Human Rights With Substance

How a country is doing on human rights is essentially gauged by whether the interests of its people are upheld,and whether they enjoy a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security. Those are the most important criteria for assessing the human rights conditions of a country.

Protecting human rights is a perpetual pursuit of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It upholds basic subsistence and development as the primary human rights, something that many in the West may not realize are as important as, if not more important than, the rights their society has taught them to value.

China has engaged in a truly historic poverty reduction campaign over recent decades, pooling resources across the country on a scale never before seen in human history. After eight years of targeted efforts, it eliminated absolute poverty as scheduled at the end of 2020—10 years ahead in realizing the “no poverty” goal of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Taking strengthening the safety net as an important way to improve human rights protection, China has put in place the world’s largest social security system, including pensions, healthcare and social assistance, so that the nation’s economic development benefits all, especially the most vulnerable groups. In 2019, the life expectancy of Chinese citizens rose to 77.3 years,compared with 35 years in 1949.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic,China has made people’s lives and health its top priority. In early 2020,it launched an unprecedented medical assistance operation to support the efforts in Wuhan and other locations in Hubei Province. It has since remained on high alert, curbing resurgences as quickly as possible,while forging ahead with economic and social development.

In human rights protection, no one can claim perfection and there is always room for improvement. On this journey, China is committed to following a path that best suits its own realities in light of people’s aspirations for a better life. The CPC will lead the nation in an unending effort to advance human rights while pursuing development of a higher quality—more innovative, coordinated, sustainable, open and inclusive.Progress in the world’s most populous country, of course, also contributes to the global cause. BR

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北京周报 英文版2022年 第23期 ISSN 1000-9140

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FIGHTING FIRES FROM THE AIRA new-configuration model of China’s AG600 large amphibious aircraft in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, on May 31. The plane conducted its successful maiden flight that same day, according to the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC).This aircraft is specially developed to serve firefighting missions, with a maximum take-off weight of 60 tons and maximum water-storage capacity of up to 12 tons. It fills China’s need for large firefighting aircraft,AVIC added.

Mega EquipmentFuyao, China’s first deep-sea floating wind power generator, being towed from Maoming to the Luodousha Sea area in Guangdong Province on May 29. It will be tested in the area, where the average water depth is 65 meters.

Preventing Virus

China’s customs authorities are making efforts to prevent the import of the monkeypox virus through ports while the country continues to fight against COVID-19, the General Administration of Customs (GAC)said on May 30.

The GAC has organized experts to conduct a risk assessment, issued alerts about the monkeypox virus, and taken strict measures including body temperature monitoring and medical inspection for inbound travelers.

Customs authorities have strengthened the quarantine of inbound goods and rodents,as well as enhanced biosafety management of laboratories and made solid preparations for testing, said the GAC.

The GAC has also coordinated with other government departments to prevent the risk of imported cases.

Outbound and inbound travelers should voluntarily report to customs officers if they feel sick or have symptoms such as fever,headache, or sore muscles, said the GAC.

Buddhist Grotto

A grotto with 20 Buddhist statues dating to the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) has been found in Shahe City, Hebei Province,Xinhua News Agency reported on May 30.

Built in 1503, the grotto is located on the hillside in Beipenshui Village at an altitude of 1,200 meters. The grotto measures 5.8 meters wide and 2.8 meters high. The 20 stone Buddhist statues with different postures and expressions are situated on stone pedestals in the grotto.

A cliff tablet, which is 2 meters high and 0.69 meter wide,has also been found outside the grotto.

Han Zhigang, director of the cultural relics protection institute of Shahe City, said that the inscription on the cliff tablet recorded that the ancestors of a local family had moved there from another village to trim trees, cultivate mountain fields and build Buddhist statues.

The grotto is well-preserved,providing important materials for the study of the local grotto culture in Shahe City, Han said.

Lower Mortality Rates

China’s maternal and infant mortality rates have both dropped to a historic low, the National Health Commission said on May 30.

In 2021, China recorded a maternal mortality rate of 16.1 per 100,000, said Song Li, head of the commission’s department of maternal and child health.At the same time, the mortality rates of infants and children under five have decreased to 5 per 1,000 and 7.1 per 1,000,respectively, both dropping to a record low.

Compared with 10 years ago,the maternal mortality rate, the mortality rates of infants and children under five have dropped by 38 percent, 58 percent and 54 percent, respectively, Song said.

Song noted that the country has made notable achievements in building healthcare mechanisms for women and children,improving related health services, and ensuring equal access to these services.

With the improvement of the medical system, people in China now enjoy more equal access to maternal and child health services, Song said, adding that the rate of women giving birth in hospitals has remained above 99 percent in recent years.

New Football Season

Football fans will be allowed to watch the opener of the 2022 Chinese Super League (CSL)from inside the stadium as the new season kicks off in June, the organizers confirmed on May 28.

CSL had planned to restore the home-and-away schedule this season but eventually decided to hold the starting phase of the season in the cities of Meizhou in Guangdong Province,Haikou in Hainan Province and Dalian in Liaoning Province due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the schedule released on May 28, the first phase(rounds 1-10) of the CSL runs from June 3 to July 12. During the 40-day phase, 18 clubs will play a total of 90 matches.

The organizers also expect that the local governments of the three host cities will open up important matches to fans.

Newly Elected Council Members

Two Chinese industry leaders were elected council members of the International Federation of Translators (FIT), a global grouping of professional associations,at a congress in Varadero, Cuba,on May 30-31.

They are Gao Anming,Executive Vice President and Secretary General of the Translators Association of China(TAC), and Lai Cheng Lei Victoria,President of the Federation of Translators and Interpreters of Macao. Gao is also vice president and editor in chief of China International Communications Group, a Beijing-based media conglomerate specializing in communicating the country’s messages to audiences around the world.

Their election will drive exchanges between the Chinese translation community and its international counterparts, while enabling TAC to play a greater role in helping the world better understand China, a TAC statement read.

Wine Yeast

Chinese researchers have cultivated two local wine yeast strains and also found largescale industrial applications for them, according to the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University (NWAFU) in Shaanxi Province.

China’s wine industry has long relied solely on imported wine yeast, and this research is changing that trend.

The NWAFU research team spent 22 years collecting and optimizing local yeast strains,and established a germplasm bank of more than 20,000 local wine yeast strains.

Large-scale industrial application has been realized for CECA and CEC01, two excellent local wine yeast strains with strong tolerance, strong fermentation ability and strong aroma expression ability, according to the university.

Well PreparedSenior high school students take part in an arm-wrestling game at a high school in Jinzhou, Hebei Province, on May 27, ahead of the national college entrance exam which was to be held on June 7 and 8.Schools in Hebei Province have organized activities to help students relax and stay in their best shape for the examination.

The two types of yeast have now replaced 30 percent of imported yeasts, and they have been exported to several traditional European wine-producing countries.

The achievements have promoted the technological upgrade and sustainable development of China’s wine industry,the university said.

The research was jointly conducted by a number of scientific research institutions and enterprises. Its results have received 10 national authorized invention patents, and have been applied in all grape cultivation areas in China.

Little ArchitectsChildren learn about metering at a construction site in Xi’an,Shaanxi Province, on May 28. Under the guidance of professionals,more than 20 children attended the event as “little architects” ahead of the International Children’s Day.

PMI Rebound

The purchasing managers’ index(PMI)—a key gauge of manufacturing activity—came in at 49.6 in May, up from 47.4 in April,data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on May 31.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion and below that mark,contraction.

“China’s economy took a hit from the Omicron outbreak and changes in the international situation, but it has improved in May due to the effective coordination of COVID-19 containment and economic and social development,” NBS senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said.

The sub-index for production stood at 49.7 in May, up 5.3 percentage points from the previous month, and the sub-index for new orders reached 48.2, up 5.6 percentage points from April.

“Among the 21 industries surveyed, the number of industries with PMI in the expansion zone increased to 12 in May from nine in April, showing positive changes in the country’s manufacturing sector,” Zhao said.

In May, the sub-index measuring supplier delivery time rose 6.9 percentage points to 44.1, indicating that logistics remained slow despite some improvement.

The purchase price index for primary raw materials stood at 55.8, 8.4 percentage points lower than the previous month, but still running at a relatively high level.

The PMI for the nonmanufacturing sector came in at 47.8 in May, up from 41.9 in April,according to the NBS.

Cleaner Energy

The government issued an official clean energy action plan on May 30, specifying 21 policies to bring China’s combined wind and solar power capacity to 1.2 billion kWh by 2030.

The document was created by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration,and was published by the General Office of the State Council.

It said the country will accelerate the building of large wind power and photovoltaic bases in deserts, and will also encourage distributed power generation in villages, industrial parks and building rooftops. By 2025, half of all new buildings of public institutions will have solar power facilities on their rooftops.

Power grids will be improved to accept more power from distributed new-energy projects,and efforts will be made to push forward the share of new energy in the electricity market.

National new-energy laboratories will be built, with the emphasis on basic theoretical research and cutting-edge and disruptive technologies. More efforts will be channeled into making breakthroughs in solar cells and wind power equipment. The technology of recycling wind turbines and photovoltaic modules is another priority.

The new-energy industry will receive stronger intellectual-property protection, and international cooperation in the area will be improved. There will also be more fiscal and financial policy support for the sector, such as from green bonds and credit.

Upbeat Outlook

Foreign-funded enterprises were generally optimistic about the new opportunities of China’s highquality development, and their expectations and confidence in future growth remained stable,according to a recent survey conducted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, 71 percent of surveyed foreign enterprises maintained their business scale in the January-March period, while 16.4 percent saw expansion, according to the survey.

It also found that 13.5 percent of the companies planned to increase investment in the world’s second largest economy.

Some 42.6 percent of them said they would choose the Yangtze River Delta as the main destination for investment.

Foreign enterprises had a somewhat favorable view of the municipal public infrastructure construction, promotion of market competition and acquisition of business sites, the survey showed,adding that they were generally satisfied with the macroeconomy and regulatory policies.

Trade Surplus

China reported a surplus in its international trade in goods in April,data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE)showed on May 27.

Exports came in at 1.6666 trillion yuan ($247.3 billion), and imports at 1.3568 trillion yuan($203.4 billion), resulting in a surplus of 309.9 billion yuan ($46.5 billion).

In the same month, the country saw a deficit of 42.9 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) in international trade in services.

The total trade volume came in at 3.4427 trillion yuan ($516.1 billion) in April, basically unchanged from the same period last year.

Investment Assets

China’s external portfolio investment assets, excluding reserve assets,amounted to $979.7 billion by the end of 2021, according to SAFE.

Of the total, $648.4 billion was in equity investments and $331.3 billion was in bond investments.

Non-bank financial institutions held $390.4 billion of external portfolio investment assets, accounting for 40 percent of the total. Banks held $238.1 billion, or 24 percent of the total.

The non-financial sector held $351.2 billion of such assets,accounting for 36 percent of the country’s total, SAFE said.

The top five recipients of Chinese investments were China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the United States, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom.

Digital Economy

Beijing released an action plan for the development of its digital economy on May 30, putting forward measures such as improving the supply capacity of digital technology and nurturing the ecology for its innovation.

The city will focus on breakthroughs in core technologies in high-end chips, artificial intelligence, key software, blockchain,privacy computing, urban space operating systems and other fields.

Domestic and foreign opensource projects and institutions will be attracted to land in Beijing, and efforts to open and share data will be further intensified, according to the plan.

In the first quarter of 2022, the value added of Beijing’s digital economy reached 387.36 billion yuan ($57.9 billion), up 7.2 percent year on year, accounting for 41.2 percent of the city’s GDP, official data showed.

Telecom Sector

The telecommunications sector posted 529.2 billion yuan ($78.5 billion) in aggregate revenue during the first four months of the year, up 8.8 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Emerging businesses, including big data, cloud computing, and Internet data centers, expanded notably during the period. The emerging business revenue of the three telecom giants, namely China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, surged 35 percent year on year to 103.9 billion yuan ($15.6 billion).

Revenue for cloud computing services and big data expanded by 132.6 percent and 57.3 percent year on year, respectively.

By the end of April, China had 1.615 million 5G base stations, with 190,000 built during the first four months of the year.

MALAYSIAGiant panda cub Sheng Yi celebrates its frist birthday at Zoo Negara near Kuala Lumpur on May 31. The day also marked the 48th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia

GERMANYAn intelligent robot interacts with a visitor during the Hannover Messe in Hannover on May 30. After a two-year interval, the trade fair for industrial technology resumed its offilne events, focusing on digitalization and sustainability

INDONESIASurvivors of a sunken ship onboard an infaltable boat after being rescued from the water in the Makassar Strait in South Sulawesi on May 29. The vessel, carrying 36 passengers and six crew members, sank after being hit by huge waves on May 26. At least 31 people survived

SERBIAAleksandar Vucic is sworn in for his second term as president of Serbia at the National Assembly in Belgrade on May 31, following his victory in the April 3 election in which he won 58.59 percent of the vote

KENYAAn aerobatic team performs during the Museum Air Show Festival in Nairobi on May 28

UNITED NATIONSUN Secretary General António Guterres pays homage to fallen UN peacekeepers at the UN Headquarters in New York on May 26. The event was part of the annual observance of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers,which fell on May 29

↓CENTRAL GOVERNMENT’S NEW LIAISON DIRECTOR FOR MACAO Zheng Xincong replaced Fu Ziying as head of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) and national security affairs adviser of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of Macao SAR. He now no longer serves as national security technical adviser to the committee.

Before his appointment as the highest-ranking official of the Central People’s Government posted in the SAR, Zheng was a deputy director to Fu—head of the Liaison Office since December 2018—and a national security technical adviser on the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the SAR.

Born in Xianyou, Fujian Province, in November 1963, Zheng holds a degree in engineering and is the former deputy governor of Fujian Province and deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

MT Management

China Youth Daily June 1

Numerous companies nationwide have reportedly been abusing the concept of management training (MT) to attract young job seekers. Instead of delivering on their initial promises of “high-level professional training in the lead-up to official employment,” many employers consider their applicants to be a cheap labor force, frequently demanding they work overtime.

The MT system was originally created to groom talents for mid and highlevel management positions by sending would-be managers to various posts within the company so that they would gain a full understanding of the corporate structure. New graduates apply for MT spots because they assume the system is a shortcut to much higher positions and salaries than other job openings out there.

These deceitful practices on the part of employers will not only dishearten those already in training but will also see fewer hopefuls applying for MT spots. A special talent training system should never be used as a gimmick to attract young applicants.

Biodiversity Protection

Outlook Weekly May 23

As early as 2,000 years ago, the ancient Chinese suggested that all living creatures grow together without harming one another, reflecting their understanding of the harmonious coexistence between humankind and wildlife. Biodiversity fills the planet with vitality and makes up the basis for human survival and development.

Rich in diversified terrains and climates, China possesses a unique and colorful ecological system and is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world. It was also among the first countries to sign and approve the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and since 2019 has been the biggest contributor to its core budget.

Thanks to scientifically underpinned methodologies of ecological protection, 71 percent of the country’s protected species are under an effective protective network, while some endangered species are being pulled back from the brink of extinction.

China has enacted and modified more than 20 laws and regulations to protect its biodiversity. A series of treatments and the restoration of mountains, rivers, grassland and swamps are improving wildlife habitats. The concept of “green is gold”has truly taken root nationwide.

China’s active involvement and a strong sense of responsibility will surely inject more confidence and vitality into global ecological governance.

My Big, “Slim,”Chinese Wedding

Workers’ Daily June 1

Nowadays, outdoor weddings and nuptials set in the countryside are increasingly in vogue.

There are several reasons underlying the burgeoning popularity of slimmeddown wedding festivities in China.Pandemic-induced lockdowns and restrictions have convinced many to host a wedding ceremony attended only by the parents from both sides. These new brides and grooms prefer small-scale but well-designed, personalized weddings to sprawling banquets.

By doing so, couples can save a lot of money, which they can then spend on their soon-to-be marital life.

Many couples now even take things one step further and cancel the traditional betrothal gifts known as, a practice in which the groom’s family offers the bride’s family an amount of money as a symbol of respect. As the practice remains customary in many rural areas, abandoning it can prevent a bridegroom’s family from having to carry a heavy financial burden. This new trend is one worth following.

↓CHINESE DIRECTOR WINS BEST SHORT FILM AT CANNES

Twenty-seven-year-old Chinese director Chen Jianying won the Golden Palm Award for her short filmat the 75th Cannes Film Festival in France, on May 17-28. The Gen Z director’s work is the third Chinese short film to take home one of the festival’s coveted prizes.

Chen graduated from New York University, the U.S., with a master’s degree in television and film production. She wrote and directed the short filmand first entered the Cannes short film competition in 2018.

The 15-minute movie is set in a riverside town and takes place as a meteorite is about to hit the Earth and trigger the eruption of underwater volcanoes. As floods threaten to hit the town and residents flee in fear of losing their lives, the main character Niannian decides to bid farewell to her childhood friend the day before her departure.

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China, a nation that suffered dire miseries in its modern history, considers living a secure and contented life to be the most fundamental human right. This week’s cover stories present how the Chinese, from rural residents to young job seekers, pursue their dreams in a country that is becoming increasingly open, prosperous and responsive to the diverse needs of its population.