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.

Chinese experts said on Monday that reported cooperation between South Korea and the US to address so-called "excess capacity" in China's photovoltaic (PV) industry is part of the strategic narrative for Western countries to hype "overcapacity" in China's new-energy vehicles, lithium battery and PV sector, which is aimed at curbing China's technological development and industrial upgrading. 

Observers said that the so-called spillover effect of China's "excessive production" is an excuse fabricated by some US politicians out of political motives, amid the US crackdown on Chinese PV companies.

The response came after a South Korean report, which said that senior diplomats from South Korea and the US are cooperating to address the issue of "excess capacity" in China's PV industry, in order to protect industries of both countries from the negative impact brought by overproduction of Chinese solar energy products.

The rapid growth of China's PV-related exports has made many countries more and more anxious. Officials from South Korea and the US on April 30 discussed the need for a joint response to potential ramifications from the so-called "overcapacity" in China's solar industry during talks on energy security in Houston, Texas, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Kim Hee-sang was quoted as saying this in a report from the Yonhap News Agency.

The discussions revolved around a two-fold approach involving each country's import control measures against China's provision of excessive subsidies, and cooperation in developing more technologically competitive products, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The move shows that the US and South Korea are hyping "overcapacity" rhetoric targeting China's solar industry in a bid to replace China's industry with their own producers, Han Bing, an expert at the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

Han said that the US and South Korea believe that they will create difficulties for China's PV firms to expand abroad by imposing trade barriers.

Experts called for the South Korean side to not follow the US in adopting strict economic and trade restrictions against China, saying that such an approach will only backfire on the country itself, with local businesses and ordinary people paying the price.

It's undeniable that China's capacity and technological breakthroughs in the clean energy sector have become powerful engines driving the global energy transition, experts said. 

According to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, average kilowatt-hour cost of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation have decreased by more than 60 percent and 80 percent respectively in the past decade, a large part of which is attributed to China's innovation, manufacturing and engineering. 

China's PV production capacity represents nearly 90 percent of the world's total, industry data show. 

Experts praised the efforts made by Chinese companies in increasing research and development efforts to develop new PV cell techniques that could improve efficiency and reduce costs.

China is the world's renewables powerhouse. The country accounts for almost 60 percent of the new renewable capacity expected to become operational globally by 2028. China's role is critical in reaching the global goal of tripling renewables because the country is expected to install more than half of the new capacity required globally by 2030, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

Chinese PV products have strong competitiveness, thanks to the accumulation of technology and production capacity. Exports have contributed to cost declines and helped solar PV to become the most affordable electricity generation technology, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Monday.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index at one point surged 0.2 percent to 3,163.14 points in Friday's morning trading session, a record high this year. It also represents an over 20-percent jump from the low point of 2,635.09 on February 5, which observers said means that the stocks in the Shanghai bourse are "entering a technical bull market." 

In early May, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also showed signs of marching into a technical bull market. Analysts said the rally of Chinese stocks underscored a continued warming of investors' sentiment as well as the return of global capital into a market which they deem very promising but has been low valued. The stepped-up recovery of the world's second-largest economy is also giving a leg-up to the capital market rebound, they noted. 

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,154.55 on Friday, standing above the 3,100-mark for six consecutive trading days. The sustained surge was also partly thanks to the inflow of northbound funds, which has shown substantial net inflow in recent days.

On April 26, the inflow of northbound funds hit 22.449 billion yuan ($3.11 billion) marking a new high since the launch of the Stock Connect Program. The inflow of northbound funds also reached 10 billion yuan on April 29 and May 6, reflecting an across-the-board interest in investing in Chinese equities. 

Data from financial website eastmoney.com shows that northbound funds recorded a net inflow of 87.6 billion yuan to date this year, or more than twice last year's reading. 

"First, there's a palpable improvement in investors' mood from January to May, amid more measures to stabilize the market. Second, global capital is now returning to the Chinese market after withdrawing from the US, Europe and Japanese markets," Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Friday. 

The world's financial institutions have reportedly been expanding their footprint in China. An HSBC Holdings Plc report said that more than 90 percent of emerging market funds are adding back their positions in the currently underweight A shares. A Bloomberg report quoted analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc as saying that there's "a fear of missing out" on the opportunities in Chinese equities building up among traders. 

Analysts noted that the stronger US dollar, coupled with the low valuation of Chinese equities, is one of the reasons behind the inflow of foreign capital. Yang also took note of China's positive economic fundamentals and the government's supportive measures, which have all helped bolster market confidence. 

In a fresh move to allay market concerns over the country's property downturn, two Chinese mega-cities, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province and Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, said on Thursday they would lift all home purchase restrictions to shore up the local real estate market and boost market confidence. This follows similar moves recently in other big cities like Chengdu, Shenzhen and Beijing.

"The slow recovery of the real estate sector has weighed on the outlook of the Chinese economy, so those measures will further strengthen investors' expectations of the robust economic recovery streak," Yang said. 

He stressed that the measures addressing the property sector are being carried out in parallel with policies for the capital market, and could therefore constitute a "two-pronged approach" to shore up the A-share market. 

Since the beginning of this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country's top securities regulator, has been taking a series of sweeping measures to boost market confidence, stabilize expectations and ensure the long-term healthy and sound development of the capital market. 

In April, CSRC published rules to regulate mutual fund trading fees, set to take effect on July 1, 2024. The rules aim to enhance the management of securities trading fees, standardize the allocation of trading commissions by fund managers and safeguard the legal rights of fund shareholders, the CSRC said.

CSRC published on Friday a revised rule intensifying oversight on listed companies, calling for a more stringent risk control mechanism and more transparent information disclosure. Listed companies should better focus on main businesses to ensure investor rights protection and high-quality development.

The recent World Conference on China Studies - Shanghai Forum, which concluded on November 24, was one of the largest gatherings of global "China hands." At the two-day forum, more than 400 Chinese and foreign scholars specializing or interested in China studies discussed their insights on Chinese civilization and China's path of development, as well as their impacts on the current global landscape.

During the forum, some of the overseas scholars, including winners of the 2023 Award for Distinguished Contributions to China Studies, shared their personal China experiences, observations, and understandings of Chinese civilization and China's path with the Global Times.

These "China hands" are witnesses to China's modernization and social development, and play an important role as bridges that link China and the world, observers told the Global Times on Monday.

Witnesses and bridges

The forum announced the winners of the 2023 Award for Distinguished Contributions to China Studies on November 24. They included Timothy Brook, professor emeritus at Department of History, University of British Columbia, Baik Young-seo, professor emeritus at Yonsei University, and Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Brook and Baik participated in the in-person forum in Shanghai. At an interview on November 23, Brook said that Shanghai "makes him jump." "The Shanghai of today is completely different from that of the 1970s," he told the media in fluent Putonghua. "The city reminds me of New York when I look out of my hotel at the Bund."

Shanghai was one of the starting places that sparked Brook's relationship with China. In 1974, then 23-year-old Brook studied ancient Chinese history and literature at Fudan University as one of the earliest young Canadians to come to China as exchange students. At Fudan, he developed a keen interest in China's Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and later started his decades of research in Chinese history, particularly into the Ming Dynasty history.

At the forum venue by the Huangpu River, Brook said although he has visited Shanghai many times over the years, he is quite impressed by the development of China's most modernized metropolis during each visit. "I found that Shanghai has 'grown up' to a degree that I've never seen before," he said, as if describing an old friend.

Brook is hailed as one of the best storytellers among North American historians. His many books focusing on China during the period of the Ming Dynasty, such as The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China, open a window for international readers to learn more about Chinese history and civilization.

"I keep writing books about China in order to increase the outside world's understanding of China," Brook told the Global Times.

Brook is among the expanding pool of international scholars in China studies who have, in recent decades, personally experienced China's rapid path to development.
Rachel Murphy, who prefers to go by her Chinese name "Rui Xue (auspicious snow in a literal translation)" in China, was a guest speaker at the forum. As a Chinese Development and Society professor at the University of Oxford and former president of the British Association for Chinese Studies, she has been engaged in China-related research, exploring China's social and cultural changes caused by urbanization, educational development, demographic transition, and state policies.

During the last 20 years, Murphy has travelled to many villages, towns, and cities across China. Her long-term fieldwork makes her an old "China hand."

Murphy marveled at China's tremendous development, especially in the countryside. "China's urbanization is progressing very fast," she told the Global Times during the forum. "The book I wrote [about rural China] before is out of date now."

Murphy shared that a week ahead of the forum, she visited several villages in Anhui Provinces, where she had been to a few years before. She was surprised by the great changes in communication in rural China.

Wi-Fi availability is now commonplace in many villages, enabling "left-behind" children to stay in contact with their migrant worker parents through frequent video calls, said Murphy. She was surprised to see many elderly women like to share their rural lives on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok).

"The speed of technological changes [in China] is truly amazing," Murphy said in Putonghua. "Rural areas included, the ubiquitous nature of 'connection' [across China] is a remarkable achievement."

Among the China studies scholars who attended the forum in Shanghai, Michael Crook, a Chinese Government Friendship Award winner, is a familiar "China hand" to many Chinese people.

Crook's family has been profoundly and closely connected to China. Six generations of his family have worked and lived in China. Born and raised in Beijing, Crook has devoted decades to education in China. Now he teaches children from expatriate families in Beijing Chinese history and culture, acting as a bridge between people in China and the West, especially among the younger generation.

During the forum, Crook told Chinese media that he believes Chinese and Western cultures have their own merits. "They can learn from each other," he said.

A path worthy of reference

Crook was a guest speaker at a sub-forum being held during the Shanghai Forum on November 24. The theme of the sub-forum was "Explorations: Chinese Modernization and China's Path."

Under this theme, many participants of the sub-forum shared their understanding of China's path to modernization, and some highlights of China's path worthy of reference for other countries.

China is a good example of integrating its own development with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNDGs), said economist Ranee Jayamaha, lead consultant for the South Asia-World Bank Group.

She offered how China has launched the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on Green Development together with 31 countries, and closely aligned the initiative with the needs of global green development by investing in renewable energy and adopting comprehensive pollution reduction measures as an example.

This is a good story of China's success in positively influencing world development, Jayamaha commented.

Crook mentioned China's ethnic policies, which he thinks can be referenced by multi-ethnic countries.

In a speech he delivered at the sub-forum, Crook recalled his visit to a school in China's Xizang Autonomous Region in May. The school teaches both Putonghua and Tibetan, and entirely permissible for the latter to be spoken in class. The small case shows China respects and supports its ethnic minorities at the national level, said Crook.

With China's rise and its growing international influence, many countries, especially those in the Global South, are interested in Chine's development, and are looking forward to learning from China's experiences, many attendees of the forum told the Global Times.

And these contemporary "China hands" are making efforts to know more about China, exploring China's development path and sharing their observations and understandings with the world.

China is on a multi-dimensional path of development, Josette Altmann-Borbón, secretary general of Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, said in a speech delivered at the forum's opening ceremony on November 24.

We should fully understand the important role China plays on the global stage, she noted.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto via video link.

Baotou, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which holds over 80 percent of the nation's rare-earth reserves, aims to accelerate rare-earth new material industry and application during 2024. 

According to guidelines issued by the municipal government, Baotou aims to expand the rare-earth industrial scale to 100 billion yuan ($14.08 billion) and establish itself as China's largest rare-earth new material base and the world's leading rare-earth application center, media outlet thepaper.cn reported on Thursday.  

Baotou possesses 83.7 percent of China's rare-earth reserves, accounting for 37.8 percent of the global reserves, according to the report.

According to the guidelines, Baotou will increase the production capacity of rare-earth raw materials, consolidating the city’s position as the world's largest supplier. 

It also emphasizes the need to expand Baotou’s rare-earth magnetic materials industry with increased research and development efforts for high-performance magnetic materials. 

The application of rare earths in various industries should be expanded and deepened, including the development of permanent magnet motors for industrial energy efficient motors, wind power generators, electric motors for new energy vehicles, and specialized motors for robots. 

The city will also step up efforts to accelerate the construction of a rare-earth industry intellectual property operation center and a rare-earth product testing center. The goal is to add 150 new rare-earth patents within the year and lead or participate in the development of three national standards and four industry standards, according to the report, citing the guideline. 

The issuance of the guidelines comes as China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, in October issued a document to develop Baotou into the largest rare-earth new materials base in China and a globally leading rare-earth application base. 

The document proposed strengthening the development and utilization of strategic resources such as rare earths in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This includes supporting systematic exploration and evaluation, protective development, high-quality utilization, and standardized management of strategic mineral resources in Inner Mongolia.

China has been placing increased importance on the high-quality development of the rare-earth sector.

The State Council stressed at an executive meeting in November that rare earths are strategic mineral resources. It called for enhanced efforts to coordinate the exploration, development, utilization and standardized management of rare earths, to promote the development and application of a new generation of green, efficient mining and related technologies.

Efforts should also be made to crack down on illegal mining and environmental damage, while promoting intelligent and green development of the country's rare earths, according to the meeting.

US Congress has reportedly reached a deal on how much the US government will spend in 2024 in a significant move toward avoiding a shutdown, but it doesn't necessarily defuse the threat altogether, Chinese observers said.

The US government shutdown risk reflects Washington's "declining fiscal management and governance ability," which may negatively impact US economy and the financial market, they said
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The deal would establish an overall spending level of $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024, US media outlet NBC News reported on Monday, noting that the threat of a potential US government shutdown isn't completely ruled out yet, as Congress still needs to allocate the money, write the bills and approve them.

During the last five decades, there have been 21 US federal government shutdowns. A government shutdown would lead to the suspension of nonessential federal functions and result in millions of federal employees not receiving pay.

The repeated US federal government shutdowns and lingering threats reflect that the US government's relatively weak governance and fiscal management ability, although for many times, the US government is able to solve crises at the last minute, Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.

The continuous increase in US government debt will produce negative effect on the US economy in the long run, as Washington needs to pay more interest on its huge debt, Dong Yun, director of the Research Center for International Political Economics of the National Institution for Finance and Development, told the Global Times on Monday.

"The US' fiscal sustainability will continue to weaken, which may increase US financial sector instability and spill over to impact global markets," Dong said.
Dong said it's a general trend that many countries are diversifying their foreign assets and increasing holdings of gold, but only by promoting reforms to the international monetary system and boosting the development of emerging market economies can there be "more choices for a country's holdings of foreign assets."

Aside from shocks to the US itself, repeated government shutdowns will impact the US' influence in global affairs and accelerate the decline of US dollar hegemony in the world, Huo said.

Huo said that the continuous issuance of US Treasuries will make it difficult for the US government to repay its debts, which will reduce the reliability and credibility of US dollar-denominated assets.

The US' aggressive interest rate hikes to tame inflation has brought spillover effects to other countries, especially developing countries, making many economies rush to diversify payment using local currencies and increasing holdings of gold in 2023.

China's gold reserves reached 71.87 million ounces at the end of December, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, latest data from the People's Bank of China showed.

The alarming conclusion has been drawn from the first-ever IUCN red list assessment of freshwater species, which identifies global heating, pollution, overfishing, and falling water levels as major threats to vital aquatic populations.

A comprehensive study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlights the precarious state of freshwater fish globally, with iconic species such as the Lake Turkana robber and the Mekong giant catfish facing the imminent risk of disappearing.

Of the 14,898 assessed species, a staggering 3,086 are now in danger of vanishing, with nearly one-fifth of all threatened freshwater species directly impacted by climate change-induced factors such as falling water levels and shifting seasons.

The assessment also sheds light on the escalating threats to other species, including mahogany, Atlantic salmon, and green turtles. Big leaf mahogany, a highly sought-after plant commercially, is now classified as endangered due to a 60% decline in numbers over the past 180 years.

Atlantic salmon, once abundant and considered of least concern, is now near threatened, with a 23% global population decline and disappearance from many UK rivers.

Amidst these alarming findings, the report also brings attention to positive conservation efforts. The saiga antelope, moving from critically endangered to near threatened, experienced a remarkable 1,100% population increase in just seven years in Kazakhstan. Similarly, the scimitar-horned oryx, once extinct in Chad due to overhunting, has seen successful reintroduction efforts, leading to a vulnerable classification.

IUCN President Razan Al Mubarak has emphasized the need for coordinated global conservation efforts in the face of the interconnected climate and biodiversity crises.

The report underscored the importance of addressing these issues to ensure the durability of conservation actions.

The assessment also highlights the vulnerability of central south Pacific and east Pacific green turtles, major victims of industrial and artisanal fishing, with rising global temperatures affecting their hatching success and sea temperature fluctuations endangering their nesting sites.

Since 2017, the permanent population of Beijing has been declining for six consecutive years, and the distribution of the population shows a pattern of multiple support points and gradient distribution, while the health and cultural quality of the population ranking among the top in the country, according to the Beijing Administration Institute (BAI) on Saturday.

On Saturday, the "Beijing Population Blue Book: Research Report on Beijing Population Development (2023)" was released by the BAI, analyzing and forecasting Beijing's population trends. It focuses on the population development of Beijing from various perspectives such as preschool education, youth population, childbearing age population, elderly population and the population living in the capital's metropolitan area, in addition to conducting in-depth research on coping with an ageing population.

The permanent population of the capital city was 21.843 million in 2022, with a registered population of 14.277 million, maintaining a steady decline in the size of the permanent population and a continued growth in the registered population.

In addition, in 2022, the birth rate for the city's permanent population continued to decline, and the natural growth rate of the permanent population revealed a negative value synchronized with the national level. In terms of population structure, the aging of the population has become more pronounced, while the proportion of the working-age population is still higher than the national average.

In 2022, the city's permanent population aged 60 and above was 4.651 million, accounting for 21.3 percent of the total population, which is 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average. The size of the working-age population aged 15 to 64 has been continuously declining from 2015, reaching 15.902 million in 2022, accounting for 72.8 percent of the total population, also higher than the national average.

In terms of population distribution, the report noted that the regional distribution of the population in the city has remained stable, showing a pattern of multiple support points and gradient distribution. Both the population size and proportion in downtown areas have declined, while the population size and proportion in the urban sub-center and the plain new city have increased. The number of residents living in the city's designated ecological conservation area has fluctuated, and the pattern of population distribution with multiple support points continues to form, which has helped Beijing achieve balanced development in multiple areas.

The report also points out that the health level and cultural quality of the population in this city are among the best in the country. In 2021, the average life expectancy of registered residents stood at 82.47 years, higher than the national average. In 2020, the average years of education for the permanent population aged 15 and above was 12.64 years, far exceeding the national average. In 2022, there were 56,181 people with a college degree or above per 100,000 permanent residents aged 15 and above in Beijing.

The stable size of high-quality labor force has laid a solid foundation for Beijing to build an international science and technology innovation center and high-level talent hub, and promote the deep integration of innovation chain, industry chain, capital chain and talent chain, it noted.

It also added that the city is still in an opportunity window for economic transformation and upgrading, which will not close in the short term. The document recommended greater focus on achieving a balanced population structure, leveraging the dividends of reform and talent, and releasing the dividends of population. In addition, the report also suggests that the city should make good use of the opportunities brought by the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and enhance the vitality of Beijing's population development in building an integrated high-quality development demonstration zone.