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The Global Times Annual Conference 2025, themed "Moving forward in Partnership: Resonance of Values between China and the World," is held in Beijing on Saturday. In the first session, experts and scholars engaged in discussions on the topic "Exploring the path of great power relations: differences and consensus."

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said that there are three key points to watch in major power relations next year. First, China and the US will enter a new round of competition. While the strategic challenges are severe, there are some tactical opportunities. Second, in terms of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, US-Russia relations will undergo some loosening and adjustments. Third, China's relations with other major powers will face new opportunities, and the overall diplomatic environment facing China will see significant improvements.

Regarding China-US relations, Wu emphasized that the development of the relationship follows its own historical logic. At certain stages, cooperation between the two countries was more prominent, driven by the balance of power and mutual interests. Currently, China and the US have entered what the US terms a "strategic competition" phase, which, in reality, is a period of US' efforts to contain and suppress China. While this phase is not what we hope for, it is, in some sense, consistent with the logic of great power relations.

In Wu's view, whether under a Democratic or Republican administration, US' basic positioning toward China and the fundamental design of its China policy will not change in the short term. However, from a longer-term perspective, the strategic competition between China and the US shows periodical characteristics. Wu noted that in the future, the US may realize that its efforts to contain and suppress China have not been effective, and that the cost to its own interests is too high and unsustainable, stressing that in that case, the US policy toward China will likely be adjusted.

An article by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on deeply advancing the Party's self-reform will be published on Monday.

The article by Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will be published in this year's 24th issue of the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee. 

China announced on Tuesday a significant relaxation of its visa-free transit policy, extending the permitted stay for eligible foreign travelers from the original 72 and 144 hours to 240 hours, or 10 days.

The US insisted on arranging Lai's "transit" to offer platform for "Taiwan independence" separatist activities, seriously violating the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and sending a seriously wrong signal to the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. China strongly protests this and has lodged a stern representation with the US, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference on Friday.

Taiwan regional Leader Lai Ching-te is reportedly completing "transiting" through Hawaii and Guam and is scheduled to return to the island on Friday.

Lin said the Taiwan question is the primary, non-negotiable red line in China-US relations. The actions of "Taiwan independence" are incompatible with peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

China urges the US to adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, honor US leaders' commitments not to support "Taiwan independence," cease official exchanges between the US and the island of Taiwan, stop hollowing out or undermining the one-China principle, and cease any form of support or tolerance for "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and their activities and take concrete actions to stabilize China-US relations and maintain peace in the Taiwan Straits, said the spokesperson.

Any attempt to rely on the US for "independence" will hit a wall, and any efforts to use Taiwan island to contain China are bound to fail, Lin said.

In response to another inquiry on whether the mainland is planning to conduct more military exercises surrounding Taiwan island as Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te has completed "transiting" through Hawaii and Guam, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the foremost, non-negotiable red line in China-US relations. China's determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering.

Previously some Taiwan local media claimed that the mainland military is poised to "encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise 'Joint Sword-2024C,'" as Lai returns from his visit to "diplomatic allies" in the Pacific via "transit" through Hawaii and Guam.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Palau on Friday, Lai claimed that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are "not subordinate to each other," which Lin also refuted on Friday, saying that the separatist activities of the "Taiwan independence" forces and the connivance and support from external forces are the greatest threats to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

Lai and the DPP authorities have consistently used various pretexts to promote "Taiwan independence" separatism. Regardless of what they say or do, they cannot change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China, nor can they stop the historical trend that China will be and must be reunified. The attempt to rely on external forces for independence is doomed to fail, Lin said.

Also on Friday, Lai claimed that he is confident in deepening cooperation with the next Trump administration in the US. The day before, he had a phone call with US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.

In response, Lin said that China has repeatedly stated its firm position on this matter. We urge the US to recognize the "Taiwan independence" separatist nature of Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities, and the serious harm that "Taiwan independence" separatist actions pose to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

The US should adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, stop interfering in Taiwan affairs, stop meddling in China's internal affairs, and cease supporting or conniving "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, said Lin.

Pangolin decoction pieces remain ineligible for medical insurance coverage and drugs containing pangolin ingredients must not be newly included in medical insurance coverage, according to a recent notice by three central departments in China to strengthen pangolin protection and management efforts and enhance their conservation. 

The notice, jointly released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the National Medical Products Administration, was made public through the National Medical Products Administration's official WeChat account on Wednesday. 

The Chinese government attaches great importance to pangolin conservation. On June 3, 2020, all species of pangolins were elevated to the status of nationally protected wildlife. Pangolin scales are seen in traditional Chinese medicine to promote lactation and impotence.  

The notice calls for strengthening the National Forestry and Grassland Administration's pangolin protection and research center, establishing pangolin artificial breeding bases and germplasm resource banks, jointly tackling key technologies for pangolin artificial breeding, and achieving significant progress in building pangolin breeding populations. 

Research institutions, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are encouraged and supported to jointly carry out research on substitutes for pangolin scales, the notice reads. 

China's efforts in protecting pangolins have been consistent. The newly-released documents highlight the Chinese government's intention to seek alternatives of pangolins in the use of medicine, Sun Quanhui, a scientist from the World Animal Protection organization, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Whether for wild animal protection or industrial development, development of alternatives to pangolin scales is a rational choice, Sun said. He further said that scientific teams in China have been trialing synthetic alternative akin to pangolin scales, by precisely understanding the substances of pangolin. If their research goes well, we expect to see pangolin scale substitute in near future.

According to the notice, supervision will be strengthened to strictly regulate the use of pangolin scales in medicine. Following the principle of "conserving resources and being strict and prudent," strict oversight of pangolin scale use in medicine will be enforced, with efforts to minimize consumption.

The three administrations requested provincial-level forestry and grassland, traditional Chinese medicine, and medical products administration departments jointly conduct a survey on the utilization of pangolins to grasp the situation of pangolin artificial breeding institutions, pangolin scale inventories, and the use, purchase, and sale of pangolin scales by traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and pharmaceutical production enterprises in the past three years in their respective provinces. 

The annual consumption of pangolin scales will be strictly controlled, in principle, at around 1 ton, the notice reads. 

Provincial-level forestry and grassland departments are also requested to strengthen supervision and verification of legal holders of pangolin scales inventories in their provinces and update the inventory of pangolin scales based on administrative licensing in a timely manner. 

For provincial traditional Chinese medicine administration and medical products supervision departments, they should strictly supervise hospitals and pharmaceutical enterprises using pangolin scales within their jurisdictions. All units will seriously handle violations of laws and regulations in accordance with the law to resolutely stop the abuse of pangolin scales, the notice says. 

Pangolin scales and their products confiscated by law enforcement are restricted to non-commercial activities such as scientific research, judicial law enforcement, and public welfare promotion, according to the notice.

 The use of pangolin scales and their products from other illegal or unknown sources is strictly prohibited, it states. 

The commercial import and export of pangolins and their products remain prohibited, the notice reads. 

At the invitation of Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, China's Minister of Transport Liu Wei attended the first meeting of the subcommittee on Arctic shipping routes cooperation under the committee for regular meetings between Chinese and Russian heads of government, where he held talks with the subcommittee's Russian Chairman, Alexey Likhachev, and conducted working visit, on Sunday and Monday, according to China's Ministry of Transport's official WeChat account on Tuesday.

The first meeting of the subcommittee on Arctic shipping routes was held in Saint Petersburg on Monday. Liu pointed out that the subcommittee on Arctic shipping routes is a new working mechanism established under the committee for regular meetings between Chinese and Russian heads of government. It is an important platform for promoting the cooperation and development of Arctic shipping routes and an important channel for sharing experiences and seeking mutual development.

During this meeting, the two sides reached a series of important consensus on the mechanism, structure of the subcommittee and cooperation objectives, achieving fruitful results. China is willing to work with Russia to fully utilize the subcommittee's role, enhance the competitiveness of Arctic shipping, jointly ensure Arctic navigation safety, and promote new progress in polar shipbuilding, implementing the consensus of the two countries' leaders through concrete actions.

Alexey Likhachev, who is also director general of the Rosatom, noted that the establishment of the subcommittee on Arctic shipping routes is of historical significance, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and China. Rosatom is willing to deepen cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Transport in various fields such as Arctic shipping, safety, and polar shipbuilding technology, and actively promote China-Russia Arctic shipping routes cooperation to new highs.

The meeting heard reports from three working groups under the subcommittee: shipping development, navigation safety, and polar ship technology and construction. It also approved the regulations for the subcommittee on Arctic shipping routes, signed the meeting minutes, and clarified the relevant consensuses and key tasks for 2025.

Miao Hua, a member of Central Military Commission (CMC) and director of CMC's Political Work Department, is suspended from his post due to suspected serious violations of discipline, China Central Television reported on Thursday.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee decided, after research, to suspend Miao from his position while the case is being investigated, the report said.

An article by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, an important approach of the Party in the governance of China in the new era, will be published on Sunday.

The article by Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will be published in this year's 23rd issue of the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

The article consists of excerpts from Xi's related discourses between January 2013 and August 2024.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday stressed comprehensively advancing high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when addressing a symposium on BRI development.

A latest study by researchers from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), indicates that, against the backdrop of warming climate over the last 200 years, Abies spectabilis (Himalayan fir) in the mixed forests of Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park and Annapurna Conservation Area is expanding to higher altitudes at a faster rate compared to Betula utilis (Himalayan birch) in the same area. The findings point to accelerating successional dynamics with late-successional species rapidly outcompeting pioneer species, offering insight into future forest succession and its influences on ecosystem services.

The study was conducted by a team led by researcher Liang Eryuan from the State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources, ITP, CAS. It was published online in Nature Plants on Monday, the Global Times learned from the ITP.

Understanding how climate change influences succession is fundamental to predicting future forest composition. Global warming is expected to accelerate species succession at their cold thermal ranges, such as alpine tree lines. In the study, the team examined how interactions and successional strategies of the early-successional birch and the late-successional fir affected tree line dynamics by combining plot data with an individual-based tree line model at tree lines in the central Himalayas, read the study. 

The team found that firs showed increasing recruitment and a higher upslope shift rate (1.1 ± 0.2 meter per decade) compared with birch (0.6 ± 0.3 meter per decade) over the last 200 years. Spatial analyses indicate strong interspecies competition when trees were young. Model outputs from various climatic scenarios indicate that firs will probably accelerate their upslope movement with global warming, while birch recruitment will decline drastically, forming stable or even retreating tree lines, according to the study. 

Shalik Ram Sigdel, the first author of the study and associate researcher at the ITP, told the Global Times that the alpine tree line, the uppermost limit of continuous distribution of upright trees, is strongly constrained by environmental factors such as low temperatures, making it highly sensitive to global warming. It serves as an ecological transition zone for studying species succession. 

Vegetation succession refers to the recovery process of plant communities after disturbances over a long-time scale or the formation and development process on bare ground. Succession theory is one of the core research topics in vegetation ecology, forming the basis for predicting vegetation dynamics under different future climate scenarios and guiding the restoration of degraded ecosystems, according to Sigdel.

Fossil records confirm that birch has been distributed in the Himalayan region for 2.5 million to 5 million years. Dendrochronological analysis indicates that in high-altitude forests composed of a single tree species, the maximum age of birch can exceed 450 years. As a pioneer species following glacial retreat, the succession process of birch should belong to the long-term succession type. However, it remains unclear whether climate warming will accelerate this succession process.

Since 2010, the research team has discovered mixed forests where birch and firs coexist at the tree line in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park and Annapurna Conservation Area, providing a natural experimental platform for studying forest community succession under warming conditions. 

"Birch is sensitive to moisture, and the water stress caused by warming limits its growth and regeneration. In contrast, firs are sensitive to temperature, and warming within a certain threshold range is beneficial for their growth and regeneration. Therefore, against the backdrop of climate warming, firs demonstrate greater competitiveness than birch," said Liang Eryuan, the corresponding author of the study. 

Liang emphasized that climate change is significantly accelerating the species succession process at the alpine tree line in the Himalayas.

Through tree line model simulations, the research team further found that with ongoing warming, the ascent of firs will continue to accelerate, while the decline in birch regeneration will lead to a decrease in population density, further restricting the tree line ascent. In high-emission scenarios, there may even be a retreat of the birch tree line, indicating that under warming conditions, firs may rapidly replace birch as the pioneer species, accelerating the succession process. This finding has important implications for the prediction of future forest composition, structure, and ecosystem functions.