China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced on Monday that the country's 144-hour visa-free transit policy has been expanded to three more entry ports, taking the number of Chinese ports covered by the policy to 37.
The move marks the ramped-up effort by Chinese government to facilitate international travel and opening-up with more convenient visa policy.
The three new ports are Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Central China's Henan Province, Lijiang Sanyi International Airport in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, and the Mohan railway port in Yunnan, the administration said in a statement.
Starting from Monday, the 144-hour visa-free transit policy at the Zhengzhou airport will allow visitors to travel within the administrative region of Henan. Additionally, the specific area covered by the 144-hour visa-free policy in Yunnan Province will be expanded from Kunming city to include eight other cities and regions within the province.
With the new addition of entry ports, the NIA has implemented the 144-hour visa-free transit policy in a total of 37 ports in China.
Foreign citizens from 54 countries including the US, Canada, and the UK who enter China through the designated entry ports and hold valid international travel documents and connecting tickets to a third country within 144 hours, will be allowed to stay in designated areas for tourism, business, and visiting relatives visa-free for 144 hours.
The NIA said that the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policies, implemented since January 2013, has played a crucial role in supporting the nation's high-level opening up and facilitating international travel and exchanges.
The expansion of the visa-free transit policy in Henan and Yunnan provinces will offer foreign citizens more options when traveling to China for tourism and business.
According to NIA, the total number of visa-free entries made by eligible foreigners exceeded 8.54 million in the first six months this year, accounting for 52 percent of the inbound trips during the first half year and representing a year-on-year growth of 190.1 percent.
China is supporting private enterprises in leading major technological breakthroughs, emphasizing the improvement of mechanisms for their participation in national projects. This is part of a series of significant measures launched following the recently concluded third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The third plenary session adopted a resolution on further deepening reforms designed to comprehensively advance Chinese modernization. Reforms and policies regarding the private economy are crucial components of this resolution.
The meeting highlighted the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system, while also emphasizing the need to better leverage market mechanisms to create a fairer and more dynamic market environment, stimulating the intrinsic motivation and innovative vitality of the entire society, according Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs.
Enterprises, as an essential part of China's economy, have played a crucial role in the development and construction of multiple innovation and high-tech fields. Enterprises have become the main source of effective invention patents in China. According to the National Intellectual Property Administration, in 2023, enterprises accounted for over 70 percent of effective invention patents, exceeding 3 million in total.
The resolution issued after the third plenary session further emphasized the importance of developing the private economy, aimed at promoting the complementary and common development of various ownership economies in China, Han said.
Further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization is a significant goal of this session, including attention to both private and state-owned enterprises. According to Han, China will push for independent operations and market-driven reforms of state-owned enterprises, and foster a better environment for the private sector, providing more opportunities through a long-term mechanism that supports capable private companies in leading national technological projects.
Administrative inspections involving private enterprises should be standardized, the best business environment is one governed by law, hence the need to formulate and introduce a law promoting the private economy, Han added.
Encouraging private enterprises to participate in major national projects is a development plan China highly values. Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, stated in March that private enterprises are encouraged and supported to participate in major national projects and shortfall projects.
The NDRC will continue to recommend high-quality projects to private capital, helping private capital to find projects and assisting private investment projects in fundings, Zheng stated.
Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013, historic and remarkable accomplishments have been made in comprehensively deepening reform. Here are some numbers behind China's deepening reform.
The Asia-Pacifc-6E, or the APStar-6E, China's first all-electric propulsion communication satellite, has successfully passed in-orbit technology verification and ground station technology reviews in Hong Kong, which means the satellite has become fully operational after having successfully passed all in-orbit tests, according to spacecraft manufacturer China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) on Monday.
As of Monday, all tests outlined in the in-orbit testing protocol were completed successfully. The payload of the APStar-6E is functioning normally, with performance consistent with ground test results, meeting contractual specifications and in-orbit operational requirements, the CGWIC told the Global Times on Monday in a statement.
Both sets of Hall/Ion electric propulsion systems on the platform met the station-keeping requirements, read the statement.
By providing highly cost-effective, high-throughput broadband satellite resources, the APStar-6E will aid the development of the regional information industry and address the digital divide faced by developing areas, according to the CGWIC.
Developed by the China Academy of Spacecraft Technology using the DFH-3E satellite platform, the APStar-6E is the first satellite of its kind.
The APStar-6E is operated by Hong Kong-based APT Mobile Satcom Limited and managed by APT Satellite Company Limited. The APStar-6E focuses on the Southeast Asian market, providing high-capacity, cost-effective broadband communication services to the region.
The APStar-6E communication satellite and its independent propulsion module were successfully launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on January 13, 2023.
After separating from the propulsion module on January 23 of the same year, the satellite used its onboard Hall/Ion dual electric propulsion systems to autonomously change orbits, reaching geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and positioning at its test location on June 10, 2024.
The APStar-6E satellite is the new generation of all-electric propulsion commercial satellites in the DFH series, and is also the first Chinese satellite to achieve autonomous orbit transfer.
After reaching the GEO, the in-orbit testing of the APStar-6E proceeded smoothly. Following the completion of the first phase of in-orbit testing on July 9, 2024, the satellite was repositioned to its operational slot at 134°E, co-located with the APStar-6C and APStar-6D.
It is equipped with 25 Ku-band user beams and 3 Ka-band gateway beams, with a communication capacity of approximately 30 Gbps and an in-orbit lifespan of 15 years.
The successful operation of the APStar-6E is significant for achieving high-capacity and low-cost satellite platforms, enhancing the international competitiveness of China's communication satellite platforms, realizing fully autonomous orbit raising and long-term autonomous operations, and improving the intelligent autonomy of China's satellite platforms, according to the CGWIC.
CGWIC, a subsidiary of the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), has conducted 13 in-orbit delivery communications satellite programs for international customers so far, and has delivered its communications satellite system to multiple countries and regions including Nigeria, Venezuela, Pakistan, Bolivia, Laos, Belarus and Algeria, the Global Times has learned.
Senior government officials and scholars from more than 110 countries and 30 international organizations gathered in Beijing at the second High-Level Conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development on Friday, where they highly praised China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI), saying that it’s bringing a new model of sustainable development cooperation that better aligns with the interests and demands of Global South countries.
Under the GDI, China has brought tangible benefits to their countries’ economic and societal development on the basis of mutual respect, participants at the conference said, which are showcased not only in funding, creating job opportunities, and alleviating poverty, but also in upgrading their industries and addressing climate change.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony on Friday, as he elaborated on the achievements made in the past three years since the initiative was proposed in 2021. By far, more than 80 countries have joined the “Group of Friends” of the GDI, with more than 40 countries and international institutions signing cooperation memoranda of understanding with China.
During last year’s high-level conference, China announced the establishment of a global project pool and raised a special development fund to support it. To date, the pool includes over 1,000 projects, with more than 500 projects completed or underway.
China will continue to expand the pool and increase its funding, prioritizing “small and beautiful” livelihood projects, said Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
In the context of a turbulent world with global economic recovery facing setbacks and the gap between the Global North and South continuing to widen, China, as a member of the Global South, firmly stands with developing countries, the top diplomat noted.
“We advocate for the advancement of dialogue and cooperation between the Global South and North, and we call on developed countries to fulfill their commitments and provide more effective and targeted support to developing countries,” Wang said.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu Charlot Salwai, who is visiting China from July 7-12, attended the conference, where he said the GDI “ushered in a beam of hope for global development.” Three years on, Vanuatu has become a true beneficiary of this great initiative, Salwai said.
Thanks to the joint efforts by the two sides, the total value of trade between China and Vanuatu in 2023 reached $138 million, up by 27 percent year on year. “Although the world faces increasing uncertainties and instabilities, Vanuatu will always trust China as a reliable development partner,” the Salwai said.
During a panel on the sidelines of the conference on Friday, Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, explained his “passion and sincerity” for voicing for the Global South.
“The United States, my country, has many strange ideas. That's part of the reason for the division in the world … The whole idea that we're in some kind of confrontation is a profound misunderstanding,” Sachs noted.
“The US has these two big oceans that separate it from the rest of the world, and from knowledge – they don't understand. So my first advice is that [US] congressman should get a passport and go see the world and visit these beautiful countries represented on stage here, then we would have a different kind of world,” he continued.
It is “ironic and notable” to see China hosting this “great forum” while in Washington, they are having the NATO Summit, which “is never going to solve anything: what is NATO going to solve except the waste of money and lives?” Sachs told the media at the panel.
In response to Western hypes about China’s cooperation with the Global South countries is a way to “assert influence,” Hamad Al Hosani, researcher at TRENDS Research and Advisory, a think tank from the United Arab Emirates, told the Global Times, and said his country never sees it that way.
“China’s focus is on trade and investment, economy, technology, and we need China to help find solutions to many problems we’re having today. They don’t use guns and violence, and it’s not about politics,” Hosani said.
For the first time, astronomers have spotted a middleweight black hole in the nearby universe. The discovery could help solve the riddle of how even heftier black holes form and grow up with their host galaxies.
The black hole, which sits about 16,000 light-years from Earth in the center of star cluster Omega Centauri, is at least 8,200 times as massive as the sun, putting it squarely in a rare category of intermediate-mass black holes, researchers report July 10 in Nature. Most of the black holes astronomers have detected fall into one of two categories. They’re either stellar-mass black holes, with masses up to about 100 times that of the sun, or supermassive black holes, which reside in the centers of galaxies and clock in at hundreds of thousands to billions of times the mass of the sun.
Black holes with masses in the middle could help span the gap between the two categories and explain how the supermassive ones got so big. But these black holes are a little like Bigfoot: There have been many claimed sightings, but most turn out not to be real (SN: 2/8/17).
“There’s this rather wide mass range, between 100 and 100,000 solar masses, where there are only very few detections,” says astronomer Maximilian Häberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. “It’s interesting to find out whether they are there, and we just don’t see them because they are hard to detect. Or maybe there’s also a reason why they don’t exist at all.”
One reason to think midsized black holes should exist is because the supermassive black holes astronomers have spotted in the early universe didn’t have time to grow so big if they were just eating gas and stars like black holes do today (SN: 1/18/21). If those black holes grew from mergers of intermediate-mass seeds, that could solve the puzzle (SN: 6/2/23).
“It’s like a missing link that is needed to explain the existence of the supermassive black holes,” says Texas-based astronomer and data scientist Eva Noyola, who was not involved in the new work. “If it’s proven that [intermediate-mass black holes] happen in dense stellar clusters, you have a solution there that’s pretty elegant and simple.”
So astronomers have been hunting for midsize black holes for decades, and searching Omega Centauri specifically since at least 2008. As the most massive cluster of stars in the Milky Way, it’s a relatively easy spot to search, and it may be the remnant core of another galaxy that merged with the Milky Way about 10 billion years ago (SN: 11/1/18).
“It’s basically a galactic nucleus frozen in time,” says study coauthor Nadine Neumayer, also of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Its black hole could be representative of all small galaxies’ black holes 10 billion years ago. “It tells us immediately something about the seed mass for black holes.”
But previous studies left it unclear whether Omega Centauri hosted a single medium-size black hole, or a bunch of smaller black holes close together.
Using 20 years of Hubble Space Telescope observations, Hӓberle and colleagues tracked the motions of 1.4 million individual stars in the cluster and searched for stars moving faster than expected.
The team found seven stars zipping around the innermost regions of the cluster at speeds between 66 and 113 kilometers per second — speeds that should have rocketed the stars out of the cluster altogether. The only way those stars could remain in the cluster is if a single massive object is holding them close, the team concludes.
The observations of superfast stars, combined with other observations through the years, should resolve the debate about the black hole in Omega Centauri, says Noyola, who was on the team that first claimed to see the black hole in 2008 and faced skepticism when they reported the result.
It wasn’t until over a decade later that astronomers nabbed undeniable evidence of an intermediate mass black hole. The first solid detection came from the LIGO gravitational wave observatory, which recorded ripples in spacetime shaken off after two smaller black holes merged to form a single black hole with about 142 solar masses (SN: 9/2/20). But that collision occurred about 17 billion light-years from Earth, making it challenging to study.
Omega Centauri’s black hole has two advantages over that one, from an astronomer’s perspective: It’s in our galactic neighborhood, and astronomers can continue to observe it. Hӓberle and his colleagues are planning to use the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, to get more information on the orbiting stars’ speeds, which will let them put better limits on the black hole’s mass.
Another group, led by astrophysicist Oleg Kargaltsev at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is using JWST to look for light emitted by super-hot gas flowing into the black hole.
“It will be a completely independent, very different method of proving that there is an intermediate-mass black hole,” Kargaltsev says.
As the former director of the Center for Intelligence and National Security Studies in the Philippines, Rommel C. Banlaoi, the Chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence, and Terrorism Research, has a deep understanding of Philippine foreign policy and US-Philippine defense cooperation. He was assigned to help advise the president on security matters in 2022, as a deputy national security adviser, but his connections with China were questioned as posing a "security risk" to the Philippines. His nomination was later revoked, local media reported. His experience has seen the Philippine government shift from neutrality to a bias toward the US in diplomacy and defense.
Recently, Banlaoi (Banlaoi) expressed strong dissatisfaction with the current diplomatic and military policies of the Philippines in an interview with Global Times (GT) reporters Hu Yuwei, Fan Wei and Zou Zhidong in Manila. In his view, the diplomatic policy pursued by the current Philippine government and its confrontational measures in the South China Sea not only loses important trading partners like China, but also risks marginalizing the Philippines in the ASEAN. GT: Since the current Philippine government took office, the South China Sea issue has once again become a focal point in China-Philippines relations and the Philippine government has taken a series of measures that have gradually worsened the situation. How do you evaluate the direction of China-Philippines relations over the last year and a half?
Banlaoi: It is a pity that under the presidency of Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr, the relationship between the Philippines and China has gone so bad because of the issue of the South China Sea.
And also, because of the decision of the current government to increase American military presence in the Philippines, I am dismayed that the Philippines is not balancing the relationship between China and the US, but is exerting more pro-Americanism in foreign policy. The current Marcos administration is creating a lot of difficulties for the improvement and strengthening of Philippines-China relationship.
I consider those unilateral actions by the Philippine government as being counterproductive for the peaceful settlement of disputes with China. In fact, the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) discourages all parties from conducting such kinds of unilateral activities that are hostile to other parties. I don't consider those kinds of unilateral actions from our government to be beneficial to the peaceful settlement of disputes.
So, what we need is to provide a conducive environment for peaceful negotiations. And the only way to have a peaceful and conducive environment for negotiations is to improve the friendly relationship between the two countries, as if there is no friendship, there's no mutual understanding.
GT: We have seen from news reports that the Philippine government has a plan to recruit fisherfolk militias to further confront China in the South China Sea. Will this further militarize the South China Sea? Is this a part of US-Philippines military cooperation?
Banlaoi: I think it's part of the advice given by the US to pursue such an action, especially in the context of what they call an "offensive transparency strategy" in the South China Sea. What we need now is to sustain the process of direct negotiation, to sustain the process of direct consultation and direct dialogue to manage our differences.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte has initiated the bilateral consultative mechanism [with China] in the South China Sea and it has achieved a lot of gains. For example, in 2017, they formed several working groups to promote joint fishery cooperation. That's what we need in the area. We need fishery cooperation. They also decided to cooperate politically and in security, which would promote marine environmental protection, marine environmental research, search and rescue operations, as well as the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
But these efforts have not been sustained under the current government. What we need is to take stock of what we achieved in the past and pursue these achievements and move on to improve our relationship.
So, from the golden age of our relationship, to the current rock bottom of our relationship, I feel bad about that because our countries have enjoyed a fruitful, friendly relationship for a long while. We need that kind of relationship again and the key is to well manage our differences.
If you increase maritime militias in the South China Sea, you are in fact increasing the risk of violence. Let the fisherman be fishermen. If we want to protect our interests in the area, I think that needs all maritime authorities to negotiate an arrangement on how to maintain peace and maritime security in the area.
In order to promote maritime safety in the South China Sea, we need cooperation not competition. The China Coast Guard has demonstrated that it can be involved in the rescue of Filipino fishermen. We have mutual interest and we need to talk about them, instead of the differences.
GT: Is it possible that this militia plan in the Philippines has received financial support from the US, or some other form of support?
Banlaoi: That's possible. They have a way of offering such kinds of support to the Philippines. For example, as a result of the current Philippine President's decision to be closer to the US, the US decided to provide more military assistance funding to the Philippines and the Philippine military can use these funds to train anybody to protect our interests in the South China Sea.
In the past, the US has assisted the Philippines, the Philippine military, and the Philippine militia to fight against terrorism, to fight against Al Qaeda, and to fight against ISIS. They have done that in the past. The US has that kind of track record in supporting our military and our militias in their fight against threats. So, it's possible. GT: Are these aggressive measures taken by the Philippine government controversial domestically in the Philippines?
Banlaoi: There are people opposing those decisions and I am one of them. I have expressed my opposition against increased American military presence in the Philippines because it is a military rising.
It increases the risks of the Philippines getting involved in an armed conflict that is not beneficial to Philippine national interests. And I hope when that situation comes, China will exercise more patience.
We don't want to take sides between the US and China, but we will side with our interests. Due to the decision by the current president to be closer to the US, we are becoming isolated from the ASEAN.
Many ASEAN member states do not like what we are doing because it is running counter to the principle of the ASEAN of promoting the region as a zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality. The Philippines is no longer neutral because the Philippines has decided to become part of the American strategy in the pacific. The way we handle things is with an American approach, not the ASEAN approach.
GT: What sorts of efforts can we make to restore China-Philippines relationship?
Banlaoi: There are more opportunities coming up to improve the relationship. We will be having a midterm election in 2025. I hope we will be able to elect the right leaders who can better understand the relationship between the Philippines and China and the relationship between the Philippines and the US. We hope to elect leaders in 2025 like senators and congressmen that will have a better understanding of geopolitics and the importance of a friendly Philippines-China relationship.
In my understanding, China has no problem with the Philippines having a good relationship with the US. But the only concern that China has is not to have this relationship used against it. And I admire the foreign policy of former president Duterte, because he initiated the process of decolonization from the US; he even said that he would like to separate from the US, and I think that's the right step. The Philippines cannot be a truly proud, independent nation if we continue to rely on the US.
Our current government is heavily reliant on the US to advance our position in the South China Sea and that kind of reliance is truly hurting Philippines-China relations and is making it difficult to settle our disputes in the South China Sea. GT: During our days in the Philippines, we hardly felt any hostility from the locals toward Chinese people due to the South China Sea dispute. In contrast, local newspapers were sensationalizing the dispute. Do you think the Filipino people really believe the media's narrative? What are the issues that they truly care about?
Banlaoi: This issue on the South China Sea is only found in the papers in the Philippines that are dominated by Western narratives. But if you go around the country, you'll see that the common people care more about peace in the South China Sea. They don't want war.
They care more about fighting inflation and economic hardship. They care more about making commodities more affordable to them. They care more about having jobs. They care more about having good transportation. We need trains, roads, and bridges that China can provide, and we need more trade with China. It's a pity that many of the narratives in the media are controlled by this Western narrative of anti-China sentiment.
But if you really look around the country, the conflict in South China Sea is the least of their worries. The only thing that they care about is for the fishermen not to lose their livelihoods.
That's why I feel bad that the Philippine government canceled Philippine participation in the projects of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And I traveled around and learned that the railways and bridges will no longer be built. They feel bad about it. Ordinary people here care more about economic development.
We want peace and common development with China and don't want a war with China.
On April 22, the US announced that it had begun discussions with the military government of Niger regarding the withdrawal of American troops from the country. In March of this year, Niger suddenly requested that the US withdraw its troops, making it the latest in a series of West African and Sahel region countries to make such requests to Western countries.
Previously, France had been asked to withdraw its troops from countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso. Many European and American think tanks and media outlets expressed their concerns that this may lead to a significant decrease in Western influence in the Sahel region, allowing Russia to take advantage of the situation. Some research institutions even claimed that Western influence in the Sahel region has already "collapsed." So, how many troops do Western countries currently have deployed in the region? Why are countries in the Sahel region asking these troops to leave? And can Russian forces replace them?
'US army, go home'
"This is Agadez, not Washington. US army, go home!" On April 21, in the northern town of Agadez, home to a US air base, protesters held up a large banner demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Niger. Hundreds of people participated in the protest, with the organizer, Issouf Emoud, telling AFP, "Our message is clear: American soldiers, pack your bags and go home."
The day after the protest, on April 22, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder announced that Washington had begun discussions with the military government of Niger regarding the withdrawal of American troops from the country. The Pentagon plans to send a small delegation to Niger for talks, including members of the US Africa Command, but a timeline for the withdrawal has not been determined.
According to media reports, the US has a military presence in several African countries. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US increased its military footprint in Africa. In 2007, the US Department of Defense unified its efforts in Africa, establishing the US Africa Command. The US first deployed troops to Niger in 2013, and currently has approximately 1,000 troops deployed in the country split between two bases.
One of the bases is the 101 Air Base in the capital Niamey, and the other is the 201 Air Base in Agadez. The 201 Air Base serves as a drone base, at a cost of up to $110 million. It is one of the largest US drone bases in Africa, enabling Washington to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities covering almost the entire Sahel region. This region extends from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Red Sea, including at least 14 countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, according to public reports.
In March of this year, Niger suddenly requested the withdrawal of US troops. Meanwhile, Chad has reportedly made the same request.
According to a Reuters report, in a letter from Chad's Air Force Chief of Staff Idriss Amine Ahmed dated April 4 to the country's Minister of Armed Forces, he said he had informed US officials to halt activities at the Adji Kossei Air Base, as the Americans had failed to provide documents justifying their presence there.
A US official revealed that the rotational corps of troops in Chad has less than 100 personnel, with their main role being to plan tasks in the region. A US State Department spokesperson responded to this by saying that Washington is in talks with Chadian officials regarding the future of the two countries' security partnership.
The requests for the withdrawal of US troops by countries like Niger are the latest actions by Sahel region countries to expel Western forces. After a coup in Niger in July 2023, France was asked to withdraw its troops.
France withdrew its forces from Niger in December 2023. Previously, in February 2023, France withdrew its troops from Burkina Faso at the country's request. On August 15, 2022, the French Defense Ministry issued a statement announcing that "Today at 13:00 (Paris time), the last military unit of the Barkhane force present on Malian territory crossed the border between Mali and Niger."
According to media reports, as of September 2023, France had deployed around 1,500 soldiers in Niger, 1,000 in Chad, 900 in Ivory Coast, 350 in Senegal, and 400 in Gabon. Germany had also deployed about 1,000 soldiers in Mali and approximately 110 German soldiers were stationed in Niamey.
Italy once had about 300 soldiers in Niger. In December 2022, the European Union launched a three-year military training mission in Niger. On August 6, 2023, the Italian Defense Ministry stated that 65 Italian soldiers had left Niger aboard a military aircraft. In December 2023, there were reports that Germany had completed its withdrawal from Mali, thus ending its mission within the framework of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.
The Global Times found that, excluding the troops already withdrawn by France and those to be withdrawn by the US, the military forces of France, the US, Germany, Italy, and other countries in West and Central Africa are expected to be reduced by more than 3,000 personnel compared to the number in September 2023. It is also worth noting that in August 2023, there was a military coup in Gabon, leading to diplomatic friction between the military government and France, which could potentially result in French troops in Gabon leaving at any time.
'Nothing to lose'
As Western military forces sequentially withdraw or are drove out from countries in the Sahel region, many European and American think tanks and media sources have voiced their concerns. These sources suggest that the withdrawal of Western troops could lead to a significant increase in terrorist activities in West Africa and the Sahel, continuously deteriorating the security situation in the region.
Why, then, are countries in the Sahel region taking such security risks to drive away Western military forces? According to an analysis by the Intercept, a US news website, on March 19, despite a more than 900 percent increase in US military presence in Niger over the last decade, terrorism in the Sahel has not been suppressed. According to the US State Department, extremist militants caused only 23 casualties across Africa between 2002 and 2003. By contrast, data from the US Defense Department's Africa Center for Strategic Studies shows that in 2023 alone, extremist attacks in the Sahel region resulted in over 11,643 deaths, more than a 500-fold increase from 20 years ago.
Reporters by the Global Times, through interviews with the people of Niamey, found that most locals have increasingly held a negative view of Western anti-terrorism efforts in Niger in recent years. "We haven't felt them doing anything for us; the roads they promised to fix are still undone; they take our resources but don't pay us... Western countries haven't helped us; they should leave," said a local named Souley.
Various Western research institutes have also pointed out that the "paternalism" exhibited by Europe and the US in their interactions with the Sahel region and other African countries is highly resented by these countries.
"Paternalism" refers to a powerful country using leverage or coercion to influence the decisions of a weaker country to align with its own objectives.
The US Center for Strategic and International Studies revealed that Niger's sudden request in March for the withdrawal of US troops was closely linked to the latter's attitude. The think tank mentioned that on March 16, just one day after a visit by US military officials to Niamey, the Nigerien military government announced an immediate suspension of security cooperation with the US.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for the Nigerien military, stated that part of the reason for this decision was due to the US warning Niger that its relationships with Russia and Iran were too close, and the lack of proper diplomatic etiquette and arrogance displayed by US officials during their visit.
Zhang Chun, a researcher at the Africa Research Center at Yunnan University, shared a similar view that Western involvement has not produced the anticipated effects in countering terrorism threats in the Sahel, and the dissatisfaction among the populations of these countries has been accumulating.
He believes that Africa, especially since entering the second decade of the 21st century, has seen a rise in strategic autonomy, which can also be described as a new wave of "decolonization movement," shifting from the pursuit of political independence in the 1960s to today's pursuit of security and economic independence.
'Need some time'
As Western countries withdraw their military forces from the Sahel region, the reactions vary from relief to concern. The Foreign Policy Research Institute suggests that this marks a new era in which African elites take charge of African affairs. The trend of increasingly expressing dissatisfaction toward Western powers underscores a growing recognition that African issues are best solved by Africans themselves. However, these events also signify a pivot in Western influence in the Sahel.
Nina Wilén, the director of the Africa program at Belgium's Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations, stated at the end of 2023 that Western influence in West Africa has seen a "collapse."
Zhang said that there should be a nuanced view on the "collapse." Western influence in the Sahel: From a formal arrangement perspective, Western influence has indeed been significantly affected; however, from an informal standpoint, the extent of this impact remains unclear. In fact, much of the West's influence in the region has historically operated through informal arrangements, such as France's special relationships with African countries and Western intelligence networks.
Rather than a "complete retreat," Western influence in the Sahel is more likely to undergo a "structural transformation," Zhang noted.
Western countries have not abandoned deploying military forces to other African countries. A January report by The Wall Street Journal noted that the US is attempting to sign new security cooperation agreements with preliminary discussions already underway with these nations.
Meanwhile, as Western military cooperation in the Sahel falters, many European and American media outlets have pointed a finger at Russia, blaming the Wagner Group, a Russian private defense contractor, for expanding its footprint in Africa and squeezing Western strategic space.
Zhang believes that the influence of Russia's "African Legion" in the Sahel and other African regions might be far less than the West claims, for several reasons: The West has been entrenched in Africa for a long time, and the "African Legion" cannot easily be infiltrated.
Moreover, the end of formal arrangements with some African nations needs a convincing public excuse, and blaming Russia is more effective than emphasizing African strategic autonomy, as the former only indicates a "cunning enemy," while the latter would admit to the West's "own incompetence."
Zhang foresees a potential increase in the Sahel's security autonomy following Western military withdrawals, but this might complicate efforts to improve regional security governance and could worsen economic and social development.
Currently, Niger's economy is facing challenges.
He Xing (pseudonym), a staffer at a Chinese company, who has been in Niger for 12 years, noted a rise in street beggars in Niamey and a decrease in the variety of goods at the largest wholesale market, with prices for basic vegetables like potatoes, onions, and tomatoes doubling.
Furthermore, the occupancy rate at the upscale Radisson Blu Hotel in Niamey has dropped to about 20 percent, primarily due to a reduction in Western visitors.
"Although this is the case, the security situation in Niamey is still good; there's little risk even at night," he said, though small-scale conflicts occasionally erupt along Niger's borders. "From what we see, the Nigerien military government is looking for suitable ways to develop the economy, and they need some time."
After the Philippines repeatedly denied the "Gentleman's Agreement" and was later refuted by China with solid evidence, Manila has started a new political performance. On Wednesday, around 200 people on board five commercial fishing vessels set off from the Philippines, sailing toward the waters of Huangyan Dao under the banner of "defending rights," with an expected arrival on Thursday. The Philippine government has dispatched coast guard ships to escort this so-called "civilian fleet," and some Western media outlets have quickly picked up the story. This well-coordinated and professional approach is something we have seen in several previous incidents where the Philippines has stirred up trouble in the South China Sea.
Before departing, the Philippine Coast Guard deliberately emphasized that they have "nothing to do with the Philippine government," while the organizers loudly proclaimed their actions to be "civilian" and "peaceful." Such strenuous preparation has just given themselves away, revealing they know well that the move to challenge Huangyan Dao is neither a civilian action nor a peaceful one. What they are truly doing is using Philippine "fishermen" as a backdrop to provoke incidents, attempting to interfere with the normal law enforcement of the China Coast Guard and the regular fishing activities of Chinese fishermen. At the same time, they aim to gain sympathy from the international community through Western media, smear China, and incite a new round of friction or even confrontation between China and the Philippines at Huangyan Dao.
Noticeably, the so-called "civilian organization" behind this activity is far from being genuinely civilian. Its spokesperson previously publicly stated that all of the organization's activities are supported by the Philippine military. Additionally, media reports have revealed that this organization is funded by relevant American institutions. Therefore, this show is actually another act in the US' Project Myoushu in the South China Sea. Through this project, the US aims to increase its interference in the South China Sea situation, smear the law-enforcement actions of the China Coast Guard, encourage relevant countries in the South China Sea region to adopt a tough stance against China, and undermine the peaceful situation that China and other regional countries have been striving to establish. Thus, although this organization deliberately downplays its political nature on its website, it is essentially a business deal between Filipino politicians and Washington.
Huangyan Dao has always been China's territory. China has indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Dao and its adjacent waters. China, as a party with absolute advantages in all aspects, has shown enough goodwill and patience toward the Philippines. China made a goodwill arrangement in 2016 for Filipino fishermen to fish with a small number of small fishing boats in the adjacent waters of Huangyan Dao, while China continues to oversee and monitor relevant activities of the Filipino fishermen in accordance with law. China has shown its utmost patience and tolerance toward the Philippines.
On one hand, the current Philippine government has accepted China's goodwill arrangement, but on the other hand, it greedily attempts to seize more benefits. It has used the urgent desire of the US to intervene in the South China Sea situation to support itself. China has always been against bullying small countries by big powers, but it will not accept any political blackmail from any country. Regarding the Philippines' show on Huangyan Dao, China has issued a clear warning: "If the Philippines abuses China's goodwill and infringes upon China's territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction, we will defend our rights and take countermeasures in accordance with the law. Relevant responsibilities and consequences shall be borne solely by the Philippines." China has always been low-key in its actions, but it will follow through with its words. Manila should understand and take in the meaning and weight of these words.
When Global Times reporters interviewed locals in the Philippines not long ago, many fishermen expressed unwillingness to participate in the Philippines' provocative actions against China. Even some US media outlets discovered during on-site interviews in the Philippines that local farmers praised a China-funded irrigation project. The outcome of the latest performance on Huangyan Dao is not difficult to predict: It will not have any impact on China's normal exercise of sovereignty on Huangyan Dao, but will only show the international community another act of lack of credibility by Manila. Not only does China see this clearly, but regional countries and the international community also see it very clearly. The current situation in the South China Sea is generally stable, and peace and cooperation are the mainstream in the region. In response to Manila's adventurism, other ASEAN countries have in general kept their distance.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: "A gentleman's acquaintance is as light as water, and a villain's acquaintance is as sweet as alcohol." Manila should carefully consider who is applauding its show in the South China Sea, giving it one sugar cube after another, and where these things that do not belong to it will ultimately push it.
The breathtaking landscapes of Altay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as depicted in the popular mini TV series "To the Wonder," have mesmerized audiences, drawing visitors to the city and significantly boosting tourism in Xinjiang.
Filmed in this pristine area, the drama showcased the stunning natural beauty and unique cultural charm of Altay, which sparked widespread online discussions about touring the city.
Since the release of the series on May 5, the internet searches about Altay more than doubled, with searches for Altay homestays increasing by 200 percent over the previous week. The same cabins which featured in the drama have become too popular to book. Additionally, bookings for group tours across Xinjiang have increased by 247 percent compared to the previous week, according to Beijing Youth Daily on Wednesday.
According to data from domestic travel platform Fliggy, since the screening of To The Wonder, searches about Altay tourism on the platform has surged by over 500 percent. Flight bookings to Altay have increased by over 50 percent compared to the previous week, while car rental bookings have nearly doubled.
Fei Fei, a publicity official with the Altay bureau of culture, sports, radio, television and tourism, told the Global Times that the bureau has been committed to carrying out various promotional and publicity campaigns aimed at attracting more tourists to experience the natural beauty and rich cultural heritage of Altay.
"The number of tourists to Altay has grown significantly since the airing of the TV series. Tourists from the Chinese mainland, in particular, showed great interest in the Altay scenery and folk culture," said Fei.
"We will continue to combine culture and tourism to further enhance the popularity and reputation of Altay. Various promotional activities will be carried out to attract more potential visitors," Fei noted.
Located in the northern part of Xinjiang, Altay is also one of the best destinations for tourists and photography enthusiasts to view the natural wonder of the aurora borealis.
The peak tourist season in the Altay region typically lasts from July to August. However, spurred by the impact of the TV drama, this year's peak season in the area is expected to arrive earlier. Additionally, the most popular months for visiting Altay's Kanas scenic area, which usually starts at the end of August and extends into September, is predicted to commence as early as June this year.
According to the bureau, during the May Day holidays, the city received a total of 106,900 tourists, marking a year-on-year increase of 45.04 percent. The city generated 86.16 million yuan ($11.9 million) in tourism revenue, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 43.19 percent.
Lying between the southern foot of the Altai Mountains and the northern edge of the Junggar Basin, Altay boasts abundant natural tourism resources, including grasslands, snow-capped mountains, deserts, rivers, gorges, wetlands, and more. The area has always been recognized as a paradise for photographers, skiers, birdwatchers, and independent travelers.
