Harbin, the capital city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is expected to embrace another wave of ice and snow tourism as several online travel platforms showing a rapid increase in search volumes for local tourism destinations, routes and products. The "ice city," which will host the 9th Asian Winter Games in February 2025, is carrying out various preparations and ice and snow tourism activities to welcome visitors from across the country.

On Chinese social media Sina Weibo, the trending topic "Harbin is really working hard for this winter" has surged to the hot search list, with a reading volume surpassing 127,000 as of press time. One related video showed the recent cleaning of St. Sophia Cathedral in Harbin, and the sweeper trucks are even covered with content recommending Harbin's special attractions.

According to Harbin News, in preparation for the upcoming peak season of ice and snow tourism, the staff of the Songhua River sightseeing cableway recently conducted safety inspections and maintenance on the cableway.

Online videos posted by netizens showed that in anticipation of the guests coming to their hometown, the people of Harbin began cleanup efforts in the streets, including cleaning the stone pillars along the roadside, staircases and lamp posts, as well as repainting the chairs on Central Street. 

Data from Tongcheng Travel, a leading travel platform in China, showed that in the last week of October, the search volume for Harbin tourism increased by 156 percent compared with the previous week, while hotel bookings in the city for next three month rise by 78 percent  year on year.

Statistics from Trip.com, another leading travel platform, showed that there is a high volume of bookings for Harbin travel-related products for the period from December 15 to 31. 

In another development, according to data from China's e-commerce platform Meituan, since October, the search popularity for winter tourism activities such as skiing, snow hiking and viewing auroras and rime has increased by 72 percent compared to the previous month. Among these, Harbin is the city with the highest search volume, with popular related attractions including Harbin Ice-Snow World and Yabuli ski resort. 

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Heilongjiang will launch a 100-day winter tourism initiative on Friday, aiming to establish itself as a world-class ice-and-snow tourism destination, the provincial department of culture and tourism said.

On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle-sharing platform, many netizens have been looking for a travel companion to visit Harbin with, while others are asking for recommendations for local attractions, restaurants and accommodation, the Global Times learnt on Wednesday.

"I really want to go to Harbin to see the snow. Who can understand the persistence of a person born in Hainan in seeing snow?" wrote a netizen. "I can't wait to go to Harbin!" read another netizen's post.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, told the Global Times on Wednesday that after the surge in popularity of winter tourism in Harbin in 2023, the city has made improvements in its public service capabilities. "Harbin is poised to achieve greater accomplishments during the ice and snow tourism in the coming season," Dai said.

The 9th Asian Winter Games will open in Harbin on February 7, 2025, which would welcome the highest number of participating countries and regions and athletes in the history of the event.

During the Games, a series of activities will be held in the Athletes' Village and the Ice and Snow World, including Heilongjiang's intangible cultural heritage experiences, ice acrobatics performances and an opera art parade.

According to Xinhua, the General Office of the State Council issued guidelines on Wednesday, which state that China aims to promote its ice and snow economy as a new growth point, with the goal of reaching an economic scale of 1.2 trillion yuan ($169 billion) by 2027.

The official social media account of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) News Media Center on Monday released a photo, hinting that China's long-anticipated J-35 stealth fighter jet might debut at the upcoming Airshow China 2024.

China Bugle, the official media account of the PLA's News Media Center, on Monday released the post titled "Super spoilers! Is the J-35 officially announced?" accompanied by a photo showing the vertical tail of an aircraft marked with the number "75." 

"Is this an official image of the new aircraft?! Is it the J-35 that netizens have been eagerly anticipating? Do not rush, we will see you in Zhuhai in 3+5 days," China Bugle said.

The Airshow China 2024 is scheduled to be held from November 12 to 17 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province.

While the post is short, it contained significant information, as it is the first time the long-anticipated J-35 has appeared on an official media platform.

Chinese military expert Zhang Xuefeng told the Global Times on Monday that while the post used the question marks, given the authority and reliability of the official media, this post indeed serves as a "spoiler" about the J-35, confirming the existence of this aircraft type. 

Judging from the vertical tail's shape, it is very likely to be a stealth fighter jet, Zhang said after viewing the photo.

"The photo also displayed the number '75' painted on the fighter jet's vertical tail. This year marks the 75th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China, and November 11 also marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PLA Air Force, indicating that this number represents the PLA Air Force's 75 years of glorious history from November 11, 1949," Zhang said.

The debut of the new warplane highlights the continuous development of the PLA Air Force over the past 75 years, particularly in terms of equipment development, Zhang said.

Despite China's ban on solid waste imports three years ago, developed countries continue to exploit regulatory loopholes to export waste to developing countries including China, avoiding higher recycling costs at home.

Other developing countries, such as those in Southeast Asia, alongside China, have increasingly restricted foreign waste imports, but this has not halted the practice.

A key driver of this issue is the profitability and low risk of waste trafficking. Developed countries, aiming to cut costs, use "waste colonialism" as a tactic, exporting plastic and other low-value waste, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times.

Many of these wastes are contaminated with toxic heavy metals and other hazardous substances, leading to significant environmental and public health risks in receiving countries, Ma noted, calling for global efforts to tackle these issues.

'Low-risk crimes'

In China, the imported or smuggled waste is straightforwardly called "foreign waste." Those are low-value waste products from other countries, including untreated organic materials, household waste, medical waste, various industrial waste liquids and residues, as well as certain used electronics or components.

Although some items may hold limited recycling potential, they often fail to meet environmental standards and may release toxic heavy metals, organic chemicals or even radioactive substances during processing, leading to resource depletion and environmental contamination.

In September this year, Lianhe Zaobao reported that a ship carrying 102 containers departed from Albania's Durres port, only to be denied entry upon arrival in Thailand. Some reports indicated that these containers held toxic waste, prompting Thai authorities to reject them.

The term "waste colonialism," as The Guardian's article called it, aptly describes the practice by which Western countries export plastic and other types of waste to less-developed countries.

The EU parliament noted that in 2021 the EU generated 16.13 million tons of plastic waste, averaging 36.1 kilograms per person. Although 6.56 million tons were recycled, about half of the collected plastic waste was exported for processing, often to non-EU countries with fewer resources for safe waste management.

In 2022, the US exported more than 950 million tons of plastic waste meant for recycling and a significant portion of that ended up in Southeast Asia, PBS reported.

Historically, China was a primary destination for these exports, but recent restrictions have prompted the waste to go to other countries, primarily Turkey, India and Egypt, with increasing risks of incineration and landfill use, according to the EU parliament.

Southeast Asia is another destination of developed countries' dumps.

Nikkei Asia reported that from 2017 to 2021, ASEAN countries, which comprise less than 9 percent of the global population, received approximately 17 percent of all global plastic waste imports, based on UN data. A Greenpeace report from 2019 highlighted a sharp 171 percent increase in plastic waste imports to Southeast Asia, rising to 2.26 million tons between 2016 and 2018 alone.

Imported trash has swamped Southeast Asia, Nikkei Asia said.

Liu Jianguo, a professor from Tsinghua University's School of Environment told Global Times that the global flow of "foreign waste" from developed to developing countries has not significantly changed, primarily due to the ongoing disparity in global industrial division. Developed countries tend to focus on high-value industries like R&D and manufacturing, while lower-value waste recycling industries are relegated to developing countries.

"In today's globalized world, waste management has become an increasingly pressing concern in which production, consumption habits, waste crime, waste trafficking, corruption, organized crime, money laundering and the circular economy are intertwined," said Masood Karimipour, UN Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. "The crime of waste trafficking is taking away the value that legal, well-regulated waste trade brings to sustainable economies."

"Waste trafficking is a crime that has a profound impact on the environment, bringing high profits and low risks to perpetrators. If we are to fight this crime, we must change this by closing regulatory gaps, increasing enforcement, and strengthening cooperation at home and abroad," said Preeyaporn Suwannaked, Director General of the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand.

International push

In response to escalating global plastic pollution, ethical responsibility and strengthened regulation are emphasized as essential measures to address the problem of "foreign waste."

In March 2022, the resumed fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) adopted a historic resolution to establish an international legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, including oceanic plastic pollution.

Following China's lead, several countries are also taking action. Thailand has announced a comprehensive ban on plastic waste imports, set to take full effect by January 1, 2025.

"To resolve this issue, there must be a balanced international industrial division and an improvement in developing countries' economic and regulatory capabilities," Liu emphasized. "For developed countries, voicing environmental slogans is futile without genuine accountability. They must both regulate waste exports and establish robust domestic recycling systems to avoid outsourcing the cost to less affluent countries," Liu said.

Ma also emphasized that the rising living standards in developing countries are leading to increased domestic waste production, which necessitates efficient waste management systems and stringent regulation.

He noted that China currently mandates waste incineration companies to install online monitoring systems and publicly disclose emissions data. This rigorous regulatory approach has garnered interest from other developing countries and serves as a model they could adopt.

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