BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged efforts to curb the repeated occurrence of various kinds of safety accidents and to protect people’s lives and property and social stability. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the important instruction following a street shop fire in …

NANCHANG: The death toll from a building fire in the city of Xinyu in east China’s Jiangxi Province on Wednesday afternoon had risen to 39 as of 6:40 p.m., local authorities said. The fire broke out at approximately 3:24 p.m. on the first underground floor of a street shop on Tiangongnan Avenue in the Yushui District of Xinyu, said the …

BEIJING: China has registered a record-high soybean output of 20.84 million tonnes in 2023, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Tuesday. The country’s soybean planting area reached 157 million mu (about 10.47 million hectares) last year, while that of oilseed crops exceeded 200 million mu, said Deng Xiaogang, vice minister of agricultural and rural affairs, at …

BEIJING: China and Nauru signed a joint communique in Beijing Wednesday on the resumption of diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, held talks with Nauru’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Lionel Aingimea and signed the joint communique, effective as …

BEIJING: Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Speaker of the National Assembly of Djibouti Dileita Mohamed Dileita in Beijing on Tuesday. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Djibouti, and the two heads of state have reached important consensus on the development of bilateral relations, according to Han. He said China …

HOHHOT: North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region saw a foreign trade volume of 196.53 billion yuan (about 27.32 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 30.4 percent year on year, hitting a record high, local authorities said Monday. According to the Hohhot Customs, the region’s exports came in at 78.57 billion yuan, up 28.1 percent year on year and imports reached …

BEIJING: China’s State Council Information Office on Tuesday released a white paper titled “China’s Legal Framework and Measures for Counterterrorism.” Besides the preface and conclusion, the white paper consists of five parts: “An Improving Legal Framework for Counterterrorism,” “Clear Provisions for the Determination and Punishment of Terrorist Activities,” “Standardized Exercise of Power in Fighting Terrorism,” “Protection of Human Rights in …

BEIJING: Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, has signed an order to promulgate a revised set of regulations on military legislation, which will take effect on March 1. With 85 entries in 13 chapters, the revised regulations standardize the working systems and mechanisms for military legislation based on the newly-revised Legislation Law, said a statement issued on Monday. …

BEIJING: A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday refuted recent comments from certain foreign media outlets about a “flee spree” of international talent from Hong Kong. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin dismissed relevant comments as totally groundless, saying at a daily press briefing that such rhetoric, which disregards the fact that Hong Kong continues to be a highland for international talent, disparages …

BEIJING: In April 2009, during the Fifth Summit of the Americas, then president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez gave his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama a book titled “The Open Veins of Latin America,” which eloquently argues that the West has long plundered the region’s natural resources to bankroll its own progress. What the author Eduardo Galeano referred to as the “underground …

KUNMING: A total of 47 people were buried in a landslide that struck southwest China’s Yunnan Province early Monday. More than 200 rescuers together with 33 firefighting vehicles and 10 loading machines were combing the debris to search for the missing, after the disaster happened in Liangshui Village, Tangfang Town in the city of Zhaotong at 5:51 a.m. on Monday. …

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded all-out search and rescue of the people missing in a landslide in Zhenxiong County, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instruction after the landslide struck the county on early Monday. A total of …

BEIJING: Following the two elections in the Taiwan region in 2024, more countries and organizations have reiterated commitment to the one-China principle, expressing support for China’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Indonesia “consistently respects the one-China policy,” said Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam …

BEIJING: Robust consumption has been thriving and helping to underpin China’s economic recovery, while the country is energetically spurring consumer spending to strengthen one of the pillars needed to support high-quality growth. China’s total retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country’s consumption strength, climbed 7.2 percent year on year to reach 47.15 trillion yuan (about 6.63 …

BEIJING: China’s road logistics price index was generally flat week on week during the week from Jan. 15 to 19, industry data showed. The country’s road logistics price index came in at 1,038.95 points in the period, according to a survey jointly conducted by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the Guangdong Lin’an Logistics Group. The sub-index for …

WUHAN: The number of Yangtze River cruise passengers exceeded 1.37 million in 2023, marking a 26-percent growth from the 2019 figure and hitting a 20-year high, the China Yangtze Shipping Group Co., LTD. (CYSC) has announced recently. The Yangtze River, China’s mother river, is rich in tourism resources, with spectacular landscapes and numerous historic and cultural sites along the river. …

BEIJING: Beijing Municipality plans to boost consumption potential and shift its focus from post-pandemic recovery to sustained expansion in 2024, said the city’s mayor Yin Yong when delivering a government work report at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress on Sunday. As one of the five pilot international consumption center cities in China, Beijing will adopt multiple …

CHONGQING: Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality has set its regional gross domestic product (GDP) growth target at about 6 percent for 2024, according to the annual session of the municipal people’s congress on Sunday. The city also aims to increase added value of industries above the designated size by 7 percent, investment in fixed assets by 4 percent, and general public …

NANNING: Nearly 50 tonnes of orah mandarins from Guangxi Mingming Orchard Group were loaded onto ship at the Shenzhen Port, south China’s Guangdong Province, and were shipped to Canada on Friday. “Our orah mandarins started being exported to Canada four years ago. At first, it was mainly to supermarkets in the Chinese quarter. Now we have become the direct supplier …

ZHENGZHOU: By the end of 2023, the installed renewable energy power generation capacity in central China’s Henan Province had surpassed 67 million kilowatts, overtaking coal power for the first time, according to the latest data from the State Grid Henan Electric Power Company. Henan’s installed renewable energy power generation capacity accounted for 48.7 percent of the province’s total installed power …

XI’AN: Amidst sub-zero temperatures, tourists donning traditional Chinese attire, Hanfu, strolled through ancient-style buildings in a vibrant block, happily posing for photographers. Located in the city of Xi’an in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, this block features elements of Chang’an, the old name for the city when it was the capital of China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907). This lively area provides tourists …

SHANGHAI: In 2023, Shanghai’s airports received 440 million export declaration forms of cross-border e-commerce goods, almost treble that of 2022, with a total export value of more than 85 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars), said Shanghai Customs. So far this year, airports in Shanghai have recorded a new daily high of such cross-border e-commerce export declarations, hitting around …

ZHENGZHOU: Thirteen students were killed and another one injured in a fire that took place in a school dormitory in the county of Fangcheng, Nanyang City, central China’s Henan Province, on Friday night, according to local authorities Saturday. At 11 p.m. on Friday, the local fire department received an alarm about a fire in a male dormitory of Yingcai School …

GUANGZHOU: The total installed capacity of offshore wind power in south China’s Guangdong Province has exceeded 10 million kilowatts, able to generate about 30 billion kWh of electricity every year. “Such an installed capacity of offshore wind power can meet the annual electricity consumption demand of 10 million households,” said Liu Zhengfu from the Guangdong branch of China Southern Power …

SHIJIAZHUANG: More than 60,000 birds have been spotted in a nature reserve in north China’s Hebei Province, according to local authorities. During the 2023-2024 water bird monitoring operations conducted recently, the staff spotted 70 species of birds in the Hengshui Lake National Nature Reserve, said Zhang Yuguang with the reserve. The birds include some species under first-class national protection, such …

HARBIN: A wild Siberian tiger has been spotted in a forest area in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, indicating the ongoing improvement of the local ecological environment, according to forest rangers. The footprints and excrement of a suspected Siberian tiger were found by forest rangers during regular patrols at Heping forest farm under the Muling Forestry Bureau Co., Ltd., said ranger …

BEIJING: As the highly anticipated Spring Festival holiday draws near, the “ice city” of Harbin in northeast China is poised to welcome yet another surge of excitement for ice and snow adventures. The city has made a remarkable impact on the tourism market during this year’s ice and snow season, thanks to its rich resources, warm hospitality and extensive visibility …

URUMQI: Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to increase its grain storage capability this year, with new facilities scheduled to be built with a total storage capacity of 500,000 tonnes. The grain output in Xinjiang reached a record high of 20 million tonnes in 2023, an increase of over 3 million tonnes from 2022. The regional food and strategic …

BEIJING: China is ready to play a constructive role in easing the current situation between Pakistan and Iran, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday. “We hope both parties can exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation. If they need, we are ready to play a constructive role in easing the situation”, spokesperson Mao Ning said during her regular briefing. Chinese …

BEIJING: China is ready to play a constructive role in easing the current situation between Pakistan and Iran, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday. “We hope both parties can exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation. If they need, we are ready to play a constructive role in easing the situation”, spokesperson Mao Ning said during her regular briefing. Chinese …

FUZHOU: The Meihuashan South China tiger breeding institute, located in east China’s Fujian Province, saw the birth of South China tiger triplets on Wednesday. The cubs were born following a 106-day gestation period, Luo Hongxing, deputy head of the institute, said on Thursday. The South China tiger is a subspecies unique to China and is among the top 10 endangered …

SHANGHAI: A new-generation large language model, capable of accepting and processing about 300,000 Chinese characters at one time, was released in Shanghai on Wednesday. The limited context length of large models is a significant problem in artificial intelligence. The new model, InternLM2, was developed by the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, SenseTime, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Fudan University. …

SHENZHEN: The southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen saw its foreign trade grow 5.9 percent year on year to 3.87 trillion yuan (about 544 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, local authorities said on Wednesday. Exports grew 12.5 percent year on year to 2.46 trillion yuan last year, according to Shenzhen customs authorities. Last year, the foreign trade of Shenzhen’s private enterprises …

GUIYANG: Large quantities of artifacts made of stone, bone and horn have been unearthed at Chuandong Site in Puding County, southwest China’s Guizhou Province, indicating prehistoric human activity dating back more than 55,000 years. Chuandong Site, first discovered in 1978, is believed to have existed across the end of the middle Paleolithic Period, the late Paleolithic Period and the Neolithic …

BEIJING: The Chinese economy wrapped up 2023 with target-beating growth despite domestic challenges and external pressure, providing a strong impetus for the global economy. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.2 percent year on year to a new high of 126.06 trillion yuan (about 17.7 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The growth rate …

BEIJING: A study session on promoting high-quality financial development, attended by provincial and ministerial-level leading officials, was opened at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (the National Academy of Governance) on the morning of Jan. 16. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission …

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has removed and appointed the following ambassadors in accordance with a decision from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, an official statement said on Wednesday. Cao Xiaolin was appointed ambassador to Qatar, replacing Zhou Jian. Lin Nan was appointed ambassador to Seychelles, replacing Guo Wei. Wang Wengang was appointed ambassador …

BEIJING: Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with the Dominican Republic’s Chamber of Deputies President Alfredo Pacheco via video link on Wednesday. Hailing the sound momentum of bilateral relations and productive cooperation over the past few years of diplomatic ties, Han said China appreciates the Dominican Republic’s adherence to the one-China principle and is willing to consolidate political trust, expand …

BEIJING: China’s top legislator Zhao Leji held talks with the Dominican Republic’s Chamber of Deputies President Alfredo Pacheco via video link in Beijing on Wednesday. The establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Dominican Republic in May 2018 opened a new chapter in the development of bilateral relations, noted Zhao, chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, …

CHENGDU: Le Le, the first giant panda born in Singapore, arrived safely in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu on Tuesday evening, following a four-hour flight from Singapore Changi International Airport. Le Le was born in Singapore in August 2021. It weighed only 200 grams at birth, and after more than two years of growth, its weight has now reached …