The US youth exchange delegation started their journey in Shanghai after visiting other Chinese cities such as Beijing and Fuzhou. They are participating in various activities, including experiencing the unique culture of each city, to strengthen communication and friendship with locals.
The "Shared Journey of Friendship" US Youth Exchange Delegation consists of around 190 teachers and students from 14 schools in seven states across the US. They have visited Beijing, Shijiazhuang, North China’s Hebei Province, Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province, and Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, interacting with local Chinese students, and feeling the modern pulse of the country. They then continued their journey in Shanghai.
On Thursday, some of them visited a high-tech company called VeriSilicon in Pudong New Area of Shanghai to explore high-tech innovations such as VR. In the afternoon, they had interactive activities with Chinese students at the High School affiliated with Fudan University. The welcome ceremony began with a performance of Wind of Provence by the Chinese student brass band, followed by group activities to help everyone get acquainted.
The activities at the Chinese high school included technology experiments, Chinese sports, and fun games. Students from both countries worked together on robotics programs, constructing house models, creating calligraphy works, and making soy milk. They also experienced Chinese martial arts and participated in fun sports.
During an interactive session, some students from China and the US were grouped together to build a model house. They worked together to construct the model and learn from each other's different perspectives and ideas. Kayley Gallagher told the Global Times on Thursday that it was her first time building an architectural structure like this. “I think we really did a great job. I’m very happy with the product we produced. It’s pretty cool,” Gallagher said.
“We want to show our guests from the US the culture of China, and provide them with Chinese hospitality when they visit. We also hope to experience different cultures,” Ma Jingyu, a student from the High School affiliated with Fudan University and also one of the members in the group that built the house model, told the Global Times on Thursday. The theme of this program is building dreams together, and deepening friendship, said Ma. Through the interactive activities, many participants have formed new friendships with each other and exchanged contact information, such as e-mail addresses, to stay in touch and continue building their relationships. Sakina Cotton from the US youth exchange delegation said that they had a lot of fun today and made new Chinese friends here.
After traveling to several cities in China, Cotton said that she has noticed the different cultures that are specific to each city, especially the dialects. "That was interesting, and the types of food that people eat, the pieces of history, and architecture that are still preserved are different. "
US tech firm OpenAI has restricted access to its artificial intelligence (AI) models through its application programming interface (API) service in China since Tuesday.
The Global Times interviewed several Chinese AI developers and users, who generally agreed that the ban was not anticipated to have a significant impact on the domestic industry as OpenAI's products were not officially available in China anyway. In fact, some believed that this restriction will motivate Chinese developers to redouble their efforts to compete in the AI development and application sector.
What implications does this ban have for Chinese AI developers on a more granular level? And what is the actual gap between China and the US in terms of AI development? How should the two AI giants lead the world in AI developing and governance?
The other boot drops
API refers to interface that allows external access, which means that third-party developers can integrate ChatGPT's capabilities into their applications, building their own AI software. In March 2023, OpenAI announced the opening of the API, allowing third-party developers to integrate ChatGPT into their applications and services through an API.
The Global Times perused the OpenAI website on Tuesday and found that the company had published a list of 188 countries and regions where its API service is officially available, excluding the Chinese mainland, China's Hong Kong, or Macao regions.
"Accessing or offering access to our services outside of the countries and territories listed below may result in your account being blocked or suspended," OpenAI said on its website.
According to media reports, there were two main channels for developers to access OpenAI's products in China: By connecting to OpenAI's official API service or by connecting to Microsoft's Azure services.
Azure is reportedly the only legal way to access OpenAI products and services in China. In a report by US-based news portal PYMNTS.com on Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying that Microsoft will maintain its Azure OpenAI Service offerings in China, and will continue to provide access to eligible customers in the country via models deployed in regions outside of China.
OpenAI's suspension may be a result of several factors, according to analysts.
First, legal compliance must have been taken into account as of June 21, as just a few days before OpenAI made the move, the US Department of the Treasury issued draft rules to ban or require notification of certain investments in AI and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security.
At the same time, China has also been enhancing the implementation of laws and regulations on cybersecurity and data security law. Requirements for cross-border data transmission and processing have been raised, making OpenAI faces more complex compliance procedures and high costs in the Chinese market.
In addition, the need to train GPT-5 and a shortage of computing power may also be part of the reason as some industry insiders told the media that they had been receiving shorter responses from ChatGPT recently.
Meanwhile, the move is also believed to help OpenAI to crack down on companies that "package" OpenAI technology as their own product, driving out companies without core technology and competitive strength from the market.
Chinese industry insiders pointed out that most Chinese companies will suffer little from this time's service suspension. They will either transfer to domestic large models, or purchase OpenAI's services via Microsoft or other providers outside China. In the long run, this move may be good to China's independent development of large models and self-reliance.
Chinese domestic large model developers have been ready to take customers from OpenAI. Companies like Moonshot, Zhipu AI, Baidu, Alibaba, Zero One Wanwu, and other large model manufacturers, took immediate action to release their "relocation plan" for OpenAI API users.
At the exhibition during the World AI Conference (WAIC) held between June 4 and June 7 in Shanghai, the Global Times noted that various large model manufacturers in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are now providing relocation services
Chinese large model manufacturers are also ready to "go global." A fund manager in Beijing told stcn.com that domestic large model developers are striving to catch up with the US. If these developers have plans to explore overseas markets, they can set up branches in countries and regions where OpenAI is legally available. The true gap
But OpenAI's move did sound an alarm for Chinese large model developers to reflect on the gap between them and their US competitors.
Take generative AI, one of the most widely used and the most widely known field of today's AI development, as an example.
Both the US and China are leaders in the generative AI field. But the US does better in cutting-edge and underlying technology while China has certain advantages in industrial application and service design, Ni Kaomeng, initiator of the China AIGC (AI-generated content) Industrial Alliance, a nationwide civil group of China's AIGC industry insiders, told the Global Times.
Generative AI refers to AI systems that are capable of creating new content, such as images, text, or music, based on patterns and data they have been trained on.
At the just-concluded WAIC, the Global Times saw many Chinese enterprises showcasing their newly developed generative-AI tools, such as various interesting text-to-video applications.
Some leading domestic developers told the Global Times that their products have reached, if not exceeded, the level of Sora, currently the world's most famous cutting-edge text-to-video model by OpenAI.
Kling, for instance, is "the world's first text-to-video model with Sora-level abilities that has been made available to the public," its R&D team from Chinese tech company Kuaishou told the Global Times. "Sora, by contrast, remains inaccessible to ordinary users."
Text-to-video is a super sunrise industry globally. There will be a 100-fold increase in the number of AI-generated videos in two years, predicted Song Donghuan, founder of StoryStorm, one of China's earliest AI-generated video communities.
Song said that some of the AI-generated video software or mobile applications popular in overseas markets, such as PixVerse and NeverEnds, are actually products by Chinese companies, "although many people don't know it."
As for Chinese developers, it is no exaggeration to say that Chinese enterprises "account for half of the overseas AI-generated video market," Ni said.
But still, none of these Chinese products can be as epoch-making as Sora.
Sora allows global developers to see the potential of the diffusion transformers. As a product, it can generate stable long videos with good semantic consistency. Video generative products in China have made great progress this year, but few of them can be compared with Sora in terms of long and stable video generation and semantic understanding, Hong Wenyi, a doctoral student at the School of Software, Tsinghua University, told the Global Times during the WAIC.
Luckily, China's diverse application scenarios provide a good environment for the development of AI technology. AI self-driving technology is another typical example apart from generative AI, as mushrooming domestic automobile companies are cooperating with tech firms to constantly introduce new products to the booming market.
Many Chinese auto brands displayed their recently launched self-driving vehicles at this year's WAIC. Many vehicles are found to have been the results of technological collaboration between China and other countries, particularly the US.
One of the exhibited vehicles is equipped with a Chinese self-developed autonomous driving platform and US processor chips, said the exhibitor. "In today's globalized world, it is quite normal that different parts of tech products come from various countries," he told the Global Times.
Generally, China follows the path of the US in terms of the underlying technology of autonomous driving, but China has a vast market, diverse and complex road conditions, and Chinese developers and enterprises are enthusiastic about the field, an industry insider told the Global Times.
"I'm more optimistic with China's AI self-driving development in the long run," he concluded.
Catch up and cooperate
To catch up with the US, Chinese experts and entrepreneurs call for more investment in basic research and talent cultivation.
During the WAIC, iFLYTEK showcased the latest iFLYTEK Starfire V4.0 large model launched at the end of June. According to company, iFlytek Starfire V4.0 is fully benchmarked against GPT-4 Turbo. However, GPT-4 Turbo was released in November 2023, nearly 9 months ago, not to mention that OpenAI introduced GPT-4o in May, further enhancing the model's capabilities.
"We are confident in quickly benchmarking various sizes of large models in the market. But we must admit the gap while recognizing our own advantages. We need to establish a mechanism for continuous development for national computing power construction and data resource aggregation in order to develop further with a more scientific, rational, and long-term mindset," iFlytek chairman Liu Qingfeng told media during the WAIC.
China must have a universal benchmark large model comparable to the US, otherwise the long-term development potential and core competitiveness of China in the era of general AI will be hindered, Liu noted. "With the support of a universal base large model, vertical industry large models, and small models in various application scenarios can all flourish."
In April, Tsinghua University's School of Artificial Intelligence was officially established with Chinese Turing Award winner Andrew Chi-Chih Yao serving as the first dean.
According to Yao, the goal of the school is to train 100 doctoral students annually in the near future.
"China now lacks top talents in AI frontier innovation research. While there are many good universities in China that can cultivate excellent talents, few of the Chinese doctoral students can be compared with their counterparts in top US universities. This makes China have to import foreign-trained university teachers every year, which is not a sustainable situation. In the future, China must be able to cultivate such talents domestically," Yao noted during the WAIC.
Beyond the gap and competition between the US and China - two leading countries in the field of AI to cooperate - there are seemingly more urgent tasks for the two leaders to cooperate to promote AI governance while facing the risks brought about by booming AI technologies.
Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, said during the conference that the problem lies in an infrastructure gap, with 2.5 billion people worldwide still lacking access to the internet. "These are challenges that require global cooperation to address, as they not only hinder global development but also have a significant impact on global governance," Xue said.
"The governance and development of AI have reached a critical 'crossroads,' especially with the unprecedented challenges brought about by generative AI," Xue said during the conference.
"It is quite challenging to balance competition and cooperation between China and the US. However, I believe it is important to at least consider how to create a safe space for technology professionals and experts to collaborate without fear, and freely discuss and solve technical issues. Without this, many of the things we talk about today would be impossible to achieve," Xue said.
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has opened ten of its nuclear technology research facilities and testing platforms, including China's new-generation "artificial sun" Huanliu-3 (HL-3) tokamak, to the world for the first time. The move will further enhance China's influence in nuclear science and technology globally, injecting strong "nuclear power" into promoting win-win cooperation worldwide, the Global Times learned from CNNC at a press conference on March 19 in Beijing during the 17th China International Nuclear Industry Exhibition.
This batch of facilities also include the world's highest-energy compact proton cyclotron accelerator the Beijing Radioactive Ion-beam Facility (BRIF), one of the "world's six major neutron sources" China Advanced Research Reactor, the Beishan Underground Research Laboratory (Beishan URL) located 560 meters underground, and the Minjiang Test Reactor for medical isotope research, among others. Many of these facilities have reached world-class level and even lead the industry globally, showcasing the hard work of Chinese researchers and demonstrating the "hardcore strength" of China's nuclear industry innovation.
The HL-3 tokamak, China's largest and most advanced tokamak, is designed to support the operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the development of future fusion reactors.
The Beishan URL in Northwest China's Gansu Province, China, is the country's first large underground research facility used for the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste. It is an important research facility for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the China Atomic Energy Authority, playing a crucial role in China's nuclear fuel closed-loop technology innovation system.
The BRIF, the only operational online isotope separation radioactive ion beam facility in Asia, can produce over 60 stable nuclear beams and 55 radioactive nuclear beams. It fills the technological gap in China's medium-energy high-current proton cyclotron accelerator and high-resolution isotope separator, reaching an advanced level internationally.
The BRIF conducts research in nuclear physics basics, nuclear physics applications, and nuclear data, promoting basic research and application transformation, achieving a number of high-level scientific achievements. Researchers from the facility have cooperated with teams from more than ten countries including Russia, the US, Germany, Japan, and Poland, attracting many top international scientists to come to China to conduct cutting-edge research.
The opening of these research facilities and testing platforms by China to the world is expected to promote the development of nuclear technology worldwide. Sumair N. Khan, Science and Technology Counselor at the Pakistani Embassy in China, told the Global Times that these open research facilities are crucial for developing countries, especially for countries like Pakistan. He highlighted the importance of facilities like China's advanced research reactor, micro-neutron source reactor, and nuclear environmental simulation facilities for Pakistan.
"Developing countries may not have the research conditions similar to China but are eager to utilize Chinese research facilities to train researchers and receive support for their research work," Zhang Libo, vice president of the China Institute of Atomic Energy, under CNNC, told the Global Times. He emphasized the importance of international cooperation in nuclear science and technology for mutual benefit and scientific progress.
Zhang also believes that CNNC's opening of nuclear technology-related research facilities and test platforms to the world will promote high-level international openness. He stated that by attracting international peers to utilize these facilities, China can understand the direction of international research, grasp the dynamics of global economic development, and integrate into the global research environment.
On April 8, 2024, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), which has long attacked China and accused the country of "suppressing" the freedom of foreign journalists in China, released its 2023 annual "media freedoms report," once again accusing China of "restricting" the freedom of foreign journalists."
However, the qualifications and background of the FCCC itself are in question. On the one hand, Chinese authorities have never recognized the legitimacy of this organization or its role as a representative body for foreign journalists in China; on the other hand, the organization not only holds strong ideological biases against China, but also is deeply involved in providing cover for and whitewashing actions that harm China's national security, especially by anti-China forces in the US and the West.
Some foreign journalists who do not want to be associated with this organization have revealed that it is controlled by media organizations and individuals who uphold the Western discourse hegemony. Their focus is not on objectively reporting on China, but rather on smearing and demonizing the country.
Through investigation, the Global Times has found three solid examples that expose the real intention of the FCCC, which has nothing to do with "freedom."
I felt being used as 'pawn'
Mr Xu is a coach of an amateur women's soccer club in Beijing. In June 2023, he received a message on the Chinese lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu. The person who sent the message claimed to be from German TV station ZDF. Xu was told that ZDF wanted to interview the club in anticipation of the upcoming 2023 Women's World Cup and introduce the situation of women's soccer in China.
According to Xu, at the time, journalists from ZDF only mentioned that they were there to interview and report on his club and women's soccer in China. They said that they were also planning to do similar interviews in other countries to introduce the development of grassroots women's soccer around the world.
During the interview, ZDF reporters kept giving Xu the impression that they only wanted to report on grassroots women's soccer in China. Therefore, Xu, who was very willing to introduce China's grassroots women's soccer to the world, warmly welcomed the team of reporters to film interviews with the club's players, and he felt honored to represent China in the report.
However, when the program was officially broadcast on the official ZDF website, Xu was astonished to find that he had been deceived by the German media outlet, and felt as though he had been "used as a pawn."
The program broadcast by this German media outlet only used the interview with Xu's club and players as part of a larger project. The aired program contained a lot of politicized content, and used out-of-context quotes to smear China's women's rights issues, and by extension, attack China's epidemic prevention policies.
When viewed in its entirety, the report on Xu's women's soccer club does not seem to genuinely introduce China's women's soccer scene, but rather creates a "hell-like contrast" to suggest that the status of Chinese women is actually very low, Xu said.
Xu complained to the Global Times that he felt the complete program broadcast by the German media outlet looked "strange" and he couldn't understand whether they intended to report objectively or were set to deliberately vilify, because he felt that the portrayal of women's situation in Chinese society by this German media outlet was far from factual, and resembled the plight of women in far less developed countries.
Another reason why Xu feels he was deliberately misled is, before the program was aired, and upon request, Xu was shown a sample of the scheduled broadcast. However, after the complete program was aired, he found that the sample shown to him by the German media outlet was not the full version actually broadcast by the TV station. They also never informed Xu how the full version of the program would be edited and what other content would also be included.
Additionally, when the TV station first showed Xu the edited sample, he noticed that the Chinese map used by the TV station did not include the island of Taiwan and the South China Sea region, and there were also omissions in the Xizang Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Even after he raised this issue with the TV station, the final version still did not include the right map.
After the program was aired, Xu expressed his strong dissatisfaction at the actions of the German TV station, and protested against the map issue and the use of the club as a "pawn" in the program, demanding that the program be taken off the air. The person who initially contacted him from the TV station in China, however, passed the buck, arguing that this was a decision made by the German headquarters and that the China team could not decide on the matter.
Xu said that although this episode did not have a significant negative impact on him, the club, or the players who were interviewed, the irresponsible actions of this German media outlet have caused trouble for the club - especially for some of the players who appeared in the program, some of whom are university students, due to the misrepresentation of their opinions.
Xu's experience vividly illustrates an important reason why some Western media outlets are increasingly being rejected by the Chinese public: These media outlets do not respect their interview subjects, but instead deceive and exploit them to serve a predetermined narrative meant to demonize China.
No apology
Mr Luo is an economist from China. In July 2023, he was suddenly asked by a friend whether he had been interviewed by Bloomberg. This puzzled him because he had never been interviewed by the US-based media outlet. After a brief search, Luo found a Bloomberg article that had used a piece he had previously published on his WeChat account about the Chinese economy, in which Luo provided an analysis of the future of the Chinese economy. However, because they did not clarify that it was partly taken from the article, it gave the impression that Luo had been personally interviewed for the Bloomberg article.
But when Luo carefully examined the citation of his article by Bloomberg, he was surprised to find that Bloomberg had not accurately presented his views, but instead cherry-picked a few sentences that could easily be misinterpreted.
Luo believed that this would lead to his views being misunderstood and inadvertently mislead others, so he requested that Bloomberg correct the glaring errors. However, Bloomberg only added a note in the article stating that the views related to Luo were taken from his public WeChat account article and included a link, but did not address the accusation of using cherry-picked quotes made by Luo.
Frustrated, Luo engaged the services of a lawyer who sent a formal letter to Bloomberg's office in China and even went there in person to defend his rights, but he was turned away. In fact, a Bloomberg staffer, in a strongly-worded reply to the letter, stated that Bloomberg did not agree with Luo's accusation of selective quoting and therefore would not retract the article or issue an apology.
Bloomberg dismissed Luo's remonstrations despite giving the impression of respecting his views by quoting him, proving that Luo's opinions don't matter unless otherwise validated by the large media outlet.
Luo's situation is far from the only instance in which Bloomberg has stood accused of false reporting. On March 6, 2024, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government released a statement that strongly disapproved of and condemned Bloomberg's news headlines "HK says Telegram should be prohibited in Article 23 proposal," "HK says Signal should be prohibited in Article 23 proposal", and "HK Security Law Public Consultation Lists Facebook, YouTube Ban."
Those reports falsely reported that the HKSAR government would legislate to ban the operation of the mentioned platforms in Hong Kong, thereby generating misunderstanding and panic regarding the legislative proposals on Article 23 of the Basic Law, read the statement.
Freedom or discourse hegemony?
In October 2023, a Chinese woman surnamed Chen who had been living in Sweden for 20 years, was suddenly arrested by the Swedish security service in October and expelled by the government in Stockholm, after being accused of posing a national security threat, according to media reports.
The Global Times learned that Chen wrote several objective articles about China, especially regarding the situations in Xinjiang and Xizang, and organized some lectures to present the true situation in Xinjiang.
However, Chen's situation has become increasingly common in the recent past. From Canada to the US to Australia and other Western countries, media outlets constantly platform anti-China secessionists and widely publish distorted reports about China. Some Western media outlets even collaborate with their countries' intelligence agencies and other institutions in the private sector to weaken China's national security, analysts have pointed out.
What the FCCC really wants is not the freedom to report the news objectively, but the freedom to maintain this "distorted" discourse hegemony, experts warned.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that trust in the media among Americans reached a historic low. According to a Gallup poll conducted in October 2023, only 32 percent of respondents expressed a high level of trust in the mass media. Another 29 percent indicated having "not very much" trust, while a record-high 39 percent stated they had "none at all."
Moreover, this situation is not unique to the US. A poll in November 2023 also showed that public trust in the mainstream news media in the UK ranked last among the 28 countries surveyed, with only 31 percent of UK respondents trusting the country's news media establishment.
Perhaps the FCCC should first consider the reasons behind this trend. They should think about why the citizens of their own countries are increasingly losing trust in them, experts warned.
The recent increase in tariffs imposed by the US on imports from China, particularly on electric vehicles (EVs), lithium batteries, and semiconductors, has sparked criticism globally. Not only did the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesperson criticize the move, saying it "can distort trade and investment, and fragment supply chains," several US media, including The Washington Post, also slammed that the new tariffs raise costs for companies using green energy devices and make electric vehicles less affordable for US consumers.
"Forcing consumers, via tariffs, to subsidize domestic clean energy companies that are far from the cutting edge of technology is an economic and environmental loser," The Washington Post article said. Colorado Governor Jared Polis also stated that the new tariffs are "a major setback for clean energy."
The concerns are far-sighted and realistic. The new tariffs represent another escalation of the US' policy to contain China in recent years, forcing its companies to restructure supply and industrial chains, and disrupting the normal global trade order. This restructuring will have a profound negative impact on the global industrial system centered around emission reduction goals, leading to serious environmental issues worldwide.
It should be pointed out that the timing of the new US tariffs coincides with a critical moment in the global transition from traditional to new energy and the construction of a global green economy. On April 17, Dubai, a country located in a desert region, experienced a sudden downpour, with one day's rainfall equivalent to half the average annual rainfall.
This most severe rainstorm in 75 years caused Dubai International Airport to close for three days. Extreme heat waves, severe cold, torrential rains, hurricanes, droughts and floods... the increasingly frequent extreme weather events highlight the urgency of global efforts to address climate change to a degree felt by everyone.
At the beginning of this year, the World Meteorological Organization released a report officially confirming 2023 as the warmest year on record. The report indicates that new record-high levels were set in 2023 for all three of the main greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide levels are 50 percent higher than in the pre-industrial era.
According to a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme at the end of last year, predicted 2030 greenhouse gas emissions still must fall by 28 percent for the Paris Agreement 2 C pathway and 42 percent for the 1.5 C pathway.
Against this backdrop, it has become a widespread consensus in the international community to achieve effective emission reduction and build a new form of sustainable economic development for humanity by significantly adjusting the energy structure, especially by promoting the widespread use of new energy products to achieve low-carbon emissions. It is precisely for this reason that China's "new three" products have been widely welcomed in markets around the world.
Data shows that in 2023, China contributed more than half of the global renewable energy installed capacity of 510 million kilowatts. In 2022, China's renewable energy generation contributed to a reduction of approximately 2.26 billion tons in domestic CO2 emissions, while exports of wind power and solar products aided other nations in decreasing CO2 emissions by an additional 573 million tons.
The two figures add up to 2.83 billion tonnes of emissions reduction, or about 41 percent of the global total of carbon emissions reduction due to renewable energy.
At the World Energy Congress held in April, Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, one of the world's largest oil companies, said that "China has made these green products so affordable, and they will help the West achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions to a net zero level by 2050." Imagine what the global energy transition would look like without China's green production capacity, and how it would impact humanity's ability to address climate change.
Especially for developing countries, it is China's progress in the field of new energy that allows them to purchase more cost-effective EVs, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products. The report from the International Renewable Energy Agency pointed out that in the past 10 years, the average cost of wind and photovoltaic power generation projects globally has cumulatively decreased by over 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, with a large part of it attributed to Chinese innovation, manufacturing, and engineering. In this sense, the development and progress of China's new energy industry are not only accelerators of the global energy transition, but also the vanguard of humanity's response to climate change. This represents not only high-quality and advanced production capacity, but also widespread development justice.
There is only one Earth, and all countries share the same planet. Responding to global climate change and promoting energy transition in various countries is a task filled with both difficulties and hope. It requires a true spirit of "working together for the world" from all countries, as well as the joint maintenance of an open and fair international economic system. Nowadays, some people in the US, out of short-sighted and narrow political motives and fragile anxiety, are waving a big stick in the field of tariffs, undoubtedly weakening the cohesion of countries and their ability to respond to climate change, damaging the positive prospects of global green transformation.
This will also be a "protectionist disaster" for humanity. It is hoped that they will wake up soon!
Around 4 am on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane arrived in Beijing, marking the beginning of his two-day state visit to China. According to a previous announcement from the Kremlin, Putin will visit Harbin and attend the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Expo. Accompanying him is a "high-profile economic and trade delegation" that includes Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina, and Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation chief Dmitry Shugayev.
All indications suggest that economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia will be a key topic during Putin's visit.
Chen Gang, the Russian General Manager of Suifenhe Zhongsu Automobile Import and Export Co, Ltd, is one of the exhibitors at this year's expo.
He has been busy at the company's booth these past few days. "Compared to the years before the pandemic, there are visibly more companies attending this year," Chen, a Chinese businessman long focused on opportunities related to Russia, told the Global Times.
He noted that booths at this year's expo are in high demand, with some companies even offering high prices to rent space, hoping to break into the Russian market.
"There are also a lot of Russians and Russian companies in Harbin these days; they are everywhere. My impression is that various Russian industries are eagerly seeking Chinese products and partners," Chen said.
The popularity of the expo is a reflection of the rapid development of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation in recent years. According to data released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, in 2023, bilateral trade between China and Russia reached $240.1 billion, a 26.3 percent increase from the previous year, exceeding the target set by the leaders of both countries in 2019 to achieve $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2024. Of this, Russia imported $110.97 billion worth of goods from China, a significant year-on-year increase of 46.9 percent.
Chen's experience also confirms the aforementioned figures. Before the pandemic, Chen mainly engaged in exporting Russian agricultural products to China and in tourism between the two countries. However, in the past two years, as relations between China and Russia have grown closer, his business has entered a "new stage," expanding to the import and export of various products such as automotive equipment, asphalt, non-ferrous metals, engineering machinery, and liquefied natural gas.
"Especially in the fields of automotive and energy, these have been the hottest areas in China-Russia trade over the past two years, with great opportunities," Chen said excitedly when talking about his business development in recent years. "My revenue has increased by nearly 200 times compared to previous years."
Fan Yeliang is another Chinese businessman who has long been involved in the import and export of timber and furniture between China and Russia. These days, he is in Harbin negotiating with Russian businessmen visiting China.
He told the Global Times that last year his volume of furniture exports to Russia "increased by four to five times" compared to the period before the pandemic, and his timber import business "at least doubled."
Amid the booming market, many new "gold seekers" have also entered the trade with Russia. Fan told the Global Times that previously, most of the businesses involved in Russia-related trade were from Northeast China. Now, many companies from South China's Guangdong, East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces are also participating.
There is a large market gap in Russia that needs to be filled, Chinese business representatives said. From the perspective of these Chinese businessmen, the rapid development of China-Russia economic and trade relations in the past two years is partly due to the withdrawal of countries such as the US, Europe, South Korea, and Japan from the Russian market, citing sanctions, leaving a lot of market space.
On the other hand, it is also because Chinese-made products are cost-effective and of good quality, making them very popular with overseas customers. Additionally, the strengthening of political trust between China and Russia has further increased Russian customers' trust in China.
Using his automotive business as an example, "sales of new and used Chinese cars have been very good in Russia in recent years. Brands like Changan, Geely, Haval, Great Wall, and Chery are particularly popular for their good quality and affordable prices," Chen said.
"Possibly influenced by political factors, Russians have become more inclined to cooperate with Chinese people in recent years. In daily interactions with them, one can clearly feel that various Russian sectors are eager to collaborate with China. Against this backdrop, the business environment in Russia's Far East has improved significantly, and local administrative efficiency in this regard has also increased," Chen said.
In the view of Chinese businessmen, there are several major challenges that need to be addressed for further development of China-Russia economic and trade relations. The first is the need for more convenient cross-border settlement.
Both Fan and Chen told the Global Times that in the past two to three months, due to increased US financial sanctions on Russia, banks have had to strengthen their review of cross-border trade settlements between China and Russia.
Many Chinese private enterprises with business dealings with Russia have encountered problems in receiving payments or settling accounts, sometimes facing rejection or delays of over two months. This increases the costs and cash flow pressure on small businesses.
They hope that China and Russia can expedite the integration of their respective payment settlement systems to meet the market demand for trade settlements between the two countries while avoiding secondary sanctions.
Also, the infrastructure level in Russia's Far East needs further improvement. Due to many European ports refusing to handle Russian cargo, the cargo throughput at St. Petersburg port in the Baltic Sea has significantly declined.
Additionally, as Russia's economic cooperation shifts toward the Asia-Pacific, ports in the Far East, including Vladivostok, are now handling a large volume of Russia's import and export maritime business.
Vladivostok port is currently operating at overcapacity, Chen said. "With the surge in China-Russia trade, there is a great need for more ports or the expansion of existing ports in the Far East. Therefore, we look forward to more cooperation between the two countries in infrastructure construction in the Far East."
Wang Xiaoquan, an expert with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European & Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the economies of China and Russia have unique complementarities, with China being the largest economy capable of comprehensive economic cooperation with Russia.
Given the significant reduction in Russia's economic relations, particularly energy relations, with the US and the West, and the need to advance the "Turn to the East" strategy, Russia will place greater emphasis on the strategic role of the Chinese market in exporting its oil and gas products.
Russia also views China as a source of funds and technology for implementing its import substitution policy and modernizing infrastructure, aiming for comprehensive integration in areas such as energy, defense, aerospace, agriculture, finance, and technology, Wang said.
"During President Putin's new term, China-Russia practical cooperation in all fields is likely to develop rapidly, with significant breakthroughs expected in areas such as energy, agriculture and manufacturing," the expert said.
The industrial and supply chains of the two countries are expected to achieve integrated development, he noted.
In recent years, Russia has shown an increasingly positive attitude toward the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially in terms of connectivity, capacity cooperation, finance and trade. China and Russia are expected to implement more multilateral economic cooperation projects under the framework of aligning the BRI with the Eurasian Economic Union. Russia is also expected to provide more support for the internationalization of the renminbi, the expert added.
US tech giant Apple's headset Vision Pro has achieved a significant milestone before entering the Chinese market, gaining official approval from China Compulsory Certification 3C certification, paving the way for its sale on the Chinese mainland market.
According to the website of the China Quality Certification Center, the certification for Apple's Vision Pro was issued on May 13, 2024, with validity extending until May 12, 2029.
Despite being priced at $3,499 in the US market, equivalent to 25,325 yuan, Apple has yet to disclose the official pricing and localized name for Vision Pro for the Chinese mainland market.
Notably, the trademark for Vision Pro in China has been owned by Huawei.
Vision Pro, initially released in June 2023, was not available in other regions outside the US market until today, according to media reports.
Reuters reported on May 14 that Apple plans to unveil Vision Pro in international markets following the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) scheduled for June 10 -14 this year.
In addition, Apple is currently conducting training sessions for its employees in seven countries, including China, on effectively showcasing its Vision Pro products to customers in new markets.
The introduction of Apple Vision Pro to the Chinese mainland market, coupled with potential local production, is expected to "facilitate a exchange of digital product-related technologies and research between Apple and local Chinese teams," Liang Zhenpeng, an independent tech analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Apple's fiscal second-quarter earnings report this year said the company's overall sales fell 4 percent to $45.96 billion and iPhone sales fell 10 percent year on year, suggesting weak market demand for the current generation of its smartphones.
Apple's Vision Pro entering the Chinese market could also help the company boost its global market share and brand influence in China, as the company fends off concerns over decreasing consumer confidence in this market, Liang noted.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2024 will host a variety of Healthy Life events dedicated to healthcare and a Healthy Life Area thematic exhibition during which key members of the healthcare community will share cutting-edge technology projects and innovative developments. The SPIEF will also feature a series of expert discussions on healthcare.
Leading government and scientific figures will join representatives of the pharmaceutical and medical industries to hold talks on important healthcare topics in the area presentation zone.
“The Healthy Life Area has always been a place for presenting significant healthcare achievements at SPIEF. The expert discussions that take place there cover a wide range of issues facing healthcare, medical and scientific development, the accessibility of medical care, digitalization in the industry, in addition to human resources. The event’s business program has been drawn up with the support of experts from leading scientific centers to the ensure current topics are covered correctly. Experts will discuss major issues surrounding import substitution for medical and pharmaceutical products, advanced technologies for active longevity, new opportunities for medical and health tourism in Russia, corporate and social initiatives coming from Russian companies, opportunities to invest in the development of biomedical technologies, neurotechnology, digital health ecosystems, the application of artificial intelligence to new innovative products, and the development of healthcare technologies within BRICS,” First Deputy Director for Development and Head of the Healthcare Directorate of the Roscongress Foundation Anastasia Stolkova said.
The expert discussions have been organized with the support of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency of the Russian Federation, the Russian Research Institute of Health, the Center for Healthcare Quality Assessment and Control of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and the Sechenov University Institute of Leadership and Health Management among others.
“The topics up for discussion in the Healthy Life Area at SPIEF reflect the current healthcare agenda: training for human resources, digitalization and artificial intelligence, telemedicine and innovative technologies, and disease prevention. The Russian Research Institute of Health has always provided expert support for the event and taken an active part in the preparation of sessions for the business program,” Russian Research Institute of Health Director Olga Kobyakova said.
The Healthy Life project is an industry platform for direct dialogue between representatives of the government and the expert community and a place to share experience with innovation, discuss target benchmarks, global trends, and the outlook for healthcare system, and work on practical proposals for building a healthier society.
Official website of the event: forumhealth.ru.
The 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be held from 5 to 8 June, 2024 at the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The Roscongress Foundation is a socially oriented non-financial development institution and major organizer of nationwide and international conventions; exhibitions; and business, public, youth, sporting, and cultural events. It was established in pursuance of a decision by the President of the Russian Federation.
Chinese experts said on Thursday that potential export restrictions by the US on artificial intelligence (AI) models mainly target China, and the reported move is essentially a case of self-isolation and a hegemonic action, which will hinder the swift evolution of the global AI industry and dampen previous strides in globalization.
The so-called security concerns on the use of advanced AI models are completely political rhetoric meant to stoke fears over China's development, amid the intensifying US crackdown on Chinese products, observers said.
Reuters has reported that the US government is considering a new regulatory push to restrict exports of proprietary or closed-source AI models, whose software, and the data they train on, are kept under wraps.
The action was due to concerns that "US adversaries could use the models… to wage aggressive cyber-attacks or even create potent biological weapons."
The move adds to restrictions Washington has put in place to block exports of sophisticated AI technologies to China.
As China's AI sector booms, the US government has been acutely aware of the competitive pressure exerted by its biggest rival. With AI models emerging as a new focal point of competition, the US has continuously used the "national security threat" rhetoric to stoke fears over Chinese products, in a bid to hinder China's industrial upgrading, Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom industry observer, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The US announced in April it was adding four Chinese firms to an export blacklist for allegedly aiding Chinese entities in acquiring AI chips in violation of US regulations, according to media reports. Analysts noted that the action was part of the intensifying US crackdown on China's high-tech sector in recent years.
China's Foreign Ministry said in April that "we strongly oppose the illegal US unilateral sanctions" and vowed to do "what is necessary to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies while urging the US to stop politicizing trade and tech issues and turning them into weapons."
Regardless of the measures the US may ultimately enact, the impact on China's AI sector is expected to be minimal, analysts said. Instead, the likely move would drive Chinese users toward home-grown large language models (LLMs), which are gaining robust momentum, Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the Global Times on Thursday.
China's LLM sector is highly competitive, with a wide array of options available for its huge market. Given the disparities between Chinese and English contexts, homegrown AI products are better suited to Chinese consumers than their US counterparts, Pan said, highlighting the vast potential of the country's high-tech sector.
The Chinese Embassy in the US responded to inquiries by denouncing the reported action as a "typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying, which China firmly opposes," adding that it would take "necessary measures" to protect its interests, Reuters reported.
China is stepping up efforts to boost AI development and has witnessed fruitful outcomes. As of April, 117 LLMs had been registered in China for generative AI services, according to the Cyberspace Administration of China, reflecting the fierce competition in this burgeoning sector.
This year's Government Work Report noted AI's crucial role in accelerating new quality productive forces, highlighting the country's continuous push for the high-quality development of the digital economy by stepping up R&D and application of big data and AI, and planning to launch an AI Plus Initiative.
