitions on the theme of Chinese civilization."

The plan adopts a series of new measures to promote the high-quality development of the cultural relic undertaking. First, increasing the intensity of protection. The plan first emphasizes ascertaining and consolidating resources, integrating and applying data, opening up, being compatible with, and integrating cross-departmental data, and clearly proposes establishing a general catalog of national cultural heritage resources, and on the basis of the China Cultural Relics Cloud, the intangible cultural heritage database, and others, integrating them to form a national cultural heritage resources big database; improving the relevant technical support systems and establishing mechanisms for data security sharing and dynamic maintenance. The plan also attaches great importance to the support of education, science and technology, and talent, clearly requiring the advancement of discipline construction, the optimization of specialty settings, and the cultivation of interdisciplinary and composite talents; promoting the research and development and upgrading of cultural relic protection equipment and accelerating the construction of informatization and standardization; strengthening technical support for protection in the fields of heritage buildings, cave temples, ancient murals, rock paintings, and earthen sites, promoting the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, satellite remote sensing, drones, real-scene 3D, and virtual reality, and raising the level of digital and intelligent protection; strengthening the cultivation of protection talent, implementing the National Archaeological Talent Revitalization Plan and the Support Action for Outstanding Young Cultural Relic Talents, with special emphasis on "expanding the grassroots cultural heritage protection talent team."

Second, coordinating the construction of a grand protection pattern. The plan anchors the long-term goals of reform and development, highlights the comprehensive strengthening of cultural heritage protection and transmission, and takes multiple measures simultaneously (多措并举, duo cuo bing ju - "many, measures, together, lift") to innovatively explore and construct a grand protection pattern. It promotes overall and coordinated protection, with coordinated protection and linked display of tangible and intangible heritage, cultural and natural heritage, with clear rights and responsibilities and two-way integration, and improves relevant laws, regulations, and systems. It highlights the coordinated governance, joint management and protection, and implementation of responsibilities in spatial protection, strengthens spatial planning control, coordinates the requirements for the protection of immovable cultural relics, and improves planning compilation standards. In the relevant content of the plan, normalized and long-term measures for strengthening the systematic protection of cultural relics from multiple dimensions and empowering through multi-stakeholder coordination are established, such as for immovable cultural relics included in the national cultural parks for listed protection, not only supporting their protection and restoration work, but also supporting necessary museum construction. It builds a safety monitoring, early warning, command, and disposal system, and improves the work system for cultural relic disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief; severely cracks down on cultural relic crimes and rectifies safety hazards; improves security and emergency management, fire safety management, and others, with special emphasis on improving the capabilities of grassroots cultural relic protection personnel and consolidating the foundation at the front line. The plan also proposes establishing a protection inspection and supervision system and implementing protection supervision responsibilities. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it will move from institutional establishment and running-in to institutional consolidation, striving to promote the resolution of long-term and systemic problems and forming a closed loop of institutions.

Third, pragmatically deploying the implementation of the plan. It emphasizes "giving play to the role of overall coordination, holistic advancement, and supervision and implementation," strengthening the work pattern for cultural heritage protection in which Party committees exercise unified leadership, propaganda departments coordinate, and relevant departments perform their duties, with all localities determining annual goals and key tasks in accordance with the plan and ensuring planning alignment when formulating relevant plans. The propositions of the plan are clear and explicit: empowering, clarifying responsibilities, and achieving win-win outcomes, highlighting the combination of strengths, coordinated efforts, integration of resource advantages from all parties, and advancement of systematic protection. Cultural relic protection is building an open ecosystem that moves from a single responsible entity toward departmental coordination, performing one's respective duties, and multi-stakeholder co-creation.

Protecting cultural relics and transmitting civilization — a new pattern, facing the future. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, through the implementation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for Cultural Heritage Protection and Transmission, a correct view of political achievements will be firmly established and precisely practiced, promoting the systematic protection and unified supervision of cultural heritage, highlighting scientific protection, focusing on rescue and danger elimination, deepening coordination and linkage, anchoring the central tasks of cultural heritage protection and transmission during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, strengthening goal orientation, key guidance, project-driven advancement, and striving for practical results (务求实效, wu qiu shi xiao - "strive, seek, real, effect"), ensuring that by 2030 the important role of cultural heritage in building a culturally strong socialist country is fully demonstrated.

(The author is Vice President and Secretary-General of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics)

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"To live is for China, to die is for China"

By: 王 丹

Dayu Meiling, with its winding mountain ranges and lush forests. Entering the Memorial Hall of the Southern Red Army's Three-Year Guerrilla War, located in Dayu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, the Red Army flag of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, bursting forth from the mountain in the main hall, possesses a magnificent and imposing momentum (气势如虹, qishi ru hong - "air, momentum, like, rainbow"). And in the display cases on the second floor, a stack of yellowed letter paper lies quietly on display. Though more than 90 years have passed, it still leaves every visitor feeling deeply moved and restless (心潮难平, xinchao nanping - "heart, tide, difficult, calm").

Those are the final letters home of the martyr Liu Bojian.

In October 1934, the main force of the Central Red Army embarked on the long March. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided to establish the Central Sub-Bureau of the Soviet Area of the Chinese Communist Party, with Xiang Ying as secretary, and the Office of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic, with Chen Yi as director, to lead the Red Army and guerrilla forces remaining in the southern base areas to persist in the struggle. Dayu County, located in the heart of the guerrilla zone along the Jiangxi-Guangdong border, was the core area and command center of the Southern Red Army's Three-Year Guerrilla War.

Liu Bojian, a proletarian revolutionary from Pingchang, Sichuan, had joined with Zhou Enlai, Zhao Shiyan, and others to initiate the organization of the Chinese Communist Youth League in Europe, and later went to the Soviet Union to study military affairs and attended the Sixth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. At the time of the Long March's departure, he was ordered to remain behind, serving as director of the Political Department of the Gannan Military District.

At that time, the Jiangxi-Guangdong border area was already fraught with danger. Hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops launched heavy "suppression" campaigns, tight blockades cut off the flow of supplies, and the guerrilla forces once lost contact with the Central Committee, falling into a desperate situation of being isolated and without any assistance (孤立无援, guli wuyuan - "isolated, without, help"). "The sky is about to reach noon, my hungry stomach rumbles like a drum. The grain blockade has lasted three months, the rice left in my bag can be counted clearly. Wild vegetables boiled in water." Chen Yi's "Guerrilla Lyrics of Southern Jiangxi," written in 1936, truthfully records those extremely difficult and arduous (艰苦卓绝, jianku zhuojue - "hard, bitter, extraordinary, absolute") years.

In March 1935, during a fierce battle to break through an encirclement, Liu Bojian was unfortunately seriously wounded and captured. In prison, no matter how he was tortured, he remained unswerving and unyielding in character (坚贞不屈, jianzhen buqu - "firm, chaste, not, bend"), and in the final moments of his life he wrote several letters home in succession.

"Sister-in-law Fengsheng, please pass this on to my five or six elder brothers and sisters-in-law: ... I did not expect to still be among the living, held at the headquarters of the First Army of the Guangdong Army in Dayu. What will happen from here on is still unknown. I am prepared to sacrifice myself. To live is for China, to die is for China. I leave everything to fate."

In his letters, he urged his family not to try to rescue him: "You must not go to Mr. Yu or Brother Deng Baoshan to rescue me... I am willing to endure this myself." He also worried about his three young children—Hu, Bao, and Xiong—and gave detailed instructions on where they should be entrusted for care. "I have not a single cent of private property for the Chinese revolution, and even the raising of my three young children must burden my elder brothers and sisters-in-law." In his final letter to his wife Wang Shuzhen, he wrote: "Do not be sad. I hope that no matter what, you will strive for the Chinese revolution, do not leave the revolutionary front, and use all your strength to raise Hu, Bao, and Xiong to adulthood, to continue my glorious revolutionary cause."

On March 21, 1935, Liu Bojian died a martyr's death at Jinlian Mountain in Dayu County, at the age of 40. What he did not know at the time was that his wife Wang Shuzhen would never be able to read that letter—in March of the same year, she had sacrificed her life in the guerrilla zone of western Fujian.

After the main force of the Central Red Army set out on the Long March, the Red Army and guerrilla forces remaining in the south faced a war of extremely disparate strength. During those three years, Qu Qiubai upheld his ideals and righteousness and faced death with composure; Ruan Xiaoxian, despite illness, commanded the breakout, and after being hit by bullets still shouted "Fight to the end for the revolution" before dying a heroic death; He Chang, surrounded by enemy forces on all sides (身陷重围, shen xian chongwei - "body, fall into, heavy, siege"), preferred death to surrender, proving his revolutionary integrity with his hot blood... What they held fast to with their lives was precisely the sonorous vow written by Liu Bojian: "To live is for China, to die is for China."

The Southern Guerrilla War covered 15 guerrilla zones across 8 provinces—Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hubei, Henan, Anhui, and Hunan. This bloody and bitter struggle pinned down large numbers of Kuomintang troops, effectively coordinated with the strategic shift of the Red Army's main force, and preserved a great many revolutionary seeds.

The Memorial Hall of the Southern Red Army's Three-Year Guerrilla War is the nation's first red gene bank to comprehensively display this glorious history. Every artifact here tells the story: the Long March is a road, and even more so a spirit—a spirit that, in Liu Bojian's letters home, crystallized into the utter devotion of "To live is for China, to die is for China"; that, in Chen Yi's "Guerrilla Lyrics of Southern Jiangxi," was elevated into the conviction of "Rely on the people, never forget their support"; and that, in the flesh and blood of countless martyrs, was transformed into an ever-burning torch of faith.

The letter paper has long since yellowed, but the original aspiration and faith between the lines will, like the spirit of the Long March, be passed down from generation to generation on the journey of the new era, continuing endlessly and vigorously (生生不息, sheng sheng buxi - "life, life, not, cease").

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Talking About the Ancient Canal Amid the Fragrance of Rice Blossoms

By: 温乐平

The Guangxin Huangsha Canal was inscribed on the 13th batch of the World Heritage Irrigation Structures list in October 2026. It is a typical case of low-impact development and eco-friendly water conservancy engineering in mountainous small watersheds in ancient China.

The Guangxin Huangsha Canal is located in Huangshaling Township, Guangxin District, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province. Its water source originates from the Huangshaling mountain range, involves 5 administrative villages, and flows into the Luxi River. The total length is 8.86 kilometers, irrigating over 10,000 mu of cropland and more than 3,000 mu of garden plots, benefiting a total population of over 20,000.

The front section of the Huangsha Canal is a natural mountain stream. At the Huangsha Ancient Road post pavilion, it forms a natural pool that collects water. The ancient ancestors adapted to local conditions and followed the natural terrain (因地顺势, yin di shun shi - "according to the ground, follow the trend") in building the canal, which runs parallel to and descends alongside the Huangsha Ancient Road, hence its name, the Huangsha Canal. Its construction dates back no later than the Song Dynasty and was perfected during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is a gravity-fed irrigation system with comprehensive functions including irrigation, water storage, water supply, flood control, drainage, and ecological conservation.

The Huangsha Canal project employs a distributed, cascade development approach, building the canal system and ponds from low to high ground, from bottom to top. It comprises 1 main canal, 24 weir dams, 35 branch canals, and 45 ponds. The construction of this multi-unit distributed pond water storage system meets the requirement of full coverage of irrigation in mountainous areas, avoids the high difficulty of "high reservoirs and large dams" in terms of construction technology and engineering materials, and reduces the impact on the regional environment.

The ingenious design of the engineering structure is another highlight. The cross-sectional width of the main canal of the Huangsha Canal gradually expands as the catchment area increases, which is conducive to regional flood control. The retaining walls are wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, with vertical upstream faces and inclined downstream faces. The slopes are covered with compacted soil, enhancing the stability of the retaining walls by increasing their self-weight. The weirs are generally low, capable of dissipating energy and resisting floods, thereby enhancing the overall stability of the weirs. The wooden multi-layer flashboard gates designed at the top of the weirs are the crystallization of the ancients' wisdom in coordinating the contradiction between irrigation and flood control: during the irrigation season, the flashboard gates are installed to raise the water level to meet irrigation needs; during the flood season, the flashboard gates are removed to create a larger cross-section for flood discharge, without damaging the dam body itself.

The project used locally sourced materials, extensively employing natural stone such as strip stone, rubble, cobblestone, and square stone. These materials are environmentally friendly and durable, blending deeply with the surrounding natural environment. The cascade weir layout, distributed pond regulation and storage, dendritic canal system connections, and the configuration of "long vines bearing melons" form a system of "ponds—canals—weirs—farmland," achieving cascade allocation, recycling, and efficient water conservation of water resources. This both fully leverages natural regulation and storage capacity and minimizes project land occupation and ecological disturbance. Cropland in the irrigation district is developed along the canals, gradually spreading outward from them. In addition to irrigation water used along the way, surplus water flows back into the main Huangsha Canal through branch canals, and downstream weirs and ponds store and reuse the water, achieving efficient recycling of agricultural irrigation water within the region.

The emergence of the Huangsha Canal water conservancy system solved the problem of difficult irrigation in mountainous and hilly areas, promoting local land reclamation and agricultural production. According to county annals and clan genealogies, villagers already lived in and developed the mountainous areas of Huangshaling Township during the Tang Dynasty, and during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, the three major clans of Yu, Gong, and Yang settled here. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, clans such as Xu, Weng, and Shu successively migrated here, and the population grew ever larger. It can be said that the irrigation project promoted the formation and prosperity of local traditional villages.

More than 800 years ago, the renowned poet Xin Qiji traveled the Huangsha Ancient Road at night and wrote the widely known and highly acclaimed (脍炙人口, kuai zhi ren kou - "roast, glaze, people's mouth") poems "Xijiang Moon: Traveling the Huangsha Road at Night" and "Partridge in the Sky: On the Huangsha Road." The thatched inn mentioned in the line "The old thatched inn beside the woods near the shrine" is located near the Maodian Upper Weir section of the Huangsha Canal, and the celebrated verse "In the fragrance of rice flowers, they speak of a good harvest; listen to the chorus of frogs" has been passed down to this day.

(Author's affiliation: Jiangxi University of Water Resources and Electric Power)

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The "Tufang" Question Across Over a Hundred Thousand Oracle Bone Inscriptions

By: 孙亚冰 刘 艺

More than 3,000 years ago, by the banks of the Huan River, a piece of drilled and chiseled turtle shell was placed over a fire. The diviner held his breath and watched. With a flash of flame, cracks slowly crept across the shell's surface from the drilled points, and within those cracks lay fortune or misfortune. Afterwards, someone carved the inquiry and related records into the oracle bone.

Within these carved inscriptions are the royal domain, the four border regions, the outlying frontiers, and the military. Character by character, like sparks of fire in the dark night, they gradually illuminate the mountains and rivers of the late Shang dynasty.

Among them is one urgent report that, read 3,000 years later, still carries the ring of metal and stone: "The Tufang invaded our eastern border and destroyed two settlements." The "Tufang" came in force and overran two cities in the eastern borderlands. Who were the "Tufang"? Where were they? Why does this name appear repeatedly in the Wu Ding divination inscriptions? Why did the Shang king perform divination and dispatch troops against them? Why did Fu Hao also take part in the campaigns? A single "Tufang" touches not just a place name, but an entire political map of the late Shang.

Over the past century, scholars have put forward many views on the "Tufang." Some believe they were in southern Shanxi, some in central Shanxi, and others place them between Shilou and the Fen River. Various theories each have their own basis (诸说各有依据, zhū shuō gè yǒu yī jù - "various theories, each, have, basis"), and each also has its unresolved points. The difficulty lies in the fact that oracle bone inscriptions will not mark the answer for us. The same name may refer to a polity in one inscription, a place of residence in another, and in a third may be connected to a clan lineage. Similar pronunciations can provide clues, but cannot alone serve as conclusive proof. The Wu Ding divination inscriptions have no clear chronology, so the sequence of events can only be slowly arranged and compared through the heavenly stems and earthly branches, inscriptions on the same piece, and parallel texts.

More than one hundred thousand oracle bone fragments are scattered across various published catalogs. To trace the "Tufang," one must go through them one by one and compare them one by one. More importantly, many judgments of oracle bone scholars come from the "eye" cultivated through long-term study. An experienced researcher can see at a glance that this cannot be readily treated as a place name, or that that may be a polity designation. But this kind of "knowing at a glance" experience is very difficult for later scholars to verify, learn, and pass on.

The turning point came when the oldest writing met the newest technology. With the support of Tencent's "Tan Yuan Plan NextGen," the artificial intelligence technical team of the Advanced Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies of Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, together with experts from the Yinxu Museum, the Institute of Ancient History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, carried out collaborative research. The cultural heritage institutions raised real questions, the oracle bone scholars maintained the academic standards, and the technical personnel turned the process of reading and verifying inscriptions into a method that could be checked step by step.

The question was very specific: when does a name in the divination inscriptions refer to a person, when to a place, and when to a polity?

This was not a matter of throwing the materials at a machine and letting it produce answers directly. The first step was to write down the experts' experience. What do "at such-and-such" and "in such-and-such" indicate? What context do "attacked such-and-such" and "campaigned against such-and-such" reveal? Under what conditions can a designation bearing "fang" be judged a polity? Which examples support this, and which counterexamples warn against mechanical application? The experts and technical personnel repeatedly cross-checked and organized the experience accumulated through long-term study into 4 categories and 14 criteria. Each criterion notes its conditions of application, lists supporting examples, and also preserves counterexamples where it cannot be applied. The knowledge that was once hidden in an individual's "eye" began to have a basis that others could consult, question, and revise.

Only with the criteria in place did artificial intelligence truly come into play. The technical team set up multiple intelligent agents with clearly divided roles: some examined grammar, some distinguished designations, some checked the war context, and some were dedicated to tracing evidence. They invoked the experts' "skill packages," retrieved transcribed texts, verified conditions, and recorded examples and their sources. Another group of agents then carried out review: can the citations support the judgment? Was the criterion applied in the right place? Were any counterexamples missed? The machines did the laborious work of repeated searching and comparison, allowing the scholars to focus their energy on the relationships between pieces of evidence.

The "Tufang" became the test case for this method. The team screened the more than one hundred thousand oracle bone fragments one by one, and after merging, deduplication, and consolidation of related events, compiled 62 event records related to the "Tufang," with fragment numbers and search criteria attached. Clues that were once scattered in various places were brought onto the same workbench. Once the materials were gathered, the outline of the "Tufang" became somewhat clearer. The campaign context showed that they had a hostile relationship with the Shang dynasty; the designations bearing "fang" added further weight to their status as a polity; and examples such as "at Tu" and "in Tu" suggested that there might be clues to a place of residence.

Even at this point, one still could not rush to conclusions. These clues do not amount to a coordinate on a modern map. The value of technology lies precisely in laying out what is known, what awaits proof, and what must remain in doubt. The system can repeatedly search the established corpus, but it cannot supply sites not yet discovered or characters not yet deciphered; several intelligent agents reaching similar judgments cannot replace new historical evidence.

The value of the "Tufang" case does not lie in whether it can immediately resolve a century-old mystery. More importantly, the scattered materials, the basis for judgments, the gaps in evidence, and the next questions are all brought to light. How far the identification of identity has progressed, and what is still missing for the determination of location, can all be checked by later scholars. The horizon of research, therefore, no longer stops at a single geographical point. How did the "Tufang" come into conflict with the Shang dynasty? How did the Shang king organize the campaigns? What military tasks did Fu Hao undertake? How was order maintained between the center and the four border regions? These questions may not have immediate answers, but their outlines can emerge through the comparison of inscription after inscription.

More than 3,000 years ago, the Shang people carved what they were uncertain about onto oracle bones and sought verification from the spirits. More than 3,000 years later, we write down the experience we cannot fully articulate as criteria and seek verification from the materials and from time.

Technology will be updated, materials will increase, and judgments will be re-examined by later scholars. What truly remains is a thread that can be pursued, a method that is willing to accept review, and a caution that refuses to set down conclusions hastily in the face of the unknown.

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At the "Questions to Heaven" Exhibition, Understanding the Cosmic View of Chinese Civilization (New Arrival)

By: 李俊杰

At the Shushan Hall of the Anhui Museum, ten minutes before opening, a long queue had already formed at the east gate entrance. At the entrance to the "Questions to Heaven — The Cosmic View of Chinese Civilization" exhibition on the second floor, on a huge screen, lines from Qu Yuan's "Questions to Heaven" slowly emerged: "Who passed down the tale of the far-off, ancient beginning of things? When heaven above and earth below were not yet formed, by what means were they examined and known..."

The "Questions to Heaven — The Cosmic View of Chinese Civilization" exhibition is hosted by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Anhui Province, organized by the Anhui Museum and the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, and coordinated with 48 cultural heritage institutions and research institutes nationwide. After nearly a year of planning and refinement, it is the first major cultural relics exhibition in the country to focus on the "cosmic view."

Previous astronomy-themed exhibitions mostly focused on astronomical scientific and technological achievements, rarely touching on interpretations of the cosmic view of Chinese civilization. Meng Qian, director of the Academic Research Department of the Anhui Museum, said, "We wanted to pursue a more fundamental question — what is the cosmic view of the Chinese nation? How did the Chinese people understand heaven? And how did this way of 'knowing' shape our civilization?"

Taking the philosophical inquiries of Qu Yuan's "Questions to Heaven" as its guide, the exhibition follows the main thread of "observing heaven — measuring heaven — responding to heaven — touring heaven," and is organized into five major units: "Tracing the Primordial Source, Observing Heaven and Discussing the Way," "Modeling Heaven to Make Instruments, Observing Celestial Phenomena to Establish the Calendar," "Respectfully Conferring the Seasons on the People, All Achievements Flourish," "Civilization Stops at the Proper Bounds, Harmony Between Humanity and Nature," and "Stars Shining Through Past and Present, The Echo of Civilization." It centrally displays nearly 300 cultural relic exhibits.

This main thread embodies the profound expression of the Chinese cosmic view of harmony between humanity and nature (天人合一, tian ren he yi - "heaven, human, combine"). "Questioning heaven" traces the Chinese civilization's exploration of the origin of the cosmos, from ancient observations of the stars to profound philosophical speculation, seeking humanity's earliest inquiries into heaven, earth, and all things, and the source of the spirit. "Observing heaven" and "measuring heaven" present how the ancestors observed celestial phenomena and established calendars, transforming their understanding of the firmament into a precise and traceable order of time and space. "Responding to heaven" explains the cosmic view centered on harmony between humanity and nature, revealing the spiritual core and humanistic ideals of Chinese civilization. "Touring heaven" responds to the questions of today, excavating the modern value of ancient wisdom and allowing traditional wisdom to converse with contemporary ideals.

The most distinctive design in the exhibition is the "dialogue" that breaks down the barriers between ancient and modern and spans time and space. A frog-shaped gold foil unearthed at the Jinsha site, a stone relief of Chang'e flying to the moon from the collection of the Nanyang Han Painting Hall, and lunar soil from the far side of the moon brought back by Chang'e-6 are displayed side by side. On one side is the ancestors' imagination and understanding of the moon; on the other is soil taken from the far side of the moon by contemporary Chinese people. Two or three thousand years lie between them, but our exploration of the universe has never changed.

Similar dialogues between ancient and modern run through the entire exhibition. The celestial globe made by Qi Yanhuai of the Qing Dynasty, in the collection of the National Museum of China, is driven internally by a spring mechanism and can automatically operate to report the time and the hours. It was made in the tenth year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1830), and its surface is incised with information on the ecliptic, star configurations, seasonal markers, and more. Qi Yanhuai called it "an indispensable instrument for the human world." This Qing Dynasty instrument is displayed on the same stage as a model of the "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit) lunar rover, allowing visitors to see that the Chinese understanding of the "instrument" has been passed down through generations without change (一脉相承, yi mai xiang cheng - "one, vein, connect, inherit") — a tool is not merely a tool; it is a medium for dialogue between humanity and heaven.

The pottery bowl with incised symbols unearthed at the Shuangdun site in Bengbu, and the pig-patterned dou-shaped pottery vessel discovered at the Hemudu site in Yuyao — these cultural relics, seemingly unrelated to astronomy, are in fact all telling the same story. The circular pattern on the back of the piglet on the pig-patterned dou-shaped pottery vessel is very likely the star "Tianshu," the first of the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

In order to make the abstract cosmic view perceptible, the curatorial team put considerable effort into the exhibition experience. The exhibition not only uses detailed illustrated panels to explain astronomical knowledge, but also employs animated videos, hands-on demonstrations of astronomical instruments, and interesting knowledge charts to present exhibition information. Visitors can operate the rotating dial of the twelve double-hours and the twelve celestial positions to understand the correspondence between time and space, and can also leave footprints on the moon on an interactive installation, experiencing the joy of landing on the moon. Around the exhibition, the Anhui Museum has also launched a series of supporting activities, covering academic lectures, study camps, cultural and creative markets, and other sections, so that audiences of different age groups can all find their own entry point for "questioning heaven."

"What an exhibition can do, perhaps, is to place a small signpost on the 5,000-year road of questioning heaven. So that those who pass by know that this road did not begin only today, and will not end today either." Meng Qian said.

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Page editors: Zhou Feiya

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Guizhou Key Construction Area of the Long March National Cultural Park: Make Good Use of Red Resources, Jointly Build a Spiritual Home

A digital art museum uses technology to transform the red memory deep in the mountains into an immersive performance; a live-action performance drama uses genuine emotion to make a magnificent and stirring history visually reappear. The Guizhou Long March Culture Digital Art Museum (Red Ribbon) and the live-action performance The Great Turn together constitute the "twin stars" of red culture dissemination in Guizhou. This is both a landmark achievement of the Guizhou key construction area of the Long March National Cultural Park and a vivid epitome of Guizhou Province's efforts to activate red resources and carry forward the Long March spirit.

During the Long March, the Red Army had the longest period of activity and the widest scope of activity in Guizhou, with its footprints covering more than 60 counties (cities, districts) across 9 cities (prefectures) of the province. Guizhou retains more than 750 revolutionary sites related to the Long March, with outstanding red resource endowments and profound historical value. As a key construction area of the Long March National Cultural Park, Guizhou strictly implements the overall deployment for the construction of national cultural parks, establishes the overall framework of "one core, one line, two wings, multiple points," advances the construction of the "1+3+8" landmark project system, and a batch of landmark projects, demonstration scenarios, and innovative achievements have been implemented and delivered results.

Innovating Local Practice — Building a Full-Chain Institutional Guarantee System

In response to the situation of red heritage sites being numerous and widely distributed, Guizhou issued a special local regulation, the Regulations of Guizhou Province on the Long March National Cultural Park, which officially came into effect on July 1, 2021, clearly standardizing the entire process of protection, construction, utilization, and management, and providing a local practice model for the law-based construction of the Long March National Cultural Park. Supporting documents, including the Special Plan for the Integrated Development of Long March Culture and Tourism in Guizhou Province and the Plan for the Protection and Utilization of Revolutionary Cultural Relics in Guizhou Province, were compiled and issued, providing institutional support for the protection, inheritance, and utilization of red resources.

To ensure a clear inventory of resources and clear protection responsibilities, Guizhou simultaneously published the list of Long March cultural relics, issued the Guizhou Province Red Resource Recognition Standards, established a joint meeting mechanism for red resource protection, management, and utilization at the provincial and municipal levels, brought the first batch of 25 key red memorial venues under provincial-level coordinated management, and implemented the establishment of files, dynamic updating, and tiered protection and management for all Long March cultural relics in the province.

On this basis, Guizhou held a forum themed "Long March National Cultural Park," bringing together experts and scholars from the fields of Party history, cultural relics, and culture and tourism across the country to exchange construction experience, discuss construction standards, and jointly discuss the construction mechanism, providing practical support for improving the construction system at the national level.

Systematic Restoration and Activation — Weaving a Dense All-Area Protection Pattern of Points, Lines, and Surfaces

Guizhou adheres to the principle of "protection first, minimal intervention" and builds an all-area protection pattern. Since 2019, the province has cumulatively implemented more than 140 Long March cultural relic protection and restoration projects, covering various types of resources such as meeting sites, battle sites, and march remains, and the preservation condition of Long March cultural relics across the province has continued to improve.

Guizhou implemented the exhibition enhancement project for the first batch of 10 important red memorial venues, making the environmental improvement and exhibition enhancement project of the Zunyi Conference Site a core benchmark project, strictly following cultural relic protection regulations, optimizing visitor routes, upgrading the exhibition system, and improving convenience facilities. This summer, the average daily visitor volume at the Zunyi Conference Site has remained stable at more than 34,000.

For important battle sites along the Long March route, Guizhou promotes concentrated and contiguous protection and display, protecting and building a batch of protection and display parks such as the Troops Approaching Guiyang Exhibition Hall, the Shiqian Kuniushan Battle Site, and the Wumeng Mountain Turning Movement Battle Site, while simultaneously advancing the construction of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River concentrated display belt and coordinating the protection and exhibition of multiple ferry sites along the river.

Today, standing on the observation deck at Kuniushan, one can take in the full view of the valley terrain of that year. Combined with the historical materials on the display walls and on-site explanations, the scattered battlefield remains with single narratives have been integrated into a complete historical narrative unit, and the Shiqian Kuniushan Battle Site has been successfully selected as a National Patriotic Education Demonstration Base.

Breaking free from the limitations of single venue construction, Guizhou, relying on the Red Army's Long March route and making full use of original ecological mountain trails and rural dirt roads, has built 70 standardized Long March historical trails, equipped with signage and wayfinding, audio explanations, and safety protection facilities. At the same time, it has focused on building 5 provincial-level demonstration Red Army villages, driving the quality improvement and upgrading of 24 red villages. Relying on red resources, villages have developed homestays and agricultural specialty product exhibitions and sales, and channels for increasing people's income have been continuously broadened.

Digital Culture and Art Driven — Building a Diversified and Innovative Communication Matrix

In recent years, film and television works on red themes in Guizhou have been emerging in an endless stream (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, stop"), with the film Zunyi Conference and the TV series The Great Turn presenting the magnificent journey of revolutionary forebears emerging stronger after a great ordeal (浴火重生, yu huo chong sheng - "bathe, fire, reborn") and achieving the great turn.

These film and television works that have achieved great responses insist on on-location shooting and live-action filming, relying on the possessing unique natural advantages (得天独厚, de tian du hou - "get, heaven, uniquely, thick") of real-scene resources such as the Chishui River Valley, the Loushan Pass, and the natural barrier of the Wujiang River, using real landscapes to restore historical scenes and making the weighty red history more appealing to the times.

Digital technology continues to empower, bringing red cultural resources "to life." The Guizhou Long March Culture Digital Art Museum (Red Ribbon) uses digital technology to create immersive experiences. As of September 2026, the venue has cumulatively performed more than 27,000 shows and received more than 2.7 million visitors. The live-action performance The Great Turn has achieved regular performances, with more than 2,400 cumulative performances and nearly 800,000 visitors since its premiere in 2024.

In addition, Guizhou has built the website of the Guizhou key construction area of the Long March National Cultural Park and a provincial-level digital platform, launched a red tourism digital map APP, and achieved one-stop aggregation, one-click query, and smart navigation of red resources. As of August 2026, full-coverage rotational training of docents at 415 key red venues across the province has been completed, building an integrated lecture system of professional docents and volunteer speakers, promoting Long March stories into government offices, schools, and villages, telling red stories well, and making the reach of dissemination broader.

Guizhou has also continued to launch a batch of high-standard red literature and popular reading materials, with publications such as Three Days in Zunyi, The Red Star News in the Long March, Talking About the Long March, In Search of the Place of the Great Turn: A Collection of Stories of the Central Red Army in Zunyi, An Overview of Red Former Sites in Guizhou, and Selected Important Archives of the Red Army's Long March Campaigns in Guizhou being successively released, balancing the rigor of archival historical materials with the readability of popular books.

Scenario Integration and Expansion — Releasing the Comprehensive Development Efficiency of Culture, Commerce, and Tourism

Public service scenarios have achieved a breakthrough. Guizhou has built the country's first Long March-themed characteristic service area — the Daloushan Service Area — setting up themed exhibition areas, equipped with red trails, themed sculptures, and cultural and creative spaces, integrating Long March culture displays into transportation and travel scenarios, becoming an innovative example of integrating red culture into public services.

Red tourism is attracting more and more tourists to Guizhou. Guizhou has integrated resources to create multiple high-quality red tourism routes, launched immersive experiences favored by young people, and developed diversified products such as study and research practice and rural leisure. In 2025, red tourism scenic spots in Zunyi City received 28.735 million visitors, with young and middle-aged groups aged 20 to 45 becoming the main visiting group. Guizhou has also taken the lead in establishing a red tourism alliance, linking multiple provinces and cities to share route resources, jointly promote themed products and red cultural and creative goods, and continuously expand the influence of Guizhou's red culture brand.

From innovating local practice to systematic protection and advancement, from enriching communication methods to integrating culture and tourism for the benefit of the people, the construction of the Guizhou key construction area of the Long March National Cultural Park has been solid step by step and has achieved remarkable results. On the new journey, Guizhou will continue to deepen protection and inheritance, innovate display and communication methods, expand the path of culture-tourism integration, and effectively build the Long March National Cultural Park into a spiritual highland that inherits the red gene and carries forward the red bloodline, injecting an inexhaustible source of spiritual strength into Guizhou's high-quality development.

Data source: Publicity Department of the CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee

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Song of the Vast Land: Echoes Across Ten Thousand Rivers and Thousand Mountains

The history of the Long March has never receded into the distance, and the road of the Long March is constantly extending. To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, a batch of documentaries, operas, dramas, concerts, and dance works have been presented together. The creators forge the soul through art, so that the vast and difficult terrain (万水千山, wan shui qian shan - "ten thousand, waters, thousand, mountains") traversed by the Long March still resounds movingly in the new era.

Every generation has its own road of the Long March, and every generation must walk its own road of the Long March well. This page invites the creators of literary and artistic works on the theme of the Long March to tell of their trek in creation, jointly paying tribute to the formidable passes that the revolutionary forebears broke through with their blood, and with original aspiration and with solid work, jointly crossing the vast and difficult terrain of our own generation.

— Edi  tor

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A new Long March, stretching out beneath our feet

By: 朱翌冉

This is a long-march historical photograph published publicly for the first time in China (see Figure ①), and its photographer was American journalist Edgar Snow.

In August 1936, Snow came to Yuwangbao in Ningxia (today's Yuwang Town, Tongxin County) to conduct interviews. At that time, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March was about to see the joining of forces of the three main armies, and Snow used his camera to record those Red Army commanders and fighters who had endured the smoke of the long expedition. Ninety years later, the creative team of the large-scale documentary series Wan Shui Qian Shan (Ten Thousand Rivers and a Thousand Mountains), with the assistance of historical research scholar Zheng Wenzhu, through searching, textual research, and comparison, stood at the same position where Snow once took his photographs and completed another shoot spanning time and space (see Figure ②). The ravines in the images have hardly changed, but on this land, the world has long since been transformed.

After more than a year of filming and creation, Wan Shui Qian Shan has finally met its audience.

What exactly do the "ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains" of the Long March mean? Over the past 90 years, countless works—in text, painting, stage, and film—have depicted this great expedition. Original moving images preserved from the Long March are extremely scarce, and the documentary has conducted deep excavation, using a large number of precious documentary photographs and images and a variety of audiovisual expressive means to let audiences step into that extremely difficult and arduous (艰苦卓绝, jian ku zhuo jue - "hard, bitter, outstanding, excellent") expanse of ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains along the Long March route.

The ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains of the Red Army's Long March were a bitter landscape of breaking out from a desperate situation. After 1931, the erroneous "Left" dogmatist line occupied a dominant position in the Central Committee. In 1933, the Nationalist army, with a total strength of 500,000 troops, formed an encirclement from all directions—east, west, south, and north—around the Central Revolutionary Base Area, with an additional 5 aviation squadrons and 200 aircraft supporting operations, while at this time, the main force of the Red Army in the Central Base Area numbered only slightly more than 80,000. In 1934, the Red Army officers and soldiers had no choice but to bid farewell to the red homeland they had built with their own hands, and from the banks of the Yudu River, they stepped into a long expedition with an uncertain future (前途未卜, qian tu wei bu - "front, road, not, know"). This journey had no pre-planned smooth roads, no solid and reliable rear area, and on all sides were the enemy's pursuit, interception, encirclement, and blockade. From beginning the strategic shift under heavy encirclement to fighting a bloody battle to block the enemy on the banks of the Xiang River, tens of thousands of loyal bones were left forever on both sides of the Xiang River, and the more than 86,000 who set out were sharply reduced to just over 30,000. The ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains here were not poetic scenery; they were a battlefield of life-and-death struggle, a survival breakthrough fought out from a desperate situation.

The ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains of the Red Army's Long March were not only about suffering; suffering gave rise to awakening, making the Long March a great expedition that tested truth. At the Tongdao Conference, the Liping Conference, and the Hochang Conference—three meetings marked by debate and choice along the way—the Central Red Army resolutely turned toward Guizhou; the Zunyi Conference was convened, completing a great turning point of vital importance to life or death (生死攸关, sheng si you guan - "life, death, have, connection") in the Party's history. From then on, the Red Army galloped across the mountains and rivers of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, crossing the Chishui River four times, crossing the Wujiang River southward, feigning an attack on Guiyang, and skillfully crossing the Jinsha River, maneuvering flexibly in the gaps between hundreds of thousands of powerful enemies, transforming a passive strategic shift into a military miracle of defeating the enemy.

The ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains of the Red Army's Long March were never the solitary march of a single contingent, but rather the convergence of revolutionary forces from all directions, many streams flowing together into one (百川汇流, bai chuan hui liu - "hundred, rivers, converge, flow"). The Central Red Army crossed the Jiajin Mountains and joined forces with the Fourth Front Army at Maogong; the Twenty-Fifth Army marched alone on a long expedition and was the first to arrive in northern Shaanxi; the Second and Sixth Army Corps left the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou Base Area, broke through the Wumeng Mountains, crossed the Jinsha River, climbed over layer upon layer of snow mountains, and triumphantly joined forces with the Fourth Front Army at Garzê. While the main forces were on their long expedition, guerrilla fighters in the eight southern provinces hid deep in the mountains and dense forests, beginning the extremely difficult and arduous three-year guerrilla war; in the distant white mountains and black waters, the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army fought tenaciously in the forests and snowfields, with heroes such as Yang Jingyu and Zhao Yiman resisting the foreign enemy with their flesh and blood. The Red Army in the northwest created the Shaanxi-Gansu Revolutionary Base Area and, together with the Twenty-Fifth Army that had arrived earlier in northern Shaanxi, broke the enemy's heavy "encirclement and suppression," creating conditions for the Party Central Committee to establish the great base of the Chinese revolution in the northwest. These struggles echoed the ten-thousand-li journey from afar, together weaving the magnificent red tapestry of that era.

A large amount of historical facts are scattered among telegrams, memoirs, and archival documents. Every detail—place-name characters, meeting times, personnel positions, battle documents—had to be repeatedly verified against authoritative historical materials. The production team conducted on-site visits along the former sites of the Long March: the Yudu ferry crossing, the Xiang River positions, Loushan Pass, the Jiajin Mountains, Baozuo, Lazikou, Huining... letting the former Long March sites, archives, and cultural relics speak for themselves, and within the grand narrative, illuminating individual living beings.

Ninety years have passed, and the smoke of war has long since dissipated, but the spirit settled in that expanse of ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains has become becoming more new as time passes (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "long, time, even more, new").When the camera turns to today's areas along the Long March route: the thousand mountains and ten thousand ravines that were once full of unexpected dangers (险象环生, xian xiang huan sheng - "dangerous, appearance, surround, arise") now have connected road networks; the once barren land now has thriving industries, and the people are living in peace and working happily (安居乐业, an ju le ye - "peacefully, live, happily, work"); red memories have been transformed into resources for contemporary development, and lucid waters and lush mountains have become mountains of gold and silver. The ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains that the predecessors traversed sought national liberation; the ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains that today's people continue to strive across head toward the happiness of the people, and the journeys of several generations have built the spiritual map and practical power of the Long March.

In this magnificent era, we must still cross our own "snow mountains and grasslands" and conquer the "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" before us. The predecessors have already completed their ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains, but the new Long March road is still extending beneath our feet. This is the heartfelt expression of the documentary Wan Shui Qian Shan: the expedition road across ten thousand rivers and a thousand mountains is not only a look back at past sacrifices and victories, but also a passing on of this faith, courage, and perseverance to today's audience.

(The author is the chief director of the documentary Wan Shui Qian Shan)

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Many moments in the creative process remain unforgettable to this day

By: 印 青

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March. The National Centre for the Performing Arts led the core creative team in launching another round of processing and revision of the opera The Long March. The new stage design is refreshing and novel (耳目一新, ermu yixin - "ear, eye, one, new"), and the plot arrangement is more compact. After ten years, The Long March presents audiences with an even more splendid stage presentation in a brand-new posture.

In order to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March, the National Centre for the Performing Arts officially launched the planning and creation of an epic opera, The Long March, at the end of 2012, inviting me to compose the music for this opera. As a military literary and artistic worker with more than 40 years of military service, my heart was filled with excitement and elation, and I agreed on the spot. But by 2013, after the first draft of the libretto came out, I fell into enormous pressure and hesitation. Regarding the subject of the "Long March," there are already many classic works. To now create an opera The Long March, wanting to catch up, is easier said than done.

For nearly a year, I did not put pen to paper. I repeatedly read a large number of biographies and memoirs about the Long March, especially rereading Selected Songs of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which I had collected for many years. Reading those lyrics, I discovered: in such a harsh environment, even when trapped in desperate situations, the Red Army officers and soldiers remained so optimistic and witty, maintaining an exalted revolutionary spirit, without a trace of sorrow or sentimentality. I deeply realized that red culture comes from red genes. This gene is the intense patriotism and heroism, the ideals and faith amid suffering and sacrifice, and that revolutionary romantic sentiment.

So, what kind of musical style, musical form, and musical emotion can, in today's era, accurately and freshly present the glorious images of the revolutionary predecessors and their inner worlds? How can the opera music on red themes both inherit and innovate and develop? How can it be loved by audiences of the old, middle-aged, and young generations alike? I thought, the music of this opera must both fit contemporary audiences' aesthetics and, even more, inherit red culture — this is the soul of the opera's music. All technical means must serve this soul.

After a relatively long period of accumulation and reflection, and repeated exchanges with the core creative team, in 2014 I formally entered the music composition phase.

From setting out from Ruijin, the bloody battle at the Xiang River, the Zunyi Conference, and the capture of the Luding Bridge, to crossing the snow mountains, traversing the grasslands, and the joining of forces at Huining, my emotions surged and swelled with these magnificent stories. The characters in the opera are all ordinary Red Army cadres and soldiers, depicting their joys and sorrows, sacrifices, and faith. So in the music, I strove to combine the grand narrative with the emotions of individual characters; every character's musical theme and every aria had to truthfully portray the character's thoughts and feelings. While maintaining the overall musical structure, I incorporated elements of Jiangxi, Guizhou, Tibetan, and northwestern folk music, with the music changing and developing as the troops advanced. The opera's music as a whole both adopts the structure of Western opera — continuous symphonic music running from beginning to end without stopping, with a large number of arias, ensembles, and choruses — and is rooted in Chinese folk music, emphasizing the music's regional and ethnic characteristics, emphasizing the perfect combination of vocal melody and the "four tones" of the language.

Many moments in the creative process remain unforgettable to me to this day. When writing the section on the bloody battle at the Xiang River, my mind was filled with images of Red Army soldiers falling in the artillery fire and getting back up again, continuing to advance in succession (前赴后继, qianfu houji - "go forward, follow behind"). The music had to convey that tragic intensity, but although there is "sorrow," there must be even more "grandeur"! Because within the sacrifice of the Red Army officers and soldiers there is a power of advancing toward death in order to live. When I wrote the Red Army chorus "What does failure matter, tomorrow we stand up again…," I was so stirred that I broke out in a sweat all over and my face burned. When writing about crossing the snow mountains and traversing the grasslands, I thought again of those young soldiers, perhaps only seventeen or eighteen years old, hungry, wearing thin clothing, yet supporting each other through the wind and snow, step by step moving forward. Such images made me, as I put pen to the score paper, often find my eyes reddening as I wrote. I increasingly felt that what I was writing was not just musical notes, but the breathing and heartbeat of those young lives.

In May 2016, I finally completed all the music composition. From the piano score to the full orchestral score, it totaled 8,356 measures, taking a full two years. During this period, I was sleepless countless nights, moved to tears countless times, as if I had undergone a spiritual baptism.

After the composition was completed, I did not stop working, but followed the rehearsals almost every day. Based on the singers' performances and the dramatic effect on stage, I repeatedly refined the work with the director and conductor, constantly revising arias and adjusting musical passages. In the rehearsal hall hung a long banner reading "Rehearse The Long March with the Long March spirit." The directing team and all the cast members rehearsed day and night, working extremely hard with great effort (挥汗如雨, huihan ruyu - "wave, sweat, like, rain"). Sometimes rehearsing late into the night, seeing the young actors' voices gone hoarse yet still polishing their parts over and over, I would think — isn't this also walking an artistic Long March?

Now, the opera The Long March has been performed for 10 years, with more than 10 seasons and over 70 performances. An opera film has also been made, touring nearly 300 screenings in cinemas and universities across more than 20 cities nationwide. Among the audiences are middle-aged and elderly friends, but even more are young friends, as well as many viewers who flew in specially from other places. Quite a few people have come for a "second viewing" or "third viewing." I have come to deeply understand that the reason the opera The Long March can be loved by the broad audience is by no means merely because the performance is splendid. More importantly, contemporary Chinese people's memory of the Red Army's extremely arduous and difficult (艰苦卓绝, jianku zhuojue - "hard, bitter, extreme, absolute") Long March has never been interrupted, their recognition of and inheritance of the Long March spirit has never changed, and people still harbor deep feelings for those Red Army soldiers who once struggled and sacrificed for their ideals and faith…

(The author is the composer of the opera The Long March)

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Feel the Power of Faith in the Melodies of National Music

By: 张高翔

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the China Broadcasting Art Troupe has created the large-scale national symphonic drama concert Rivers and Mountains as Wished (Shan He Ru Yuan), which uses national orchestral music as its vehicle, integrates dramatic narrative and situational performance, and presents in panoramic form the weighty and magnificent epic of the Long March.

The Long March traversed ten thousand li, crossing mountains and seas. The regions along its route were a gathering of eminent people and rich culture (人文荟萃, ren wen hui cui - "human, culture, gather, collect"), with diverse folk customs, nurturing folk music styles of varied character. National orchestral music possesses a complete and mature system of musical expression, combining rich lyrical and narrative functions. Rivers and Mountains as Wished draws upon the folk and ethnic musical tones and rhythmic patterns along the Long March route, refining musical motifs tailored to the scenes of the Long March, the inner states of its figures, and the character of its mountains and rivers. The entire work comprises 10 movements, divided into two parts, unfolding according to the historical thread of bidding farewell and setting out, breaking through encirclement amid bloodshed, unity between army and people, crossing natural barriers, tempering in desperate straits, the victorious joining of forces, and marching toward a new journey. We have discarded the simple splicing together of musical materials; instead, through thematic continuity, emotional development, and orchestration integration, we have incorporated them into the overall symphonic structure, balancing rich regional texture with a unified artistic tone.

Unlike traditional folk music performances, which take instrumental performance as the core and focus on the presentation of the music itself, Rivers and Mountains as Wished takes national orchestral music as its foundation and innovatively integrates dramatic narrative and situational performance. Dramatized stage narrative expands the dimension of musical expression, enriches the narrative layers of the work, and constructs a pluralistically integrated comprehensive art form. The movements echo one another in tonality, coordinating contrasts in tempo, sonic layering, and dramatic rhythm, achieving a high degree of alignment between musical logic and narrative rhythm, striving to upgrade a red-theme concert into a three-dimensional, situational comprehensive artistic experience.

Going beyond merely retelling history, and still more reshaping the spirit, is the original creative intention of Rivers and Mountains as Wished. The great spirit of the Long March is a precious spiritual asset of the Party's century-long history. We hope to align with contemporary aesthetics and use national orchestral music to carry the historical connotations of the Long March. The first half strives to use character-based performance to lay out the tragic and stirring scenes of fighting bravely amidst bloodshed (浴血奋战, yu xue fen zhan - "bathe, blood, struggle, fight") during the Long March; the second half constructs a dialogue across time and space, linking the ordeal and tempering of the Red Army's long expedition to the spiritual relay of striving in the new era.

Rivers and Mountains as Wished brings together the artistic strength of three generations — old, middle-aged, and young — and forms a professional core creative team. Composer Jiang Ying serves as composer, scriptwriter, and general director, coordinating the overall artistic structure and narrative logic of the work; conductor Peng Jiapeng serves as principal conductor, with young conductor Ge Yanan wielding the baton for the performance. The core creative team links professional forces in drama and vocal music, repeatedly deliberating and finely polishing the content, structure, and expression of the work. The China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra undertakes the performance, relying on solid professional ability and rich stage experience to precisely control the quality of performance and emotional expression, providing solid and professional support for the artistic presentation of the work.

To carry forward the great spirit of the Long March and spread red culture, we have also adopted a model of multi-city coordinated touring performances and localized dissemination. After its premiere at the Beijing Concert Hall on October 9, Rivers and Mountains as Wished will launch a national tour along the red route of the Long March, visiting cities including Ganzhou in Jiangxi, Zunyi in Guizhou, Chengdu in Sichuan, and Yan'an in Shaanxi, and will also be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

The Long March was a faith expedition of rising up in desperate straits with unswerving determination and lifelong commitment (矢志不渝, shi zhi bu yu - "aim, will, not, change"); the building of a strong country and national rejuvenation are the journey of the new era. With Rivers and Mountains as Wished, we pay deep tribute to revolutionary history and revolutionary martyrs, and it is also an exploratory practice of carrying the Way through art and forging the soul through culture. Taking national music as a bond, we make the weighty red epic audible, perceptible, and resonant, hoping that the broad audience will feel the power of faith in the sound of national music.

(The author is the head of the China Broadcasting Art Troupe)

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Finding the Shared Aspiration Deep in the Heart

By: 费 波

Sixty-five thousand li, on the Long March, that thorn-covered road of expedition, there is tenacity, there is unyieldingness, there is bravery and wisdom, and even more there is the great love and belief born of optimism and positivity. That conviction allowed young and precious lives to surmount one human limit after another, to challenge one trial after another of a thousand hardships and ten thousand dangers. Ninety years of time, the prime of several generations, the light of the spirit pierces through the years and never fades, because faith is eternal.

A modern ballet work telling the story of the Long March — what new meaning can it express? When I received the "Long March" theme in 2016, I felt apprehensive and uneasy (忐忑不安, tantie buan - "heart, uneasy; not, stable"). So, I and the choreographer Wang Sizheng set out on the road of field research.

From western Hunan to western Sichuan, from Guizhou to northern Shaanxi, walking those roads that were once trodden, searching for the moments that truly "move the heart," what gave us direction were the exhibition halls about the history of the Long March. The docents, whose voices and emotions were stirring, grew up, like us, in an era of peace. In their delivering a speech or performance with great passion and expression (声情并茂, sheng qing bing mao - "voice, emotion, both, abundant"), we seemed to see the high-spirited state of the Red Army when it joined forces in northern Shaanxi — making a great, boisterous noise (锣鼓喧天, luo gu xuan tian - "gongs, drums, clamor, heaven"), with the villagers beating Ansai waist drums, full of expectation for the future. When the old Red Army soldiers who personally experienced the Long March look back on their youth, what is in their eyes? What do today's young people see from that period of history? I could not help but let my imagination wander.

In creating Long March · Long March, we wanted to construct a dialogue that spans time and space. Three "protagonists" appeared on the stage: a contemporary docent walking in an era of peace, an elder who personally experienced the years of war and flames, and a young Red Army soldier serving as a mirror of history. They are not in the same time and space, yet they meet on the same road of the spirit.

In the work, apart from the three main characters, all the performers are both young tourists of the contemporary era and the externalization of inner spiritual strength. What we must do is not merely simple performance, but rather to understand the enormous power hidden behind these simple movements. Dance is the most honest, because dance is the body itself. The salute and the clenched fist are movements, and even more they are resolve — the body, in the expression of a distinctive dance form, "encounters" the spirit in the dimension of time and space.

This year, the work Long March · Long March once again stands on the stage of Sparks · An Eternal Symphony. Over the past 10 years, it has entered theaters, gone down to the grassroots, faced different audiences, and especially entered many colleges and universities. That epic feat bearing the vicissitudes of history, in the collision of time and space between past and present, stirs echoes that belong to this era, and also answers on behalf of today's audience: what does the "Long March" that belongs to each of us truly mean today?

That it remains burning hot across 90 years is because the great spirit of the Long March not only summarizes a period of history, but is also about how people do not give up in desperate situations, how they remain full of confidence and energy in adversity, hold fast to that faith, and bravely and positively face the questioning of life.

Every generation has its own "snowy mountains and grassy marshlands." For literary and artistic workers, our mission is to constantly return to the "human" itself, not to simplify faith, and to find, in the hearts of the audiences of every era, the channel through which the spirit can resonate, and to find the shared aspiration deep in the soul. The Long March is "the red ribbon of the earth"; what we who come after must do is to engrave, on this red ribbon, the literary and artistic imprint that belongs to our era.

(The author is the principal choreographer of the National Ballet of China)

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Hadapu Deserves to Be Remembered

By: 李维平

The red historical drama The Lamplight of Hadapu (see photo, taken by Yin Xuefeng), created and performed by the Gansu Provincial Drama Theater, is currently on a touring performance, and wherever it goes, it has been welcomed and praised by audiences.

In September 1935, the Central Red Army broke through the natural barrier of Lazikou and arrived at Hadapu. At the postal agency there, they captured newspapers such as Ta Kung Pao and Jin-Sui Daily, and unexpectedly learned that there was still a red revolutionary base area in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, and that Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, Xi Zhongxun, and others were still leading the Northern Shaanxi Red Army in persisting in the revolutionary struggle. This greatly inspired Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian, and others, who then made the wise decision to "Go to northern Shaanxi, find Liu Zhidan!" This enabled the Red Army to find a foothold after the arduous Long March.

Hadapu deserves to be remembered.

The Red Army soldiers, who had climbed snow-capped mountains, crossed grasslands, and endured many hardships (千辛万苦, qian xin wan ku - "thousand, hard, ten thousand, bitter"), arrived at Hadapu. Hadapu had convenient transportation, abundant grain, and rich supplies of medicine, making it an important gas station on the Long March. More importantly, the simple and honest local people supported the Red Army, and with their hands and genuine feelings, they embraced and warmed the hearts of every Red Army soldier who had having experienced much hardship and vicissitude (饱经风霜, bao jing feng shuang - "fully, experience, wind, frost") along the way. The troops were able to rest and be reorganized here.

The people of Hadapu actively supported the front, not only enthusiastically joining the Red Army, but also, with the help of the Red Army, establishing a red political power, organizing the militia, the Youth Anti-Japanese Vanguard, and the Women's National Salvation Association, which later became a red base area. They played an important role in later welcoming the Second Front Army of the Red Army and the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army.

Setting out again from Hadapu, the Red Army soon arrived at the Shaanxi-Gansu base area and successfully joined forces with the Northern Shaanxi Red Army. From then on, the Chinese revolution opened a new chapter.

Hadapu was a ray of warm sunshine that broke through the clouds in the cold autumn mist, warming and comforting this contingent that bore the heavy responsibility of preserving the red spark of revolution... Beneath the window lattice of the Yihechang herbal medicine shop, a faint lamp flickered, and beneath the lamp, the thoughts of a great man leaped unceasingly with the light — thoughts about where this contingent should go, thoughts about the life-and-death stakes of the red workers' and peasants' revolution, and thoughts that would completely change the course of the Chinese revolution...

In order to complete the script, we went deep into Lazikou and Hadapu many times, collected historical materials, visited cadres and the masses, and verified details. At the Hadapu Red Army Long March Memorial Hall, we studied each photograph and each piece of historical material in detail. At the same time, we consulted experts and scholars, and finally completed the script. The entire play follows the main narrative thread of the Central Red Army's arrival at Hadapu, obtaining supplies, and making decisions, interspersed with flashback scenes of dialogues and recollections between Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, integrating historical truth with artistic expression.

Thanks to the efforts of the Gansu Provincial Drama Theater, the story was quickly brought to the stage. After successive performances, it received praise from relevant experts, scholars, and the broad audience. Many audience members not only came to watch it themselves, but also brought their children. They said that children must remember that the new China was hard-won, and that a happy life is hard-won! They must inherit the traditions and spirit of the revolutionary martyrs, and strive hard to build and defend our motherland!

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March, the drama The Lamplight of Hadapu is currently on tour in the places where the Red Army once marched during the Long March. We hope that more audiences can draw the mighty strength of overcoming all kinds of difficulties (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack, tough, overcome, difficulty") and advancing courageously from the great spirit of the Long March, and walk well the Long March road of the new era.

(The author is the screenwriter of the drama The Lamplight of Hadapu.)

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Page editors: Wang Jin

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