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From many perspectives, Wuzhen, in East China's Zhejiang Province, a town with thousands of years of history, is not a name that automatically comes to mind when poverty and backwardness are mentioned. Even without considering its rich cultural history and connections to many famous figures, in the last few decades, it has become a well-planned tourist attraction known to most Chinese people.

As a typical ancient water town in the Jiangnan region, Wuzhen has a history spanning over 7,000 years and has been an established center for over 1,300 years. In the 1990s, the local government started to renovate the ancient town. The 21st century marked Wuzhen's transformation into one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region.

However, beyond the bustling tourist area, Wuzhen was rarely associated with "modernization" in any comprehensive way for a period of time. Outside the scope of the tourism industry, many people still lived in old villages in their old lifestyles.

This situation, however, began to change in June 2003 with the implementation of Zhejiang's Green Rural Revival Program, which plans to renovate about 10,000 incorporated villages and transform about 1,000 central villages among them into examples of moderate prosperity in all respects.

Xi Jinping, then secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, promoted and deployed this modernization project to address the problem of imbalanced urban-rural development, creating a new development path for beautiful villages.

From duck farming to bamboo weaving

Chenzhuang village, like many other ordinary Chinese villages, had a long-term reliance on the animal husbandry and breeding as its main industry. "Chenzhuang used to be a specialized duck farming village, and every household would raise ducks on a fairly large scale," said Shen Siyuan, a member of the Chenzhuang village committee, to visiting Global Times reporters. "But the odor and waste generated by duck farming had a significant impact on the village's environment."

Transitioning from the backward poultry breeding ground to a traditional bamboo weaving craft was a long-term consideration by the village committee.

After closing down the environmentally damaging duck farms, many villagers joined the handicraft workshops of several bamboo weaving families in the village. In the workshops, the Global Times saw many villagers chatting and skillfully weaving bamboo items. Technical discussions or sharing sessions about bamboo weaving are routinely organized or spontaneously held among the villagers. When showing their bamboo weaving works to the Global Times, many of the former farmers turned bamboo artisans had proud smiles on their faces.

The village's leader in bamboo weaving, who is an inheritor of the craft, Qian Jihuai quit his job working for a company and followed his father, Qian Xinming, to engage in bamboo weaving full time in 2007, in the era of the decline of bamboo weaving in Wuzhen.
He came up with the idea of linking bamboo weaving with Wuzhen's tourism industry, and applied for a store at a tourist attraction and then tried to weave some Chinese characters out of bamboo as tourist souvenirs. It turned out that tourists loved these novel souvenirs.

Qian and his father therefore saw this as a new path to promote bamboo weaving and began developing related products. They traveled to other towns in China with a tradition of bamboo weaving and studied and researched extensively on the development of bamboo weaving in other countries.

"We gradually discovered that there was a lot of room for the expansion of bamboo weaving as an art," Qian said. He set up his own bamboo weaving studio with his father and brother, brought systematic bamboo weaving classes to schools, and introduced bamboo weaving skills to more people through online livestreams. In his studio, the Zhuyun Workshop, 15,000 visitors study bamboo weaving and take part in learning experiences every year. The workshop features many works of his fellow villagers, many of whom work there for a living.

According to Qian, the sense of happiness generated by social recognition is a new thing for many villagers who have been engaged in the poultry breeding industry for generations, but it has become an important part of achieving common prosperity in modern rural areas.

Such workshops are parts of an innovative project in Zhejiang that helps low-income groups increase their income. Currently, more than 7,000 such workshops have been established in the province, employing more than 340,000 people, with an average monthly income increase of about 2,600 yuan ($368) per person.

After the leveling of the land and the greening transformation, Chenzhuang has also built a leisure park in the village and a free library for villagers to read and check out books in the center of the village. When villagers recall their previous lives of duck farming to the Global Times, they find it hard to believe the changes.

From small towns into high-tech parks

Thanks to the Green Rural Revival Program, the image of the countryside has been comprehensively lifted in Zhejiang. A total of 2,170 featured villages and over 3 million beautiful rural courtyards have been built, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In 2011, the program entered the stage of creating high-quality and beautiful villages. The integration of "lucid waters and lush mountains" into the new lives of the people of Zhejiang, as well as the significant changes in the environment, and the government's tremendous support for external talents, have attracted many investors and high-tech entrepreneurs.

In a high-tech park in Wuzhen, Global Times reporters met Jiang Jianguo, who used to work in display technology research in Silicon Valley, and has chosen to start a business in Wuzhen in 2019.

"When we planned to build a factory, we had high requirements and needed a very high-end purification workshop, and the local government helped us solve these problems with great seriousness," Jiang said. "This made us determined to establish our company in Wuzhen."

The high-end manufacturing industry in the field of electronic flexible screens created by Jiang has created new job opportunities and demonstrated the vitality of cutting-edge innovation and technology in this small town of Wuzhen, inducing the return of many young people who had migrated for work.

"In the past, if you wanted to find a good job, you had to go to first- or second-tier cities," said Shen Guyu, a young company employee, to the Global Times. "Now, you can work in high-tech enterprises in your hometown, and commuting is also very convenient."
Some employees also expressed their expectations for more high-tech enterprises in small towns. "After having a second child, my partner and I hope to leave the big city and return to our hometown for the sake of our children," said another employee, Wang Hua. The landing of these high-tech enterprises in Wuzhen makes it possible for them to engage in cutting-edge industries in their hometowns.

By the end of 2022, Zhejiang had registered 9.43 million operating entities, to which the private economy contributed 67 percent of the province's GDP, 71.7 percent of tax revenue, and 87.5 percent of employment. The booming private sector has provided unprecedented opportunities for young people in villages and towns to increase their income, find employment, and to produce new ideas.

In 2021, Zhejiang's Green Rural Revival Program entered the "creating future and achieving common prosperity" stage. The boundaries between urban and rural areas have gradually disappeared, and the foundation for sustainable development has become more solid.

In Shufeng village, Wuzhen, one can feel the gradual birth of a future village.

When Global Times reporters arrived at Shufeng village, villager Yu Liqin was preparing to build a new house, and village official Jiang Chao had agreed to measure the homestead with her in a very unconventional way.

Jiang demonstrated the various conditions of his homestead through the intelligent management system to Yu. With the help of aerial footage and the demonstration system, they quickly determined the required data. "In the past, it might have taken us half a day to measure on-site, but now, with this system, we can complete it in just a minute," Jiang said.

In 2022, Shufeng village was selected as one of the first provincial-level pilot "future villages" in Zhejiang. They began using digital technology to create a sustainable rural area, and the fully automated intelligent system started assisting villagers in their daily lives and work. Subsequently, a high-tech seedling base was established in Shufeng village. Villagers could either lease their land to the base or work as employees there.

Inside the 30,000-square-meter intelligent greenhouse in the village, the Global Times encountered Li Jingquan, a villager come employee who was testing a 5G inspection robot. This intelligent greenhouse integrates various new technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and big data. On a large display screen, the growth status of all plants and intelligent suggestions are shown. Additionally, an intelligent seedling planter is available to quickly and accurately transplant seedlings.

"With the help of this technology, the seedlings we cultivate are stronger and have a higher survival rate than before, allowing villagers who are engaged in planting to continuously increase their income and production," Li said.

By 2025, Zhejiang plans to build over a thousand "future villages" and narrow the gap between the highest and lowest per capita disposable income within the province to within 1.55, truly reducing the gap between rural and urban areas.

In Wuzhen, the villages and high-tech enterprises the Global Times reporters see are a reflection of the transformation of Zhejiang's villages under the guidance of the Green Rural Revival Program over the last 20 years.

During this period, the urban and rural areas of Wuzhen have developed in tandem, and each village has seized upon its own characteristics and embarked on its own path.

Twenty years later, when people think of Wuzhen again, they will think not only of the tourist attraction, but also of the annual World Internet Conference, theater festival, unique rural life, and attractive investment and employment prospects, which provide a vivid model for the modernization and development of more small towns.

Germany has shown a growing interest in strengthening economic ties with Southeast Asia. It is crucial that this cooperation is based on mutual benefits and win-win outcomes, rather than being driven by political agendas that could lead to a split of supply and industrial chains connected to China.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with leaders of Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand last week, a development that some German media outlets claimed represents the German government's aim to diversify trade relations in Asia and become less dependent on China.

For instance, the Chinese website of German publication Deutsche Welle published an article on Friday headlined "Scholz's speed dates: Looking for Southeast Asian partners to replace China?"

While topics like Southeast Asia replacing China may be attention-grabbing, given some Western politicians' pursuit of so-called de-risking, it is irresponsible to play up such a topic when it lacks much practical basis.

Anyone who is familiar with China-Germany trade data will understand how far-fetched the topic is. Despite various geopolitical headwinds in recent years, China remains Germany's most important trading partner, and bilateral trade far exceeds Germany's trade with the three Southeast Asian countries. 

In 2023, Germany's trade in goods with the three Southeast Asian countries totaled a mere 38 billion euros ($41.4 billion), while bilateral trade between China and Germany reached 299 billion euros in 2022 and 253 billion in 2023.

The Asian industrial chain is a complete one, with all countries in the region depending on each other and promoting each other's development. China and Southeast Asia have long shared a mutually beneficial relationship, and both sides are willing to push economic and trade cooperation to a higher level. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, industrial chains in China and ASEAN are expected to be further integrated.

It is true that in recent years, with rising labor costs in China, some labor-intensive manufacturing industries have shifted to some Southeast Asian countries, but many of those shifts are the results of China's industrial chains being extended due to various factors. 

The rise of Chinese exports of intermediate products and machinery equipment to ASEAN demonstrates the extension of industrial chains. The shift is in line with the general direction of accelerating industrial upgrading and transformation in China, and it also contributes to the prosperous development of Southeast Asia. It helps Chinese companies by reducing the pressure of rising domestic labor costs and growing trade protectionism against China. 

The China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area (CAFTA) took effect many years ago and contributed greatly to the liberalization and facilitation of trade among the 11 countries that signed it. 

China still aims to upgrade the liberalization of trade and investment with ASEAN and is trying to work with ASEAN to conclude negotiations for version 3.0 of the CAFTA as soon as possible, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

Apparently, ASEAN is in the process of trade integration and mutual development with various countries and regions. ASEAN's deepening trade cooperation with any country will only bring more cooperation potential for China, instead of substituting for it. 

For instance, Germany - which has not signed a free trade agreement with China - could enjoy market dividends in China through some Southeast Asian countries, while China could make use of its partnership with ASEAN countries when it comes to entering the EU market.

During the rise of Asian economies, the emphasis should always be on how to expand the space for cooperation and promote integration, instead of pursuing narrow-minded replacement, which will only lead to vicious competition and more conflict. No country can completely replace another in the global industrial chain.

It is a positive development if Germany is genuinely committed to enhancing cooperation with Southeast Asian countries. This collaboration can act as a stepping stone, rather than a replacement, for Germany's partnership with China, potentially opening up more opportunities and prospects for the prosperity and development of Asia. It would be self-defeating if one aims at driving a wedge between China and ASEAN.

China's merchandise trade in the first two months of 2024 hit a record high of 6.61 trillion yuan ($918.3 billion), up 8.7 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) announced on Thursday, beating forecasts and signaling a good start to the new year. 

Experts said that exports had gained growth momentum, thanks to expanding demand and rising product competitiveness. In the longer term, China's foreign trade will show stable and positive expansion, supporting the GDP growth target of about 5 percent.

Exports in the first two months rose 10.3 percent to 3.75 trillion yuan, and imports were up 6.7 percent to 2.86 trillion yuan.

"Foreign trade saw a better-than-expected performance in the January-February period, mirroring the resilience of the country's economy with expanding domestic and external demand," Tian Yun, an economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totaling 993.24 billion yuan, up 8.1 percent year-on-year and accounting for 15 percent of China's total trade.

The EU was China's second-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade of 832.39 billion yuan, down by 1.3 percent. The US was No.3, with trade up 3.7 percent to 707.7 billion yuan.

In the first two months, trade with Belt and Road Initiative partner countries reached 3.13 trillion yuan, up 9 percent. 

Zhou Maohua, an economist from China Everbright Bank, said on Thursday that the record trade figures reflected the recovery of overseas demand, the optimization of the export structure and a boom in new export drivers. 

Electromechanical products accounted for nearly 60 percent of Chinese exports, with automatic data processing equipment, integrated circuits and automobiles showing significant growth, the GAC said.

Exports of automatic data processing equipment reached 195.45 billion yuan, up 7.3 percent, while exports of integrated circuits soared 28.6 percent and those of vehicles increased 15.8 percent.

"The figures mirrored China's continuous industrial upgrading and showed that the competitiveness of its high-tech products and equipment manufacturing industry in the world was increasing," Tian noted.

Conditions were also favorable for trade by private enterprises. Their total trade stood at  3.61 trillion yuan, up 17.7 percent, accounting for 54.6 percent of the total - an increase of 4.2 percentage points from the same period last year.

"Growth in exports led to an increase in domestic production, while the increase in imports reflected strong domestic demand, both of which will help drive the country's GDP growth in the first quarter this year," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The Government Work Report, delivered by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday at the opening meeting of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress, set a GDP growth target of about 5 percent for 2024.

The government vowed to work to steadily increase the volume and raise the quality of foreign trade, with efforts including supporting businesses in diversifying their overseas markets and increasing new growth drivers for foreign trade, including trade in intermediate goods and green trade.

Tian noted that boosted by support policies, foreign trade will maintain moderately positive growth throughout the whole year with an expansion of 3-5 percent. 

"China's foreign trade is expected to hit a record high this year, contributing more to the realization of the country's GDP growth target," Tian said.

In the aftermath of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, oil leakage from the affected equipment at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant (Shika plant) in the most-affected central Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa was over five times higher than initially disclosed, arousing another wave of doubts and concerns among public and insiders over the safety of the nuclear power plants in the quake-prone Japanese areas.

Although Hokuriku Electric Power Company (HEPCO), the operator of the Shika plant, claimed that the leaked oil has no negative effects and external radiation levels remain unaffected, insiders on Tuesday questioned the company's credibility and transparency considering no evidence of their claims has been provided to the public. 

Also, they worry that the damages caused by the Noto quakes at nuclear power plant could be worse than initially disclosed. Many are worried that the Shika plant will be a repeat disaster of the Fukushima nuclear incident.

The Shika plant, located 65 kilometers from the epicenter, has already reported temporary power outages, oil leaks at transformers and water spill-over from nuclear fuel pools.

HEPCO said in the latest statement published on Tuesday that "there was no damage to the [nuclear power] equipment that would pose a safety issue. Additionally, there are no changes in the readings from the monitoring posts installed at the [nuclear] power plant, and there is no impact of radioactivity on the outside world." But it failed to provide relevant specific data and a report of the incident.

Earlier this week, HEPCO stated that due to the earthquake's impact, two external power supply transformers for Units 1 and 2 at the Shika plant were damaged. One transformer for Unit 2 was reported to have leaked approximately 3,500 liters of oil, rendering a portion of the external power supply system inoperable, according to the Xinhua News Agency on Saturday.

However, the company admitted on Friday that the actual oil leakage amounted to as much as 19,800 liters, and the timeline for repairing the external power supply system remains uncertain.

Multiple Japanese media outlets reported that the company is recovering the leaked oil.

Another transformer for Unit 2 at the plant has been found to have leaked approximately 100 liters of oil, HEPCO added.

Moreover, there have been reports of ground subsidence around the reactor building of Unit 1, though the company assured that these conditions will not impact the safety of the Shika plant.

However, local media reported that there were "explosion sounds and a burning smell" near the transformer for Unit 2 at the plant. The power company explained that these were the sounds of the automatic fire suppression system.

Given the stained history of mistakes, concealment and deception made by certain Japanese electric power companies including the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the public seem to have lost trust in these companies.

The HEPCO claimed the leaked oil was used for insulation and cooling and has no negative health and environmental impact. However, whether the oil has been contaminated by the nuclear radioactive substances, whether the oil leakage would affect the operation of nuclear power plant and cause radiation leakage, and whether the HEPCO has fully recovered the leaked oil from the sea remain unclear, said law professor Chang Yen-chiang, who is also the executive director of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Research Institute at Dalian Maritime University.

Chang told the Global Times on Tuesday if HEPCO fails to fully recover the leaked oil in time and prevent it from spreading and polluting the maritime environment, the company may be in violation of the "Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972", the "London Convention" for short, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

If there is a similar situation between this Shika plant and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, what is most worrying is the potential dumping of contaminated water from Shika plant as the contaminated water could be dumped directly into the Sea of Japan, reaching the coast of China. Given that the Sea of Japan is a semi-enclosed sea, the self-purification capacity of such sea is much weaker than that of an open ocean. So once the contaminated water is discharged, the radioactive contamination will last longer in and around the sea, according to Chang.

China will significantly improve the signal of its mobile communication networks including 4G and 5G covering more than 80,000 locations, along 25,000 kilometers of railways, 350,000 kilometers of expressways, and 150 metro lines by the end of 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and other government departments said on Wednesday in a notice.

By the end of 2024, the average downlink access rate of mobile networks should not be lower than 200 Mbps, while the average uplink access rate should not be lower than 40 Mbps. Major service indicators including signal latency and delays will be improved, read the notice.

The goal for 2025 will be further improved, according to the notice. More than 120,000 key locations, 30,000 kilometers of railways, 500,000 kilometers of roads, and 200 metro lines will be covered by mobile networks with an increased 5G coverage.

The average downlink access rate of the mobile networks by the end of 2025 should not be lower than 220 Mbps, and the average uplink access rate should reach 45 Mbps or higher. The major service indicators are expected to be fully optimized.

The 11 central government departments will carry out a specific operation to upgrade the nation’s signal coverage in a bid to meet growing public demand and support the digital transformation of key industries in China.

Dedicated measures will be implemented to strengthen mobile coverage for the key locations from medical facilities to villages, accelerate the optimization for crucial services, and improve the monitoring and supervision.

China currently has more than 6 million 4G base stations with the network covering all urban and rural areas, according to official data. The number of 5G base stations has reached 3.28 million with more stations to be rolled out this year, which will set a solid foundation for the nation’s digital transformation.

China will strive to realize the commercialization of 6G by 2030, and it is expected that standardization for the technology will be achieved around 2025, according to Wang Zhiqin, the leader of China's 6G promotion team and vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in December 2023.

Multiple Chinese cities including Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province have recently announced a number of policies to stabilize employment and manufacturing around the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays (which falls from February 10-17) in order to ensure a strong economic start and sustained recovery in 2024.

Dongguan will offer subsidies worth 300 yuan ($42) to every worker outside Guangdong that will return to their positions at key enterprises in the city from February 12-17, while 200 yuan in subsidies will be provided for those willing to return to their posts from February 18-20, according to a circular on local government website.

In addition, enterprises in the city will get subsidies of up to 300,000 yuan for new hiring from February 10 to March 9. The city is offering a series of targeted policies to ensure manufacturing production in enterprises above the designated scale, services firms enhancing effectiveness, and enterprises attending exhibitions, among others.

Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province and Yongkang in East China's Zhejiang Province have recently announced similar measures to encourage enterprises to expand employment and increase output for a good start in 2024.

Among the measures, enterprises in Quanzhou will receive subsidies of 1,000 yuan per worker, capped at 200,000 yuan in total, if they have taken active measures to stabilize workforce and maintain continuous production in February.

The moves came as local governments are ramping up efforts to implement pro-growth policy measures to kickstart the country's economic recovery in 2024 following the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December 2023.

On the first working day of 2024, Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, wrote in an article published in the People's Daily that China's economic recovery and long-term improvement remain unchanged, calling for the implementation of policies that would help stabilize expectations, promote growth and boost employment.

"Currently, the Chinese economy is experiencing comprehensive, full-loaded recovery across many sectors. The economy is expected to be better than foreign financial institutions' forecast in 2024, and may reach 5 percent growth," Cao Heping, a professor from Peking University, told the Global Times.

He said the governments should step up credit support in 2024 in order to ensure reasonable and ample liquidity to meet the needs of real economy.

The new curriculum guidelines in China's Taiwan island have been met with huge controversy recently as a local high school teacher slammed the textbooks' removal of large chunks of traditional Chinese literature as "shameless." Her remarks not only gained wide support from student groups across the island but was also recognized by former regional leader Ma Ying-jeou.

Experts said on Tuesday that the "natural independence" among young people in Taiwan is actually a result of the "de-Sinicization" education they have been exposed to under the scheme of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities. This politicization of education is fundamentally fragile and doomed to collapse because, regardless of the efforts made by the DPP, they cannot change the fact that their bloodline and cultural roots stem from China and will always be Chinese.

At a press conference on December 4, Ou Kui-chih, a Chinese literature teacher at Taipei First Girls' High School, blasted the current curriculum guidelines, introduced in 2019 as part of Taiwan's extension of its education program from nine to 12 years, as "shameless." Ou argued that students were no longer able to learn about important values, such as integrity and patriotism, from the classic writings of ancient literary masters, local media reported. 

In an approximately 2,000-character statement, Ou criticized the education reform in Taiwan over the years, saying it has been guided by the ill principle of "de-Sinicization," leading schools, teachers and students into a dark educational abyss.

"While prestigious schools in Japan are asking students to learn Chinese literature and Koreans are claiming that Confucius is from their bloodline, we are ignorantly choosing to sever our cultural heritage," Ou said. "While the world has caught 'Chinese fever,' the Taiwan authorities are choosing to 'self-castrate' and let the whole generation be destroyed by ideology."

The video of Ou's speech soon went viral on social media in Taiwan, with many sharing the poem of Shame and Integrity written by philologist Gu Yanwu from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), which soon began trending on Facebook. 

Local media reported that compared to the previous curriculum, the new one recommends 17 fewer traditional Chinese texts, meaning half of the original content has been deleted.

Former Taiwan regional leader Ma Ying-jeou on Friday said that he admired Ou for speaking out, while Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Sean Lien said that the DPP was using the guidelines to make Taiwan people "illiterate."

It has been pointed out by several local media outlets and Kuo Jeng-liang, a former Taiwan politician, that the current regional leader Tsai Ing-wen is "terrible and clumsy" at expressing herself in Chinese.

The core of the "de-Sinicization" movement in Taiwan is cultural secessionism, and the purpose is to serve political independence, Wang Jianmin, a senior cross-Straits expert at Minnan Normal University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

While opposition voices for "de-Sinicization" have always been loud but were suppressed in the past, the high school teacher's speech rekindled public attention this time, as the problem was raised by someone in the education system, not driven by factional struggles but purely from the perspective of educational integrity and respect for history. This indicates that the DPP's educational reform has caused serious dissatisfaction within the system itself, experts noted. 

Despite the controversy, however, the DPP will continue its efforts to de-Sinicize Taiwan and uphold its so-called Cultural Fundamental Act, which essentially aims to reconstruct a Taiwan-centric culture and deconstruct traditional Chinese culture, Wang said.

However, while the DPP tries to push forward its secessionist scheme, the fact will always remain that Taiwan compatriots are ultimately descendants of the Chinese nation, with Chinese cultural heritage ingrained in their genes. 

The National Taiwan University initiated a poll on the matter in recent days, in which a total of 1,814 students participated, with 38 percent expressing support for Ou, saying that classical Chinese is an important part of Chinese language education. 

Looking at Xinjiang, and the unique cultural traditions of its various ethnic groups - such as Kazakh throat singing on the grasslands, the Kirgiz eagle hunting customs on the Pamir Plateau, and the Xinjiang songs sung at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains - one can see these diverse ethnic cultures are equally cherished and deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese civilization.

GT reporters again travelled to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In this first installment of a series of articles, GT tells character stories based on ethnic cultural inheritance in Xinjiang, which powerfully refute the false information made up by some anti-China forces claiming that "Xinjiang adopts an assimilation policy towards ethnic minorities in an attempt to systematically eliminate Uygur culture."

"Sing it again, follow me..." Under the guidance of their teacher, a group of young students sing in unison with their faces showing seriousness and joy. They are students at Class IV in the ninth grade at the Middle School of Hezwey town in Wuqia county, and they are singing one of the three major epic poems of China's ethnic minorities - Manas.

"How much has the earth changed, with valleys drying up and turning into wastelands, wastelands transforming into lakes, and lakes evolving into fertile fields... Everything is constantly changing, yet the stories of our ancestors have been passed down to this day." The students have deep and powerful voices, along with a passionate demeanor.

Children in Wuqia county in the southwestern part of Xinjiang have grown up almost always accompanied by the song of Manas.

Manas is the legendary hero of the Kirgiz ethnic group, and the epic poem Manas is named after him. It tells his story and the story of seven generations of descendants leading the Kirgiz people to defend their homeland and pursue a happy life. This epic poem, which spans 230,000 lines, can be called the "encyclopedia" of the Kirgiz ethnic group.

Yumtal Yetku, a 15-year-old Kirgiz boy, is one of the inheritors of the poem, studying under the tutorage of Janur Turgaby, a representative inheritor of the Manas intangible cultural heritage project at the autonomous regional level.

When he was 3 years old, influenced by his mother, Yumtal developed an interest in reciting the epic poem. Through years of practice, he honed his skill in reciting it, becoming a well-known "little Manas Qi" (young reciter of Manas) in the local area.

"Although we Manas Qis have an excellent memory, the teacher never lets us hold the text for rote memorization. Instead, he interprets it for us first, and we then recite and sing it after really understanding it," Yumtal told the Global Times. "If we do not understand the hero's emotions, how can we handle the movement and expression of singing, let alone making innovative expressions in our own language?"

When talking about Manas, Yumtal always has a smile on his face. It is not difficult to see that learning Manas brings him joy and a sense of accomplishment. The ability to sing more than 1,000 lines of Manas has allowed Yumtal to surpass his peers. Yumtal said that now he can memorize the content of some eight chapters and sing continuously for half an hour.

In addition to learning from Janur during summer and winter vacations, he also has the opportunity to practice at school. The school has established a club for students interested in Manas, and under the guidance of music teacher Tohtkul Kurbanali, more than 40 club members have the opportunity to learn the poem twice a week. Yumtal has become their tutor.

Zhang Yifan, a 15-year-old Han girl, is also a member of the club. When learning the lyrics of Manas, she writes down the pronunciation in pinyin and often asks her classmates for help. For these children who are about to face the high school entrance examination, singing together is also a great way to relieve stress.

In the local area, people can be seen singing and performing Manas everywhere. The inheritance and protection of the poem is not limited to this school club.

In 2006, Manas was included in the first list of national intangible cultural heritage, and in 2009, it was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In recent years, with the joint efforts of experts and scholars from various ethnic groups, the research and protection of Manas has achieved remarkable results, such as training of artists, organizing competitions and academic seminars, and publishing and translating the epic poem into multiple languages.

In 2009, the Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture established the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection (Manas Protection and Research) Center, and has continuously held the Manas international cultural tourism festival and singing competition. At the same time, cultural inheritance training classes have been held in cultural centers, schools, and township comprehensive cultural stations, establishing a team of inheritors that combine the old, middle-aged, and young.

Yumtal told the Global Times that his favorite part of Manas is when the hero turns defeat into victory in a battle. Yumtal admires Manas' courage and determination. Now, this young inheritor of the epic poem also has the same courage. He has participated in the Manas international cultural tourism festival, and often performs with his predecessors on the stage, honing his skills.

China has become a major power in graduate education with graduate students on campus reaching 3.65 million in 2022, the second largest in the world, China's Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Tuesday, urging for a change in the attitude that prioritizes academic degrees over professional degrees in graduate education in order to build a strong power of education. 

Educational experts called for a reform of the talent evaluation system, which is only based on academic qualifications, saying "blind" expansion of graduate student numbers instead of improving the quality of graduate education will lead to the devaluation of academic qualifications.

At present, the number of academic doctorate programs at Chinese universities has doubled from 10 years ago, while the number of professional doctorate programs has increased three-fold, according to the MOE's Tuesday press briefing, which introduced the ministry's advice on further promoting the differentiated development of graduate education for academic and professional degrees that the ministry previously issued. 

However, Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, emphasized the importance of ensuring the quality of graduate student training. He told the Global Times on Tuesday that the expansion of graduate students should be kept within an appropriate range.

According to Xiong, now that higher education has entered the popularization era, China has to form a reasonable talent training system that doesn't solely focus on educational background but also values talents' core capabilities and performance quality. 

At present, the homogeneous development of academic and professional degrees in graduate education still exists and a further reverse of the attitude that prioritizes academic degrees over professional degrees in graduate education is needed, Ren Youqun, head of the MOE's Department of Teacher Education, noted during the Tuesday briefing. 

According to the MOE, the basic paradigm of differentiated development of graduate education for academic and professional degrees has basically taken shape in China with both academic and professional degrees equally valued. 

The proportion of professional degrees increased from 32.29 percent in 2012 to 56.4 percent in 2022, and the current proportion of graduate students on campus for professional degrees accounted for 61.6 percent, more precisely meeting the economic and social needs for the high-quality development of these industries. 

According to Ren, the number of fresh doctoral graduates reached 75,200 in 2023. Their employment data as of the end of August shows that fewer than 40 percent were recruited by colleges and scientific research institutes. 

Besides this, more than one-fifth of the fresh PhD holders were hired by enterprises, a proportion which has been increasing for three years in a row. Ren said that the proportion is still not as high as those in some advanced countries and the demand for doctoral talents in society will continue to increase in the future, while the requirements on the quality and capabilities of high-level talents will also be more diversified. 

According to Ren, the MOE's advice clarifies that both academic degrees and professional degrees are crucial for the country to cultivate high-level innovative talents, and they should be equally valued by educational institutions. 

The two types of degrees have different goals in cultivating talents, but both emphasize theoretical knowledge, systematic specialized knowledge, and innovative spirit and capabilities. Additionally, professional degrees cannot solely focus on the training of professional skills. 

According to Xiong, dividing graduate education into academic degrees and professional degrees is a fundamental adjustment to the structure of talent cultivation, rather than a simple change in terminology. 

China's domestically developed passenger jets - the C919 and the ARJ21 - get ready to fly to Hong Kong from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport on December 12, 2023. They arrive at the Hong Kong International Airport on the same day. This is the first time for the C919 to leave the Chinese mainland. Photo: VCG