diff --git a/.obsidian/community-plugins.json b/.obsidian/community-plugins.json
index f5aa2c3d..ba831cee 100644
--- a/.obsidian/community-plugins.json
+++ b/.obsidian/community-plugins.json
@@ -55,6 +55,5 @@
"rss-reader",
"editing-toolbar",
"obsidian-banners",
- "simpread",
- "obsidian42-brat"
+ "simpread"
]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.obsidian/plugins/cubox-sync/data.json b/.obsidian/plugins/cubox-sync/data.json
index 6b7c4892..ab951fe6 100644
--- a/.obsidian/plugins/cubox-sync/data.json
+++ b/.obsidian/plugins/cubox-sync/data.json
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
"contentTemplate": "# {{{title}}}\n\n{{{description}}}\n\n{{{article_title}}} //文章内容标题\n{{{content}}} //文章正文\n\n\n[Read in Cubox]({{{cubox_url}}}) \n[Read Original]({{{url}}}) \n\n---\n\n{{#highlights.length}}\n## Annotations \n\n{{#highlights}}\n> {{{text}}} \n\n{{#note}}\n{{{note}}}\n{{/note}}\n[Link️]({{{cubox_url}}}) \n\n{{/highlights}}\n{{/highlights.length}}",
"highlightInContent": true,
"dateFormat": "yyyy-MM-dd",
- "lastSyncTime": 1755646685090,
+ "lastSyncTime": 1755648485068,
"lastSyncCardId": "7356878557827565577",
"lastCardUpdateTime": "2025-08-18T06:01:59.474+0800",
"syncing": false
diff --git a/.obsidian/plugins/rss-reader/data.json b/.obsidian/plugins/rss-reader/data.json
index d5819b47..a96f06b4 100644
--- a/.obsidian/plugins/rss-reader/data.json
+++ b/.obsidian/plugins/rss-reader/data.json
@@ -7045,28 +7045,6 @@
"hash": "233574a3db4304dad47381930bfc720a",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "001FRONT - PET LOVERS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD CONNECT VIA REDNOTE",
- "description": "
Four photos starting left: Scott Phillips and his dogs, Thor and Polly, have garnered over 33,000 followers on RedNote. Right: Chris Thomas' eight cats.
\n
Astros, with one of her cats and pet dog, says she hopes people feel joy from looking at her photos from Iceland.
\n
Chris Thomas holds his furry friends.
\n\n
Chris Thomas was close to despair when a pregnant stray cat sneaked into his backyard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and rekindled his faith in people and his sense of self-worth.
\n
His special relationship with Frances, the cat, was shared on Chinese social media platform RedNote and other platforms, and struck a chord with animal lovers around the world, including tens of thousands in China.
\n
Now a dad to eight cats and a three-legged dog, Thomas, who has gained over 172,000 likes and saves on RedNote, said he was reborn amid the "genuine care "shown by many Chinese netizens.
\n
His journey started a few years ago during a COVID-19 quarantine when a feral cat slipped through a gap in the fence of his home. Thomas was struggling with mental health issues, and spent most of his days in bed.
\n
The cat crept in early in the mornings, and Thomas fed her every day without fail. "She gave me a reason to get out of bed," Thomas said. "She kept coming back, always when I needed her most."
\n
He began to win the animal's trust and named her Frances. Thomas started livestreaming their meetings, called "Coffee and Cats with Frances the Stray", on American social network Reddit. The daily ritual of the quiet man and a streetwise cat made the newspapers and went viral online.
\n
One morning Frances showed up injured, and Thomas decided to take her inside. He laid a trail of salmon that led into the house and gently closed the door behind her. Inside, Frances darted into the basement and curled up on a blanket. Hours later she gave birth to a litter of kittens, which Thomas livestreamed to over half a million people. Viewers wept, donated money, and helped name the kittens.
\n
"The whole experience cracked me open," said Thomas. "I was depressed and isolated, and suddenly, there was this tiny life that relied completely on me… I thought maybe she was an angel in disguise sent to save me. But now I think she might have been sent to save even more."
\n
Thomas adopted Frances and her kittens. Over the next few years, he saved two more cats and a three-legged dog Freya. He later launched a nonprofit organization to support animal care.
\n
Curiosity cured the cat
\n
He continues to share his story with Chinese netizens on RedNote. Thomas said he joined the Chinese platform out of curiosity, drawn by its reputation as a space for quiet storytelling, and not viral trends involving "chasing views or shouting to be heard". RedNote is an online community that "feels more human", he said, adding that he never expected to find a sense of belonging on a Chinese social media platform.
\n
People ask questions, remember names, and share their pet stories, with interactions translated back and forth.
\n
"There was kindness. People were curious, respectful. It didn't feel like I had to perform. I could just be myself," said Thomas.
\n
"And then I just became absolutely fascinated with Chinese culture and how America had it all wrong for so long. Now I honestly think I want to move me and my fur babies there."
\n
As responses came in from users around the world — many of whom had never owned a pet or thought about strays — Thomas realized his content was not just about cats anymore.
\n
"It's about what they represent: survival, healing, family, whatever that means to you," he said.
\n
His experience on RedNote was proof small moments can resonate across borders, he said.
\n
"One act of kindness can change everything, and sometimes that big thing you're looking for might come in a small package," said Thomas. "So, keep your eyes open for your hole in the fence — that's what I always like to say now."
\n
Chinese fascination
\n
A US woman known on RedNote as "StressedBigJess" understands Thomas' reaction to Chinese social media.
\n
"The RedNote community is very friendly. Most of the time on American apps, the vibes are rancid," she said. "I like RedNote because there are a lot less ads, and people are extremely kind and wholesome."
\n
Her first post on RedNote was about paying her "cat tax" by posting cat photos and videos to gain permission as a foreigner to join the app. Jess shared a photo of her cat Tino and Cardamom, a British Shorthair, a cat breed she later learned is rare in the United States but extremely common in China.
\n
One comment from a Chinese user moved her. The person had recently lost their own British Shorthair and said Jess' photo reminded them of their late pet. "It made me want to treasure mine even more," Jess said.
\n
Through pet content, she learned that "Chinese cats are very round, while American cats are very pointy".Small-sized pets are popular in China, in part due to apartment living, she found out through exchanges.
\n
These everyday glimpses sparked her curiosity about China. Although immigration restrictions make living in China unlikely for her, Jess now dreams of visiting one day — especially cities like Beijing and Chongqing, a place she envisions as a maze she'd love to explore.
\n
Jess is fascinated by space-maximized apartments, bright lofts with large windows, and clever interior designs posted on RedNote, which are unlike anything she's seen in the US. She adores many aspects of the Chinese lifestyle, including three-wheel cars and the prevalence of vegetable gardens.
\n
RedNote not only connected her to animal lovers across the world, but awakened a genuine interest in Chinese culture and its landscapes. By posting her own life as an average American, she hopes to return the favor — offering others the same kind of candid view she loved discovering in their posts.
\n
"I think people can bond easily over pets. It's human nature to care for cute little animals. Anytime I want to bond with someone I don't know, I bring up my cats and it always works," she said. "I hope one day the world can bond together over pets instead of having conflicts."
\n
Puppy love
\n
Maia, a high school student from a small town in Tigre, Argentina, became attracted to Chinese culture after she began sharing stories on her dog Uma.
\n
What began as simple pet updates on RedNote gradually blossomed into a deeper cultural exchange.
\n
Her loyal German shepherd meets her at the door every day after school. For Maia, the dog is an emotional anchor and a source of calm during moments of teenage uncertainty. "She changed the darkness inside of me to happiness," Maia said.
\n
However, she did not expect to connect with "so many kind and supportive Chinese users". RedNote quickly became a space where she could share her life journey and feelings as part of a big community. She is often surprised by the "warm, thoughtful responses" she gets from Chinese users.
\n
"We often talk about cultural differences, pets, school life, and food. l love it when people ask about Argentina, and l enjoy learning about their lives in return," said Maia. "These exchanges feel like a window into each other's world."
\n
She said she loves the elegance and beauty of traditional Chinese culture, especially the language and music. "I'm also fascinated by Chinese fashion. I love your traditional clothing and lifestyle," she said.
\n
In her posts, she has scribbled the RedNote logo in Chinese across her arm with a marker and showcased her multilingual skills by switching easily between Spanish, Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Maia has introduced Chinese users to the flavors of Argentine biscuits and the breathtaking scenery of her homeland. She has shared Spanish pop songs, inviting others into her world.
\n
In the comments section, people of different nationalities, ages, and family backgrounds exchange stories and different perspectives on life.
\n
"Pets, food, and music are universal," Maia said. "When we share these parts of life sincerely, we discover how similar we are, and real friendships can grow from that into amazing relationships."
\n
Digital sanctuaries
\n
Maia and Thomas are not outliers. RedNote has helped people from around the world find common interests.
\n
Scott Phillips from US state of Washington is the owner of two dogs, Thor and Polly. In just six months on RedNote he has gained over 33,000 followers.
\n
Every morning, Phillips dresses Thor in a tie and posts a photo with the hashtag "#DTOTD" (Dog Tie of The Day), paralleling the "#OOTD" (Outfit of The Day) social media trend. Polly, less cooperative, is usually shown chasing socks birthing the hashtag"#SockOfTheDay".
\n
While most US users left the platform after the easing of the threat to ban TikTok in the US, Phillips stayed.
\n
However, RedNote isn't Phillips' first social media foray. He tried other platforms but had few responses.
\n
"I put the same pictures on Facebook and only my mother commented," he joked.
\n
Phillips sees pets as an opportunity to take aspects of daily life to a broader audience. With a newborn on the way this November, he was imagining how his online scrapbook might grow. He dreams about launching a "#Baby Tie of the Day "hashtag to match Thor's daily fashion updates, though he suspects his wife may have the final say.
\n
"I think pets are a common thread across cultures. My dogs are cute and people see it as a commonality," said Phillips, "I gain popularity from showing the dogs, then take advantage of that to show common things about my country."
\n
Breaking the ice
\n
Astros, originally from China, was adopted by an Icelandic couple in 2004. She has been on RedNote for years and joined when few people outside of China knew about the app.
\n
However, she lacked the courage to post anything until the "TikTok refugee" phenomenon in January 2025.
\n
She witnessed "a spike in foreigners" swarming to the RedNote community, which encouraged her to post. She chose her two cats, Ezekiel and Lucifer, as the icebreakers. One of her posts gained 50,000 views and 8,000 likes.
\n
She joked her post had a couple of very "bad" pictures of her cat, which quickly "blew up".
\n
Foreign followers had a strong interest in all things about China, she discovered. "I have seen a lot of foreigners seeking validation from others and asking Chinese people questions like 'am I beautiful in China?' 'do I look handsome in China?'" she said.
\n
Astros now fills her RedNote feed with fragments of her life — the soft purring of her cat curled on a gray couch, skeins of yarn in her lap as she knits alone in a cafe, or golden sunsets spilling through the glass doors of her parents' home.
\n
She said she hopes people feel joy from looking at her photos from Iceland. She said she tries to show "a very authentic and relaxed way" of life in her country.
\n
Astros has always lived between the cultures of two countries. Her Chinese appearance speaks of one heritage while her language, habits and outlook reflect another.
\n
For years, she has wrestled with the feeling that she wasn't fully either — not quite Icelandic in the eyes of some, and never Chinese enough to claim that part of herself.
\n
But as she grew older, she stopped trying to resolve that tension. Through RedNote, she began sharing honestly, not just about her pets and hobbies, but about the beauty of existing between two cultures.
\n
"I think the best thing to do is just reach out. Don't be afraid to post your hobbies and passions," said Astros. "There is always someone who shares the same interests as you."
\n",
- "content": "
Four photos starting left: Scott Phillips and his dogs, Thor and Polly, have garnered over 33,000 followers on RedNote. Right: Chris Thomas' eight cats.
\n
Astros, with one of her cats and pet dog, says she hopes people feel joy from looking at her photos from Iceland.
\n
Chris Thomas holds his furry friends.
\n\n
Chris Thomas was close to despair when a pregnant stray cat sneaked into his backyard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and rekindled his faith in people and his sense of self-worth.
\n
His special relationship with Frances, the cat, was shared on Chinese social media platform RedNote and other platforms, and struck a chord with animal lovers around the world, including tens of thousands in China.
\n
Now a dad to eight cats and a three-legged dog, Thomas, who has gained over 172,000 likes and saves on RedNote, said he was reborn amid the "genuine care "shown by many Chinese netizens.
\n
His journey started a few years ago during a COVID-19 quarantine when a feral cat slipped through a gap in the fence of his home. Thomas was struggling with mental health issues, and spent most of his days in bed.
\n
The cat crept in early in the mornings, and Thomas fed her every day without fail. "She gave me a reason to get out of bed," Thomas said. "She kept coming back, always when I needed her most."
\n
He began to win the animal's trust and named her Frances. Thomas started livestreaming their meetings, called "Coffee and Cats with Frances the Stray", on American social network Reddit. The daily ritual of the quiet man and a streetwise cat made the newspapers and went viral online.
\n
One morning Frances showed up injured, and Thomas decided to take her inside. He laid a trail of salmon that led into the house and gently closed the door behind her. Inside, Frances darted into the basement and curled up on a blanket. Hours later she gave birth to a litter of kittens, which Thomas livestreamed to over half a million people. Viewers wept, donated money, and helped name the kittens.
\n
"The whole experience cracked me open," said Thomas. "I was depressed and isolated, and suddenly, there was this tiny life that relied completely on me… I thought maybe she was an angel in disguise sent to save me. But now I think she might have been sent to save even more."
\n
Thomas adopted Frances and her kittens. Over the next few years, he saved two more cats and a three-legged dog Freya. He later launched a nonprofit organization to support animal care.
\n
Curiosity cured the cat
\n
He continues to share his story with Chinese netizens on RedNote. Thomas said he joined the Chinese platform out of curiosity, drawn by its reputation as a space for quiet storytelling, and not viral trends involving "chasing views or shouting to be heard". RedNote is an online community that "feels more human", he said, adding that he never expected to find a sense of belonging on a Chinese social media platform.
\n
People ask questions, remember names, and share their pet stories, with interactions translated back and forth.
\n
"There was kindness. People were curious, respectful. It didn't feel like I had to perform. I could just be myself," said Thomas.
\n
"And then I just became absolutely fascinated with Chinese culture and how America had it all wrong for so long. Now I honestly think I want to move me and my fur babies there."
\n
As responses came in from users around the world — many of whom had never owned a pet or thought about strays — Thomas realized his content was not just about cats anymore.
\n
"It's about what they represent: survival, healing, family, whatever that means to you," he said.
\n
His experience on RedNote was proof small moments can resonate across borders, he said.
\n
"One act of kindness can change everything, and sometimes that big thing you're looking for might come in a small package," said Thomas. "So, keep your eyes open for your hole in the fence — that's what I always like to say now."
\n
Chinese fascination
\n
A US woman known on RedNote as "StressedBigJess" understands Thomas' reaction to Chinese social media.
\n
"The RedNote community is very friendly. Most of the time on American apps, the vibes are rancid," she said. "I like RedNote because there are a lot less ads, and people are extremely kind and wholesome."
\n
Her first post on RedNote was about paying her "cat tax" by posting cat photos and videos to gain permission as a foreigner to join the app. Jess shared a photo of her cat Tino and Cardamom, a British Shorthair, a cat breed she later learned is rare in the United States but extremely common in China.
\n
One comment from a Chinese user moved her. The person had recently lost their own British Shorthair and said Jess' photo reminded them of their late pet. "It made me want to treasure mine even more," Jess said.
\n
Through pet content, she learned that "Chinese cats are very round, while American cats are very pointy".Small-sized pets are popular in China, in part due to apartment living, she found out through exchanges.
\n
These everyday glimpses sparked her curiosity about China. Although immigration restrictions make living in China unlikely for her, Jess now dreams of visiting one day — especially cities like Beijing and Chongqing, a place she envisions as a maze she'd love to explore.
\n
Jess is fascinated by space-maximized apartments, bright lofts with large windows, and clever interior designs posted on RedNote, which are unlike anything she's seen in the US. She adores many aspects of the Chinese lifestyle, including three-wheel cars and the prevalence of vegetable gardens.
\n
RedNote not only connected her to animal lovers across the world, but awakened a genuine interest in Chinese culture and its landscapes. By posting her own life as an average American, she hopes to return the favor — offering others the same kind of candid view she loved discovering in their posts.
\n
"I think people can bond easily over pets. It's human nature to care for cute little animals. Anytime I want to bond with someone I don't know, I bring up my cats and it always works," she said. "I hope one day the world can bond together over pets instead of having conflicts."
\n
Puppy love
\n
Maia, a high school student from a small town in Tigre, Argentina, became attracted to Chinese culture after she began sharing stories on her dog Uma.
\n
What began as simple pet updates on RedNote gradually blossomed into a deeper cultural exchange.
\n
Her loyal German shepherd meets her at the door every day after school. For Maia, the dog is an emotional anchor and a source of calm during moments of teenage uncertainty. "She changed the darkness inside of me to happiness," Maia said.
\n
However, she did not expect to connect with "so many kind and supportive Chinese users". RedNote quickly became a space where she could share her life journey and feelings as part of a big community. She is often surprised by the "warm, thoughtful responses" she gets from Chinese users.
\n
"We often talk about cultural differences, pets, school life, and food. l love it when people ask about Argentina, and l enjoy learning about their lives in return," said Maia. "These exchanges feel like a window into each other's world."
\n
She said she loves the elegance and beauty of traditional Chinese culture, especially the language and music. "I'm also fascinated by Chinese fashion. I love your traditional clothing and lifestyle," she said.
\n
In her posts, she has scribbled the RedNote logo in Chinese across her arm with a marker and showcased her multilingual skills by switching easily between Spanish, Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Maia has introduced Chinese users to the flavors of Argentine biscuits and the breathtaking scenery of her homeland. She has shared Spanish pop songs, inviting others into her world.
\n
In the comments section, people of different nationalities, ages, and family backgrounds exchange stories and different perspectives on life.
\n
"Pets, food, and music are universal," Maia said. "When we share these parts of life sincerely, we discover how similar we are, and real friendships can grow from that into amazing relationships."
\n
Digital sanctuaries
\n
Maia and Thomas are not outliers. RedNote has helped people from around the world find common interests.
\n
Scott Phillips from US state of Washington is the owner of two dogs, Thor and Polly. In just six months on RedNote he has gained over 33,000 followers.
\n
Every morning, Phillips dresses Thor in a tie and posts a photo with the hashtag "#DTOTD" (Dog Tie of The Day), paralleling the "#OOTD" (Outfit of The Day) social media trend. Polly, less cooperative, is usually shown chasing socks birthing the hashtag"#SockOfTheDay".
\n
While most US users left the platform after the easing of the threat to ban TikTok in the US, Phillips stayed.
\n
However, RedNote isn't Phillips' first social media foray. He tried other platforms but had few responses.
\n
"I put the same pictures on Facebook and only my mother commented," he joked.
\n
Phillips sees pets as an opportunity to take aspects of daily life to a broader audience. With a newborn on the way this November, he was imagining how his online scrapbook might grow. He dreams about launching a "#Baby Tie of the Day "hashtag to match Thor's daily fashion updates, though he suspects his wife may have the final say.
\n
"I think pets are a common thread across cultures. My dogs are cute and people see it as a commonality," said Phillips, "I gain popularity from showing the dogs, then take advantage of that to show common things about my country."
\n
Breaking the ice
\n
Astros, originally from China, was adopted by an Icelandic couple in 2004. She has been on RedNote for years and joined when few people outside of China knew about the app.
\n
However, she lacked the courage to post anything until the "TikTok refugee" phenomenon in January 2025.
\n
She witnessed "a spike in foreigners" swarming to the RedNote community, which encouraged her to post. She chose her two cats, Ezekiel and Lucifer, as the icebreakers. One of her posts gained 50,000 views and 8,000 likes.
\n
She joked her post had a couple of very "bad" pictures of her cat, which quickly "blew up".
\n
Foreign followers had a strong interest in all things about China, she discovered. "I have seen a lot of foreigners seeking validation from others and asking Chinese people questions like 'am I beautiful in China?' 'do I look handsome in China?'" she said.
\n
Astros now fills her RedNote feed with fragments of her life — the soft purring of her cat curled on a gray couch, skeins of yarn in her lap as she knits alone in a cafe, or golden sunsets spilling through the glass doors of her parents' home.
\n
She said she hopes people feel joy from looking at her photos from Iceland. She said she tries to show "a very authentic and relaxed way" of life in her country.
\n
Astros has always lived between the cultures of two countries. Her Chinese appearance speaks of one heritage while her language, habits and outlook reflect another.
\n
For years, she has wrestled with the feeling that she wasn't fully either — not quite Icelandic in the eyes of some, and never Chinese enough to claim that part of herself.
\n
But as she grew older, she stopped trying to resolve that tension. Through RedNote, she began sharing honestly, not just about her pets and hobbies, but about the beauty of existing between two cultures.
\n
"I think the best thing to do is just reach out. Don't be afraid to post your hobbies and passions," said Astros. "There is always someone who shares the same interests as you."
A villager, wearing an outfit with local flair and carrying agricultural products with a pole, struts on the runway at a village fashion show held in a strawberry greenhouse in Yangcunqiao town in Jiande, Zhejiang province, on Saturday.
",
@@ -7089,28 +7067,6 @@
"hash": "804f4b37cdce1af93915438effc8dd57",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "004CHINA - Museums, heritage sites see surge in visitors during summer holiday",
- "description": "\n
Parents and children explore an artifact at an exhibition at the Qingzhou Museum in Weifang, Shandong province, on Sunday during the summer vacation.
\n
Standing in the exhibition hall of the Taosi Site Museum in Shanxi province, tourist Zhu Yongxin listened in awe as the presenter spoke.
\n
"It is amazing how our ancestors who lived 4,000 years before us already mastered exquisite crafting techniques, and even built grand cities like this," said Zhu, appreciating the exhibits.
\n
Opened in November 2024, the museum sits on the northwestern edge of the Taosi relics site, the result of over four decades of archaeological work. The site is believed to be the remains of the capital city from the era of Yao and Shun, two Chinese sage emperors who ruled more than 4,100 years ago.
\n
Like Zhu, many Chinese who chose to spend a few days traveling this summer have opted to visit museums and historical sites, seeking both leisure and knowledge.
\n
In Liaoning province, the Liaoning Provincial Museum is also seeing a surge in the number of visitors.
\n
Sun Linhao, a 14-year-old middle school student from Beijing, visited the museum with parents.
\n
"This is my second visit to the museum," Sun said. "This time I want to see the picture of the auspicious cranes, a painting by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (960-1279)."
\n
According to Dong Baohou, deputy curator of the museum, it has recorded an average of 20,000 visitors daily in recent weeks. To accommodate this surge of interest, the museum extended its opening hours.
\n
The Xixia Imperial Tombs in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region saw ticket bookings increase by 280 percent during this year's summer vacation compared with the same period last year.
\n
In July, the tombs were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, significantly enhancing their appeal to tourists.
\n
Museums and cultural heritage venues have been rolling out a plethora of activities to improve visitors' experiences. The Shanghai Museum's exhibition, On Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt, was open around the clock from Aug 11 to 17. This 168-hour cultural carnival also featured new book releases, Egyptian dance performances and interactive games.
\n
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. In this context, visiting museums, historical sites and revolutionary landmarks commemorating this hard-won victory has taken on special significance.
\n
At a memorial hall in Shanxi, people visit exhibits featuring items such as a soldier's journal or a rusted rifle, which were relics from the Hundred-Regiment Campaign, a major operation during China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression to which the hall is dedicated.
\n
According to local statistics, on July 12 and 13, the memorial hall received more than 10,000 visits. The Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression saw similar numbers.
\n
Many visitors came to learn about the history and pay tribute to the martyrs who fell resisting aggression. Li Jiaxin, a 15-year-old from Shandong province, said he was shocked to learn how young some of the martyrs had been when they died.
\n
"They were more or less my age, but were willing to give their lives to save the country. They were such noble people," Li added.
\n
Visiting the memorial hall has special importance, one visitor said, noting that this piece of history must be passed down through generations.
Parents and children explore an artifact at an exhibition at the Qingzhou Museum in Weifang, Shandong province, on Sunday during the summer vacation.
\n
Standing in the exhibition hall of the Taosi Site Museum in Shanxi province, tourist Zhu Yongxin listened in awe as the presenter spoke.
\n
"It is amazing how our ancestors who lived 4,000 years before us already mastered exquisite crafting techniques, and even built grand cities like this," said Zhu, appreciating the exhibits.
\n
Opened in November 2024, the museum sits on the northwestern edge of the Taosi relics site, the result of over four decades of archaeological work. The site is believed to be the remains of the capital city from the era of Yao and Shun, two Chinese sage emperors who ruled more than 4,100 years ago.
\n
Like Zhu, many Chinese who chose to spend a few days traveling this summer have opted to visit museums and historical sites, seeking both leisure and knowledge.
\n
In Liaoning province, the Liaoning Provincial Museum is also seeing a surge in the number of visitors.
\n
Sun Linhao, a 14-year-old middle school student from Beijing, visited the museum with parents.
\n
"This is my second visit to the museum," Sun said. "This time I want to see the picture of the auspicious cranes, a painting by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (960-1279)."
\n
According to Dong Baohou, deputy curator of the museum, it has recorded an average of 20,000 visitors daily in recent weeks. To accommodate this surge of interest, the museum extended its opening hours.
\n
The Xixia Imperial Tombs in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region saw ticket bookings increase by 280 percent during this year's summer vacation compared with the same period last year.
\n
In July, the tombs were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, significantly enhancing their appeal to tourists.
\n
Museums and cultural heritage venues have been rolling out a plethora of activities to improve visitors' experiences. The Shanghai Museum's exhibition, On Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt, was open around the clock from Aug 11 to 17. This 168-hour cultural carnival also featured new book releases, Egyptian dance performances and interactive games.
\n
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. In this context, visiting museums, historical sites and revolutionary landmarks commemorating this hard-won victory has taken on special significance.
\n
At a memorial hall in Shanxi, people visit exhibits featuring items such as a soldier's journal or a rusted rifle, which were relics from the Hundred-Regiment Campaign, a major operation during China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression to which the hall is dedicated.
\n
According to local statistics, on July 12 and 13, the memorial hall received more than 10,000 visits. The Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression saw similar numbers.
\n
Many visitors came to learn about the history and pay tribute to the martyrs who fell resisting aggression. Li Jiaxin, a 15-year-old from Shandong province, said he was shocked to learn how young some of the martyrs had been when they died.
\n
"They were more or less my age, but were willing to give their lives to save the country. They were such noble people," Li added.
\n
Visiting the memorial hall has special importance, one visitor said, noting that this piece of history must be passed down through generations.
Scientists at Tianjin University have developed a high-energy lithium metal battery with an energy density two to three times greater than that of existing lithium-ion batteries, according to findings published in the journal Nature recently.
\n
The breakthrough was achieved by redesigning the battery's electrolyte to improve the movement of lithium ions. With batteries of the same weight, the range of electric vehicles is expected to multiply.
\n
The findings are a significant step in meeting the urgent demand in fields such as electric transportation and the low-altitude economy for high-energy, long-duration rechargeable batteries.
\n
Energy density, the amount of energy that can be stored per mass, is a core performance indicator for batteries.
\n
"For a long time, scientists have hoped to increase the energy density of batteries while ensuring maximum safety, enabling batteries to store more electricity with lighter weight and smaller volume," said Hu Wenbin, a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tianjin University and leader of the research team.
\n
Developers have faced challenges in improving the performance of traditional lithium batteries, Hu said. The electrolyte of traditional lithium batteries is generally composed of a single salt and a few solvents, forming a point-like structure. That structure limits the migration capability of lithium ions, resulting in imbalances in the electrolyte and restricting the battery's energy storage and cycling performance.
\n
To address the problem, the team designed an ultra-dispersed electrolyte, or UDE, after years of research.
\n
"Compared with the relatively single composition of traditional electrolytes, this electrolyte integrates multiple solvents and salts, significantly enhancing the disordered solvation micro-environment. It creates a face-like microscopic environment, effectively reducing the kinetic barriers to lithium-ion movement," Hu said.
\n
The new electrolyte design optimizes performance and achieves internationally recognized high energy density targets, Hu added. Pouch cell energy density exceeds 600 watt-hours-per-kilogram, and battery pack energy density exceeds 480 Wh/kg.
\n
By comparison, United States electric car manufacturer Tesla's 4680 battery has an energy density of about 300 Wh/kg, and Chinese electric vehicle company BYD's Blade Battery is around 150 Wh/kg.
\n
"This lays an important foundation for the future application of lithium metal batteries," Hu said.
\n
The team also discovered that within the dispersed microscopic environment formed by the UDE, a solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI, develops inside the battery.
\n
"This robust and stable interface enables the electrode to remain stable during prolonged cycling, which is crucial for enhancing the lifespan of high-performance lithium metal batteries," Hu said.
\n
The researchers used artificial intelligence to screen electrolyte materials, significantly shortening development time. They collaborated with the National University of Singapore and several Chinese companies.
\n
With support from national-level platforms such as Tianjin University's National Industry-Education Platform of Energy Storage and the National Key Laboratory of Precious Metal Functional Materials, the team is promoting commercialization and practical application of the findings.
\n
A pilot production line for high-energy lithium metal batteries is operational, and the technology has been tested in three models of domestically developed micro electric drones. Their flight endurance increased by up to 2.8 times compared with current battery systems.
China launched a group of internet satellites into orbit on Sunday evening, marking the fifth in-orbit deployment of such spacecraft in a month.
\n
The satellites are the ninth group of low-orbit hardware in China's State-owned internet network. They were lifted by a Long March 6A carrier rocket at 10:15 pm from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province and soon arrived in their orbital positions, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which conducted the launch.
\n
Over the past month, five batches of satellites have been sent into orbit for the in-orbit networking of the country's massive space-based internet system, which is often likened to a Chinese version of SpaceX's Starlink.
\n
The fifth group in the network was launched on July 27, the sixth on July 30, the seventh on Aug 4, and the eighth on Aug 13.
\n
Upon its completion, the Chinese mega-constellation will consist of about 13,000 satellites operating in low-Earth orbit to create an internet system with worldwide coverage.
\n
The latest batch was designed and built by the Shanghai-based Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is tasked with using its Ka-band transmitters to provide communications and internet service to users.
\n
The Long March 6A rocket model was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary, as a medium-lift launch vehicle.
\n
The rocket has a liftoff weight of 530 metric tons and is mainly used to transport satellites to multiple types of orbit, including sun-synchronous, low-Earth and intermediate circular orbit. It consists of a 50-meter, liquid-propelled core booster and four solid-fuel side boosters.
\n
When used to reach the typical sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above Earth, the model can carry satellites with a combined weight of more than 4.5 tons.
\n
Sunday's launch was the third time the Long March 6A type was used to carry satellites involved in the internet network. It also marked China's 48th rocket launch this year, and the 590th flight of the Long March rocket family.
\n
Earlier on Sunday, a Long March 4C rocket blasted off at 4:55 pm at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, sending the Shiyan 28B02 satellite into its preset orbit.
\n
The satellite was also made by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, and it will be used to measure and survey space environmental elements and demonstrate new technologies. Its predecessor, Shiyan 28B01, was lifted off by the same rocket model from Xichang on July 3.
\n
The Long March 4C, also a product of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, has a liftoff weight of 250 tons and is mainly used to send satellites to sun-synchronous orbit.
\n
zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
- "content": "
China launched a group of internet satellites into orbit on Sunday evening, marking the fifth in-orbit deployment of such spacecraft in a month.
\n
The satellites are the ninth group of low-orbit hardware in China's State-owned internet network. They were lifted by a Long March 6A carrier rocket at 10:15 pm from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province and soon arrived in their orbital positions, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which conducted the launch.
\n
Over the past month, five batches of satellites have been sent into orbit for the in-orbit networking of the country's massive space-based internet system, which is often likened to a Chinese version of SpaceX's Starlink.
\n
The fifth group in the network was launched on July 27, the sixth on July 30, the seventh on Aug 4, and the eighth on Aug 13.
\n
Upon its completion, the Chinese mega-constellation will consist of about 13,000 satellites operating in low-Earth orbit to create an internet system with worldwide coverage.
\n
The latest batch was designed and built by the Shanghai-based Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is tasked with using its Ka-band transmitters to provide communications and internet service to users.
\n
The Long March 6A rocket model was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary, as a medium-lift launch vehicle.
\n
The rocket has a liftoff weight of 530 metric tons and is mainly used to transport satellites to multiple types of orbit, including sun-synchronous, low-Earth and intermediate circular orbit. It consists of a 50-meter, liquid-propelled core booster and four solid-fuel side boosters.
\n
When used to reach the typical sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above Earth, the model can carry satellites with a combined weight of more than 4.5 tons.
\n
Sunday's launch was the third time the Long March 6A type was used to carry satellites involved in the internet network. It also marked China's 48th rocket launch this year, and the 590th flight of the Long March rocket family.
\n
Earlier on Sunday, a Long March 4C rocket blasted off at 4:55 pm at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, sending the Shiyan 28B02 satellite into its preset orbit.
\n
The satellite was also made by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, and it will be used to measure and survey space environmental elements and demonstrate new technologies. Its predecessor, Shiyan 28B01, was lifted off by the same rocket model from Xichang on July 3.
\n
The Long March 4C, also a product of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, has a liftoff weight of 250 tons and is mainly used to send satellites to sun-synchronous orbit.
The Tien Kung Ultra robot (third from left), developed by a Beijing-based company, claims 100m gold at the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Sunday, finishing in 21.5 seconds.
\n
The inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing have showcased how sport is accelerating robotics innovation and capturing public imagination.
\n
Over three days, more than 500 robots from 280 teams across 16 countries competed in 487 events that ranged from athletics and soccer to combat and hotel service simulations.
\n
At the closing ceremony on Sunday, organizers announced the establishment of the World Humanoid Robotics Games Federation, dedicated to advancing humanoid robot sports, with Beijing set to host the second Games in August 2026.
\n
Spectators were left astonished as humanoid robots sprinted 1,500 meters at speeds rivaling university athletes or performed synchronized dances dressed as Terracotta Warriors. Some robots veered off track or collided with referees, drawing laughter and applause, while others passed soccer balls flawlessly, occasionally scoring in their own goals. The mix of impressive feats and endearing mishaps underscored both the rapid progress and the challenges that remain in better managing humanoid mobility and coordination.
\n
"These Games bring together top-tier teams from across China and around the world, providing a platform to showcase their latest research and achievements in robotics, and it also fosters mutual learning and collaboration among participants," said Lou Kaiqi, who directed a Terracotta Warrior-themed dance performance.
\n
His team developed group-control software to synchronize nine robots in complex routines.
\n
"Each unit was precisely calibrated to move in rhythm, creating a visually striking performance," he added.
\n
The growing publicity around such events has drawn broader attention to the robotics industry, particularly to advancements in robotic movement. This has significantly accelerated technological progress in the field over the past two years, driving remarkable developments in robotic capabilities.
\n
"This event's greatest value lies in public engagement," said Huang Siyuan of the BIGAI-Unitree team, which competed in the hotel service challenge. "People can see how autonomously and efficiently these robots handle everyday tasks, something many care about."
\n
The Games are also accelerating technical breakthroughs by taking humanoid robots out of laboratories and into real-world scenarios. The competition acts as a testing ground, helping refine viable innovations and push them toward wider adoption. Huang said humanoid robots hold significant potential to revolutionize hotel cleaning operations.
\n
"The benefit of humanoid robots is safety and privacy. Many people worry about inconsistent cleaning quality in hotels, but robots can perform tasks with higher reliability and precision, ensuring greater trust. Their standardized execution reduces human error, making them a preferable solution for some environments," Huang said.
\n
Huang added that hotel service robots need to perform autonomous navigation and interactive operations within the environment, such as picking up a suitcase or collecting trash and disposing of it in a bin. These actions demonstrate humanoid robots' strong interactive capabilities in real-world scenarios.
\n
The Games also highlighted Beijing's ambitions to become a global robotics hub. The city has rolled out multibillion-yuan investment funds, innovation centers and industrial policies to support humanoid robot research, manufacturing and deployment. Its humanoid robot sector now accounts for about a third of China's market, with revenues up nearly 40 percent in the first half of this year, according to data released by authorities.
\n
Contact the writers at wangsongsong@chinadaily.com.cn
Spectators applaud performances given by dancers during the 2025 Cloud Jam (Tayun Jue) Breaking Open Finals in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.
\n
Dancers cheer for a performance presented by a young dancer.
\n
Lian Jiulong, a member of the judging panel, gives a performance during the two-day event.
\n
A dancer competes during the event.
\n
A young dancer prepares to stage his performance.
\n
A young dancer participates in the competition of Kids Breaking 1v1 category.
\n
A young dancer shows his skill during the competition.
\n
Members of the Southeast Asian Team dance for the Breaking Crew Battle competition during the event.
\n
B4, a member of the Vietnamese National Breaking Team, dances during the event.
\n
The 2025 Cloud Jam (Tayun Jue) Breaking Open Finals lit up the night and drew to a close in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.
\n
The event attracted the participation of 1,500 dancers from 15 province-level regions and countries such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, France and South Korea. The competition set up four major categories — Breaking Crew Battle, Breaking 2v2, Kids Breaking 1v1 and Kids Breaking Crew Battle — and unfolded over two days, from Aug 9 to the evening of Aug 10. Aug 9 was dedicated to grueling preliminary rounds, followed by elimination rounds on the 10th, culminating in a series of electrifying final showdowns on the evening of the 10th.
\n
Adding to the spectacle was a captivating performance staged by national teams from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia. The crowd was also treated to a performance given by the judging panel itself, featuring luminaries such as Lian Jiulong — nicknamed Kowloon — who was a judge at the 2024 Olympic Games in breaking, and Mounir Biba, the head coach of the Chinese National Breaking Team and the legendary French b-boy.
\n
After two days of fierce competition, the champions were crowned. Zhang Zhixun from Sichuan province claimed the title in Kids Breaking 1v1. 0831, a team from Yibin, Sichuan, dominated the Kids Breaking Crew Battle. Le Borthe from Vietnam won the Breaking 2v2 category. And finally, the Southeast Asian Team, a collaboration of breakers from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia, took home the crown in the Breaking Crew Battle competition.
\n
Contact the writers at liyingqing@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
- "content": "
Online See more by scanning the code.
\n
Spectators applaud performances given by dancers during the 2025 Cloud Jam (Tayun Jue) Breaking Open Finals in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.
\n
Dancers cheer for a performance presented by a young dancer.
\n
Lian Jiulong, a member of the judging panel, gives a performance during the two-day event.
\n
A dancer competes during the event.
\n
A young dancer prepares to stage his performance.
\n
A young dancer participates in the competition of Kids Breaking 1v1 category.
\n
A young dancer shows his skill during the competition.
\n
Members of the Southeast Asian Team dance for the Breaking Crew Battle competition during the event.
\n
B4, a member of the Vietnamese National Breaking Team, dances during the event.
\n
The 2025 Cloud Jam (Tayun Jue) Breaking Open Finals lit up the night and drew to a close in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.
\n
The event attracted the participation of 1,500 dancers from 15 province-level regions and countries such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, France and South Korea. The competition set up four major categories — Breaking Crew Battle, Breaking 2v2, Kids Breaking 1v1 and Kids Breaking Crew Battle — and unfolded over two days, from Aug 9 to the evening of Aug 10. Aug 9 was dedicated to grueling preliminary rounds, followed by elimination rounds on the 10th, culminating in a series of electrifying final showdowns on the evening of the 10th.
\n
Adding to the spectacle was a captivating performance staged by national teams from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia. The crowd was also treated to a performance given by the judging panel itself, featuring luminaries such as Lian Jiulong — nicknamed Kowloon — who was a judge at the 2024 Olympic Games in breaking, and Mounir Biba, the head coach of the Chinese National Breaking Team and the legendary French b-boy.
\n
After two days of fierce competition, the champions were crowned. Zhang Zhixun from Sichuan province claimed the title in Kids Breaking 1v1. 0831, a team from Yibin, Sichuan, dominated the Kids Breaking Crew Battle. Le Borthe from Vietnam won the Breaking 2v2 category. And finally, the Southeast Asian Team, a collaboration of breakers from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia, took home the crown in the Breaking Crew Battle competition.
\n
Contact the writers at liyingqing@chinadaily.com.cn
The US State Department issued its annual human rights report on China on Tuesday last week, in which it once again groundlessly pointed an accusing finger at the country for alleged human rights abuses.
\n
The report is divorced from reality and constitutes a grave interference in China's internal affairs. The US' double standards on human rights issues and its intention of weaponizing human rights for its own geopolitical interests are plain to see.
\n
China's human rights achievements are widely recognized around the world. The country's development is about providing a better life for the 1.4 billion Chinese people and the country follows a people-centered development approach. It has charted a path of human rights development that suits China's national conditions. The path has been embraced by the people and conforms to the trends of the time.
\n
In the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, people of different ethnic groups enjoy their rights according to law. The region has achieved noticeable results in advancing socioeconomic development and human rights, and it remains stable and tranquil. As a result, it has been able to open its doors wider to the outside world, receiving more than 200 million domestic and foreign tourists annually. It has also become a major hub of the Belt and Road Initiative and a major channel for the China-Europe Railway Express.
\n
Likewise, human rights in the Xizang autonomous region and its development have made evident progress. The success of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in practicing "one country, two systems" is also there for everyone to see.
\n
While China is willing to engage in dialogue and exchanges on human rights with all countries, it will never allow any country to interfere in its internal affairs, jeopardize China's interests, or tarnish China's image under the pretext of "human rights". The nation is firmly opposed to the politicization and weaponization of human rights issues, and the arbitrary use of human rights by some developed countries to suppress developing countries that pursue independent and autonomous policies.
\n
Before lecturing other countries on human rights, the US should face squarely its own human rights issues. The State Council Information Office of China on Sunday released a report on human rights violations in the US in 2024, indicating how grave the human rights conditions are in the country.
\n
The inequality in US society continues to increase, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. As a result the US public is deeply disillusioned with the country's democratic system in which money dictates policy. For instance, the root cause of the US' opioid crisis lies in interest hijacking, government-business collusion and regulatory failure. Interest groups, driven by profit, have intensified their lobbying efforts and deceptively promoted the use of opioids. The number of fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioids and stimulants has surged in the past few years.
\n
Gun violence remains rampant in the US. According to the Sunday report, there were 503 mass shootings and 45 school shootings in the US in 2024. In all, 40,000 Americans were killed by gun violence last year, including over 1,400 children. Meanwhile, police brutality — particularly against non-white ethnic minorities — persists in total disregard of human rights. African Americans, for instance, are three times more likely to be shot and killed by police than white Americans.
\n
Worse, the human rights issues the US creates are not just restricted to its own territory.
\n
While hyping up fabricated violations of the "human rights" of Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in China, particularly Muslim groups, the US administration pays no heed to the ugly role it is playing, both directly and indirectly, in the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
\n
The US is also the world's biggest user of unilateral sanctions. It has increasingly imposed them on some less-developed countries in recent years. More than 60 percent of low-income countries are now under some form of financial penalty imposed by the US, according to the report.
\n
Under the collusion of power and capital, human rights have been distorted into mere props in a political "show" and bargaining chips in a power "casino", completely deviating from their core values and fundamental principles. As the report says, the tumultuous political stage of the US in 2024 acts as a prism, reflecting the structural dilemmas of US-style human rights.
\n",
@@ -7221,28 +7133,6 @@
"hash": "31fe8bdfc7969d3c94ea002eeb541d9d",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "008COMMENT - Without autonomy, EU will continue to be on the menu",
- "description": "
That some European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington shows their concern that Kyiv will not be treated "fairly" in any potential deal and Europe's security concerns will not be addressed by an end to the Ukraine crisis negotiated between the United States and Russia.
\n
The Zelensky-Trump meeting comes shortly after a three-hour dialogue between the US leader and his Russian counterpart in Anchorage, Alaska, the first of its kind since Trump took office in January. And it is widely believed that the meeting between the US and its allies will touch upon some key issues, such as whether Ukraine will need to cede territory for a deal.
\n
Since the majority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have agreed to raise their defense spending from 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent, most of which will be spent buying US weapons, and the US has already inked a mineral resource agreement with Ukraine, the Trump administration has already leveraged the conflict to get the maximum gains it can from Ukraine and European countries.
\n
After that Washington has turned attention to try and broker a ceasefire so it can see what the US can seek to get from Russia.
\n
To this end, it has been hammering home the fact that without the support of the US, Kyiv and the European countries would not be able to sustain the conflict, not to mention hold the front line where it is.
\n
It is the European Union that has put itself in such a difficult position by ending its pursuit of autonomy initiated by former German chancellor Angela Merkel during her time in office from 2005 to 2021.
\n
During Merkel's tenure as the German leader that had unique influence on the EU, the bloc tried to keep a balance between the US and Russia and acted with its due confidence on the world stage as one pole of a nascent multipolar world.
\n
But after Merkel's retirement, the EU has thrown itself into the arms of the US. Many industrial, technological, as well as economic and trade policies that had proved effective in enabling the EU to stand on its own feet during Merkel's days have been dropped.
\n
Blindly following Washington's foreign and geopolitical policies has not made the EU safer but a buffer zone and a coffer-filler for the US. It is no coincidence that the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out less than two months after Merkel's retirement.
\n
So given the huge gap between what the EU wants and what it has, there might be even fiercer discussions between the European visitors and their US hosts in Washington this week than the widely televised meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the White House in late February.
\n
Compared with then, the US has steadily advanced its agenda on the Ukraine crisis. Now it is time for Kyiv and its European supporters to accept the painful fact that they lack the necessary means to defend their own core interests in not only the conflict but also in their dealings with the US.
\n
The EU is now experiencing the consequences of its choice over the past few years. It has to accept that the US is a self-centered ally that is ready to loot a burning house.
\n
It will certainly take a long process to resolve the Ukraine crisis. Even so, none of the stakeholders, except the US, might feel happy with the final deal.
\n
At least if the end of the crisis can serve to prompt the EU to resume its pursuit of autonomy, the blood will not have been shed in vain. But before the EU grasps its own fate in its hands, it will continue to be on the menu.
\n",
- "content": "
That some European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington shows their concern that Kyiv will not be treated "fairly" in any potential deal and Europe's security concerns will not be addressed by an end to the Ukraine crisis negotiated between the United States and Russia.
\n
The Zelensky-Trump meeting comes shortly after a three-hour dialogue between the US leader and his Russian counterpart in Anchorage, Alaska, the first of its kind since Trump took office in January. And it is widely believed that the meeting between the US and its allies will touch upon some key issues, such as whether Ukraine will need to cede territory for a deal.
\n
Since the majority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have agreed to raise their defense spending from 2 percent of GDP to 5 percent, most of which will be spent buying US weapons, and the US has already inked a mineral resource agreement with Ukraine, the Trump administration has already leveraged the conflict to get the maximum gains it can from Ukraine and European countries.
\n
After that Washington has turned attention to try and broker a ceasefire so it can see what the US can seek to get from Russia.
\n
To this end, it has been hammering home the fact that without the support of the US, Kyiv and the European countries would not be able to sustain the conflict, not to mention hold the front line where it is.
\n
It is the European Union that has put itself in such a difficult position by ending its pursuit of autonomy initiated by former German chancellor Angela Merkel during her time in office from 2005 to 2021.
\n
During Merkel's tenure as the German leader that had unique influence on the EU, the bloc tried to keep a balance between the US and Russia and acted with its due confidence on the world stage as one pole of a nascent multipolar world.
\n
But after Merkel's retirement, the EU has thrown itself into the arms of the US. Many industrial, technological, as well as economic and trade policies that had proved effective in enabling the EU to stand on its own feet during Merkel's days have been dropped.
\n
Blindly following Washington's foreign and geopolitical policies has not made the EU safer but a buffer zone and a coffer-filler for the US. It is no coincidence that the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out less than two months after Merkel's retirement.
\n
So given the huge gap between what the EU wants and what it has, there might be even fiercer discussions between the European visitors and their US hosts in Washington this week than the widely televised meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the White House in late February.
\n
Compared with then, the US has steadily advanced its agenda on the Ukraine crisis. Now it is time for Kyiv and its European supporters to accept the painful fact that they lack the necessary means to defend their own core interests in not only the conflict but also in their dealings with the US.
\n
The EU is now experiencing the consequences of its choice over the past few years. It has to accept that the US is a self-centered ally that is ready to loot a burning house.
\n
It will certainly take a long process to resolve the Ukraine crisis. Even so, none of the stakeholders, except the US, might feel happy with the final deal.
\n
At least if the end of the crisis can serve to prompt the EU to resume its pursuit of autonomy, the blood will not have been shed in vain. But before the EU grasps its own fate in its hands, it will continue to be on the menu.
The author is with the University of Macau (China).
\n
Editor's note: In recent years, China has made significant strides in several fields. It has also been focusing on achieving breakthroughs in some other sectors, especially artificial intelligence and digital technology sector, in order to promote high-quality growth development. Three experts share their views on the issue with China Daily.
\n
Over the last 10 years, China has undergone a remarkable economic shift guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Economy, which emphasizes innovation-driven high-quality development, and a dual circulation development paradigm that prioritizes domestic consumption while maintaining global engagement.
\n
China has not only consolidated its position as the world's second-largest economy but also become the main driver of global growth. Indeed, according to Baillie Gifford, an independent investment manager, China has contributed more to global economic expansion in the past decade than all G7 countries combined.
\n
This highlights the depth and adaptability of China's economic framework. Despite facing headwinds such as regulatory tightening, geopolitical tensions and a slowing property sector, China's economic fundamentals remain robust and dynamic.
\n
A particularly vivid sign of China's economic dynamism can be seen in the scale of its capital markets. As someone who has followed emerging markets for years, I find it remarkable that China's stock exchanges are now the second largest globally, hosting more than 6,000 listed companies, with nearly 3,000 new listings on the A-share indexes in just the past decade. While stock market performance does not fully reflect underlying economic fundamentals, this surge in entrepreneurship nevertheless indicates China's capacity for adaptation and innovation at scale.
\n
In 2024, China was the best-performing major stock market globally, with the Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust reporting a net asset value increase of 38.1 percent and a share price rise of 39.7 percent in the 12 months to March 2025. These figures are not just impressive; they signal a broader recovery in investor sentiment and renewed confidence in China's domestic growth drivers, even if they should be interpreted alongside broader economic indicators.
\n
China's industrial boom is particularly evident in its global leadership in electric vehicles (EVs), solar power technology and automation. The country now accounts for nearly one-third of global manufacturing output, leading in sectors such as green technology and artificial intelligence.
\n
Companies like BYD, China's leading EV manufacturer, have overtaken Tesla in new EV sales in Europe and are expanding aggressively into Southeast Asia, Latin America — particularly Brazil — and Australia. Chinese enterprises' global growth signals its transition from "Made in China" to "Invented in China", a transformation that is reshaping global supply chains and consumer markets.
\n
Arguably, the most telling aspect of China's current development stage is not the inflow of talent, but the fact that talent is here to stay, and the retention of talent marks a significant shift in global innovation dynamics. The country's innovation ecosystem is further strengthened by its vast and growing talent pool — universities are working in tandem with industries to become "talent nurseries" where aptitude is well rewarded. China produces about 40 percent of the world's STEM(science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates each year, laying a formidable foundation for sustained technological leadership.
\n
In this regard, Apple CEO Tim Cook's observation is particularly illuminating: "In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I'm not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields."
\n
China's digital economy, too, is flourishing, driven by tech giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, PDD and Meituan. These firms have doubled their aggregate profits since 2021, despite a significant drop in market capitalization, thus creating opportunities for long-term investors. On the consumer front, brands such as Pop Mart are making waves internationally. Known for its collectible toys and youth-focused appeal, Pop Mart has received enthusiastic reception in Western markets, with long queues forming outside its London store — a testament to China's expanding cultural and commercial footprint.
\n
Besides, despite macroeconomic challenges, including a declining labor force and shifting global trade dynamics, China's domestic consumption is showing signs of recovery.
\n
President Xi has also emphasized the importance of self-reliance in strategic sectors — a response to external pressures such as the United States' restrictions on exports of various products and technologies to China. As expected, Chinese enterprises like AMEC and Naura are stepping up to fill the gaps in semiconductor manufacturing, while Horizon Robotics is emerging as a domestic alternative to global AI chip leaders. These shifts point to a wider movement toward domestic innovation and technological independence.
\n
China's economic path has been marked by both change and durability. While short-term volatility and geopolitical risks persist, the long-term outlook is shaped by innovation, strategic policymaking and a vast domestic market. For global investors and observers alike, understanding the nuances of this evolution is essential to not only grasp China's role in the world economy, but also appreciate the opportunities it continues to offer.
\n
China's economic journey under the leadership of President Xi illustrates a strategic blend of innovation, industrial capacity and global integration. The country's ability to retain talent, lead in emerging technologies, and expand its cultural and commercial influence underscores its growing role in shaping the global economy.
\n
As China continues to navigate complex macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges, its commitment to high-quality development and self-reliance positions it as a resilient and transformative force in the international landscape.
\n
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
\n",
@@ -7265,28 +7155,6 @@
"hash": "cc713103aa5397718a403aa5dba05461",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "009VIEWS - Invent, not just make, to reflect industrial power",
- "description": "
The author is the deputy director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University.
\n
In the bustling labs and smart factories of Shenzhen, a palm-sized circuit board has set off on an odyssey that encapsulates the city's remarkable transformation. Once a humble link in a vast, low-wage assembly chain — the final stop of designs drafted in Silicon Valley and machinery imported from Germany — such a board now embodies the cutting edge of global manufacturing.
\n
In Shenzhen, engineers today write its first lines of code, craft its schematic on locally developed software, and shepherd it through AI-driven production lines toward final assembly in a wearable device destined for Europe. It is no longer "build to order"; it is "invent and export".
\n
Shenzhen's story is one of reinvention. Two decades ago, it thrived as a "front-shop, back-factory". Someone else supplied the blueprint, and it supplied the speed at a relatively low cost. But as the cost of labor increased and margins thinned, that model creaked under its own weight. Rather than concede its crown, Shenzhen rewrote its playbook, shifting from commodity assembly to innovation-led, high-value manufacturing.
\n
In today's Shenzhen, designs once created overseas are conceived locally. DJI's flight-control systems and UBTECH's humanoid robots have become global benchmarks, not only for their technical sophistication but also for the authority of design they project. Behind these household names lies an army of more than 11,000 specialized and sophisticated enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
\n
These enterprises, pioneers in smart hardware, industrial software and niche production technologies, have forged an end-to-end innovation chain. Even the smallest workshop can now assemble an "innovation factory", blending design tools, materials platforms and cloud-connected equipment rentals. The result: circuit board designs born and developed in Shenzhen, not imported from abroad.
\n
This ingenuity now extends beyond design into the very mechanics of production. Take, for example, the transformed Foxconn facility in Longhua district of Shenzhen. Once a beehive of manual soldering and assembly, it now hums with robotic arms, automated guided vehicles and machine-vision systems.
\n
Each board is populated by AI-guided pick-and-place robots, then, before shipping, its test data are uploaded to the cloud for real-time quality oversight by European clients. Underpinning all this is Shenzhen's policy to encourage the digitalization of enterprises and the digital infrastructure of platform giants such as Tencent Cloud and Kingdee. Manufacturing is no longer a matter of manual repetition; it is now an exercise in computational engineering, where efficiency soars, defects plummet and delivery times shrink.
\n
Yet the true hallmark of Shenzhen's leap is not its factories' glass-walled modernity but its role as a rule-maker. Shenzhen no longer only follows global standards; it sets them. BYD, for instance, has opened its electric-vehicle platform to third-party collaborators, creating an ecosystem reminiscent of the Android model. Control remains firmly in Shenzhen's hands, while partner networks stretch worldwide. The circuit board that once arrived in Shenzhen as a passive component now serves as a universal interface, compatible with global norms yet anchoring a thriving local supply chain.
\n
None of this would have been possible without bold institutional innovation. Shenzhen did not rely on subsidies; it built a governance model offering predictable policies, fast-track approvals and unfettered capital flows. The city now acts like an accelerator: ideas conceived in a café over coffee can swiftly evolve into market-ready prototypes. Spot an engineer boarding the metro with a prototype under one arm and a laptop under the other, and you can gauge how deeply manufacturing has permeated the urban fabric.
\n
What Shenzhen has discovered is that manufacturing is not an end in itself but an organizing principle for the future. Its success rests on sustained policy patience, relentless structural adjustment and a fundamental rethinking of what "value" means in production. The question it poses to every aspiring industrial city is: "How do you turn a simple circuit board into a catalyst for systemic change?"
\n
The circuit board, launched from Shenzhen, now traverses oceans to power devices, homes and daily life across the globe. Its journey is more than a tale of technological progress; it is a tribute to institutional ingenuity, urban renewal and collective ambition. As the world searches for the next frontier of manufacturing, it should look to not only novel techniques or breakthrough products but also the cities that dare to reinvent themselves, cities like Shenzhen where the blueprint for tomorrow is drawn in real time.
\n
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
\n",
- "content": "
The author is the deputy director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, Shenzhen University.
\n
In the bustling labs and smart factories of Shenzhen, a palm-sized circuit board has set off on an odyssey that encapsulates the city's remarkable transformation. Once a humble link in a vast, low-wage assembly chain — the final stop of designs drafted in Silicon Valley and machinery imported from Germany — such a board now embodies the cutting edge of global manufacturing.
\n
In Shenzhen, engineers today write its first lines of code, craft its schematic on locally developed software, and shepherd it through AI-driven production lines toward final assembly in a wearable device destined for Europe. It is no longer "build to order"; it is "invent and export".
\n
Shenzhen's story is one of reinvention. Two decades ago, it thrived as a "front-shop, back-factory". Someone else supplied the blueprint, and it supplied the speed at a relatively low cost. But as the cost of labor increased and margins thinned, that model creaked under its own weight. Rather than concede its crown, Shenzhen rewrote its playbook, shifting from commodity assembly to innovation-led, high-value manufacturing.
\n
In today's Shenzhen, designs once created overseas are conceived locally. DJI's flight-control systems and UBTECH's humanoid robots have become global benchmarks, not only for their technical sophistication but also for the authority of design they project. Behind these household names lies an army of more than 11,000 specialized and sophisticated enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
\n
These enterprises, pioneers in smart hardware, industrial software and niche production technologies, have forged an end-to-end innovation chain. Even the smallest workshop can now assemble an "innovation factory", blending design tools, materials platforms and cloud-connected equipment rentals. The result: circuit board designs born and developed in Shenzhen, not imported from abroad.
\n
This ingenuity now extends beyond design into the very mechanics of production. Take, for example, the transformed Foxconn facility in Longhua district of Shenzhen. Once a beehive of manual soldering and assembly, it now hums with robotic arms, automated guided vehicles and machine-vision systems.
\n
Each board is populated by AI-guided pick-and-place robots, then, before shipping, its test data are uploaded to the cloud for real-time quality oversight by European clients. Underpinning all this is Shenzhen's policy to encourage the digitalization of enterprises and the digital infrastructure of platform giants such as Tencent Cloud and Kingdee. Manufacturing is no longer a matter of manual repetition; it is now an exercise in computational engineering, where efficiency soars, defects plummet and delivery times shrink.
\n
Yet the true hallmark of Shenzhen's leap is not its factories' glass-walled modernity but its role as a rule-maker. Shenzhen no longer only follows global standards; it sets them. BYD, for instance, has opened its electric-vehicle platform to third-party collaborators, creating an ecosystem reminiscent of the Android model. Control remains firmly in Shenzhen's hands, while partner networks stretch worldwide. The circuit board that once arrived in Shenzhen as a passive component now serves as a universal interface, compatible with global norms yet anchoring a thriving local supply chain.
\n
None of this would have been possible without bold institutional innovation. Shenzhen did not rely on subsidies; it built a governance model offering predictable policies, fast-track approvals and unfettered capital flows. The city now acts like an accelerator: ideas conceived in a café over coffee can swiftly evolve into market-ready prototypes. Spot an engineer boarding the metro with a prototype under one arm and a laptop under the other, and you can gauge how deeply manufacturing has permeated the urban fabric.
\n
What Shenzhen has discovered is that manufacturing is not an end in itself but an organizing principle for the future. Its success rests on sustained policy patience, relentless structural adjustment and a fundamental rethinking of what "value" means in production. The question it poses to every aspiring industrial city is: "How do you turn a simple circuit board into a catalyst for systemic change?"
\n
The circuit board, launched from Shenzhen, now traverses oceans to power devices, homes and daily life across the globe. Its journey is more than a tale of technological progress; it is a tribute to institutional ingenuity, urban renewal and collective ambition. As the world searches for the next frontier of manufacturing, it should look to not only novel techniques or breakthrough products but also the cities that dare to reinvent themselves, cities like Shenzhen where the blueprint for tomorrow is drawn in real time.
\n
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
Kiruna Kyrka, a historic Swedish Lutheran wooden church, rests on wheels as it is relocated to a new site beside the cemetery, 5 kilometers away, in Kiruna, Sweden, on Sunday. The Arctic town's entire center is being moved as part of a campaign to expand Europe's biggest underground mine.
The death toll from an unexplained blast last week at a factory in Russia's Ryazan region has jumped to at least 20, with another 134 people injured, emergency services said on Monday. Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region that lies just southeast of Moscow, said on Friday that the incident had been triggered by a fire breaking out inside a workshop at the factory. However, it was unclear from Russian media reports what caused the fire or what the factory was producing. Official Russian sources gave no details beyond efforts to find and treat the injured. "As of Aug 18, 20 people died as a result of the emergency incident," the local emergency service headquarters said on Telegram. "There are 134 injured, of whom 31 patients are in hospitals in Ryazan and Moscow, while 103 patients are undergoing outpatient treatment."
\n
BOLIVIA
\n
Presidential vote heads for runoff
\n
Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said on Sunday that the country's presidential election will go to a runoff after no candidate secured the required majority in the first round. Preliminary results showed Rodrigo Paz Pereira of the Christian Democratic Party and Jorge Quiroga, former president and candidate of the Alianza Libre coalition, led the race with about 32.1 percent and 26.8 percent of the votes, respectively. To win the election, a presidential candidate must get more than 50 percent of the votes, or more than 40 percent of the votes while having a vote share exceeding 10 percentage points higher than that of the candidate placed second. The second round is expected on Oct 19.
\n
MYANMAR
\n
General election to be held on Dec 28
\n
Myanmar is set to hold the first phase of the general election on Dec 28, the Union Election Commission said on Monday. The commission has announced Dec 28 as the date for the first phase of the multiparty general election in accordance with the constitution and relevant laws, and said the dates for subsequent phases will be announced in due course. Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing said in June that the election will be held during December and January, according to a report of state-owned daily The Global New Light of Myanmar.
\n",
- "content": "
RUSSIA
\n
20 killed, 134 hurt in factory explosion
\n
The death toll from an unexplained blast last week at a factory in Russia's Ryazan region has jumped to at least 20, with another 134 people injured, emergency services said on Monday. Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region that lies just southeast of Moscow, said on Friday that the incident had been triggered by a fire breaking out inside a workshop at the factory. However, it was unclear from Russian media reports what caused the fire or what the factory was producing. Official Russian sources gave no details beyond efforts to find and treat the injured. "As of Aug 18, 20 people died as a result of the emergency incident," the local emergency service headquarters said on Telegram. "There are 134 injured, of whom 31 patients are in hospitals in Ryazan and Moscow, while 103 patients are undergoing outpatient treatment."
\n
BOLIVIA
\n
Presidential vote heads for runoff
\n
Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said on Sunday that the country's presidential election will go to a runoff after no candidate secured the required majority in the first round. Preliminary results showed Rodrigo Paz Pereira of the Christian Democratic Party and Jorge Quiroga, former president and candidate of the Alianza Libre coalition, led the race with about 32.1 percent and 26.8 percent of the votes, respectively. To win the election, a presidential candidate must get more than 50 percent of the votes, or more than 40 percent of the votes while having a vote share exceeding 10 percentage points higher than that of the candidate placed second. The second round is expected on Oct 19.
\n
MYANMAR
\n
General election to be held on Dec 28
\n
Myanmar is set to hold the first phase of the general election on Dec 28, the Union Election Commission said on Monday. The commission has announced Dec 28 as the date for the first phase of the multiparty general election in accordance with the constitution and relevant laws, and said the dates for subsequent phases will be announced in due course. Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing said in June that the election will be held during December and January, according to a report of state-owned daily The Global New Light of Myanmar.
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could swiftly end the conflict with Russia by abandoning efforts to reclaim Crimea and forgoing NATO membership.
\n
His comments came ahead of a hastily assembled meeting on Monday at the White House, with Zelensky bringing with him an extraordinary cadre of European leaders to show a united front against Russia.
\n
In a Truth Social post, Trump said: "President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight." "No getting back (Barack) Obama-given Crimea … and no going into NATO by Ukraine. Some things never change!"
\n
Earlier, Trump shared a social media post from a supporter, which said: "Ukraine must be willing to lose some territory to Russia, otherwise the longer the war goes on they will keep losing even more land!"
\n
Also on Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC News' This Week that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky must make concessions to achieve a peace deal.
\n
However, Zelensky has already all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals at the meeting in Alaska, including for Ukraine to give up the rest of its eastern Donetsk region.
\n
"We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now," the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels on Sunday, adding his country's constitution made it impossible for him to give away territory.
\n
"I am grateful to the President of the United States for the invitation. We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably," Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app after arriving in Washington late on Sunday.
\n
Upon arrival in Washington, Zelensky said in another social media post: "We all equally want to end this war quickly and reliably."
\n
He expressed hope that together with the US and European countries Ukraine will be able to force Russia to "true peace".
\n
In Europe, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO hope to shore up Zelensky at the crucial diplomatic moment in the conflict.
\n
Security guarantees
\n
European leaders will seek to discuss the role the US can play in security guarantees to protect Ukraine after any agreement with Russia, a German government spokesperson said ahead of the meeting.
\n
French President Emmanuel Macron described Ukraine as an "outpost of our collective defense if Russia wanted to advance again".
\n
Rubio said that European leaders involved in talks with Ukraine "are very helpful being in the room sometimes", particularly in providing long-term security guarantees for Ukraine. He made the remarks in a separate interview with Fox News.
\n
Rubio said he hoped the Europeans would also help to push Ukraine toward a potential peace deal by "giving ideas about what accommodations can be made".
\n
Meanwhile, Rubio did not rule out the US imposing more sanctions on Russia. In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, he said doing so would signal the failure of Trump's efforts to reach a ceasefire or lasting peace in Ukraine. "The minute he takes those steps, all talks stop," he said.
\n
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said the White House extracted critical wins from its meeting with Putin in Alaska.
\n
Security guarantees offering Ukraine "Article 5-like protections "are the real prize, Witkoff said on Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. They're "game-changing", he added.
\n
"We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee," Witkoff said.
\n
Article 5 protection generally refers to the collective defense provision within NATO, which states that an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies.
\n
Both sides have also kept up their daily long-range strikes behind the front line.
\n
A Russian drone strike late on Sunday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, killed seven civilians, injuring 20 people, authorities said.
\n
Ukrainian officials said Russian drones on Monday attacked an oil depot in the Odesa region for the second time in two weeks.
\n
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday that its air defense shot down 141 Ukrainian drones over the past day.
The 21st China-ASEAN Expo is held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in September 2024.
\n
UBTech Robotics, a high-tech company in Liuzhou of Guangxi, introduces its first mass-produced industrial humanoid robot.
\n
The upcoming 22nd China-ASEAN Expo, set to highlight artificial intelligence, is aimed at strengthening the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations community with a shared future, the expo's secretariat said.
\n
The event will run from Sept 17 to 21 in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, featuring a main exhibition area in Nanning and a tourism exhibition area in Guilin, with a combined total exhibition area of 160,000 square meters.
\n
This year has special significance as it marks the expected signing of the protocol on upgrading the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-People Exchanges and the anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and six ASEAN nations of Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.
\n
Since its launch in 2004, the expo has played a role in advancing CAFTA from Version 1.0 to 3.0, while elevating China-ASEAN relations from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
\n
It has become a vital platform for opening-up, fostering strategic consensus, enhancing political mutual trust and deepening bilateral ties.
\n
Over the years, 201 Chinese and foreign leaders, more than 4,100 minister-level officials and heads of international organizations have attended the expo.
\n
In opening speeches, leadership meetings, and ministerial consultations, they have strengthened collective will, coordinated actions and turned cooperation agreements into practice.
\n
These efforts have also pushed economic globalization toward greater openness, inclusiveness, balance and win-win outcomes, contributing to a more open global economy.
\n
This year, the expo will maintain high-level political and diplomatic participation, with foreign and Chinese dignitaries invited to deliver keynote speeches.
\n
Representatives from international organizations and the business community will also speak, focusing on advancing CAFTA 3.0, boosting AI cooperation, building a regional economic growth center and forging a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. The efforts are to set a new example of solidarity among Global South nations.
\n
AI will be the central theme of this year's expo. For the first time, a dedicated AI pavilion will showcase the latest trends, technologies and products in the sector.
\n
A series of AI-themed events will be held, including industry matchmaking, academic exchanges, research releases, and project signings. These aim to explore AI application scenarios in China-ASEAN cooperation, foster new collaborations in emerging fields and drive the development of regional advanced industry clusters as new engines for growth.
\n
Beyond the AI pavilion, exhibition areas will emphasize intelligent organization. A new quality productive forces pavilion will feature specialized zones for the digital economy, low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, and space-intelligence applications, promoting China-ASEAN cooperation in new arenas.
\n
The digital economy zone will display cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, big data, internet of things, blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality, along with their applications in education, entertainment, digital infrastructure, and software platforms — aimed at driving digital innovation and industrial development.
\n
The low-altitude economy zone will highlight technologies for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. The commercial aerospace and space intelligence zone will showcase satellite manufacturing, rocket launches and recovery technologies, satellite internet, Beidou navigation applications, remote sensing, and space AI, pushing China's commercial aerospace industry into ASEAN markets.
\n
Key AI events include the "China AI Unicorn Night", which will release a "Top 100 Future Unicorn Enterprises in China's AI Export" list, along with AI industry leader dialogues, an "AI Empowers Thousands of Industries" week, and a "China-ASEAN AI Innovation Application" week. The "unicorn" designation refers to privately held startups valued at over $1 billion.
\n
A China-ASEAN expo AI large model is being developed to cover 24 application scenarios, enhancing trade matchmaking.
\n
Jiang Ming, director of the metaverse research institute at Guilin University of Electronic Technology and the expo's senior adviser, said the model will create "precise profiles" of exhibitors and buyers. It will do this by analyzing needs, product features, past cooperation preferences, and emerging demands amid industry trends, greatly improving matchmaking efficiency.
\n
The model will also support translation in multiple ASEAN languages, helping Chinese and ASEAN enterprises bridge information and language gaps. For exhibition setups, design tools based on AI-generated content will be provided to simplify and streamline the process.
\n
"The expo is the best window to showcase China-ASEAN AI cooperation," Jiang said. "It lets ASEAN nations see China's advanced AI technologies and solutions firsthand, while helping Chinese enterprises grasp ASEAN market needs." He added the expo will help build smoother mechanisms for AI technical standard alignment and cross-border data cooperation, fostering a better ecosystem for cross-border AI innovation.
The 21st China-ASEAN Expo is held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in September 2024.
\n
UBTech Robotics, a high-tech company in Liuzhou of Guangxi, introduces its first mass-produced industrial humanoid robot.
\n
The upcoming 22nd China-ASEAN Expo, set to highlight artificial intelligence, is aimed at strengthening the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations community with a shared future, the expo's secretariat said.
\n
The event will run from Sept 17 to 21 in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, featuring a main exhibition area in Nanning and a tourism exhibition area in Guilin, with a combined total exhibition area of 160,000 square meters.
\n
This year has special significance as it marks the expected signing of the protocol on upgrading the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-People Exchanges and the anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and six ASEAN nations of Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.
\n
Since its launch in 2004, the expo has played a role in advancing CAFTA from Version 1.0 to 3.0, while elevating China-ASEAN relations from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
\n
It has become a vital platform for opening-up, fostering strategic consensus, enhancing political mutual trust and deepening bilateral ties.
\n
Over the years, 201 Chinese and foreign leaders, more than 4,100 minister-level officials and heads of international organizations have attended the expo.
\n
In opening speeches, leadership meetings, and ministerial consultations, they have strengthened collective will, coordinated actions and turned cooperation agreements into practice.
\n
These efforts have also pushed economic globalization toward greater openness, inclusiveness, balance and win-win outcomes, contributing to a more open global economy.
\n
This year, the expo will maintain high-level political and diplomatic participation, with foreign and Chinese dignitaries invited to deliver keynote speeches.
\n
Representatives from international organizations and the business community will also speak, focusing on advancing CAFTA 3.0, boosting AI cooperation, building a regional economic growth center and forging a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. The efforts are to set a new example of solidarity among Global South nations.
\n
AI will be the central theme of this year's expo. For the first time, a dedicated AI pavilion will showcase the latest trends, technologies and products in the sector.
\n
A series of AI-themed events will be held, including industry matchmaking, academic exchanges, research releases, and project signings. These aim to explore AI application scenarios in China-ASEAN cooperation, foster new collaborations in emerging fields and drive the development of regional advanced industry clusters as new engines for growth.
\n
Beyond the AI pavilion, exhibition areas will emphasize intelligent organization. A new quality productive forces pavilion will feature specialized zones for the digital economy, low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, and space-intelligence applications, promoting China-ASEAN cooperation in new arenas.
\n
The digital economy zone will display cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, big data, internet of things, blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality, along with their applications in education, entertainment, digital infrastructure, and software platforms — aimed at driving digital innovation and industrial development.
\n
The low-altitude economy zone will highlight technologies for manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. The commercial aerospace and space intelligence zone will showcase satellite manufacturing, rocket launches and recovery technologies, satellite internet, Beidou navigation applications, remote sensing, and space AI, pushing China's commercial aerospace industry into ASEAN markets.
\n
Key AI events include the "China AI Unicorn Night", which will release a "Top 100 Future Unicorn Enterprises in China's AI Export" list, along with AI industry leader dialogues, an "AI Empowers Thousands of Industries" week, and a "China-ASEAN AI Innovation Application" week. The "unicorn" designation refers to privately held startups valued at over $1 billion.
\n
A China-ASEAN expo AI large model is being developed to cover 24 application scenarios, enhancing trade matchmaking.
\n
Jiang Ming, director of the metaverse research institute at Guilin University of Electronic Technology and the expo's senior adviser, said the model will create "precise profiles" of exhibitors and buyers. It will do this by analyzing needs, product features, past cooperation preferences, and emerging demands amid industry trends, greatly improving matchmaking efficiency.
\n
The model will also support translation in multiple ASEAN languages, helping Chinese and ASEAN enterprises bridge information and language gaps. For exhibition setups, design tools based on AI-generated content will be provided to simplify and streamline the process.
\n
"The expo is the best window to showcase China-ASEAN AI cooperation," Jiang said. "It lets ASEAN nations see China's advanced AI technologies and solutions firsthand, while helping Chinese enterprises grasp ASEAN market needs." He added the expo will help build smoother mechanisms for AI technical standard alignment and cross-border data cooperation, fostering a better ecosystem for cross-border AI innovation.
China's monetary conditions are likely to remain reasonably accommodative in the coming months, continuing to support credit expansion while contributing to steadier capital market expectations, analysts said on Monday.
\n
They said that the focus of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, on preventing idle capital circulation should not be seen as an effort to cool the recent stock market rally, but rather as a move to ensure funds flow into the real economy instead of idling within the banking system.
\n
Nevertheless, they noted that near-term cuts in the reserve requirement ratio — the proportion of deposits banks must keep as reserves — or interest rates appear unlikely given the recent pickup in China's core inflation, with any new significant easing moves likely to depend on economic data and may potentially occur in the fourth quarter.
\n
Li Chao, chief economist at Zheshang Securities, said monetary policy is likely to remain moderately accommodative rather than shift toward tightening in the coming months.
\n
Li said that as external shocks linger and domestic structural challenges persist — including insufficient demand and excessive competition on the supply side — a moderately accommodative policy is needed to offset the downward economic pressures, with further cuts in the RRR and interest rates possible this year.
\n
The PBOC pledged in its second-quarter monetary policy report on Friday that it will strive for better implementation of the moderately loose monetary policy, maintain abundant liquidity, help maintain price levels at a reasonable range and promote a decline in overall social financing costs.
\n
Meanwhile, the report pointed to the need to enhance the efficiency of fund utilization, prevent idle capital circulation and strike a proper balance between supporting the real economy and maintaining the financial sector's own soundness.
\n
Yang Fan, chief macro and policy analyst at CITIC Securities, said the central bank's emphasis on preventing the circulation of idle capital highlights its focus on curbing the use of low-interest loans for nonproductive purposes such as redepositing into higher-yield deposits or buying wealth management products, rather than tightening credit to reduce leverage in the financial system.
\n
A report from Chasing International Economic Institute said the sign that some households have reallocated funds from deposits into stocks — shifting away some wealth management products that idle capital may circulate in — is something policymakers would likely welcome as it channels capital more directly into the real economy.
\n
Data from the central bank showed that deposits at nonbank financial institutions — such as securities firms and insurance companies — rose by 2.14 trillion yuan ($298.17 billion) in July. The increment was 1.39 trillion yuan higher than the same period last year, which experts said pointed to an accelerated flow of money into the stock market.
\n
The report added that the possibility of the PBOC cutting the RRR and interest rates later this year cannot be ruled out amid the rising likelihood of the US Federal Reserve restarting rate cuts.
\n
Markets are awaiting US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's monetary policy outlook message this week at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, especially on whether the Fed is poised to cut interest rates in September.
\n
Wang Qing, chief macroeconomic analyst at Golden Credit Rating International, however, said the near-term probability of an RRR cut is low, given that the economy has performed well in the first half.
\n
"The central bank is more likely to rely on tools such as the medium-term lending facility and outright repos to keep market liquidity ample," Wang said.
\n
zhoulanxv@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
@@ -7397,28 +7221,6 @@
"hash": "081056e54cee2caac196f322cae1370a",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "013BUSINESS - Key role for green hydrogen foreseen",
- "description": "
Workers inspect hydrogen storage equipment at a bus parking lot in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in October 2021.
\n
China has emerged as a global leader in renewable energy-based hydrogen production, boasting over 50 percent of the world's installed capacity, driven by ambitious government policies and technological advancements, officials and experts said.
\n
The country's commitment to hydrogen is evident in the rapid development of projects, particularly in northern regions, including the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which are contributing significantly to global energy transition, said Bian Guangqi, deputy director of the National Energy Administration's energy saving and technology equipment department.
\n
"The NEA is steadfast in promoting the development of the hydrogen energy industry," Bian said, highlighting the government's efforts to strengthen top-level design, formulate industrial policies, deepen technological innovation and explore project implementation models.
\n
These initiatives are fostering positive development across the entire hydrogen value chain, from production and storage to transportation and utilization, he said.
\n
Bian said the government will increase support for scientific and technological innovation platforms, key technology breakthroughs and grassroots application demonstrations, promoting the deep integration of technology and industry.
\n
The administration will also continue to promote the application of new energy in sectors such as energy, chemicals, transportation and metallurgy, facilitating the large-scale development of the new energy industry. International cooperation will be deepened within frameworks such as the Belt and Road Initiative to promote the open development of the new energy industry, he said.
\n
China's recently enacted energy law includes hydrogen within its energy framework, which, according to Bian, signals the government's support for hydrogen development and its potential in the energy mix.
\n
The law, which took effect on Jan 1,2025, aims to promote renewable energy, enhance energy security and facilitate China's energy transition. Specifically, it supports the development and utilization of new fuels and industrial raw materials that can replace oil and natural gas, which provides a foundation for hydrogen energy's growth.
\n
Inner Mongolia has been at the forefront of China's green hydrogen revolution, with a comprehensive policy system supporting the entire industry chain, from production and storage to transportation, utilization and equipment manufacturing.
\n
Hu Chengdong, deputy director of the energy bureau of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said the region has issued 16 industrial policies to support the development of the hydrogen industry.
\n
It has also produced 4,100 metric tons of green hydrogen and 1,400 tons of green ammonia during the first seven months of this year, leading the nation in production volume, he said.
\n
After releasing the country's first provincial-level hydrogen pipeline plan last year, the region is looking at further accelerating the construction of hydrogen pipeline projects this year to promote the large-scale, long-distance and low-cost transportation of green hydrogen, said Hu.
\n
Recently, the first domestic green hydrogen-ammonia integrated project was successfully put into operation in Inner Mongolia, as well as the first national 30-megawatt pure hydrogen gas turbine project.
\n
Tang Shuxian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that with continuous technological innovation, the cost of green hydrogen will approach that of gray hydrogen.
\n
Tang also pointed out that demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is strong and is an important area for green hydrogen consumption in the future. He predicts that by 2027, the SAF blending ratio in aviation fuel will reach 5 percent, corresponding to a green hydrogen demand of 610,000 tons.
\n
Yang Lei, deputy dean of the Institute of Energy at Peking University, emphasized that hydrogen energy has both industrial raw material and energy product attributes, making it an important and feasible solution for industrial decarbonization.
\n
Renewable energy-based hydrogen production can not only solve the problem of renewable energy storage but also help industries that are difficult to decarbonize directly through electrification to achieve low-carbon and zero-carbon transformation through industrial process reengineering, he said.
\n
He expects that hydrogen energy will show a diversified development trend in the next five years and become a new economic growth point.
\n
Contact the writers at zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
- "content": "
Workers inspect hydrogen storage equipment at a bus parking lot in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in October 2021.
\n
China has emerged as a global leader in renewable energy-based hydrogen production, boasting over 50 percent of the world's installed capacity, driven by ambitious government policies and technological advancements, officials and experts said.
\n
The country's commitment to hydrogen is evident in the rapid development of projects, particularly in northern regions, including the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which are contributing significantly to global energy transition, said Bian Guangqi, deputy director of the National Energy Administration's energy saving and technology equipment department.
\n
"The NEA is steadfast in promoting the development of the hydrogen energy industry," Bian said, highlighting the government's efforts to strengthen top-level design, formulate industrial policies, deepen technological innovation and explore project implementation models.
\n
These initiatives are fostering positive development across the entire hydrogen value chain, from production and storage to transportation and utilization, he said.
\n
Bian said the government will increase support for scientific and technological innovation platforms, key technology breakthroughs and grassroots application demonstrations, promoting the deep integration of technology and industry.
\n
The administration will also continue to promote the application of new energy in sectors such as energy, chemicals, transportation and metallurgy, facilitating the large-scale development of the new energy industry. International cooperation will be deepened within frameworks such as the Belt and Road Initiative to promote the open development of the new energy industry, he said.
\n
China's recently enacted energy law includes hydrogen within its energy framework, which, according to Bian, signals the government's support for hydrogen development and its potential in the energy mix.
\n
The law, which took effect on Jan 1,2025, aims to promote renewable energy, enhance energy security and facilitate China's energy transition. Specifically, it supports the development and utilization of new fuels and industrial raw materials that can replace oil and natural gas, which provides a foundation for hydrogen energy's growth.
\n
Inner Mongolia has been at the forefront of China's green hydrogen revolution, with a comprehensive policy system supporting the entire industry chain, from production and storage to transportation, utilization and equipment manufacturing.
\n
Hu Chengdong, deputy director of the energy bureau of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said the region has issued 16 industrial policies to support the development of the hydrogen industry.
\n
It has also produced 4,100 metric tons of green hydrogen and 1,400 tons of green ammonia during the first seven months of this year, leading the nation in production volume, he said.
\n
After releasing the country's first provincial-level hydrogen pipeline plan last year, the region is looking at further accelerating the construction of hydrogen pipeline projects this year to promote the large-scale, long-distance and low-cost transportation of green hydrogen, said Hu.
\n
Recently, the first domestic green hydrogen-ammonia integrated project was successfully put into operation in Inner Mongolia, as well as the first national 30-megawatt pure hydrogen gas turbine project.
\n
Tang Shuxian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that with continuous technological innovation, the cost of green hydrogen will approach that of gray hydrogen.
\n
Tang also pointed out that demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is strong and is an important area for green hydrogen consumption in the future. He predicts that by 2027, the SAF blending ratio in aviation fuel will reach 5 percent, corresponding to a green hydrogen demand of 610,000 tons.
\n
Yang Lei, deputy dean of the Institute of Energy at Peking University, emphasized that hydrogen energy has both industrial raw material and energy product attributes, making it an important and feasible solution for industrial decarbonization.
\n
Renewable energy-based hydrogen production can not only solve the problem of renewable energy storage but also help industries that are difficult to decarbonize directly through electrification to achieve low-carbon and zero-carbon transformation through industrial process reengineering, he said.
\n
He expects that hydrogen energy will show a diversified development trend in the next five years and become a new economic growth point.
JINAN — Robotic arms hum while workers move with precision through Taiho Kogyo Corp's workshop in Yantai, East China's Shandong province, as engine and compressor bearings roll off the production line, not only for automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen, but increasingly for China's thriving luxury motorcycle scene.
\n
The Yantai-based company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Taiho Kogyo Co Ltd, has been "granted full autonomy" by its Japanese headquarters to develop and produce for the Chinese market, said Junji Koshima, general manager of the subsidiary.
\n
He added that this local decision-making allows the company to respond more quickly to demand while tapping into China's rapid growth and vast market potential.
\n
Europe-based Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a Fortune 500 global merchant and processor of agricultural goods, broke ground in late June on a 7 billion yuan ($975 million) food technology industrial center in the port city of Qingdao.
\n
Spanning 153,000 square meters and slated for completion in 2027, the facility will specialize in oilseed processing, specialty feed proteins and food-grade phospholipids production. Once operational, it is expected to produce 1.5 million metric tons of feed protein, 370,000 tons of refined oil and 15,000 tons of phospholipids annually, while creating approximately 200 local jobs.
\n
Positioned as LDC's regional anchor in East China, the industrial center will closely integrate with local port logistics and feed processing industries, said James Zhou, LDC's chief commercial officer and head of the Asia region. Since entering China's cotton trade in 1973, LDC has generated roughly a quarter of its global revenue from the Chinese market.
\n
Republic of Korea's CJ Group, a conglomerate with businesses spanning food, biotech, logistics, entertainment and retail, is also ramping up its investments. The company is expanding amino acid and food additive production in Liaocheng, Shandong, reflecting strong confidence in China's market prospects.
\n
CJ Group faces growing challenges from geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties, while China is tackling these head-on by advancing high-standard opening-up, injecting stability and momentum into global growth, said Sohn Kyungshik, chairman of CJ Group, adding that the company is pursuing deeper partnerships and new opportunities in China.
\n
Active in China since 1994, the group has attended all six editions of the Qingdao Multinationals Summit, a platform launched in 2019 to foster policy dialogue and facilitate project cooperation.
\n
This year's summit in June drew 570 delegates from 43 countries and regions. Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that 59,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in the country last year, an increase of 9.9 percent year-on-year. Growth continued into the first half of 2025, with 30,014 new foreign ventures added.
\n",
@@ -7441,28 +7243,6 @@
"hash": "813e66b8fbd0f701a901c8f1169a9d08",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "014BUSINESS - CSSC to boost shipbuilding clout with a mega merger",
- "description": "
A drone image shows a CSSC shipbuilding site at a yard in Qingdao, Shandong province, in May.
\n\n
The long-anticipated share-swap merger between China CSSC Holdings Ltd (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Co (CSIC) will make CSSC the world's largest listed shipbuilder by assets and revenue, said market watchers on Monday.
\n
CSSC and CSIC, both State-owned enterprises, were merged into China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd in 2019.The two firms halted trading of their A-shares last week, a further step of integration following their joint restructuring.
\n
Approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's stock market regulator, CSSC will issue new A shares to all CSIC shareholders in exchange for their existing stakes, making it the largest absorption merger in the history of China's A-share market.
\n
Based on 2024 financial data estimates, CSSC will have total assets exceeding 400 billion yuan ($55.7 billion) and revenue surpassing 130 billion yuan, after this share-swap merger, ranking the largest of its kind globally in terms of asset size, revenue scale and order backlog.
\n
Once the deal is completed, CSSC's operating costs are expected to fall by 8 to 10 percent, while its market share in high-end ship types such as liquefied natural gas carriers and mega container ships is likely to increase further, with its valuation expected to rise, said a study released by CITIC Securities.
\n
China's shipbuilding industry, after this share-swap merger, will see an optimized industrial layout, with unified coordination and management of shipyards and more rational allocation of resources, said Ding Rijia, a professor of industrial economy at China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing.
\n
Even though CSSC and CSIC merged into one group in 2019, their subsidiaries still have overlapping businesses in areas such as building commercial vessels, ship repair and conversion, and the issue of intra-industry competition has yet to be fully resolved.
\n
"This move will help their shipyards develop competitive advantages in building various ship types, while enhancing overall capabilities in high-end vessel manufacturing," said Ding.
\n
Xu Kai, a researcher specializing in shipping operations at Shanghai Maritime University, said that in the future, CSSC will be able to integrate high-quality assets from CSIC, including Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co and Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co, and combine their strengths in research, design and manufacturing to drive synergies and optimization in shipbuilding, repair and support businesses.
\n
Xu said that China's shipbuilding industry has steadily advanced the development of green and high value-added vessels, strengthened the resilience of its internal supply chains, and leveraged mergers to create synergistic growth in recent years.
\n
In the first half, China's shipbuilding completions, new orders and order backlog accounted for 51.7 percent, 68.3 percent and 64.9 percent of the global market share, respectively, said the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.
\n
From January to June, Chinese shipyards exported $24.5 billion worth of vessels, including container ships, bulk carriers, chemical and oil tankers, heavy-lift vessels and vehicle carriers, surging 18.6 percent year-on-year, said the General Administration of Customs.
\n
CSSC Chengxi Shipyard Co, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd, is ramping up production as it works through orders booked until 2029 amid growing demand for high-tech vessels.
\n
The Jiangyin, Jiangsu province-based shipyard saw its export value jump more than 20 percent on a yearly basis to $704 million in the first six months, said Nanjing Customs.
\n
Wang Qing, the company's deputy operations director, said the company has delivered seven bulk carriers with greener, smarter in-house solutions this year, highlighting advanced environmental technologies, high performance, large capacity and strong adaptability. These ships have gained strong recognition in international markets.
\n
"Both the main and auxiliary engines are equipped with denitrification systems, enabling them to meet the latest emission requirements set by the International Maritime Organization, making them highly popular in European markets and Australia," said Wang.
\n
zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
- "content": "
A drone image shows a CSSC shipbuilding site at a yard in Qingdao, Shandong province, in May.
\n\n
The long-anticipated share-swap merger between China CSSC Holdings Ltd (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Co (CSIC) will make CSSC the world's largest listed shipbuilder by assets and revenue, said market watchers on Monday.
\n
CSSC and CSIC, both State-owned enterprises, were merged into China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd in 2019.The two firms halted trading of their A-shares last week, a further step of integration following their joint restructuring.
\n
Approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's stock market regulator, CSSC will issue new A shares to all CSIC shareholders in exchange for their existing stakes, making it the largest absorption merger in the history of China's A-share market.
\n
Based on 2024 financial data estimates, CSSC will have total assets exceeding 400 billion yuan ($55.7 billion) and revenue surpassing 130 billion yuan, after this share-swap merger, ranking the largest of its kind globally in terms of asset size, revenue scale and order backlog.
\n
Once the deal is completed, CSSC's operating costs are expected to fall by 8 to 10 percent, while its market share in high-end ship types such as liquefied natural gas carriers and mega container ships is likely to increase further, with its valuation expected to rise, said a study released by CITIC Securities.
\n
China's shipbuilding industry, after this share-swap merger, will see an optimized industrial layout, with unified coordination and management of shipyards and more rational allocation of resources, said Ding Rijia, a professor of industrial economy at China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing.
\n
Even though CSSC and CSIC merged into one group in 2019, their subsidiaries still have overlapping businesses in areas such as building commercial vessels, ship repair and conversion, and the issue of intra-industry competition has yet to be fully resolved.
\n
"This move will help their shipyards develop competitive advantages in building various ship types, while enhancing overall capabilities in high-end vessel manufacturing," said Ding.
\n
Xu Kai, a researcher specializing in shipping operations at Shanghai Maritime University, said that in the future, CSSC will be able to integrate high-quality assets from CSIC, including Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co and Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co, and combine their strengths in research, design and manufacturing to drive synergies and optimization in shipbuilding, repair and support businesses.
\n
Xu said that China's shipbuilding industry has steadily advanced the development of green and high value-added vessels, strengthened the resilience of its internal supply chains, and leveraged mergers to create synergistic growth in recent years.
\n
In the first half, China's shipbuilding completions, new orders and order backlog accounted for 51.7 percent, 68.3 percent and 64.9 percent of the global market share, respectively, said the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.
\n
From January to June, Chinese shipyards exported $24.5 billion worth of vessels, including container ships, bulk carriers, chemical and oil tankers, heavy-lift vessels and vehicle carriers, surging 18.6 percent year-on-year, said the General Administration of Customs.
\n
CSSC Chengxi Shipyard Co, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd, is ramping up production as it works through orders booked until 2029 amid growing demand for high-tech vessels.
\n
The Jiangyin, Jiangsu province-based shipyard saw its export value jump more than 20 percent on a yearly basis to $704 million in the first six months, said Nanjing Customs.
\n
Wang Qing, the company's deputy operations director, said the company has delivered seven bulk carriers with greener, smarter in-house solutions this year, highlighting advanced environmental technologies, high performance, large capacity and strong adaptability. These ships have gained strong recognition in international markets.
\n
"Both the main and auxiliary engines are equipped with denitrification systems, enabling them to meet the latest emission requirements set by the International Maritime Organization, making them highly popular in European markets and Australia," said Wang.
A Cathay Pacific aircraft is seen landing at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport in Shaanxi province on July 6.
\n
Hong Kong-based Cathay Group said it would continue to increase investment in the Chinese mainland, a highly important market, and hire more flight attendants and pilots from the Chinese mainland to meet growing travel demand.
\n
By the end of this year, Cathay Pacific Airways plans to raise the total number of staff members in the Chinese mainland to 4,000 from more than 3,000 currently. In Shenzhen and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, the company has two offices that focus on the technology side of the business and it hopes to soon expand these teams to about 200 people in total.
\n
So far this year, Cathay Group has launched 19 new stops globally from Hong Kong, including four operated by Cathay Pacific in Chinese mainland cities, such as Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. In addition, the group's low-cost carrier HK Express launched flights connecting Hong Kong with Yiwu, Zhejiang province; Changzhou, Jiangsu province; and Guiyang, Guizhou province.
\n
Cathay Pacific currently operates four round-trip flights per week connecting Hong Kong with Urumqi, and it hopes to lift the frequency to daily flights if the schedule permits. The business performance in both directions has been good, and many world travelers transfer in Hong Kong before they arrive in Urumqi.
\n
Ronald Lam, chief executive officer of Cathay Group, said the group will consider launching more flights connecting Hong Kong with major cities, and second- and third-tier cities in the Chinese mainland.
\n
Meanwhile, as part of its continued investment in the Chinese mainland, Cathay Pacific officially launched its redesigned flagship lounge at Beijing Capital International Airport on Friday.
\n
This comes as part of the group's over HK$100 billion ($12.79 billion) investment plan into fleet, cabin products, lounges and digital innovations. The investment is for the seven-year period since last year, it said.
\n
Beijing's air travel market has seen rapid growth so far this year, thanks to multiple favorable policies that facilitate personnel exchanges. On Aug 6, the number of international and regional passenger trips handled at Beijing Capital International Airport exceeded 10 million, with the milestone being reached 30 days earlier than last year. The airport is expected to handle 17 million international and regional visits throughout the year, it projected.
\n
"We are incredibly excited to reopen the doors of our latest flagship Beijing lounge. The redesigned lounge complements Cathay Pacific's seven daily return flights between Hong Kong and Beijing this summer," Lam said.
\n
"As a group, we continue to expand our network in the Chinese mainland, operating more than 300 return flights per week to 23 destinations during the summer peak. We remain committed to providing customers with a seamless travel experience through our Hong Kong hub," he said.
\n
Besides Beijing, Cathay Pacific also operates two other lounges in the Chinese mainland — an airport lounge at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, and its first ferry port lounge at the Shekou Cruise Homeport in Shenzhen for intermodal travelers. Next, the airline plans to launch new flagship lounges in Hong Kong and for the first time in New York in the first quarter of next year.
\n
The group recently posted solid interim results. In the first half of this year, it netted a profit of HK$3.7 billion, similar to the same period of last year. The group also announced plans to order 14 new Boeing 777-9 aircraft to support the expansion of its flight network.
\n
Chinese mainland travelers have shown a growing interest in visiting Hong Kong. In the first seven months of this year, Hong Kong received a total of more than 28 million passenger trips. Among which, over 21.3 million visits came from the Chinese mainland, up 10 percent year-on-year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
\n
zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn
\n",
@@ -7485,28 +7265,6 @@
"hash": "d5aa5b6b562c35b48f24eb8d8ffb3aa2",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "015BUSINESS - Success for local plant species in restoring biodiversity",
- "description": "\n
A researcher inspects alfalfa at the breeding acceleration room of a company studying the ecological environment in Hohhot in December 2024.
\n
More than a decade ago, the Chilechuan Grassland on the outskirts of Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was a scene of ecological decline. Overgrazing and quarrying had stripped away nearly 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares) of pasture. Approximately 80 percent lay abandoned, the thin topsoil carried off by the wind, leaving only a few drought-tolerant plants clinging on between stones.
\n
This early autumn, the same land presented a very different picture. On Sunday, it hosted the 2025 Chilechuan Grassland Half Marathon, with hundreds of runners traversing a landscape now covered by more than 70 plant species, echoing a verse from the Northern Dynasty (386-581): "The wind bends the grass low, revealing sheep and cows."
\n
"Even visiting experts joked it would be easier to roll in sod from somewhere else than to restore this land," recalled Wang Junfang, head of the research results transformation department at M-Grass Ecology and Environment Group, a company tasked with Chilechuan's ecological restoration.
\n
The turnaround began under Hohhot's integrated program for the southern slopes of the Daqing Mountain in 2012, a part of China's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program. The approach adopted was "close-to-nature" restoration, working with natural processes rather than imposing heavy artificial landscaping.
\n
Local conditions tested that philosophy. The average 30-centimeter shallow topsoil could not retain water, sudden rains swept away seeds, and the ground was so hard that it damaged machinery. M-Grass' team began with a 1,000-mu pilot plot. The first sowing was washed away by summer floods, yet 20 days later, green shoots emerged from cracks in the rock.
\n
"This is the strength of native plants," explained Hong Guangyu, a researcher at the Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry Sciences. "Ecological restoration is essentially a process of matching. Researchers verify the original vegetation from historical records, then select native grass species from similar environments that can adapt to degraded soils, and use restoration engineering to help them take root again."
\n
The M-Grass team ultimately chose local species such as sheep-grass, wild rye and lilyturf, advancing the restoration in three phases.
\n
By 2014, the first 10,000 mu had over 80 percent vegetation cover. In 2016, the project expanded to 30,000 mu, with hay yields up twelve-fold and the return of wildlife like foxes and hares. Chilechuan has since been sustained solely by natural rainfall. Four years later, it became a national grassland park and in 2021 it welcomed 5.58 million visitors, generating 2.05 billion yuan ($285.43 million) in income.
\n
Chilechuan's revival reflects a wider shift in China's approach to grassland management and renewal. Since the early 2000s, authorities at national and local levels have tightened grazing controls and launched large-scale ecological projects to reverse decades of degradation caused by overgrazing and climate pressures.
\n
"This stage was like pushing a boulder uphill," said Xing Qi, M-Grass's research and development director, who has worked in grassland science for decades.
\n
She noted that early projects often relied on a single grass species, with limited ecological benefit. "Today, we aim to mimic native plant communities, and even fertilizers are developed to support microbial health and soil dynamics."
\n
Central to M-Grass's work is research into local flora. Over time, the company has developed a germplasm bank holding hundreds of thousands of seed and soil samples from across northern China. This emphasis on indigenous species addresses a common challenge in China's ecological projects, which is the overreliance on imported plants that require high water use and costly maintenance.
\n
According to M-Grass, between 2022 and 2024, it invested around 10 percent of its annual revenue, about 200 million yuan each year, in research and development, successfully domesticating nearly 300 native species. Some, once dismissed as weeds, now are recommended plant species for ecological restoration in northern cities. Twenty-five plant varieties have been included in the National Forestry and Grassland Administration's recommended seeds for projects within the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program.
\n
In recent years, the company has developed an ecological big data platform that integrates local information on climate, soil, hydrology and grassland degradation. The system enables the selection of targeted restoration technologies and optimal combinations of grass seeds, facilitating more precise and effective ecological rehabilitation.
\n
The company's model has been applied in diverse environments, including grasslands, deserts, saline-alkali soils and abandoned mining areas, and restoring almost 33 million mu nationwide.
\n
In March, M-Grass also launched an international division, further extending its expertise overseas to countries such as Mongolia and Saudi Arabia. The principle, Wang said, is not to export Chinese seeds, but to adapt local plant species to restore biodiversity.
\n
"We explore first, and if it works, the experience can help restoration efforts worldwide," Wang added.
\n",
- "content": "\n
A researcher inspects alfalfa at the breeding acceleration room of a company studying the ecological environment in Hohhot in December 2024.
\n
More than a decade ago, the Chilechuan Grassland on the outskirts of Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was a scene of ecological decline. Overgrazing and quarrying had stripped away nearly 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares) of pasture. Approximately 80 percent lay abandoned, the thin topsoil carried off by the wind, leaving only a few drought-tolerant plants clinging on between stones.
\n
This early autumn, the same land presented a very different picture. On Sunday, it hosted the 2025 Chilechuan Grassland Half Marathon, with hundreds of runners traversing a landscape now covered by more than 70 plant species, echoing a verse from the Northern Dynasty (386-581): "The wind bends the grass low, revealing sheep and cows."
\n
"Even visiting experts joked it would be easier to roll in sod from somewhere else than to restore this land," recalled Wang Junfang, head of the research results transformation department at M-Grass Ecology and Environment Group, a company tasked with Chilechuan's ecological restoration.
\n
The turnaround began under Hohhot's integrated program for the southern slopes of the Daqing Mountain in 2012, a part of China's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program. The approach adopted was "close-to-nature" restoration, working with natural processes rather than imposing heavy artificial landscaping.
\n
Local conditions tested that philosophy. The average 30-centimeter shallow topsoil could not retain water, sudden rains swept away seeds, and the ground was so hard that it damaged machinery. M-Grass' team began with a 1,000-mu pilot plot. The first sowing was washed away by summer floods, yet 20 days later, green shoots emerged from cracks in the rock.
\n
"This is the strength of native plants," explained Hong Guangyu, a researcher at the Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry Sciences. "Ecological restoration is essentially a process of matching. Researchers verify the original vegetation from historical records, then select native grass species from similar environments that can adapt to degraded soils, and use restoration engineering to help them take root again."
\n
The M-Grass team ultimately chose local species such as sheep-grass, wild rye and lilyturf, advancing the restoration in three phases.
\n
By 2014, the first 10,000 mu had over 80 percent vegetation cover. In 2016, the project expanded to 30,000 mu, with hay yields up twelve-fold and the return of wildlife like foxes and hares. Chilechuan has since been sustained solely by natural rainfall. Four years later, it became a national grassland park and in 2021 it welcomed 5.58 million visitors, generating 2.05 billion yuan ($285.43 million) in income.
\n
Chilechuan's revival reflects a wider shift in China's approach to grassland management and renewal. Since the early 2000s, authorities at national and local levels have tightened grazing controls and launched large-scale ecological projects to reverse decades of degradation caused by overgrazing and climate pressures.
\n
"This stage was like pushing a boulder uphill," said Xing Qi, M-Grass's research and development director, who has worked in grassland science for decades.
\n
She noted that early projects often relied on a single grass species, with limited ecological benefit. "Today, we aim to mimic native plant communities, and even fertilizers are developed to support microbial health and soil dynamics."
\n
Central to M-Grass's work is research into local flora. Over time, the company has developed a germplasm bank holding hundreds of thousands of seed and soil samples from across northern China. This emphasis on indigenous species addresses a common challenge in China's ecological projects, which is the overreliance on imported plants that require high water use and costly maintenance.
\n
According to M-Grass, between 2022 and 2024, it invested around 10 percent of its annual revenue, about 200 million yuan each year, in research and development, successfully domesticating nearly 300 native species. Some, once dismissed as weeds, now are recommended plant species for ecological restoration in northern cities. Twenty-five plant varieties have been included in the National Forestry and Grassland Administration's recommended seeds for projects within the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program.
\n
In recent years, the company has developed an ecological big data platform that integrates local information on climate, soil, hydrology and grassland degradation. The system enables the selection of targeted restoration technologies and optimal combinations of grass seeds, facilitating more precise and effective ecological rehabilitation.
\n
The company's model has been applied in diverse environments, including grasslands, deserts, saline-alkali soils and abandoned mining areas, and restoring almost 33 million mu nationwide.
\n
In March, M-Grass also launched an international division, further extending its expertise overseas to countries such as Mongolia and Saudi Arabia. The principle, Wang said, is not to export Chinese seeds, but to adapt local plant species to restore biodiversity.
\n
"We explore first, and if it works, the experience can help restoration efforts worldwide," Wang added.
A Si's latest album, titled No Offense, But..., reflects on emotional health, workplace pressure, internet violence and the quiet burden carried by women. The songs are a twist from her earlier style of offering easy comfort.
\n
For more than a decade, singer-songwriter A Si has been known for her songs with sharp-eyed humor and light-hearted lyrics telling stories about everyday life.
\n
With her latest album, titled No Offense, But..., which was released on Aug 13, the singer-songwriter turns her wit toward heavier terrain: emotional health, workplace pressure, internet violence and the quiet burden carried by women.
\n
"It sounds like I'm venting at the outside world," she says. "But deeper down, I'm reflecting on myself."
\n
The title itself is a wink at her own personality.
\n
As she says, she is a kind of person who doesn't want to trouble others, which leaves many thoughts unspoken.
\n
"But like many people, I know the feeling of emotions pooling like water behind a dam — anger, frustration, loneliness — until it spills over," she says.
\n
"We smile politely," she says. "But inside we're already boiling."
\n
This album, she decided, would be different from her earlier introspective, self-questioning work. Instead of keeping the dialogue within herself, she wanted to address the world directly — asking pointed questions, poking at sore spots, and, in her own words, "being a bit cowardly while still offending people ... so please, bear with me".
\n
The songs came together over a long arc: some ideas formed in her 20s, others took shape in the last three years.
\n
Humor is still her strength when writing lyrics for this new album.
\n
"People think humor is just for fun, but it's also a survival tool," she says. "It's how I cope with pressure and say the unsayable."
\n
The song, titled Iced Cola, Por Favor, for example, is a track that begins with the absurd image of craving an iced cola, but soon reveals layers: the suffocating politeness of blind dates, the numbing routine of office meetings, and the absurdity of gendered expectations.
\n
Mind Your Words, a song which began as a release of pent-up anger over online bullying, but turned into a self-reminder to think before judging others.
\n
In She, Elle, Ella, written when she was nearly 30, A Si takes aim at the expectations placed on women: marry early, have children, be the nurturer. She admits she once shared that belief.
\n
"At university, I thought the ideal life for a woman was a stable job, marriage, and kids," she says. "Then I grew up and realized everyone's life has its own script — or no script at all."
\n
Her own awakening came from watching the lives of other women, questioning why a "complete" life should require ticking those boxes. Yet, she also recognizes the social structures, such as aging populations and family responsibility, that keep those expectations in place. The song carries both rebellion and resignation.
\n
Emotional health runs through the album like an undercurrent. For A Si, writing is both catharsis and communication.
\n
"When I can turn bad feelings into songs, I feel better," she says.
\n
The album doesn't shy away from the bleakness of the world — wars, disasters, injustices — but also celebrates the stubborn preciousness of being alive.
\n
Born in Shanghai, A Si debuted online in 2010, gaining attention for her fun and imaginative songwriting.
\n
When her song, I'm eating Fried Chicken at PSQ (PSQ for People's Square, a landmark located in the heart of Shanghai), went viral in 2011, it gave A Si a burst of fame and a devoted fanbase. The song charms listeners with its quirky, relatable storyline and catchy, refreshing melody. Since then, many of those fans have grown up alongside her music. Some listened as students, now they listen on their commutes to work.
\n
That sense of companionship is something she treasures.
\n
"My songs are like a hug for the inner child of a grown-up," she says. "They're always there. You can click and listen anytime."
\n
But this time, she's not offering easy comfort.
\n
"My earlier songs were like a blanket to curl up in," she says. "This new album is all question marks. I want you to give the answers."
\n
It's not about telling listeners how to think, but sparking reflection.
\n
"Maybe no one in your life talks to you about these things," she says. "I want to have that conversation through music."
\n
At 36, she's not chasing grand career milestones. She dreams of continuing to release songs for decades, letting her work be her legacy.
\n
"If in the future I can still hug people this way — through music — that will make me happy," she says.
\n",
@@ -7529,28 +7287,6 @@
"hash": "50539ab535e546fed47a41e3188e09d5",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "017LIFE - Museum visits turn Japanese youth into advocate for truth",
- "description": "\n
NAGOYA, Japan — In 2023, at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Jiangsu province, a 27-year-old Japanese, Hayato Kato, knelt before a sculpture inscribed with the word "peace", bowing his head in mourning for the 300,000 Chinese civilians slaughtered by Japanese invaders.
\n
"I am Japanese, yet I did not know my country had committed such cruel acts. I knelt to express my apology," Kato recalled at a recent China-Japan Peace and Friendship Exchange event at the Chinese Consulate-General in Nagoya.
\n
Kato, from Japan's Gifu prefecture, first visited China as a university student, drawn by Chinese culture and the warmth of its people. In 2022, he moved to China and traveled to more than 20 provinces, documenting his experiences from a foreigner's perspective.
\n
A social-media influencer with over 2.7 million followers, his early videos were lighthearted travelogues, but frequent comments suggesting he visit Nanjing or Harbin (in Heilongjiang province) shifted his focus.
\n
He has now toured nearly 30 wartime memorials and atrocity sites, from the site of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai to the former site of the headquarters of infamous Unit 731, a Japanese germ warfare unit during World War II, in Harbin.
\n
"I went to these places almost completely ignorant of history. In Japan, I had basically never learned any of this," Kato says.
\n
The experience was jarring. Japanese school curricula barely cover the country's wartime aggression; and some politicians still deny the Nanjing Massacre.
\n
At the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731, where Japanese scientists carried out gruesome human experiments, Kato says the evidence was "so cruel that it gave me goose bumps".
\n
Kato says that the knives and other physical evidence on display, along with the Japanese army's attempts to cover up its crimes through demolition, made him realize the enormity of the war crimes committed by the invading Japanese forces.
\n
"I was shocked that Japan had committed such brutal atrocities. And it was precisely because of this that I came to understand why the Chinese are angry — because Japan has never truly faced up to its history," Kato says.
\n
He was struck by how Japan tends to emphasize its own victimhood by publicizing the suffering of its own people, while sidestepping its role as an aggressor.
\n
Videos of his visits drew praise from Chinese viewers for confronting the past, but also provoked vitriol from Japanese audiences. "Even if being attacked, I want to keep speaking out," he says.
\n
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Kato is planning to bring more Japanese citizens to China's wartime memorials.
\n
"Admitting past mistakes is the first step toward peace," he says.
\n",
- "content": "\n
NAGOYA, Japan — In 2023, at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Jiangsu province, a 27-year-old Japanese, Hayato Kato, knelt before a sculpture inscribed with the word "peace", bowing his head in mourning for the 300,000 Chinese civilians slaughtered by Japanese invaders.
\n
"I am Japanese, yet I did not know my country had committed such cruel acts. I knelt to express my apology," Kato recalled at a recent China-Japan Peace and Friendship Exchange event at the Chinese Consulate-General in Nagoya.
\n
Kato, from Japan's Gifu prefecture, first visited China as a university student, drawn by Chinese culture and the warmth of its people. In 2022, he moved to China and traveled to more than 20 provinces, documenting his experiences from a foreigner's perspective.
\n
A social-media influencer with over 2.7 million followers, his early videos were lighthearted travelogues, but frequent comments suggesting he visit Nanjing or Harbin (in Heilongjiang province) shifted his focus.
\n
He has now toured nearly 30 wartime memorials and atrocity sites, from the site of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai to the former site of the headquarters of infamous Unit 731, a Japanese germ warfare unit during World War II, in Harbin.
\n
"I went to these places almost completely ignorant of history. In Japan, I had basically never learned any of this," Kato says.
\n
The experience was jarring. Japanese school curricula barely cover the country's wartime aggression; and some politicians still deny the Nanjing Massacre.
\n
At the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731, where Japanese scientists carried out gruesome human experiments, Kato says the evidence was "so cruel that it gave me goose bumps".
\n
Kato says that the knives and other physical evidence on display, along with the Japanese army's attempts to cover up its crimes through demolition, made him realize the enormity of the war crimes committed by the invading Japanese forces.
\n
"I was shocked that Japan had committed such brutal atrocities. And it was precisely because of this that I came to understand why the Chinese are angry — because Japan has never truly faced up to its history," Kato says.
\n
He was struck by how Japan tends to emphasize its own victimhood by publicizing the suffering of its own people, while sidestepping its role as an aggressor.
\n
Videos of his visits drew praise from Chinese viewers for confronting the past, but also provoked vitriol from Japanese audiences. "Even if being attacked, I want to keep speaking out," he says.
\n
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Kato is planning to bring more Japanese citizens to China's wartime memorials.
\n
"Admitting past mistakes is the first step toward peace," he says.
Left: Visitors examine a gilded brass music clock with agate inlay at Beijing's Summer Palace. Right: The clock is among the cultural relics evacuated during wartime in the first half of the 20th century.
\n
Online Scan the code to watch the video.
\n
A group of students stands before an exquisite gilded brass clock adorned with cloisonne enamel and a tour guide revealing the artifact's history.
\n
They're visiting the exhibition A Journey between North and South: Relocating Treasures for Perpetuity, which launched on Friday and runs until Nov 16 at the Summer Palace Museum and the Deheyuan, or Garden of Virtue and Harmony, in Beijing.
\n
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
\n
In January 1933, Japanese forces broke through the Shanhai Pass, a strategic pass of the Great Wall, putting Beijing, then Beiping, under the imminent threat of war.
\n
To avoid the ravages of war, the Palace Museum in Beijing spearheaded the evacuation of over 19,000 boxes of cultural relics from institutions across Beijing, including the Summer Palace.
\n
The treasures were transported to Shanghai and then Nanjing, in present-day Jiangsu province. When the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full scale in 1937, the relics were forced to be transferred to southwestern China. The relocation covered more than 10 provincial-level regions and tens of thousands of miles.
\n
This exhibition is themed on the southward relocation of the Summer Palace's cultural relics and their return to the north from 1933 to 1951.
\n
It features 160 sets of objects that survived the chaos of war. Many are from the Summer Palace's collection, alongside treasures from institutions such as the Palace Museum, as well as Jiangsu province's Nanjing Museum and Zhenjiang Museum.
\n
"The cultural relics' southward relocation was an unprecedented endeavor to safeguard the roots of Chinese civilization amid the flames of war. Such spirit embodies not merely the unyielding belief that guarded our civilization during wartime, but also the enduring soul of contemporary cultural heritage preservation," says Rong Hua, deputy head of the Summer Palace.
\n
Visitors can read an innovative first-person narrative from the perspective of the cultural relics on boards, which guides them through the historical scenes about how these national treasures were protected during the war.
\n
The relics were carefully packed and transported to cities by road, rail and waterway.
\n
According to Wei Lijia, head of the Summer Palace's cultural relics department, they chose some exhibits that symbolize the perilous journey, such as mountain-themed stone carvings and two brass barometer-thermometer clocks crafted in the form of a steamship and locomotive.
\n
In the yard of the Summer Palace Museum, a group of installations featuring the lunar phases — from waning to waxing — mirrors the theme of the exhibition to welcome visitors.
\n
"Audiences can observe the moon's gradual transition to fullness via the installation, which symbolizes the homeward journey of these cultural relics," Wei says.
\n
"Rooted in the traditional Chinese belief that the moon shines the brightest over one's homeland, it symbolizes that when the moon is full, the cultural relics would finally return home — a homecoming now fulfilled."
Manchester United lost to Arsenal in its opener on Sunday, but Ruben Amorim remained full of optimism and said his rebuilt team can now beat anybody in the Premier League, as the club tries to put last season's woeful 15th-place finish behind it.
\n
Riccardo Calafiori headed home from an early corner to give Arsenal a 1-0 win, with a weak challenge from goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, one of United's few mistakes on an afternoon that sent their fans home from Old Trafford feeling positive.
\n
"We have the players to win any game in the Premier League," said Amorim, flashing a rare smile instead of the scowl he wore for most of last season. "We were more aggressive than last year. We went one against one all the game and we pressed high. We showed quality on the ball."
\n
Close-season signings Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo injected pace and creativity into United's attack, with the ex-Wolves man, who had three shots on target, arguably the best player on the pitch.
\n
"We did a lot of things right," Amorim said. "We were more aggressive and brave. In certain moments, I think Bryan and Cunha helped a lot. We stuck to the plan, even when the stadium was nervous. We continued to play the way we wanted, and that will help us in the future.
\n
" (The fans) want that feeling again: to go to Old Trafford and not be bored. We need to win more than last season, but they want to see something and feel something."
\n
United also looked more composed defensively than last term, but the error from its Turkish keeper raised questions about the position in Amorim's team.
\n
Arsenal's William Saliba backed into Bayindir, who feebly batted the ball with one hand into the path of Italian Calafiori for an easy close-range header.
\n
Amorim said United needed to match Arsenal's physicality on the corner. "If you watch the goal, I think (players) are allowed to do a lot of things during corners. We need to do the same," he said. "But, when you touch the goalkeeper that way, he needs to use his hands to catch the ball, not to push players, or he chooses to push players and let the ball get past.
\n
"But again, (it) is the rules. If he's allowed, we need to do the same thing."
\n
Bayindir was selected ahead of usual starter Andre Onana.
\n",
- "content": "
Ruben Amorim
\n
Manchester United lost to Arsenal in its opener on Sunday, but Ruben Amorim remained full of optimism and said his rebuilt team can now beat anybody in the Premier League, as the club tries to put last season's woeful 15th-place finish behind it.
\n
Riccardo Calafiori headed home from an early corner to give Arsenal a 1-0 win, with a weak challenge from goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, one of United's few mistakes on an afternoon that sent their fans home from Old Trafford feeling positive.
\n
"We have the players to win any game in the Premier League," said Amorim, flashing a rare smile instead of the scowl he wore for most of last season. "We were more aggressive than last year. We went one against one all the game and we pressed high. We showed quality on the ball."
\n
Close-season signings Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo injected pace and creativity into United's attack, with the ex-Wolves man, who had three shots on target, arguably the best player on the pitch.
\n
"We did a lot of things right," Amorim said. "We were more aggressive and brave. In certain moments, I think Bryan and Cunha helped a lot. We stuck to the plan, even when the stadium was nervous. We continued to play the way we wanted, and that will help us in the future.
\n
" (The fans) want that feeling again: to go to Old Trafford and not be bored. We need to win more than last season, but they want to see something and feel something."
\n
United also looked more composed defensively than last term, but the error from its Turkish keeper raised questions about the position in Amorim's team.
\n
Arsenal's William Saliba backed into Bayindir, who feebly batted the ball with one hand into the path of Italian Calafiori for an easy close-range header.
\n
Amorim said United needed to match Arsenal's physicality on the corner. "If you watch the goal, I think (players) are allowed to do a lot of things during corners. We need to do the same," he said. "But, when you touch the goalkeeper that way, he needs to use his hands to catch the ball, not to push players, or he chooses to push players and let the ball get past.
\n
"But again, (it) is the rules. If he's allowed, we need to do the same thing."
\n
Bayindir was selected ahead of usual starter Andre Onana.
Vitinha (center) celebrates with Nuno Mendes (left) and Desire Doue after scoring Paris Saint-Germain's winning goal during a French Ligue 1 match against Nantes on Sunday.
\n\n
NANTES, France — Paris Saint-Germain got its defense of the Ligue 1 title off to a winning start on Sunday as Vitinha's deflected strike proved enough to earn the European champion a 1-0 victory away to Nantes.
\n
The Portuguese midfielder's effort midway through the second half beat goalkeeper Anthony Lopes with the aid of a wicked deflection off Nantes defender Chidozie Awaziem to break the deadlock.
\n
PSG was made to work hard for its victory, as coach Luis Enrique made seven changes to his starting lineup following the UEFA Super Cup win on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in midweek.
\n
That was the first game of the new campaign for last season's Champions League winner, which only began preseason training on Aug 6, having gone all the way to the Club World Cup final in the United States in mid-July.
\n
It did not play any friendly matches prior to the Super Cup, and is therefore likely to require several weeks before getting close to the level at which it performed last season.
\n
However, it still had enough against a hard-working, but punchless, Nantes side, playing a first competitive match under new Portuguese coach Luis Castro.
\n
"I am very happy, because the first objective in these matches is the victory, and I think we deserved the three points," Enrique said.
\n
"We were in control throughout, playing away from home. In the first half, we didn't create much, but that is normal, because it is difficult against a team defending so deep."
\n
Asked about his team's lack of preparation for the start of the new season, the Spanish coach added: "Today we saw that our players are ready and wanted to show the level they can perform at.
\n
"They all need time, which I think is normal, but we will look more comfortable with the ball once we have a few more games under our belts."
\n
Ukraine defender Illia Zabarnyi played 90 minutes on his PSG debut after arriving at the start of the week from Bournemouth in a reported 66 million-euro ($76.7m) deal.
\n
Lucas Chevalier also started, with the new arrival from Lille having immediately taken over from Gianluigi Donnarumma as PSG's firstchoice goalkeeper.
\n
"The physical and technical abilities of Zabarnyi are perfect for the style of football I like," Enrique said.
\n
"He is comfortable on the ball, which is important for us, and without the ball he usually wins his duels. I think he played very well."
\n
Ousmane Dembele, Achraf Hakimi, Desire Doue, Nuno Mendes and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia all started the game on the bench, but the substitutes played a part in the goal which came on 67 minutes.
\n
Dembele played a corner from the PSG left short to Mendes and his square pass was controlled by Vitinha, before the playmaker fired in.
\n
"At the moment, with the physical condition of the team, it is important to have players who can come on towards the end of games in an optimal condition," said Enrique.
\n
"That happened in the last game against Tottenham, too," he added.
\n
Goncalo Ramos, who hit the bar in the first half, had an effort disallowed for offside late on, before Bradley Barcola clipped a shot just wide, but one goal proved enough.
\n
PSG's next game will be at home to Angers on Friday evening.
\n
Elsewhere on Sunday, France's 2018 World Cup-winning striker Olivier Giroud scored his first goal for Lille in its 3-3 draw at Brest.
\n
"It is a real pleasure to be back in Ligue 1," said Giroud, who left Montpellier after helping it win the title in 2012 and has spent the last 13 years abroad featuring for Arsenal, Chelsea, AC Milan and, most recently, Los Angeles FC.
\n
Angers beat newly-promoted Paris FC 1-0 with Esteban Lepaul scoring the only goal early on, and the host holding on despite playing most of the second half with only 10 men.
\n
Strasbourg was a 1-0 winner at Metz thanks to a late strike by Argentine summer signing Joaquin Panichelli.
\n
Auxerre beat Lorient 1-0, and Monaco jumped to the top of the league thanks to a 3-1 win over Le Havre on Saturday.
Spanish rider Marc Marquez celebrates on the podium after winning the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix on Sunday.
\n
As Marc Marquez rolled back the years with a sixth straight win in a commanding victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, a six-time champion fittingly winning the 1,000th premier class race in history, the question on everyone's lips is who can beat him?
\n
Marquez had never won at the Red Bull Ring before, a track where he has been beaten to the chequered flag three times before by a gleaming red Ducati when he was collecting championships aboard the once-dominant Honda.
\n
But, history does not bother Marquez, who reached a nadir after four surgeries on a broken arm, double vision and several broken bones between 2020 and 2023, before earning another shot at championship glory with a belated move to Ducati.
\n
"I always lost against red bikes, but now I'm riding one," Marquez said on Thursday, a warning to the rest of the grid that he meant business on MotoGP's return from its summer break.
\n
Despite starting on the second row after a qualifying crash, there was an air of inevitability and a cool determination, with Marquez not even locking eyes with his old rival Valentino Rossi when they walked past each other in the pit lane.
\n
The feud has been simmering for years, but even as Rossi sought to impart wisdom to his VR46 Academy protege and pole sitter Marco Bezzecchi, the Aprilia rider could not deny Marquez his first win at the Red Bull Ring.
\n
For 19 laps, Bezzecchi had clear air in front of him, but Marquez stayed on his rear wheel, eventually slicing under him on turn one, and, though the Italian fought back gamely, Marquez had found another gear on degrading tires — as he always does.
\n
'Something amazing'
\n
With nine rounds to go and an eye-watering 142 points separating Marquez from his second-placed brother Alex, a seventh title already looks like a formality, which would place him alongside Rossi in the pantheon of motorcycling greats.
\n
"I am reborn," Marquez told TNT Sports.
\n
"I was 21 years old (when I won six in a row in 2014), now I'm older, now I'm 32.
\n
"I'm just happy, because, from where we've come, it's something amazing, I just want to enjoy it and keep smiling."
\n
While Marquez marches on, other champions on the grid have faded away, none more so than his teammate Francesco Bagnaia.
\n
Twice champion Bagnaia was Ducati's poster boy and was undefeated in Austria for three years, but now there is a new sheriff in town.
\n
The Italian has not yet come to terms with the new Ducati machinery and sits 197 points behind Marquez, while reigning champion Jorge Martin is nowhere close to competing on the Aprilia, the team that took him in after Ducati's snub.
\n
Old guard
\n
Many riders have also complained about the technology aboard the thundering machines hindering their riding style, but Marquez has made speeding at over 300 km/h look more like a question of attitude than the engineering.
\n
"The older generation still know what it's like to find grip, still know what it's like to ride ahead of the electronics," twice MotoGP champion Casey Stoner said.
\n
"Whereas the current generation, all they've known is: let the engineers set it up, you twist the throttle, the ride height device automatically goes down — there's nothing really manual about it.
\n
"Marc still has an idea of where the grip level should be, and so he's riding in front of that, he's predicting what's going to be happening. He's able to rely on those electronics and find pace that nobody else can."
\n
Marquez is not just winning sprints and races, his presence on the track is breaking wills, showing the young guns that his era as the king of the grid is far from done.
Spanish rider Marc Marquez celebrates on the podium after winning the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix on Sunday.
\n
As Marc Marquez rolled back the years with a sixth straight win in a commanding victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, a six-time champion fittingly winning the 1,000th premier class race in history, the question on everyone's lips is who can beat him?
\n
Marquez had never won at the Red Bull Ring before, a track where he has been beaten to the chequered flag three times before by a gleaming red Ducati when he was collecting championships aboard the once-dominant Honda.
\n
But, history does not bother Marquez, who reached a nadir after four surgeries on a broken arm, double vision and several broken bones between 2020 and 2023, before earning another shot at championship glory with a belated move to Ducati.
\n
"I always lost against red bikes, but now I'm riding one," Marquez said on Thursday, a warning to the rest of the grid that he meant business on MotoGP's return from its summer break.
\n
Despite starting on the second row after a qualifying crash, there was an air of inevitability and a cool determination, with Marquez not even locking eyes with his old rival Valentino Rossi when they walked past each other in the pit lane.
\n
The feud has been simmering for years, but even as Rossi sought to impart wisdom to his VR46 Academy protege and pole sitter Marco Bezzecchi, the Aprilia rider could not deny Marquez his first win at the Red Bull Ring.
\n
For 19 laps, Bezzecchi had clear air in front of him, but Marquez stayed on his rear wheel, eventually slicing under him on turn one, and, though the Italian fought back gamely, Marquez had found another gear on degrading tires — as he always does.
\n
'Something amazing'
\n
With nine rounds to go and an eye-watering 142 points separating Marquez from his second-placed brother Alex, a seventh title already looks like a formality, which would place him alongside Rossi in the pantheon of motorcycling greats.
\n
"I am reborn," Marquez told TNT Sports.
\n
"I was 21 years old (when I won six in a row in 2014), now I'm older, now I'm 32.
\n
"I'm just happy, because, from where we've come, it's something amazing, I just want to enjoy it and keep smiling."
\n
While Marquez marches on, other champions on the grid have faded away, none more so than his teammate Francesco Bagnaia.
\n
Twice champion Bagnaia was Ducati's poster boy and was undefeated in Austria for three years, but now there is a new sheriff in town.
\n
The Italian has not yet come to terms with the new Ducati machinery and sits 197 points behind Marquez, while reigning champion Jorge Martin is nowhere close to competing on the Aprilia, the team that took him in after Ducati's snub.
\n
Old guard
\n
Many riders have also complained about the technology aboard the thundering machines hindering their riding style, but Marquez has made speeding at over 300 km/h look more like a question of attitude than the engineering.
\n
"The older generation still know what it's like to find grip, still know what it's like to ride ahead of the electronics," twice MotoGP champion Casey Stoner said.
\n
"Whereas the current generation, all they've known is: let the engineers set it up, you twist the throttle, the ride height device automatically goes down — there's nothing really manual about it.
\n
"Marc still has an idea of where the grip level should be, and so he's riding in front of that, he's predicting what's going to be happening. He's able to rely on those electronics and find pace that nobody else can."
\n
Marquez is not just winning sprints and races, his presence on the track is breaking wills, showing the young guns that his era as the king of the grid is far from done.
Arthur Rorris, secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, shows a newspaper image reflecting the Dalfram Dispute on Aug 4.
\n
The Triumph monument, erected on Nov 15, 2018, and funded by the NSW government in association with the Maritime Union of Australia, commemorates the Dalfram Dispute at Port Kembla in Wollongong, Australia.
\n
Striking workers at Port Kembla in December 1938.
\n
The steamship SS Dalfram.
\n
As a child, Australian Ray Gamble would hear stories about how his father had to collect scraps from the local butcher to feed fellow workers at the wharf.
\n
"My dad, he used to talk about that hard time. ... He would get all the leftover meat for the workers to help them survive," Gamble, 69, told China Daily.
\n
His father, Norm "Sunshine "Gamble, then 25, and his colleagues were among the 180 wharf workers at Port Kembla in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, who refused to load a shipment of pig iron onto the steamship SS Dalfram, bound for Japan, on Nov 15, 1938.
\n
The workers had heard that the iron would be used to produce weapons to be used against China, which was fighting Japanese invaders.
\n
The port protest, which became known as the Dalfram Dispute, soon involved unions and other workers in the region and beyond, stretching over 10 weeks and leading to a lockout of ships, with about 4,000 steelworkers laid off. The union action garnered support from local residents and drew national and global attention.
\n
"My father was a very staunch unionist and they were the ones who got together and stopped the pig iron being loaded," said Gamble, who also worked in maritime services and retired two years ago.
\n
His father died in 2002, but Gamble said his own children and younger relatives know very well this important time in the family's history. "I've explained to them what their grandfather and all the others went through; they're proud of their grandfather," he said.
\n
Common ties
\n
The workers' actions at Port Kembla are widely lauded as a historic example of building peace and common ties across borders. Community leaders in Australia have pointed to its renewed significance amid events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.
\n
Garry Keane, 70, former secretary of the southern New South Wales branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, told China Daily that it's timely to be reminded of the incident.
\n
The maritime union traces its roots to the Waterside Workers' Federation, which was behind the campaign in Wollongong opposing the Japanese invasion of China.
\n
During the dispute — with Australian workers' strong sense of solidarity with China and amid the broader anti-war sentiment — the Chinese community offered food and other support to the unionists, Keane said.
\n
"The Chinese community in Sydney was very strong and they used to bring truckloads of vegetables from the markets down to the picket line where these guys (wharf workers) had nothing coming out of the (Great) Depression," said Keane, who was also deputy national presiding officer of the maritime union.
\n
"It really did build a bond. This bond was forged during that time and it has been maintained over the past decades. We have a close association with the Chinese community," he said, adding that the Dalfram Dispute is commemorated every year on Nov 15 at the Port Kembla Heritage Park, joined by members of the Chinese community, with similar events to remember the Nanjing Massacre.
\n
Arthur Rorris, 57, secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, Wollongong, told China Daily that the Dalfram Dispute was important in showing how workers led the way with their stand for peace.
\n
"This changed the face of Australian unionism and it changed the face as well of collective efforts, with the relationships between the broader community and the union movement," said Rorris.
\n
The dispute influenced Australian foreign policy in facing increasing hostilities amid the run-up to World War II. At the time, it was not long after World War I, and young people in Australia were split about going to war, he said.
\n
"What had become apparent was that it's always the workers whose blood is spilled in a time of war. And they said, 'why should our blood be spilt for that?' Sometimes you do have to do that to defend your country, to defend a rightful cause, but not for the interests of imperialists and others.
\n
"That is why the workers' action was so important and had a lasting change, because what they said is that'we will have a seat on that table where you make the decisions about who is our enemy and who is not'."
\n
Rorris said it was very clear that the workers had a greater awareness of the world and the events unfolding in China.
\n
He said the workers felt a greater alignment with interests and concerns of their brothers and sisters in China, than for the bosses who wanted to make a profit by sending iron to Japan, noting that Japanese attacks on Australia during WWII included the bombing of Darwin in northern Australia.
\n
"What was done, how it was done, how it united all of the communities — the Chinese community, the broader Australian community, the workers here and abroad — these things are very significant, which is why we commemorate them," Rorris said.
\n
The Dalfram Dispute ended in January 1939 with the stevedores going back to work, after union-government negotiations that included future pig iron exports.
\n
"They ended up loading the Dalfram but that finished the trade of pig iron to Japan. It was Australian foreign policy (at that time) to sell the pig iron, though, knowing what was coming," Keane said. "But it was the action of those 180 waterside workers that actually changed the foreign policy and stopped that trade."
\n
Significance of support
\n
Sandra Pires, who directed the 2015 documentary, The Dalfram Dispute 1938: Pig Iron Bob, told China Daily that it was "an internationally significant action … by men who believed they were going to make a difference; they had a conscience, and they won".
\n
They are on the right side of history, said Pires, whose film title refers to the nickname given to Australia's then attorney general Robert Menzies amid his opposition to the workers' action.
\n
Communist Party of Australia member and public servant Christian Raymond, 30, told China Daily the Dalfram Dispute is important to him as a young Australian because "it reminds us of a moment when Australians stood up to take a position in opposition to war, in support of peace across the world".
\n
Raymond regularly visits the heritage park, where there is a monument attesting to "the stand against military aggression; a stand forever forged between the peoples of China and Australia".
\n
The significance of the Dalfram Dispute is being revisited amid the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, which included a major symphony concert and photo exhibition in Sydney on Aug 9.The "Ode to Peace and the Future" concert featured a 58-piece symphony orchestra and a 260-strong choir.
\n
Speaking at the concert, Chinese Consul General in Sydney Wang Yu said that Chinese and Australians had stood united against fascism.
\n
The Dalfram Dispute monument stands "silently recounting the heroic act of Australian workers", he said. "The ladder at the top of the monument symbolizes the yearning for peace and serves as a bridge connecting the friendship between the people of our two countries," Wang said.
\n
Mark Buttigieg, New South Wales parliamentary secretary for industrial relations and multiculturalism, said that "unless we gather together and remember what happened in our past, in terms of loss of human life and wars … unless we're vigilant, we can go down that negative path of the dark age again".
\n
Rorris said events like the concert are always important to help remember the path to peace and progress forged eight decades ago by the port workers.
\n
"We have a saying here that history is the workers' greatest friend. You must never ever forget how we came to be, where we are," he said. "We are a relatively affluent country; we still have our issues, but all of the protections and the benefits and our standard of living were won through the march of the labor movement. They were achieved by the working class," Rorris said.
\n
The seafarers in Australia played a major role in highlighting the sacrifices made by the Chinese people during the war, he said.
\n
"The very nature of their work meant that they saw firsthand what was happening in many of these other countries because they would go to the ports. So a lot of the information that came back to their unions was firsthand information," he said.
\n
During the war and after the war, it became a lot clearer the sacrifices that had been made, he said.
\n
"People are starting to realize more and more how the resistance in China was a turning point… At the end of the day, the history of Chinese struggle is critical here.
\n
"There were great sacrifices that should never have happened. But it also means that in terms of this country, there's no doubt the Dalfram Dispute was the first shot fired in the war against fascism in this country," Rorris said.
\n
Once again across the oceans, we can extend that friendship with the Chinese people and people around the world, he said, adding: "And to say that we must plan for peace, not war, and not fall into the trap of thinking that we can arm ourselves to peace."
\n
"When you look at Dalfram… the people always have a say, the people will get out and their voice will be heard," Keane said.
\n
"There's a saying among our movement that peace is union business and the unions will always be involved in peace, not war."
A robot wins the silver medal after performing the Yingge dance — a traditional folk dance that originated in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong province — in the dance category of the World Humanoid Robot Games on Saturday in Beijing. The three-day games concluded on Sunday.
A robot wins the silver medal after performing the Yingge dance — a traditional folk dance that originated in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong province — in the dance category of the World Humanoid Robot Games on Saturday in Beijing. The three-day games concluded on Sunday.
Residents of Zingkar village share photos of themselves in their new homes in Dingri county, Xizang autonomous region, on Friday. The village hosted a ceremony to celebrate the first batch of residents moving into newly built homes.
\n
Tashi Thacho, 81, remembers the day in early January when a powerful earthquake destroyed his home.
\n
"When the earthquake happened, most of the houses in our village collapsed or were severely damaged. Many cows were killed, and our family property was buried under the debris," said the resident of Zingkar village, part of Dingri county in the Xizang autonomous region. He said the family evacuated to safer areas nearby and was provided with basic necessities, including food, tents and medical care.
\n
Reconstruction is still ongoing in Dingri after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the county and nearby areas on Jan 7, killing 126 people and destroying thousands of homes.
\n
Thacho visited his village — which was one of the hardest-hit areas — almost every day to check the progress of the reconstruction effort. After months of work, he and his family finally moved back to the village on Friday. They now live in a two-story concrete building, which was given to them for free.
\n
"We had been staying in makeshift houses over the past few months, and now we finally got our new home," he said.
\n
More than 12,000 quake-affected residents from 2,578 households in Dingri and other parts of Shigatse also moved into new homes on Friday, marking significant progress in post-disaster reconstruction.
\n
Newly built Tibetan-style houses were erected quickly with quality construction, replacing the debris that once filled the villages.
\n
A move-in ceremony was held on Friday in Zingkar, drawing hundreds of villagers, construction workers and officials to celebrate the completion of the homes.
\n
Zhuang Yinong, a manager with Shanghai Construction Group that oversaw the building effort in Zingkar, said the houses were rebuilt to meet an 8-degree seismic fortification standard.
\n
"The design fully takes into account the living habits and actual needs of local residents, and the houses are equipped with essential infrastructure such as solar energy, water, electricity and internet, ensuring that the residents can move in safely and comfortably," Zhuang told Xinhua News Agency.
\n
Pang Jian, an official with the housing and urban-rural development bureau of Shigatse, said rehousing efforts are progressing well.
\n
"By Aug 20, an additional 1,145 households with 8,329 residents will gradually move into their new homes, and it is expected that by the end of October, all affected residents will move into their new homes so that they can have warm places for the winter," Pang said.
\n
Contact the writers at palden_nyima@chinadaily.com.cn
Nyingchi, a popular tourist destination in the Xizang autonomous region, has experienced rapid socioeconomic development in recent years, which in turn has steadily improved people's livelihoods, local officials said.
\n
In 2024, Nyingchi's GDP reached 26.7 billion yuan ($3.72 billion), with an average annual growth rate of more than 8 percent. Urban and rural residents' per capita disposable income rose to 49,621 yuan and 27,427 yuan, respectively, with respective average annual growth rates of more than 6 percent and 8 percent, according to Li Shijiang, executive vice-mayor of Nyingchi, at a news conference on Friday.
\n
"The city aims to become the hub of southeastern Xizang while continuing to develop as a premier tourist destination," Li said.
\n
With continuous infrastructure improvement, Nyingchi's integrated transportation network, including rail, aviation and highway connectivity, is gradually taking shape and positioning the city as the primary gateway to Xizang, Li said.
\n
From January to May this year, Nyingchi welcomed 6.03 million domestic and international tourists, generating tourism revenue of 5.24 billion yuan, up 9.34 percent and 13.16 percent year-on-year, respectively. In 2024, the city received 15.31 million visitors, with total tourism revenue exceeding 13.82 billion yuan, a respective increase of 16.26 percent and 18.7 percent compared with 2021, according to local statistics.
\n
In addition to striving to become a world-class eco-cultural tourism destination, Nyingchi has been advancing the development of clean energy, trade and under-forest cultivation in recent years.
\n
The city's specialty agricultural products, such as apples, matsutake mushrooms, tea and gastrodia elata — an orchid commonly used in traditional Chinese medicinehave reached domestic and international markets, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Nepal and Canada.
\n
"This not only enhances the reputation of Nyingchi's products, but also provides new income opportunities for local residents," Li noted.
\n
In 2024, Nyingchi's foreign trade volume reached 8.42 million yuan, up more than 573 percent. The city received 57,000 overseas tourists, a surge of 288.45 percent year-on-year, generating 160 million yuan in foreign exchange earnings, a 282.5 percent increase compared with the previous year, local statistics show.
\n
The initial framework of an industrial cluster of clean energy has taken shape in Nyingchi. Nine major State-owned enterprises and industrial chain companies in fields such as hydropower materials, photovoltaic power equipment, lithium battery energy storage and hydrogen energy development have settled in the Nyingchi Economic Development Zone. The city's total installed capacity of clean energy has exceeded 460,000 kilowatts, according to Li.
\n
The city also leverages its forest resources to develop under-forest cultivation.
\n
By the end of 2024, the city's under-forest cultivation area for Tibetan medicinal herbs such as gastrodia elata and fritillaria had reached 583.3 hectares, while edible fungi covered more than 60.7 hectares.
\n
Currently, 438 villages in Nyingchi have collective village incomes exceeding 50,000 yuan, accounting for 86.4 percent of the total.
\n
"The city has made solid progress in consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation," Li said.
\n
Per capita disposable income in the border counties of Nyingchi has reached 26,000 yuan, driven by the city's efforts to address infrastructure gaps and develop characteristic local industries in these regions, according to Li.
Nyingchi, a popular tourist destination in the Xizang autonomous region, has experienced rapid socioeconomic development in recent years, which in turn has steadily improved people's livelihoods, local officials said.
\n
In 2024, Nyingchi's GDP reached 26.7 billion yuan ($3.72 billion), with an average annual growth rate of more than 8 percent. Urban and rural residents' per capita disposable income rose to 49,621 yuan and 27,427 yuan, respectively, with respective average annual growth rates of more than 6 percent and 8 percent, according to Li Shijiang, executive vice-mayor of Nyingchi, at a news conference on Friday.
\n
"The city aims to become the hub of southeastern Xizang while continuing to develop as a premier tourist destination," Li said.
\n
With continuous infrastructure improvement, Nyingchi's integrated transportation network, including rail, aviation and highway connectivity, is gradually taking shape and positioning the city as the primary gateway to Xizang, Li said.
\n
From January to May this year, Nyingchi welcomed 6.03 million domestic and international tourists, generating tourism revenue of 5.24 billion yuan, up 9.34 percent and 13.16 percent year-on-year, respectively. In 2024, the city received 15.31 million visitors, with total tourism revenue exceeding 13.82 billion yuan, a respective increase of 16.26 percent and 18.7 percent compared with 2021, according to local statistics.
\n
In addition to striving to become a world-class eco-cultural tourism destination, Nyingchi has been advancing the development of clean energy, trade and under-forest cultivation in recent years.
\n
The city's specialty agricultural products, such as apples, matsutake mushrooms, tea and gastrodia elata — an orchid commonly used in traditional Chinese medicinehave reached domestic and international markets, including the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Nepal and Canada.
\n
"This not only enhances the reputation of Nyingchi's products, but also provides new income opportunities for local residents," Li noted.
\n
In 2024, Nyingchi's foreign trade volume reached 8.42 million yuan, up more than 573 percent. The city received 57,000 overseas tourists, a surge of 288.45 percent year-on-year, generating 160 million yuan in foreign exchange earnings, a 282.5 percent increase compared with the previous year, local statistics show.
\n
The initial framework of an industrial cluster of clean energy has taken shape in Nyingchi. Nine major State-owned enterprises and industrial chain companies in fields such as hydropower materials, photovoltaic power equipment, lithium battery energy storage and hydrogen energy development have settled in the Nyingchi Economic Development Zone. The city's total installed capacity of clean energy has exceeded 460,000 kilowatts, according to Li.
\n
The city also leverages its forest resources to develop under-forest cultivation.
\n
By the end of 2024, the city's under-forest cultivation area for Tibetan medicinal herbs such as gastrodia elata and fritillaria had reached 583.3 hectares, while edible fungi covered more than 60.7 hectares.
\n
Currently, 438 villages in Nyingchi have collective village incomes exceeding 50,000 yuan, accounting for 86.4 percent of the total.
\n
"The city has made solid progress in consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation," Li said.
\n
Per capita disposable income in the border counties of Nyingchi has reached 26,000 yuan, driven by the city's efforts to address infrastructure gaps and develop characteristic local industries in these regions, according to Li.
It is obvious that the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in October 2024, in Kazan, Russia, has paved the way for the thawing of bilateral relations between the two countries.
\n
The frequent meetings between high-level officials of the two countries would not have been possible without the consensus of the two leaders that their countries should develop friendly ties.
\n
Since differences on border issues have cast a shadow over the development of relations between the two neighbors, particularly after the clash between their border troops in 2020, maintaining high-level exchanges is vital to prevent them from hindering the development of bilateral ties. So the visit to India by Foreign Minister Wang Yi starting on Monday is pertinent. It comes shortly after the Chinese side extended a welcome to Modi's planned visit to China on Aug 31 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, the first visit of the Indian leader in over seven years.
\n
Wang's visit, at the invitation of India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who visited China in December 2024 for a security representative meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, represents the continuation of the security talks mechanism. The mechanism is conducive to the two sides building on the positive momentum they have maintained to keep on the right track their joint efforts to properly manage their border differences.
\n
The two sides can work together to transform the hard-earned consensus on the border issue into more concrete actions to ease the tensions and promote exchanges so as to avoid allowing the border issue to define the overall ties. For the two major Eastern civilizations and major emerging economies that are adjacent to each other, the essence of stable China-India relations lies in how to live in harmony and achieve mutual success.
\n
It is particularly important for the two neighbors to manage their differences when cooperation between the two nations is badly needed for the economic and social development of the world's two most populous countries. By effectively expanding their common interests and tapping into their economic structural complementarity, they will find more reasons to avoid their border disputes from standing in the way of their ties.
\n
In his talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Beijing last month, Wang called on both sides to aim high, plan for the long term, and adhere to good-neighborliness and friendship. It was good to see his Indian counterpart actively echo that call, pledging India's willingness to work together with China for the common good of the two countries and the region.
\n
Indeed, New Delhi has taken certain measures to promote people-to-people exchanges, and implied its openness to Chinese investment. Even though some of the measures remain far from meeting their intended targets, they at least demonstrate New Delhi's recognition of its obligation to undo what it has done to help straighten out the ties.
\n
It is hoped that the Indian side can expedite its actions in relevant fields so as to match its words with deeds, demonstrating that its expressed willingness to repair ties with China is not just a gesture due to the United States' tariff threats, but instead a genuine commitment to a sustainable good-neighborly relationship.
\n
China's stance and policy on Sino-Indian relations have been consistent, as it always views relations from a strategic height and with the bigger picture in mind, and handles their differences with due prudence and vision. It is willing to work with India to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, consistently enhance political mutual trust, and meet each other halfway to expand exchanges and cooperation. India should reciprocate China's sincerity by doing its part to properly manage differences, and strengthen coordination via multilateral platforms, such as the SCO, to promote the healthy development of China-India ties.
\n
With the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, China and India, as two major members of the Global South, are shouldering the responsibility to work together to realize a fair and just world order and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. Amicable relations between China and India are in the interests of both countries as well as regional peace and development.
Editor's Note: The integration of education with rural tourism has become one of the driving forces of local economic growth. While talking to People's Daily Overseas Edition, Jin Zhun, secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Tourism Research Center, emphasized the role of study tours in rural vitalization and how they can be further developed. Below are excerpts from the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.
\n
In recent years, study tours have shifted from cities to the countryside because rural areas provide an irreplaceable form of "living" learning that urban settings cannot offer. The countryside is a vast open-air classroom that puts abstract knowledge into real-life contexts. Through multisensory experiences, young people gain a deeper understanding of ecological cycles, the value of labor and cultural inheritance. With the healing power of nature and its cultural richness, the countryside has become an important destination for their growth and cultural identity.
\n
This trend reflects China's growing emphasis on quality-oriented education. Schools do not evaluate students on scores alone. Learning is shifting from passive knowledge infusion to active inquiry and project-based exploration. Rural study tours provide an ideal setting for integrated education in morality, intellect, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor. In the countryside, students encounter problems and work hands-on to solve them, an essential path to cultivate independent thinking and innovation. Collective living and social interaction strengthen in them principles such as social responsibility and teamwork.
\n
The increase in study tours has changed the business model of rural tourism. Unlike traditional rural tourism, which focused on leisure with concentrated flows on weekends, student visitors from schools and institutions travel mainly on weekdays, filling market gaps and improving resource efficiency.
\n
More importantly, study tours have transformed rural offerings from homogenized "food, lodging and sightseeing" into structured curriculum experiences. These courses, developed from unique local resources, carry higher value, offer stronger appeal and differentiation and help villages build competitive advantages.
\n
Study-oriented tourism activates not only the landscape but also people and culture. Villagers can serve as labor mentors, cultural heritage bearers can run workshops and agricultural products gain added value through educational stories. This extends the industry chain from tourism services to knowledge, culture and creative agriculture, fostering diverse business models and shared prosperity. The goal is not only short-term economic gains but also sustainable development by tapping into culture, cultivating talent and shaping brands.
\n
To make study tours a true engine for sustainability, rural areas must move beyond superficial displays and transform resources into themed curricula. A mountain and river should become a course on water conservation. Fruit-picking can evolve into a full-chain project from sowing to branding. Traditional crafts and old houses can be turned into interactive scripts.
\n
Today, more overseas youth are joining rural study tours. This is a unique window for the world to see the real China. By working alongside Chinese farmers, stereotypes give way to vivid stories and authentic village life. This immersive, two-way dialogue plants seeds of understanding and friendship across cultures, serving as an effective "people-to-people diplomacy". Every successful overseas study tour becomes a calling card of China's soft power and may help in rural vitalization.
\n
To make the most of this trend, villages must prepare systematically. Their infrastructure must meet international standards, with bilingual signage, proper sanitation and convenient payment channels. Service capacity should include multilingual mentors and tailored courses that reflect diverse cultural backgrounds. Most importantly, cultural expression should be communicated in ways that enable international youth to truly appreciate the charm of rural China.
\n",
@@ -7793,28 +7419,6 @@
"hash": "69c4846ee3f1d76b38e4edb32cdb0810",
"highlights": []
},
- {
- "title": "009DOCUMENT - The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2024",
- "description": "
Contents
\n
Foreword
\n
I. American Democracy: Carnival of Money Power Games
\n
II. Social Welfare: Struggling Low-Incomers
\n
III. Racism: Shackles of Minorities IV. Vulnerable Groups: Helplessness of Women and Children
\n
V. Fatal Journey: Elegy of Undocumented Immigrants
\n
VI. American Hegemony: Terminator of Other Countries' Human Rights
\n
Conclusion
\n
Foreword
\n
2024, as an election year in the United States, was a year of special concern that features aggravating political strife and social divide. Such a landscape offers an opportunity to review the state of human rights in the country in an intensive manner.
\n
Economic and social inequalities in the United States worsened with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Inflation delivered a devastating blow to middle- and low-income families. Over 40 million Americans lived in poverty, and more than 700,000 people were homeless. Meanwhile, 13.5 percent of US households faced food insecurity, and 13.8 million children lived in families that did not have enough food on the table. Drug overdose claimed over 100,000 lives, while the exorbitant and inefficient health care and insurance systems fueled widespread public outrage. The death toll from gun violence remained high. More than 1,400 children died of gunshots and over 1,300 people perished due to police brutality.
\n
Vulnerable groups were trapped in dire straits with their rights being constantly violated. The American Indian boarding schools, which operated for over a century and a half, turned out to be hell with the discovery of the deaths of more than 3,100 native American children in them. Systemic racism was deeply entrenched in law enforcement and all aspects of social life. African Americans were three times more likely to be shot dead by police than whites and 61 percent of all children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole were of African descent. Nearly 40 percent of women experienced sexual harassment at some point in their careers, while domestic violence rates exceeded 40 percent in 11 states. Some 5 million women lived in areas with no obstetric services. The number of illegally employed children surged to its highest level in decades. Yet the authorities loosened regulation to allow the exploitation of child laborers. Deaths among migrants on the southern border continued to climb, with fatalities in the El Paso region of Texas skyrocketing from 72 in 2022 to 168 in 2024. Many immigration detention centers became secret sites of torture.
\n
As for the numerous human rights issues in the United States, politicians from both parties equivocated during election campaigns and dodged the question of how to earnestly fix the problems. On social and livelihood issues, politicians beat around the bush, putting the interests of a privileged few above the well-being of the many. By exploiting racial and gender divides, they covered up structural problems in society by instigating antagonism between rival groups. They attacked each other over immigration and tried every way to capture attention and garner votes, with many of them demonizing immigrants. With dazzling political maneuvering, the rights of American people were reduced to mere tools for politicians to seize power.
\n
US domestic political strife had spillover effects, intensifying regional conflicts and leading to humanitarian disasters. The escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict resulted in over 100,000 casualties and displaced approximately 90 percent of Gaza's population. The unilateral sanctions imposed randomly by the United States adversely affected billions of people globally, with more than 60 percent of low-income countries bearing the brunt of these economic penalties. Despite 32 consecutive resolutions passed overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly, the United States persisted in maintaining its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. The torture apparatus at the Guantanamo Bay prison continued to operate, employing methods that were nothing short of appalling.
\n
I. American Democracy: Carnival of Money Power Games
\n
The year 2024 was meant to be a defining moment for American citizens to exercise their political rights. Yet in reality the year was fraught with political violence as politics was controlled by money, justice was hijacked by politics, and voters were disenfranchised by electoral rules. As a result, the majority of Americans were profoundly disillusioned with American-style democracy.
\n
Money controls US politics. Money is the lifeblood of US politics. And the electoral process is precisely where money comes in to exercise control. According to data of Open-Secrets, a research group tracking money in US politics, over 15.9 billion US dollars was spent during the 2024 federal election cycle, another record high. Of the total campaign funds, more than 7.7 billion dollars came from super political action committees (PACs), while nearly 1.4 billion dollars came from more uncontrollable hybrid PACs. These committees are in a "gray area" that cannot be effectively regulated by current campaign laws in the United States, directly paving the way for money controlling politics.
\n
The manipulators behind big money politics are in fact financiers who seek to maximize their own interests. Those people willfully control the basic principles and actual operation of American politics through money. During the 2024 elections, at least 135 billionaires publicly endorsed presidential candidates from both major parties. Public data has revealed that the maximum amount of donations from a single donor received by presidential candidates of both parties during the campaign exceeded 100 million dollars, dwarfing previous "big numbers" of tens of millions of dollars.
\n
An opinion piece by columnist Belen Fernandez published on Al-Jazeera website on July 10, 2024, said, "In short, it is just another reminder of the inordinate power and influence wielded by America's donor class in a shameless plutocracy euphemized as 'democracy.'" "Plutocratic operations have become so normalized a part of the political landscape," she wrote. "At the end of the day, the United States is nothing but a government of the donors, by the donors, for the donors."
\n
Gerrymandering manipulates public will. The two major political parties in the United States blatantly put partisan interests above voter rights by meticulously crafting voter structures in their favor through extreme gerrymandering. Following the 2020 census, both parties pushed for radical redistricting for political gains, significantly impacting the outcomes of congressional elections.
\n
Gerrymandering driven by partisan interests has also led to judicial disputes. As of Sept 30, 2024, a total of 84 lawsuits were filed around the country over gerrymandering. The majority of complaints demanded the revision of district maps initially drawn under the control of a single political party. Of the cases, 48 were related to accusations of racial discrimination. In May 2024, the US Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision to nullify a lower court ruling that found South Carolina's re-drawing of congressional maps discriminated against Black voters. The Supreme Court decision in fact backed political action that suppressed voters. The three dissenting Supreme Court justices warned the ruling had devastating implications. Justice Elena Kagan wrote: "In the electoral sphere especially, where 'ugly patterns of pervasive racial discrimination' have so long governed, we should demand better — of ourselves, of our political representatives, and most of all, of this Court."
\n
Election rules suppress voter rights. According to a report published on Dec 1, 2024, by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 24 states have passed voter suppression laws, while 17 states have passed new or stricter voter ID laws since 2020.
\n
These laws imposed overly burdensome restrictions on voter identification and voting by mail, disproportionately affecting seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students.
\n
According to Vote Riders' research, people of color in the United States were nearly four times more likely than white citizens to lack the required identification for voting. Many eligible voters, regardless of political affiliation, were unable to vote due to a lack of understanding of their state's voter identification laws. A Brennan Center for Justice report published on Nov 19, 2024 revealed that historically, Native Americans had the lowest voter turnout among all groups. Yet the US government had consistently failed to improve their voting conditions, leading to widespread disenfranchisement.
\n
Extreme incidents of political violence occurred frequently. The prolonged partisan gridlock fueled a culture of political obstruction, often leading to political violence against individuals. Politicians from both parties continued to incite hatred and animosity, triggering radical behaviors. Threats of violence become the new normal for politicians.
\n
As reported by Reuters on Oct 21, 2024, since the Capitol riot on Jan 6, 2021, over 300 incidents of political violence had occurred in the United States. During the 2024 election, both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their teams faced varying degrees of political violence. On July 13 and Sept 15, 2024, Trump survived two assassination attempts. On Sept 23, 2024, a shooting occurred at a Democratic campaign office in the state of Arizona. Around Thanksgiving (Nov 28, 2024), multiple Democratic members of Congress and Trump-nominated Cabinet and federal officials received bomb threats.
\n
The public was deeply disillusioned with American-style democracy. According to a New York Times & Siena College poll published on Oct 28, 2024, nearly half of voters expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the US political system, with 62 percent believing the government primarily served the elite rather than ordinary citizens.
\n
Pew Research Center data showed that 41 percent of Americans believed the "American Dream" was no longer attainable, and 60 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 thought it was either unachievable or never existed. In an article published on Nov 6, 2024, Tyler Austin Harper, a scholar at Bates College, stated, "A political system like that is fundamentally broken," with both parties representing special interest groups and "often without even pretending to heed the needs of voters." A vast majority of voters believed the United States was on the wrong track, and nearly 80 percent said the election had not made them proud of their country.
\n
II. Social Welfare: Struggling Low-Incomers
\n
Skyrocketing inflation exacerbated the wealth gap, delivering catastrophic blows to low- and middle-income families, while homelessness reached unprecedented levels. The costly and inefficient health care and insurance systems sparked widespread outrage. Substance abuse continued to harm public health. Gun violence threatened lives. Police brutality persisted in total disregard for human lives. Prisoners continued to be abused in detention facilities.
\n
The wealth gap revealed "Two Americas." Income and wealth inequality in the United States far exceeded those of other developed nations and continued to worsen. Data released by Statista on Sept 16, 2024 showed that the US poverty rate rose again in 2023, with 12.9 percent of the population living in poverty. According to Federal Reserve data, as of June 30, 2024, the top 10 percent of US households held 67 percent of the nation's total wealth, while the bottom 50 percent owned just 2.5 percent. The average wealth of the top 10 percent was 1,353 times higher than that of the bottom 50 percent. Educational inequality perpetuated intergenerational poverty, creating a vicious cycle. For example, the wealth of families where parents lacked a high school diploma was only 9 percent of that of families where parents had a four-year college degree. The wealthiest 10 percent of households owned approximately 80 percent of the stock market value. The United States had effectively split into "Two Americas" — a small wealthy elite and a vast low- and middle-class majority.
\n
Low-income families faced catastrophic impacts. In 2024, inflation remained high, so were consumer prices and interest rates, severely impacting ordinary Americans, many of whom saw higher debts than ever. US credit card debt totaled a record high of 1.14 trillion dollars in the second quarter of 2024. Low-income families were forced to cut discretionary spending, and loan delinquency rates rose to the highest levels in nearly a decade. In 2023, 13.5 percent of US households faced food insecurity, up from 12.8 percent in 2022. Some 13.8 million children lived in households that did not have enough food on the table.
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Homelessness pushed people to the brink. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2024 annual report revealed that the number of homeless people in the United States reached 771,800, or approximately 23 per 10,000 people, marking an 18.1 percent increase from 2023 — the largest rise since records began in 2007. An increasing number of working Americans with decent jobs became homeless due to various factors. Compounding the crisis, the Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 to allow fines, arrests, or imprisonment against homeless individuals sleeping outdoors. California, home to nearly half of the nation's homeless population, ordered the dismantling of homeless encampments statewide. In Los Angeles, a homeless individual was 79 times more likely than a housed person to be cited or arrested and 27 times more likely to be jailed than those with housing.
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Government-business collusion fueled substance abuse and drug crisis. Anne Milgram, administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the United States was facing "the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis." Overdoses involving synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl) and stimulants (e.g., cocaine and methamphetamine) surged in the past few years. In 2023, there were 105,007 drug overdose deaths in the United States, with the highest mortality rate among adults aged 35 to 44. Cannabis became a nationwide business, with retail sales exceeding 32 billion dollars in 2024. According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 61.8 million Americans aged 12 and older used marijuana that year.
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Nearly 9 million Americans misuse opioids, and "opioids have become the narcotic of the American public." US pharmaceutical giants, in pursuit of profit, deceptively promoted opioid use while employing every means to evade liability and compensation claims. The American pharmaceutical lobby has also intensified policy influence, with annual spending exceeding 200 million US dollars since 2007 and reaching a record high of nearly 400 million dollars in 2023. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed in its oversight duties when approving and labeling new painkillers. The root of America's drug abuse and opioid crisis lies in interest hijacking, government-business collusion and regulatory failure.
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Failed healthcare system triggers public anger. Excessive marketization and high monopolization have driven up medical prices, while special interest groups have hijacked policymaking. Bloated administrative costs across multiple systems have jointly led to spiraling healthcare expenditures in the United States. The nation's per capita health spending surged from 7,908 dollars in 2000 to 14,570 dollars in 2023. The Commonwealth Fund's September 2024 report, "Mirror, mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing US Health System," revealed that among 10 high-income nations, the United States spends the most on health care with expenditures continuing to rise, yet performs the worst. It is the only country without universal health coverage, and has the lowest life expectancy.
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Due to exorbitant out-of-pocket costs and lack of primary care, among other things, 35 percent of American adults in 2023 either lacked adequate health coverage or had to forgo treatment due to insufficient insurance benefits, while another 9 percent had no health insurance at all. A significant number of people are unable to access Medicare due to unaffordable basic health care costs, which force them to endure untreated illnesses throughout their lives. US health insurers routinely employ tactics of "delay, deny and depose" against policyholders, driving numerous low- and middle-income patients into medical bankruptcy. On Dec 4, 2024, when United-Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot, ammunition found at the scene bore the words "delay", "deny" and "depose" — terms that epitomize insurers' claim-avoidance strategies. The incident reignited public fury towards US health insurance companies.
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Frequent mass shootings have plagued the nation. The US government has failed to protect its people from the recurring violence caused by rampant gun misuse. The K-12 School Shooting Database website shows that school shootings and related casualties have risen sharply in recent years. Data from the Gun Violence Archive show that in 2024 there were more than 40,000 gunshot deaths in the United States, 503 mass shootings, and 45 school shootings, 32 of which occurred in elementary and secondary schools. According to the US Census Bureau, Milwaukee County in the state of Wisconsin has between 10.8 and 14.6 homicide victims for every 100,000 children, with the vast majority of the victims dying from gunshots. In March 2024, a Pennsylvania survey found that nearly half of the parents were more worried about gun violence at school than about their children "being behind academically."
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Police brutality is rampant in law enforcement. The US website Mapping Police Violence shows that police officers use violence against at least 300,000 individuals annually, with approximately 100,000 sustaining injuries. Fatal police encounters have shown a consistent upward trend since 2013. In 2024 alone, police shootings claimed 1,361 lives. US human rights activist Tamara Hill observed in an article: "Violence has become institutionalized within American law enforcement culture, while systemic impunity exacerbates police brutality. Under excessively lenient accountability standards, US police departments and criminal justice systems routinely harm civilians without consequence."
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Inmates face abuse in US prison facilities. Accounting for less than 5 percent of the global population, the United States incarcerates nearly 40 percent of the world's prisoners. As of 2024, approximately 1.9 million individuals had been detained across American correctional facilities, which means 1 in every 176 US residents is currently imprisoned. More alarmingly, at least one-quarter of released prisoners are rearrested within their first year of freedom. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sept 4, 2024 that dozens of women incarcerated in two prisons have filed multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging that prison staff sexually harassed, molested, and raped them by exploiting their positions of authority. However, prison sexual abuse data showed that despite hundreds of complaints, virtually no disciplinary actions were taken against implicated staff. The US Department of Justice said Georgia prisons violated the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution by placing inmates in "horrific, inhumane" conditions, the United Press International reported on Oct 1, 2024, on its website.
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III. Racism: Shackles of Minorities
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The United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism noted that racism in the United States has been described as "being in the air we breathe" and persists "from cradle to grave." Racist rhetoric runs rampant while the judicial system exhibits systemic racial discrimination at every level. Ethnic minorities are subjected to persistent and widespread discrimination and exclusion in their daily life and workplaces, with environmental racism emerging as a new concern. Furthermore, racial discrimination is being entrenched and disseminated in more covert forms through artificial intelligence.
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Racist rhetoric has become pervasive. Inciting racial discrimination has become a key tactic in US political campaigns. The National Broadcasting Company reported on Oct 28, 2024 that speakers at a US presidential campaign rally made a series of vulgar, racially charged remarks disparaging African Americans and Latinos. As the 2024 presidential election concluded, many African Americans across the country received racist text messages instructing them to report to the nearest plantation to pick cotton. One disclosed message read, "Our Executive Slaves will send a brown van to pick you up. Be prepared to be searched upon entering the plantation."
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Systemic racial discrimination pervades law enforcement and judicial systems. A June 2024 report titled "Bias in the Criminal Legal System" jointly released by the American Bar Association and Stanford University, found that racial bias exists at every stage of criminal proceedings — from arrest and bail to charging and sentencing. Compared with white individuals who committed similar offenses, African Americans and Latinos are more likely to be arrested by police, face longer pretrial detention, and receive harsher sentences.
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Racial disparities are particularly stark in cases involving minor traffic, drug, and property offenses. Racial discrimination is even more evident in instances of police use of force. Among documented cases of police force-related fatalities in the United States, African Americans are killed at three times the rate of white Americans, Native Americans at 2.2 times the rate, and Hispanic Americans 1.3 times.
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A report by the US Department of Justice found that the Lexington Police Department in Mississippi "has created a system where officers can relentlessly violate the law." In this rural town, where approximately 76 percent of residents are African Americans, alarming patterns of racially discriminatory law enforcement and harassment were identified. Another Justice Department investigation revealed that the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee engaged in excessive use of force and discriminatory treatment of African Americans, particularly affecting children. Between January 2018 and August 2023, 180 African American children were arrested for curfew violations or loitering, compared to just four White children. Similarly, 120 African American children were arrested for disorderly conduct, while only one White child faced the same charge.
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A report from the Brennan Center for Justice on Dec 10, 2024, highlighted racial disparities in federal sentencing, particularly in the application of the death penalty. In Texas, African Americans were found to be 16 times more likely than individuals of other racial groups to receive a death sentence in federal trials. Additionally, a report by Detroit News on Feb 4, 2024, revealed that while African Americans constitute approximately 13 percent of the US population, they account for 61 percent of all juveniles sentenced to life without parole.
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Environmental racism has far-reaching consequences. A report released by United Nations human rights experts on May 16, 2024, highlighted that in the United States, "the devastating effects of the climate and ecological crises are disproportionately borne by those who face conditions of systemic inequality and racism." Organizations such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Lung Association have identified significant disparities in environmental pollution exposure across racial groups, which serve as a fundamental driver of health inequities.
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Due to historical factors such as racial segregation and redlining, African Americans are more likely to be exposed to hazardous or polluted environment. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Oct 24, 2024, noted that nearly 80 percent of urban solid waste incinerators in the US are located in African American, Hispanic, and low-income communities, contributing to elevated risks of cancer and other severe illnesses.
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A study published in the Environmental Research journal in March 2024, co-authored by scholars from Tulane University, the University of Memphis, and Louisiana State University, examined Louisiana's Cancer Alley, a region densely populated with chemical plants and predominantly home to African American residents. The study found that local cancer risk from industrial air pollution is the highest in the nation — more than seven times the national average. Additionally, the health risks posed by air pollution to pregnant women and newborns in the area are three times higher than the national average.
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A survey by Gallup further revealed that environmental pollution has displaced a significant number of African Americans. Between May 2023 and April 2024 alone, approximately four million African Americans were forced to relocate temporarily due to pollution, while another two million had to move permanently.
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African Americans face a severe health deficit. A report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Feb 22, 2024, underscores that the persistent health and medical disparities affecting African American communities are deeply rooted in historical racial discrimination. African Americans have a life expectancy nearly five years shorter than that of white Americans, an infant mortality rate more than twice as high, and a maternal mortality rate nearly three times greater. Over the past two decades, the United States has made little progress in closing racial gaps in key health indicators. Federal, state and local governments have established systems that maintain the status quo, while powerful commercial and political interests continue to obstruct efforts to improve the well-being of African Americans.
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A report published by the American Association for Cancer Research in June 2024 highlights stark racial disparities in cancer outcomes. Although African American women have a 6 percent lower incidence rate of breast cancer compared to White women, they are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation further reported on Oct 24, 2024, that South Carolina ranks among the states with the poorest health outcomes, with severe shortages of healthcare facilities and medical personnel and a high prevalence of chronic illnesses. African Americans in particular face significant barriers to healthcare access, with many lacking health insurance and struggling to obtain quality medical services.
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Jameta Nicole Barlow, a community health psychologist and professor at George Washington University, said that government actions essentially send a clear message to African Americans: "Who are you to ask for health care?"
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Boarding schools became a living hell for indigenous children. Since the passage of the Civilization Fund Act in 1819, the US government has enacted a series of laws and policies to establish Native American boarding schools nationwide. These institutions forcibly enrolled indigenous children with the explicit aim of erasing their cultural identity and severing their ties to their heritage. The boarding school system led to widespread suffering and tragedy.
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A report released by the US government in July 2024 acknowledges that from the early 19th century to the 1970s, many Native American students in these schools endured physical and sexual abuse, with at least 973 documented student deaths. However, an independent year-long investigation by The Washington Post uncovered a much higher toll, revealing that between 1828 and 1970, a total of 3,104 students died in these institutions — three times the number reported by the government.
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Judi Gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, condemned the boarding school system, stating that these were not schools at all, but rather "prison camps" and "work camps."
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Rights of Native Americans have been trampled upon. According to an Associated Press report on April 14, 2024, Native Americans are twice as likely as other racial groups to experience violent crimes, including rape and sexual assault. The University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism reported on Jan 18, 2024, that Indigenous communities face severe barriers to accessing healthcare. In Montana, for example, the average life expectancy for Native Americans is 17 years shorter than that of White residents.
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A Los Angeles Times report from June 17, 2024, highlighted that Native Americans have the highest mortality rates and the lowest life expectancy of any racial group in the United States — disparities that are not attributable to genetic factors. Economic discrimination is also evident. According to an article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on March 8, 2024, Native American borrowers face higher interest rates when purchasing homes, with loan rates on reservations averaging 1.43 percentage points higher than those for White borrowers.
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Native Americans face low voter participation rates. According to a research published by the Native American Rights Fund on Aug 13, 2024, approximately one in four eligible Native Americans is not registered to vote, and their voter turnout is 16 percentage points lower than that of White voters. This disparity is rooted in a long history of systemic exclusion from the US electoral process.
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Asian Americans continue to face systemic discrimination in various aspects. A report released by the Alliance for Justice on May 22, 2024, highlighted that for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Asian Americans were systematically excluded from many areas of public life. Even today, 41 state supreme courts have never had an Asian American judge, despite some of these states having significant Asian American populations.
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The report argues that this glaring absence of representation highlights systemic issues that continue to exclude AAPI from key positions in the judiciary, perpetuating a history of disparity and inequity. According to a report by the Harvard Business Review, although Asians are the most educated segment of the American workforce, they are the least likely among all racial groups to ascend to leadership roles. However, a detailed analysis of top Fortune 500 technology companies shows that Asian professionals are even less likely to progress in their careers today than they were a decade ago. Although Asians make up around 13 percent of the US professional workforce, they hold only 1.5 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officer roles. Additionally, more than half of Fortune 1000 company Boards have no Asian directors.
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The unwarranted exclusion of Chinese Americans leads to tragedy. The China Initiative implemented by the US government from 2018 to 2022 brought serious troubles to Chinese-American scientists, even causing unbearable loss of lives. After a lengthy investigation by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jane Wu, a Chinese-American neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was barred from applying for further research grants. The investigation destroyed her career. On July 10, 2024, she took her own life in her Chicago home. Monica M. Bertagnolli, director of the NIH, issued a statement acknowledging that US government actions "have had the unintended consequence of creating a difficult climate for our valued Asian American, Asian immigrant and Asian research colleagues who may feel targeted and alienated." According to the "2024 State of Chinese Americans" study conducted by the Committee of 100 and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC), about two thirds of Chinese Americans (68 percent) face at least one form of discrimination in an average month, and 50 percent report having felt hopeless in the 30 days before taking the survey.
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Racial discrimination has evolved and intensified. In a report titled "Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," Ashwini K.P., a UN human rights expert, pointed out that a special study of the US law enforcement image database showed that the proportion of people of African descent in the database was disproportionately high, leading to African American individuals being more likely to be mistakenly identified as suspects in facial recognition systems used by US law enforcement. This reflects systemic racial discrimination with deep historical roots.
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IV. Vulnerable Groups: Helplessness of Women and Children
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The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and is the only UN member state that has refused to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A constitutional amendment to "equal rights" for men and women, proposed more than 100 years ago, has yet to be passed. The absence of legal protection has led to widespread infringement of women's and children's rights.
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Gender discrimination in the workplace has expanded significantly. It's hard for women to break through the professional glass ceiling. According to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, in 2023, women held just 11.8 percent of the roughly 15,000 C-suite roles in listed American companies, down from 12.2 percent the year before. In 2023, the gender wage gap between men and women working full-time widened year-over-year, according to an annual report from the US Census Bureau. The Census Bureau calculates the gender wage gap by comparing only men and women who work year-round in full-time jobs. But a grimmer picture for women emerges from data that includes part-time workers. Occupational gender segregation is a major cause of the gender wage gap. In 2023, 12 percent of women in professional and related occupations were employed in the relatively high-paying computer and mathematical and architecture and engineering occupations, compared with 50 percent of men. Even within the same occupations, women earn less on average than men. On average, women with graduate degrees earn less than men with bachelor's degrees.
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The persistent scourge of sexual violence across multiple sectors remains difficult to eradicate. Sexual harassment remains commonplace in American businesses, with about 40 percent of working women experiencing such treatment during their careers. Even when reported, it is rarely handled effectively. The rate of sexual harassment experienced by intern doctors is alarmingly high. More than half of all new doctors are subjected to sexual harassment during their first year on the job, researchers say. The FBI has agreed to pay more than 22 million US dollars to settle a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit by newly hired women. The lawyer for the case David J. Shaffer pointed out that these problems are pervasive within the FBI. According to the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the number of sexual assaults in the US military in 2023 was 73,695, more than double the official figure. On average, nearly one-quarter of active-duty women experienced sexual assault during the years of the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021. Some individuals accused of sexual misconduct have been nominated to positions within the US government. Gender research experts pointed out that this move made most women facing sexual harassment or assault no longer believe that the judicial system would punish sexual offenders.
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Domestic violence is on the rise. An average of 24 people every minute become victims of domestic violence at the hands of an intimate partner in the United States. That figure comes from the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Of the nearly 27,000 domestic batteries, 75 percent involved female victims. Of those women, 65 percent were Black. According to the World Population Review, 11 states in the United States have a domestic violence rate of more than 40 percent in 2024. However, these figures only represent part of the overall scope of domestic violence in the United States. According to the US Department of Justice, victims of 53 percent of intimate partner violence and 52 percent of domestic violence do not report their cases to the police. The department estimates that the actual number of victims of intimate partner violence in 2023 reached about 630,000, while there are more than 1.165 million victims of domestic violence.
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Women's right to health has been neglected amid political battles. In states where abortion is banned, access to overall healthcare is restricted, and many obstetricians are leaving their jobs, resulting in the emergence of new "obstetric care deserts."
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David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Fund's Tracking Health System Performance initiative, estimated that over 5 million women live in a county that's considered a maternity care desert. The political battles over abortion have led to constant policy reversals, leaving the public in a state of panic, unable to anticipate their own rights. The 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation Women's Health Survey reported that 63 percent reproductive age women in the United States are concerned that they or someone close to them would not be able to get an abortion if it was needed to preserve their life or health. There are emerging patterns in multiple states of hospitals delaying or denying standard reproductive care, and of women unwilling to risk going to those hospitals, for fear of legal trouble, including possible criminal charges. According to a report by USA Today in September 2024, a woman in Georgia died after failing to get the care she needed because of abortion bans. Another woman in the state, fearing the potential penalties of the current abortion laws, also died as a result of delayed medical care. "We are in a fearful climate with increased hostility and legal risk for patients, providers and helpers," said Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
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The protection of children's right to life and health is inadequate. Every year, the United States recorded more than 5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, far exceeding the rates in other high-income countries. A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2024 found that nearly 130,000 Chicago children under the age of six are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes. In addition, there are racial disparities in both testing rates and exposure levels, with Black and Latino residents more likely to have lead-contaminated water due to lead pipes.
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The law enforcement and judicial systems have become complicit in the sexual abuse of children. A Washington Post investigation has found that at least 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022. Law enforcement agencies across the country have done little to root out child sex offenders within their ranks. The entire justice system is an accomplice to perpetrators: ineffective background checks allow those convicted of sexual assault to enter the police system; accused cops have used their knowledge of the legal system to stall cases, get charges lowered or evade convictions; prosecutors have given generous plea deals to officers who admitted to raping and groping minors; judges have allowed many convicted officers to avoid prison time. Even Assistant US Attorney General Kristen Clarke admitted that members of law enforcement who have exploited their positions of power have left child victims with "no recourse and no one else to protect them."
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The persecution of young girls is shocking. In the United States, no federal legislation has been passed against flagrant violation of international standards banning child marriage, and child marriage remains "legal" in the vast majority of states. Eighty-six percent of child marriages reported in the United States were between adults and minors, most commonly girls aged 16 to 17, but sometimes as young as 12. In addition to physical and emotional abuse, it puts minors at higher risk of poverty and exploitation and denies them educational and economic opportunities. The harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) remains widespread in the United States. At least 513,000 women and girls are living with or at risk of FGM, and nine US states and the District of Columbia have no law banning FGM. Of those that do have laws banning it, many do not prohibit girls from being taken out of state to be cut.
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V. Fatal Journey: Elegy of Undocumented Immigrants
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The humanitarian crisis at the border continues to worsen, with migrants suffering torture and inhumane treatment, and large numbers of migrant children falling victim to exploitation and enslavement. Immigration policies are deeply intertwined with political elections, with politicians openly inciting hatred against immigrants, who have become scapegoats for political parties to shift social tensions. In the process, various human rights are ruthlessly trampled.
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Politicians openly incite hatred against immigrants. False and misleading information about immigrants is widely disseminated. A report by the Guardian on Sept 18, 2024 said that racist conspiracy theories about immigrants have dominated the 2024 US election cycle. High-ranking Republicans have doubled down on unsubstantiated rumors about Black and brown migrants. Experts argued that the spread of such disinformation amplifies existing xenophobic beliefs within the American psyche as a means of political gain. A report from CNN on Oct 7, 2024 said that during election campaigns, politicians used disparaging rhetoric against undocumented immigrants, accusing those who commit murder of having "bad genes."
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One-fifth of the residents in Aurora, Colorado, were foreign-born. During election campaigns, politicians unleashed a world of panic and pain through their threats of mass deportations and family separations against any immigrant — legal or undocumented — who they decide doesn't belong in their America.
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Politicians have stoked and inflamed anti-immigrant sentiment in the American society. ABC News reported on Dec 7, 2024 that in New York City, three adults asked two immigrant teenagers if they spoke English; when the teens said they did not, they were attacked, with one dead and one injured.
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The humanitarian crisis on the southern border continues. A report in Newsweek on Nov 25, 2024 stated that, according to US Customs and Border Protection data, the rate at which immigrants die on the border has surged. In the El Paso area of Texas alone, the number of deaths rose from 72 in 2022 to 168 in 2024. The proportion of women and children among the migrant deaths is staggering, with more than 500 women having died there since 2021. Among the migrant children who died, the youngest was only 1 year old. As most deaths occur in remote areas, many remain under-reported.
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Immigrants face torture and inhumane treatment. The United States operates the world's largest immigration detention regime. These facilities not only profit massively, but also shield and tolerate staff members who torture and abuse immigrants. A report released on Feb 6, 2024 by the Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program at Harvard Law School, revealed that solitary confinement is widely used. There were more than 14,000 placements in solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023, and these placements lasted 27 days on average. Almost 30 percent of solitary confinement placements lasted over 90 days and 25 percent of placements lasted over 365 days, causing mental health conditions for those placed in solitary confinement. A report released by a coalition of legal and human rights organizations has revealed that the Louisiana Federal Immigration Detention Center, where thousands of immigrants are being held, distributes filthy drinking water and food contaminated with rat droppings. Some of the detainees were transported to the detention centers from the border shackled in five-point restraints for hours, unable to use the restroom or eat and drink, and were left with deep cuts on their wrists and legs. Numerous detainees told of being denied medical care. "We see these jails almost as 'black sites' in the national immigration system," said Sarah Decker, one of the report's lead authors and an attorney with the advocacy group Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. A report published by the Guardian on Nov 20, 2024 highlighted that a detention center in Baker County, Florida, has been accused of systemic abuse and discrimination. The center, operated by the Baker County sheriff's office under contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, allows its staff to routinely racially and sexually harass detainees, deny medical care and sanitary products to women, and then falsify records to cover their tracks.
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Migrant children are subjected to abuse in shelters. According to a July 18, 2024 report from The Washington Post, incidents of sexual abuse against children in US immigration shelters have been frequent in recent years. The report stated that a supervisor at a shelter in Channelview, Texas, repeatedly raped, abused and threatened a teenage girl. A youth care worker at an El Paso shelter sexually abused three girls aged from five to 11 multiple times and threatened to kill their families to silence them. The actual operators of these shelters received over 100 reports of children being sexually harassed or abused but took no action, failing to investigate or hold anyone accountable, thereby allowing these situations to persist.
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Hundreds of thousands of migrant children are unaccounted for. After arriving in the United States, migrant children are forcibly separated from their families and detained. Many go missing after being set free, facing exploitation, abuse, forced labor and even life-threatening dangers. According to a Nov 27, 2024 report of BBC News, due to the government releasing unaccompanied migrant children to unvetted sponsors in the United States, over 320,000 unaccompanied minors were lost track of from October 2018 to September 2023. Many of them have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking, facing abuse, exploitation and human trafficking.
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The number of illegally employed child migrants has soared. According to a report released in November, 2024 by US Senate, there was a disturbing rise in illegal child labor among migrant children, leading to levels of illegal child labor not seen since the early 20th century. Data from the Department of Labor show that the number of minors involved in documented child labor violations (not including the ones that are never reported) increased 472 percent between 2015 and 2023. A significant number of them are migrant children. In fiscal year 2024, the Labor Department found 4,030 children employed in violation of child labor laws across all industries. Of the 736 cases brought by the department, nearly half involved minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation laws. ABC News reported on Dec 7, 2024 that migrant children in the United States are not only employed in agriculture and food supply jobs, but also in dangerous jobs including construction and roofing. However, in face of the surge in child labor, lawmakers have responded by weakening child labor laws and relaxed restrictions to legalize illegal act, opening the door to child exploitation. According to data from think tank Economic Policy Institute, at least 30 states have introduced or passed bills to weaken child labor protections since 2021, and in nine of those states, legislation has been introduced to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations or workplaces. In 2024, 11 states have introduced or taken new action on bills to roll back child labor protections. The Washington Post reported that Indiana's new law extends legal work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds, repealing all work-hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds. Florida has made law changes to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work seven days in a row and also removed all hour restrictions for teens in online school or home school, effectively permitting them to work overnight shifts. An Iowa law allows minors in that state to work in jobs previously deemed too hazardous. These laws not only fail to protect children's rights but have instead become tools for "child exploitation." "It is immoral and inappropriate and utterly the wrong decision to roll back child labor law," said Terri Gerstein, director of a labor initiative at New York University. "All that weakening and rolling back child labor laws is going to do is create more kids whose fingers and hands, legs are amputated who are killed on the job."
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VI. American Hegemony: Terminator of Other Countries' Human Rights
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The United States has long pursued hegemony and unilateralism, believing that only it alone can always sit at the table to enjoy the feast, while others can only be at the mercy of its decisions; only it can always drink the milk, while others are destined to remain the 'cows' that provide it. With its power politics, Washington has repeatedly trampled on international law and the fundamental norms of global relations, violated human rights in other nations with impunity, and posed a grave threat to global peace, security and development.
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The United States has been serving as an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza. Since the outbreak of the latest round of the Israel-Palestine conflict in October 2023, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened dramatically. According to statistics published on Dec 31, 2024 by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict has resulted in nearly 46,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, over 108,000 injuries and the displacement of 90 percent of the population in Gaza. Since the outbreak of the conflict, the US government has provided unwavering military and diplomatic support to Israel, repeatedly thwarting international efforts to secure a ceasefire. It has exercised its veto power seven times to block United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Washington's stance has sparked widespread controversy and discontent across the country. Student protests have erupted on dozens of college campuses, only to be met with forceful responses from both university administrations and law enforcement. On Feb 25, 2024, a member of the US Air Force set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the US administration's support for Israel. On Feb 23, 2024, a group of United Nations human rights experts issued a joint statement, which emphasizes that the International Court of Justice's ruling on Jan 26, 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, underscoring the imperative of an arm embargo on Israel. The experts urged countries to halt arms transfers and military aid to Israel, while the United States remains the largest arms exporters. A report published on Aug 25, 2024 by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft stated that a significant portion of US-supplied weaponry has been used in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Another joint statement issued by 32 UN human rights experts pointed out, "The transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk State complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide."
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The excessive use of unilateral sanctions is fueling humanitarian crises. The United States is overwhelmingly the world's biggest user of unilateral sanctions. It has increasingly imposed them in recent years, negatively affecting the lives of billions across the globe. The Washington Post website reported on July 25, 2024 that the United States had been imposing sanctions at a record-setting pace. As of April 19, 2024, the US government had 15,373 active sanctions in place — far exceeding other countries, with more than 60 percent of all low-income countries now under some form of financial penalty. The US news website Common Dreams reported on Aug 12, 2024 that hundreds of legal experts and groups worldwide have jointly stated that the broad use of unilateral sanctions constitutes collective punishment that harms civilian population and violates international law. Overwhelming evidence shows that broad economic sanctions can spark and prolong economic crises, hinder access to essential goods like food, fuel and medicine, and increase poverty, hunger, disease and even death rates, especially among children. The sanctions and inhumane blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than six decades serve as a stark example of its system of unilateral coercive measures. The website of the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique published an article on Oct 7, 2024, stating that US sanctions have left Cuba trapped in days and nights marked by poverty, indignity, darkness and exhaustion. On Oct 30, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution reiterating its call on the United States to end economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba with an overwhelming favor.
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On Feb 8, 2024, several UN human rights experts issued a joint statement criticizing the US unilateral designation of certain states as Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). They argued that such measures negatively affect the "fundamental human rights, including the right to food, right to health, right to education, economic and social rights, right to life and right to development."
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Overseas US military presence harms local communities. According to a report by Okinawa Times on Dec 24, 2024, since the US military's arrival on the islands in 1945, at least 371 cases of sexual violence have been committed by American military personnel, resulting in persistent violations of local residents' dignity and lives.
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On July 11, 2024, The Asahi Shimbun reported that the Okinawa prefectural assembly "unanimously adopted a resolution and a statement of protest against the US military and the central government over a series of sex crime cases involving US servicemen stationed here." The assembly also demanded measures to prevent recurrence and called for revisions to the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.
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Similarly, The Korea Times reported on Oct 8, 2024 that "the number of crimes committed by US Forces Korea (USFK) personnel has increased steadily over the past five years," sparking widespread public protests.
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Additionally, The Asahi Shimbun reported on Feb 7, 2024 that the Okinawa prefectural government has repeatedly urged US military bases to investigate water pollution linked to carcinogenic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances detected near military installations. However, the US military has consistently ignored these requests.
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The ongoing torture regime at Guantanamo prison. According to a report by The New York Times on Dec 18, 2024, detainees at Guantanamo have been imprisoned for approximately 20 years. The prison's torture system persists to this day, with inmates routinely subjected to inhumane abuse.
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One detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, endured various forms of torture, including waterboarding, mock executions, rectal force-feeding and sleep deprivation. He was suspended naked in a basement, confined to a cramped and sealed space where he could only touch the ground on tiptoes, forced into contorted positions until his limbs dislocated, and deprived of sleep for over 10 consecutive days.
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The Center for Victims of Torture reported on May 15, 2024 that interrogators at Guantanamo employed brutal methods causing "physical and psychological trauma" from which "survivors will never fully recover".
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On Sept 11, 2024, UN human rights experts issued a statement highlighting unresolved issues stemming from US practices, including illegal renditions, torture, inhumane detention conditions, unfair trials by irregular military commissions, arbitrary detention and other violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. These practices have undermined justice for victims of terrorism, perpetuating impunity and denying redress.
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Conclusion
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The tumultuous political stage of the United States in 2024 acts as a prism, reflecting the structural dilemmas of American-style human rights. Under the collusion of power and capital, human rights have been distorted into mere props in a political "show" and bargaining chips in a power "casino," completely deviating from the core values and fundamental principles of human rights. How to effectively address the genuine needs of the American people and translate respect for and protection of human rights into tangible actions remains an inescapable challenge for the US government.
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Contents
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Foreword
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I. American Democracy: Carnival of Money Power Games
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II. Social Welfare: Struggling Low-Incomers
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III. Racism: Shackles of Minorities IV. Vulnerable Groups: Helplessness of Women and Children
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V. Fatal Journey: Elegy of Undocumented Immigrants
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VI. American Hegemony: Terminator of Other Countries' Human Rights
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Conclusion
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Foreword
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2024, as an election year in the United States, was a year of special concern that features aggravating political strife and social divide. Such a landscape offers an opportunity to review the state of human rights in the country in an intensive manner.
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Economic and social inequalities in the United States worsened with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Inflation delivered a devastating blow to middle- and low-income families. Over 40 million Americans lived in poverty, and more than 700,000 people were homeless. Meanwhile, 13.5 percent of US households faced food insecurity, and 13.8 million children lived in families that did not have enough food on the table. Drug overdose claimed over 100,000 lives, while the exorbitant and inefficient health care and insurance systems fueled widespread public outrage. The death toll from gun violence remained high. More than 1,400 children died of gunshots and over 1,300 people perished due to police brutality.
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Vulnerable groups were trapped in dire straits with their rights being constantly violated. The American Indian boarding schools, which operated for over a century and a half, turned out to be hell with the discovery of the deaths of more than 3,100 native American children in them. Systemic racism was deeply entrenched in law enforcement and all aspects of social life. African Americans were three times more likely to be shot dead by police than whites and 61 percent of all children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole were of African descent. Nearly 40 percent of women experienced sexual harassment at some point in their careers, while domestic violence rates exceeded 40 percent in 11 states. Some 5 million women lived in areas with no obstetric services. The number of illegally employed children surged to its highest level in decades. Yet the authorities loosened regulation to allow the exploitation of child laborers. Deaths among migrants on the southern border continued to climb, with fatalities in the El Paso region of Texas skyrocketing from 72 in 2022 to 168 in 2024. Many immigration detention centers became secret sites of torture.
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As for the numerous human rights issues in the United States, politicians from both parties equivocated during election campaigns and dodged the question of how to earnestly fix the problems. On social and livelihood issues, politicians beat around the bush, putting the interests of a privileged few above the well-being of the many. By exploiting racial and gender divides, they covered up structural problems in society by instigating antagonism between rival groups. They attacked each other over immigration and tried every way to capture attention and garner votes, with many of them demonizing immigrants. With dazzling political maneuvering, the rights of American people were reduced to mere tools for politicians to seize power.
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US domestic political strife had spillover effects, intensifying regional conflicts and leading to humanitarian disasters. The escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict resulted in over 100,000 casualties and displaced approximately 90 percent of Gaza's population. The unilateral sanctions imposed randomly by the United States adversely affected billions of people globally, with more than 60 percent of low-income countries bearing the brunt of these economic penalties. Despite 32 consecutive resolutions passed overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly, the United States persisted in maintaining its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. The torture apparatus at the Guantanamo Bay prison continued to operate, employing methods that were nothing short of appalling.
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I. American Democracy: Carnival of Money Power Games
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The year 2024 was meant to be a defining moment for American citizens to exercise their political rights. Yet in reality the year was fraught with political violence as politics was controlled by money, justice was hijacked by politics, and voters were disenfranchised by electoral rules. As a result, the majority of Americans were profoundly disillusioned with American-style democracy.
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Money controls US politics. Money is the lifeblood of US politics. And the electoral process is precisely where money comes in to exercise control. According to data of Open-Secrets, a research group tracking money in US politics, over 15.9 billion US dollars was spent during the 2024 federal election cycle, another record high. Of the total campaign funds, more than 7.7 billion dollars came from super political action committees (PACs), while nearly 1.4 billion dollars came from more uncontrollable hybrid PACs. These committees are in a "gray area" that cannot be effectively regulated by current campaign laws in the United States, directly paving the way for money controlling politics.
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The manipulators behind big money politics are in fact financiers who seek to maximize their own interests. Those people willfully control the basic principles and actual operation of American politics through money. During the 2024 elections, at least 135 billionaires publicly endorsed presidential candidates from both major parties. Public data has revealed that the maximum amount of donations from a single donor received by presidential candidates of both parties during the campaign exceeded 100 million dollars, dwarfing previous "big numbers" of tens of millions of dollars.
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An opinion piece by columnist Belen Fernandez published on Al-Jazeera website on July 10, 2024, said, "In short, it is just another reminder of the inordinate power and influence wielded by America's donor class in a shameless plutocracy euphemized as 'democracy.'" "Plutocratic operations have become so normalized a part of the political landscape," she wrote. "At the end of the day, the United States is nothing but a government of the donors, by the donors, for the donors."
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Gerrymandering manipulates public will. The two major political parties in the United States blatantly put partisan interests above voter rights by meticulously crafting voter structures in their favor through extreme gerrymandering. Following the 2020 census, both parties pushed for radical redistricting for political gains, significantly impacting the outcomes of congressional elections.
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Gerrymandering driven by partisan interests has also led to judicial disputes. As of Sept 30, 2024, a total of 84 lawsuits were filed around the country over gerrymandering. The majority of complaints demanded the revision of district maps initially drawn under the control of a single political party. Of the cases, 48 were related to accusations of racial discrimination. In May 2024, the US Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision to nullify a lower court ruling that found South Carolina's re-drawing of congressional maps discriminated against Black voters. The Supreme Court decision in fact backed political action that suppressed voters. The three dissenting Supreme Court justices warned the ruling had devastating implications. Justice Elena Kagan wrote: "In the electoral sphere especially, where 'ugly patterns of pervasive racial discrimination' have so long governed, we should demand better — of ourselves, of our political representatives, and most of all, of this Court."
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Election rules suppress voter rights. According to a report published on Dec 1, 2024, by the Southern Poverty Law Center, 24 states have passed voter suppression laws, while 17 states have passed new or stricter voter ID laws since 2020.
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These laws imposed overly burdensome restrictions on voter identification and voting by mail, disproportionately affecting seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students.
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According to Vote Riders' research, people of color in the United States were nearly four times more likely than white citizens to lack the required identification for voting. Many eligible voters, regardless of political affiliation, were unable to vote due to a lack of understanding of their state's voter identification laws. A Brennan Center for Justice report published on Nov 19, 2024 revealed that historically, Native Americans had the lowest voter turnout among all groups. Yet the US government had consistently failed to improve their voting conditions, leading to widespread disenfranchisement.
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Extreme incidents of political violence occurred frequently. The prolonged partisan gridlock fueled a culture of political obstruction, often leading to political violence against individuals. Politicians from both parties continued to incite hatred and animosity, triggering radical behaviors. Threats of violence become the new normal for politicians.
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As reported by Reuters on Oct 21, 2024, since the Capitol riot on Jan 6, 2021, over 300 incidents of political violence had occurred in the United States. During the 2024 election, both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their teams faced varying degrees of political violence. On July 13 and Sept 15, 2024, Trump survived two assassination attempts. On Sept 23, 2024, a shooting occurred at a Democratic campaign office in the state of Arizona. Around Thanksgiving (Nov 28, 2024), multiple Democratic members of Congress and Trump-nominated Cabinet and federal officials received bomb threats.
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The public was deeply disillusioned with American-style democracy. According to a New York Times & Siena College poll published on Oct 28, 2024, nearly half of voters expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the US political system, with 62 percent believing the government primarily served the elite rather than ordinary citizens.
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Pew Research Center data showed that 41 percent of Americans believed the "American Dream" was no longer attainable, and 60 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 thought it was either unachievable or never existed. In an article published on Nov 6, 2024, Tyler Austin Harper, a scholar at Bates College, stated, "A political system like that is fundamentally broken," with both parties representing special interest groups and "often without even pretending to heed the needs of voters." A vast majority of voters believed the United States was on the wrong track, and nearly 80 percent said the election had not made them proud of their country.
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II. Social Welfare: Struggling Low-Incomers
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Skyrocketing inflation exacerbated the wealth gap, delivering catastrophic blows to low- and middle-income families, while homelessness reached unprecedented levels. The costly and inefficient health care and insurance systems sparked widespread outrage. Substance abuse continued to harm public health. Gun violence threatened lives. Police brutality persisted in total disregard for human lives. Prisoners continued to be abused in detention facilities.
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The wealth gap revealed "Two Americas." Income and wealth inequality in the United States far exceeded those of other developed nations and continued to worsen. Data released by Statista on Sept 16, 2024 showed that the US poverty rate rose again in 2023, with 12.9 percent of the population living in poverty. According to Federal Reserve data, as of June 30, 2024, the top 10 percent of US households held 67 percent of the nation's total wealth, while the bottom 50 percent owned just 2.5 percent. The average wealth of the top 10 percent was 1,353 times higher than that of the bottom 50 percent. Educational inequality perpetuated intergenerational poverty, creating a vicious cycle. For example, the wealth of families where parents lacked a high school diploma was only 9 percent of that of families where parents had a four-year college degree. The wealthiest 10 percent of households owned approximately 80 percent of the stock market value. The United States had effectively split into "Two Americas" — a small wealthy elite and a vast low- and middle-class majority.
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Low-income families faced catastrophic impacts. In 2024, inflation remained high, so were consumer prices and interest rates, severely impacting ordinary Americans, many of whom saw higher debts than ever. US credit card debt totaled a record high of 1.14 trillion dollars in the second quarter of 2024. Low-income families were forced to cut discretionary spending, and loan delinquency rates rose to the highest levels in nearly a decade. In 2023, 13.5 percent of US households faced food insecurity, up from 12.8 percent in 2022. Some 13.8 million children lived in households that did not have enough food on the table.
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Homelessness pushed people to the brink. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2024 annual report revealed that the number of homeless people in the United States reached 771,800, or approximately 23 per 10,000 people, marking an 18.1 percent increase from 2023 — the largest rise since records began in 2007. An increasing number of working Americans with decent jobs became homeless due to various factors. Compounding the crisis, the Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 to allow fines, arrests, or imprisonment against homeless individuals sleeping outdoors. California, home to nearly half of the nation's homeless population, ordered the dismantling of homeless encampments statewide. In Los Angeles, a homeless individual was 79 times more likely than a housed person to be cited or arrested and 27 times more likely to be jailed than those with housing.
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Government-business collusion fueled substance abuse and drug crisis. Anne Milgram, administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the United States was facing "the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis." Overdoses involving synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl) and stimulants (e.g., cocaine and methamphetamine) surged in the past few years. In 2023, there were 105,007 drug overdose deaths in the United States, with the highest mortality rate among adults aged 35 to 44. Cannabis became a nationwide business, with retail sales exceeding 32 billion dollars in 2024. According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 61.8 million Americans aged 12 and older used marijuana that year.
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Nearly 9 million Americans misuse opioids, and "opioids have become the narcotic of the American public." US pharmaceutical giants, in pursuit of profit, deceptively promoted opioid use while employing every means to evade liability and compensation claims. The American pharmaceutical lobby has also intensified policy influence, with annual spending exceeding 200 million US dollars since 2007 and reaching a record high of nearly 400 million dollars in 2023. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed in its oversight duties when approving and labeling new painkillers. The root of America's drug abuse and opioid crisis lies in interest hijacking, government-business collusion and regulatory failure.
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Failed healthcare system triggers public anger. Excessive marketization and high monopolization have driven up medical prices, while special interest groups have hijacked policymaking. Bloated administrative costs across multiple systems have jointly led to spiraling healthcare expenditures in the United States. The nation's per capita health spending surged from 7,908 dollars in 2000 to 14,570 dollars in 2023. The Commonwealth Fund's September 2024 report, "Mirror, mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing US Health System," revealed that among 10 high-income nations, the United States spends the most on health care with expenditures continuing to rise, yet performs the worst. It is the only country without universal health coverage, and has the lowest life expectancy.
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Due to exorbitant out-of-pocket costs and lack of primary care, among other things, 35 percent of American adults in 2023 either lacked adequate health coverage or had to forgo treatment due to insufficient insurance benefits, while another 9 percent had no health insurance at all. A significant number of people are unable to access Medicare due to unaffordable basic health care costs, which force them to endure untreated illnesses throughout their lives. US health insurers routinely employ tactics of "delay, deny and depose" against policyholders, driving numerous low- and middle-income patients into medical bankruptcy. On Dec 4, 2024, when United-Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot, ammunition found at the scene bore the words "delay", "deny" and "depose" — terms that epitomize insurers' claim-avoidance strategies. The incident reignited public fury towards US health insurance companies.
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Frequent mass shootings have plagued the nation. The US government has failed to protect its people from the recurring violence caused by rampant gun misuse. The K-12 School Shooting Database website shows that school shootings and related casualties have risen sharply in recent years. Data from the Gun Violence Archive show that in 2024 there were more than 40,000 gunshot deaths in the United States, 503 mass shootings, and 45 school shootings, 32 of which occurred in elementary and secondary schools. According to the US Census Bureau, Milwaukee County in the state of Wisconsin has between 10.8 and 14.6 homicide victims for every 100,000 children, with the vast majority of the victims dying from gunshots. In March 2024, a Pennsylvania survey found that nearly half of the parents were more worried about gun violence at school than about their children "being behind academically."
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Police brutality is rampant in law enforcement. The US website Mapping Police Violence shows that police officers use violence against at least 300,000 individuals annually, with approximately 100,000 sustaining injuries. Fatal police encounters have shown a consistent upward trend since 2013. In 2024 alone, police shootings claimed 1,361 lives. US human rights activist Tamara Hill observed in an article: "Violence has become institutionalized within American law enforcement culture, while systemic impunity exacerbates police brutality. Under excessively lenient accountability standards, US police departments and criminal justice systems routinely harm civilians without consequence."
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Inmates face abuse in US prison facilities. Accounting for less than 5 percent of the global population, the United States incarcerates nearly 40 percent of the world's prisoners. As of 2024, approximately 1.9 million individuals had been detained across American correctional facilities, which means 1 in every 176 US residents is currently imprisoned. More alarmingly, at least one-quarter of released prisoners are rearrested within their first year of freedom. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sept 4, 2024 that dozens of women incarcerated in two prisons have filed multiple lawsuits against the corrections department, alleging that prison staff sexually harassed, molested, and raped them by exploiting their positions of authority. However, prison sexual abuse data showed that despite hundreds of complaints, virtually no disciplinary actions were taken against implicated staff. The US Department of Justice said Georgia prisons violated the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution by placing inmates in "horrific, inhumane" conditions, the United Press International reported on Oct 1, 2024, on its website.
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III. Racism: Shackles of Minorities
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The United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism noted that racism in the United States has been described as "being in the air we breathe" and persists "from cradle to grave." Racist rhetoric runs rampant while the judicial system exhibits systemic racial discrimination at every level. Ethnic minorities are subjected to persistent and widespread discrimination and exclusion in their daily life and workplaces, with environmental racism emerging as a new concern. Furthermore, racial discrimination is being entrenched and disseminated in more covert forms through artificial intelligence.
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Racist rhetoric has become pervasive. Inciting racial discrimination has become a key tactic in US political campaigns. The National Broadcasting Company reported on Oct 28, 2024 that speakers at a US presidential campaign rally made a series of vulgar, racially charged remarks disparaging African Americans and Latinos. As the 2024 presidential election concluded, many African Americans across the country received racist text messages instructing them to report to the nearest plantation to pick cotton. One disclosed message read, "Our Executive Slaves will send a brown van to pick you up. Be prepared to be searched upon entering the plantation."
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Systemic racial discrimination pervades law enforcement and judicial systems. A June 2024 report titled "Bias in the Criminal Legal System" jointly released by the American Bar Association and Stanford University, found that racial bias exists at every stage of criminal proceedings — from arrest and bail to charging and sentencing. Compared with white individuals who committed similar offenses, African Americans and Latinos are more likely to be arrested by police, face longer pretrial detention, and receive harsher sentences.
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Racial disparities are particularly stark in cases involving minor traffic, drug, and property offenses. Racial discrimination is even more evident in instances of police use of force. Among documented cases of police force-related fatalities in the United States, African Americans are killed at three times the rate of white Americans, Native Americans at 2.2 times the rate, and Hispanic Americans 1.3 times.
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A report by the US Department of Justice found that the Lexington Police Department in Mississippi "has created a system where officers can relentlessly violate the law." In this rural town, where approximately 76 percent of residents are African Americans, alarming patterns of racially discriminatory law enforcement and harassment were identified. Another Justice Department investigation revealed that the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee engaged in excessive use of force and discriminatory treatment of African Americans, particularly affecting children. Between January 2018 and August 2023, 180 African American children were arrested for curfew violations or loitering, compared to just four White children. Similarly, 120 African American children were arrested for disorderly conduct, while only one White child faced the same charge.
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A report from the Brennan Center for Justice on Dec 10, 2024, highlighted racial disparities in federal sentencing, particularly in the application of the death penalty. In Texas, African Americans were found to be 16 times more likely than individuals of other racial groups to receive a death sentence in federal trials. Additionally, a report by Detroit News on Feb 4, 2024, revealed that while African Americans constitute approximately 13 percent of the US population, they account for 61 percent of all juveniles sentenced to life without parole.
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Environmental racism has far-reaching consequences. A report released by United Nations human rights experts on May 16, 2024, highlighted that in the United States, "the devastating effects of the climate and ecological crises are disproportionately borne by those who face conditions of systemic inequality and racism." Organizations such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Lung Association have identified significant disparities in environmental pollution exposure across racial groups, which serve as a fundamental driver of health inequities.
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Due to historical factors such as racial segregation and redlining, African Americans are more likely to be exposed to hazardous or polluted environment. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Oct 24, 2024, noted that nearly 80 percent of urban solid waste incinerators in the US are located in African American, Hispanic, and low-income communities, contributing to elevated risks of cancer and other severe illnesses.
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A study published in the Environmental Research journal in March 2024, co-authored by scholars from Tulane University, the University of Memphis, and Louisiana State University, examined Louisiana's Cancer Alley, a region densely populated with chemical plants and predominantly home to African American residents. The study found that local cancer risk from industrial air pollution is the highest in the nation — more than seven times the national average. Additionally, the health risks posed by air pollution to pregnant women and newborns in the area are three times higher than the national average.
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A survey by Gallup further revealed that environmental pollution has displaced a significant number of African Americans. Between May 2023 and April 2024 alone, approximately four million African Americans were forced to relocate temporarily due to pollution, while another two million had to move permanently.
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African Americans face a severe health deficit. A report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Feb 22, 2024, underscores that the persistent health and medical disparities affecting African American communities are deeply rooted in historical racial discrimination. African Americans have a life expectancy nearly five years shorter than that of white Americans, an infant mortality rate more than twice as high, and a maternal mortality rate nearly three times greater. Over the past two decades, the United States has made little progress in closing racial gaps in key health indicators. Federal, state and local governments have established systems that maintain the status quo, while powerful commercial and political interests continue to obstruct efforts to improve the well-being of African Americans.
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A report published by the American Association for Cancer Research in June 2024 highlights stark racial disparities in cancer outcomes. Although African American women have a 6 percent lower incidence rate of breast cancer compared to White women, they are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation further reported on Oct 24, 2024, that South Carolina ranks among the states with the poorest health outcomes, with severe shortages of healthcare facilities and medical personnel and a high prevalence of chronic illnesses. African Americans in particular face significant barriers to healthcare access, with many lacking health insurance and struggling to obtain quality medical services.
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Jameta Nicole Barlow, a community health psychologist and professor at George Washington University, said that government actions essentially send a clear message to African Americans: "Who are you to ask for health care?"
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Boarding schools became a living hell for indigenous children. Since the passage of the Civilization Fund Act in 1819, the US government has enacted a series of laws and policies to establish Native American boarding schools nationwide. These institutions forcibly enrolled indigenous children with the explicit aim of erasing their cultural identity and severing their ties to their heritage. The boarding school system led to widespread suffering and tragedy.
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A report released by the US government in July 2024 acknowledges that from the early 19th century to the 1970s, many Native American students in these schools endured physical and sexual abuse, with at least 973 documented student deaths. However, an independent year-long investigation by The Washington Post uncovered a much higher toll, revealing that between 1828 and 1970, a total of 3,104 students died in these institutions — three times the number reported by the government.
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Judi Gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, condemned the boarding school system, stating that these were not schools at all, but rather "prison camps" and "work camps."
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Rights of Native Americans have been trampled upon. According to an Associated Press report on April 14, 2024, Native Americans are twice as likely as other racial groups to experience violent crimes, including rape and sexual assault. The University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism reported on Jan 18, 2024, that Indigenous communities face severe barriers to accessing healthcare. In Montana, for example, the average life expectancy for Native Americans is 17 years shorter than that of White residents.
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A Los Angeles Times report from June 17, 2024, highlighted that Native Americans have the highest mortality rates and the lowest life expectancy of any racial group in the United States — disparities that are not attributable to genetic factors. Economic discrimination is also evident. According to an article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on March 8, 2024, Native American borrowers face higher interest rates when purchasing homes, with loan rates on reservations averaging 1.43 percentage points higher than those for White borrowers.
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Native Americans face low voter participation rates. According to a research published by the Native American Rights Fund on Aug 13, 2024, approximately one in four eligible Native Americans is not registered to vote, and their voter turnout is 16 percentage points lower than that of White voters. This disparity is rooted in a long history of systemic exclusion from the US electoral process.
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Asian Americans continue to face systemic discrimination in various aspects. A report released by the Alliance for Justice on May 22, 2024, highlighted that for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Asian Americans were systematically excluded from many areas of public life. Even today, 41 state supreme courts have never had an Asian American judge, despite some of these states having significant Asian American populations.
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The report argues that this glaring absence of representation highlights systemic issues that continue to exclude AAPI from key positions in the judiciary, perpetuating a history of disparity and inequity. According to a report by the Harvard Business Review, although Asians are the most educated segment of the American workforce, they are the least likely among all racial groups to ascend to leadership roles. However, a detailed analysis of top Fortune 500 technology companies shows that Asian professionals are even less likely to progress in their careers today than they were a decade ago. Although Asians make up around 13 percent of the US professional workforce, they hold only 1.5 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officer roles. Additionally, more than half of Fortune 1000 company Boards have no Asian directors.
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The unwarranted exclusion of Chinese Americans leads to tragedy. The China Initiative implemented by the US government from 2018 to 2022 brought serious troubles to Chinese-American scientists, even causing unbearable loss of lives. After a lengthy investigation by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jane Wu, a Chinese-American neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was barred from applying for further research grants. The investigation destroyed her career. On July 10, 2024, she took her own life in her Chicago home. Monica M. Bertagnolli, director of the NIH, issued a statement acknowledging that US government actions "have had the unintended consequence of creating a difficult climate for our valued Asian American, Asian immigrant and Asian research colleagues who may feel targeted and alienated." According to the "2024 State of Chinese Americans" study conducted by the Committee of 100 and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC), about two thirds of Chinese Americans (68 percent) face at least one form of discrimination in an average month, and 50 percent report having felt hopeless in the 30 days before taking the survey.
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Racial discrimination has evolved and intensified. In a report titled "Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," Ashwini K.P., a UN human rights expert, pointed out that a special study of the US law enforcement image database showed that the proportion of people of African descent in the database was disproportionately high, leading to African American individuals being more likely to be mistakenly identified as suspects in facial recognition systems used by US law enforcement. This reflects systemic racial discrimination with deep historical roots.
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IV. Vulnerable Groups: Helplessness of Women and Children
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The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and is the only UN member state that has refused to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A constitutional amendment to "equal rights" for men and women, proposed more than 100 years ago, has yet to be passed. The absence of legal protection has led to widespread infringement of women's and children's rights.
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Gender discrimination in the workplace has expanded significantly. It's hard for women to break through the professional glass ceiling. According to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, in 2023, women held just 11.8 percent of the roughly 15,000 C-suite roles in listed American companies, down from 12.2 percent the year before. In 2023, the gender wage gap between men and women working full-time widened year-over-year, according to an annual report from the US Census Bureau. The Census Bureau calculates the gender wage gap by comparing only men and women who work year-round in full-time jobs. But a grimmer picture for women emerges from data that includes part-time workers. Occupational gender segregation is a major cause of the gender wage gap. In 2023, 12 percent of women in professional and related occupations were employed in the relatively high-paying computer and mathematical and architecture and engineering occupations, compared with 50 percent of men. Even within the same occupations, women earn less on average than men. On average, women with graduate degrees earn less than men with bachelor's degrees.
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The persistent scourge of sexual violence across multiple sectors remains difficult to eradicate. Sexual harassment remains commonplace in American businesses, with about 40 percent of working women experiencing such treatment during their careers. Even when reported, it is rarely handled effectively. The rate of sexual harassment experienced by intern doctors is alarmingly high. More than half of all new doctors are subjected to sexual harassment during their first year on the job, researchers say. The FBI has agreed to pay more than 22 million US dollars to settle a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit by newly hired women. The lawyer for the case David J. Shaffer pointed out that these problems are pervasive within the FBI. According to the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the number of sexual assaults in the US military in 2023 was 73,695, more than double the official figure. On average, nearly one-quarter of active-duty women experienced sexual assault during the years of the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021. Some individuals accused of sexual misconduct have been nominated to positions within the US government. Gender research experts pointed out that this move made most women facing sexual harassment or assault no longer believe that the judicial system would punish sexual offenders.
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Domestic violence is on the rise. An average of 24 people every minute become victims of domestic violence at the hands of an intimate partner in the United States. That figure comes from the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Of the nearly 27,000 domestic batteries, 75 percent involved female victims. Of those women, 65 percent were Black. According to the World Population Review, 11 states in the United States have a domestic violence rate of more than 40 percent in 2024. However, these figures only represent part of the overall scope of domestic violence in the United States. According to the US Department of Justice, victims of 53 percent of intimate partner violence and 52 percent of domestic violence do not report their cases to the police. The department estimates that the actual number of victims of intimate partner violence in 2023 reached about 630,000, while there are more than 1.165 million victims of domestic violence.
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Women's right to health has been neglected amid political battles. In states where abortion is banned, access to overall healthcare is restricted, and many obstetricians are leaving their jobs, resulting in the emergence of new "obstetric care deserts."
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David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Fund's Tracking Health System Performance initiative, estimated that over 5 million women live in a county that's considered a maternity care desert. The political battles over abortion have led to constant policy reversals, leaving the public in a state of panic, unable to anticipate their own rights. The 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation Women's Health Survey reported that 63 percent reproductive age women in the United States are concerned that they or someone close to them would not be able to get an abortion if it was needed to preserve their life or health. There are emerging patterns in multiple states of hospitals delaying or denying standard reproductive care, and of women unwilling to risk going to those hospitals, for fear of legal trouble, including possible criminal charges. According to a report by USA Today in September 2024, a woman in Georgia died after failing to get the care she needed because of abortion bans. Another woman in the state, fearing the potential penalties of the current abortion laws, also died as a result of delayed medical care. "We are in a fearful climate with increased hostility and legal risk for patients, providers and helpers," said Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
\n
The protection of children's right to life and health is inadequate. Every year, the United States recorded more than 5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, far exceeding the rates in other high-income countries. A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2024 found that nearly 130,000 Chicago children under the age of six are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes. In addition, there are racial disparities in both testing rates and exposure levels, with Black and Latino residents more likely to have lead-contaminated water due to lead pipes.
\n
The law enforcement and judicial systems have become complicit in the sexual abuse of children. A Washington Post investigation has found that at least 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022. Law enforcement agencies across the country have done little to root out child sex offenders within their ranks. The entire justice system is an accomplice to perpetrators: ineffective background checks allow those convicted of sexual assault to enter the police system; accused cops have used their knowledge of the legal system to stall cases, get charges lowered or evade convictions; prosecutors have given generous plea deals to officers who admitted to raping and groping minors; judges have allowed many convicted officers to avoid prison time. Even Assistant US Attorney General Kristen Clarke admitted that members of law enforcement who have exploited their positions of power have left child victims with "no recourse and no one else to protect them."
\n
The persecution of young girls is shocking. In the United States, no federal legislation has been passed against flagrant violation of international standards banning child marriage, and child marriage remains "legal" in the vast majority of states. Eighty-six percent of child marriages reported in the United States were between adults and minors, most commonly girls aged 16 to 17, but sometimes as young as 12. In addition to physical and emotional abuse, it puts minors at higher risk of poverty and exploitation and denies them educational and economic opportunities. The harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) remains widespread in the United States. At least 513,000 women and girls are living with or at risk of FGM, and nine US states and the District of Columbia have no law banning FGM. Of those that do have laws banning it, many do not prohibit girls from being taken out of state to be cut.
\n
V. Fatal Journey: Elegy of Undocumented Immigrants
\n
The humanitarian crisis at the border continues to worsen, with migrants suffering torture and inhumane treatment, and large numbers of migrant children falling victim to exploitation and enslavement. Immigration policies are deeply intertwined with political elections, with politicians openly inciting hatred against immigrants, who have become scapegoats for political parties to shift social tensions. In the process, various human rights are ruthlessly trampled.
\n
Politicians openly incite hatred against immigrants. False and misleading information about immigrants is widely disseminated. A report by the Guardian on Sept 18, 2024 said that racist conspiracy theories about immigrants have dominated the 2024 US election cycle. High-ranking Republicans have doubled down on unsubstantiated rumors about Black and brown migrants. Experts argued that the spread of such disinformation amplifies existing xenophobic beliefs within the American psyche as a means of political gain. A report from CNN on Oct 7, 2024 said that during election campaigns, politicians used disparaging rhetoric against undocumented immigrants, accusing those who commit murder of having "bad genes."
\n
One-fifth of the residents in Aurora, Colorado, were foreign-born. During election campaigns, politicians unleashed a world of panic and pain through their threats of mass deportations and family separations against any immigrant — legal or undocumented — who they decide doesn't belong in their America.
\n
Politicians have stoked and inflamed anti-immigrant sentiment in the American society. ABC News reported on Dec 7, 2024 that in New York City, three adults asked two immigrant teenagers if they spoke English; when the teens said they did not, they were attacked, with one dead and one injured.
\n
The humanitarian crisis on the southern border continues. A report in Newsweek on Nov 25, 2024 stated that, according to US Customs and Border Protection data, the rate at which immigrants die on the border has surged. In the El Paso area of Texas alone, the number of deaths rose from 72 in 2022 to 168 in 2024. The proportion of women and children among the migrant deaths is staggering, with more than 500 women having died there since 2021. Among the migrant children who died, the youngest was only 1 year old. As most deaths occur in remote areas, many remain under-reported.
\n
Immigrants face torture and inhumane treatment. The United States operates the world's largest immigration detention regime. These facilities not only profit massively, but also shield and tolerate staff members who torture and abuse immigrants. A report released on Feb 6, 2024 by the Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program at Harvard Law School, revealed that solitary confinement is widely used. There were more than 14,000 placements in solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023, and these placements lasted 27 days on average. Almost 30 percent of solitary confinement placements lasted over 90 days and 25 percent of placements lasted over 365 days, causing mental health conditions for those placed in solitary confinement. A report released by a coalition of legal and human rights organizations has revealed that the Louisiana Federal Immigration Detention Center, where thousands of immigrants are being held, distributes filthy drinking water and food contaminated with rat droppings. Some of the detainees were transported to the detention centers from the border shackled in five-point restraints for hours, unable to use the restroom or eat and drink, and were left with deep cuts on their wrists and legs. Numerous detainees told of being denied medical care. "We see these jails almost as 'black sites' in the national immigration system," said Sarah Decker, one of the report's lead authors and an attorney with the advocacy group Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. A report published by the Guardian on Nov 20, 2024 highlighted that a detention center in Baker County, Florida, has been accused of systemic abuse and discrimination. The center, operated by the Baker County sheriff's office under contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, allows its staff to routinely racially and sexually harass detainees, deny medical care and sanitary products to women, and then falsify records to cover their tracks.
\n
Migrant children are subjected to abuse in shelters. According to a July 18, 2024 report from The Washington Post, incidents of sexual abuse against children in US immigration shelters have been frequent in recent years. The report stated that a supervisor at a shelter in Channelview, Texas, repeatedly raped, abused and threatened a teenage girl. A youth care worker at an El Paso shelter sexually abused three girls aged from five to 11 multiple times and threatened to kill their families to silence them. The actual operators of these shelters received over 100 reports of children being sexually harassed or abused but took no action, failing to investigate or hold anyone accountable, thereby allowing these situations to persist.
\n
Hundreds of thousands of migrant children are unaccounted for. After arriving in the United States, migrant children are forcibly separated from their families and detained. Many go missing after being set free, facing exploitation, abuse, forced labor and even life-threatening dangers. According to a Nov 27, 2024 report of BBC News, due to the government releasing unaccompanied migrant children to unvetted sponsors in the United States, over 320,000 unaccompanied minors were lost track of from October 2018 to September 2023. Many of them have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking, facing abuse, exploitation and human trafficking.
\n
The number of illegally employed child migrants has soared. According to a report released in November, 2024 by US Senate, there was a disturbing rise in illegal child labor among migrant children, leading to levels of illegal child labor not seen since the early 20th century. Data from the Department of Labor show that the number of minors involved in documented child labor violations (not including the ones that are never reported) increased 472 percent between 2015 and 2023. A significant number of them are migrant children. In fiscal year 2024, the Labor Department found 4,030 children employed in violation of child labor laws across all industries. Of the 736 cases brought by the department, nearly half involved minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation laws. ABC News reported on Dec 7, 2024 that migrant children in the United States are not only employed in agriculture and food supply jobs, but also in dangerous jobs including construction and roofing. However, in face of the surge in child labor, lawmakers have responded by weakening child labor laws and relaxed restrictions to legalize illegal act, opening the door to child exploitation. According to data from think tank Economic Policy Institute, at least 30 states have introduced or passed bills to weaken child labor protections since 2021, and in nine of those states, legislation has been introduced to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations or workplaces. In 2024, 11 states have introduced or taken new action on bills to roll back child labor protections. The Washington Post reported that Indiana's new law extends legal work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds, repealing all work-hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds. Florida has made law changes to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work seven days in a row and also removed all hour restrictions for teens in online school or home school, effectively permitting them to work overnight shifts. An Iowa law allows minors in that state to work in jobs previously deemed too hazardous. These laws not only fail to protect children's rights but have instead become tools for "child exploitation." "It is immoral and inappropriate and utterly the wrong decision to roll back child labor law," said Terri Gerstein, director of a labor initiative at New York University. "All that weakening and rolling back child labor laws is going to do is create more kids whose fingers and hands, legs are amputated who are killed on the job."
\n
VI. American Hegemony: Terminator of Other Countries' Human Rights
\n
The United States has long pursued hegemony and unilateralism, believing that only it alone can always sit at the table to enjoy the feast, while others can only be at the mercy of its decisions; only it can always drink the milk, while others are destined to remain the 'cows' that provide it. With its power politics, Washington has repeatedly trampled on international law and the fundamental norms of global relations, violated human rights in other nations with impunity, and posed a grave threat to global peace, security and development.
\n
The United States has been serving as an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza. Since the outbreak of the latest round of the Israel-Palestine conflict in October 2023, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened dramatically. According to statistics published on Dec 31, 2024 by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict has resulted in nearly 46,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, over 108,000 injuries and the displacement of 90 percent of the population in Gaza. Since the outbreak of the conflict, the US government has provided unwavering military and diplomatic support to Israel, repeatedly thwarting international efforts to secure a ceasefire. It has exercised its veto power seven times to block United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Washington's stance has sparked widespread controversy and discontent across the country. Student protests have erupted on dozens of college campuses, only to be met with forceful responses from both university administrations and law enforcement. On Feb 25, 2024, a member of the US Air Force set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the US administration's support for Israel. On Feb 23, 2024, a group of United Nations human rights experts issued a joint statement, which emphasizes that the International Court of Justice's ruling on Jan 26, 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, underscoring the imperative of an arm embargo on Israel. The experts urged countries to halt arms transfers and military aid to Israel, while the United States remains the largest arms exporters. A report published on Aug 25, 2024 by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft stated that a significant portion of US-supplied weaponry has been used in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Another joint statement issued by 32 UN human rights experts pointed out, "The transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk State complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide."
\n
The excessive use of unilateral sanctions is fueling humanitarian crises. The United States is overwhelmingly the world's biggest user of unilateral sanctions. It has increasingly imposed them in recent years, negatively affecting the lives of billions across the globe. The Washington Post website reported on July 25, 2024 that the United States had been imposing sanctions at a record-setting pace. As of April 19, 2024, the US government had 15,373 active sanctions in place — far exceeding other countries, with more than 60 percent of all low-income countries now under some form of financial penalty. The US news website Common Dreams reported on Aug 12, 2024 that hundreds of legal experts and groups worldwide have jointly stated that the broad use of unilateral sanctions constitutes collective punishment that harms civilian population and violates international law. Overwhelming evidence shows that broad economic sanctions can spark and prolong economic crises, hinder access to essential goods like food, fuel and medicine, and increase poverty, hunger, disease and even death rates, especially among children. The sanctions and inhumane blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than six decades serve as a stark example of its system of unilateral coercive measures. The website of the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique published an article on Oct 7, 2024, stating that US sanctions have left Cuba trapped in days and nights marked by poverty, indignity, darkness and exhaustion. On Oct 30, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution reiterating its call on the United States to end economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba with an overwhelming favor.
\n
On Feb 8, 2024, several UN human rights experts issued a joint statement criticizing the US unilateral designation of certain states as Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). They argued that such measures negatively affect the "fundamental human rights, including the right to food, right to health, right to education, economic and social rights, right to life and right to development."
\n
Overseas US military presence harms local communities. According to a report by Okinawa Times on Dec 24, 2024, since the US military's arrival on the islands in 1945, at least 371 cases of sexual violence have been committed by American military personnel, resulting in persistent violations of local residents' dignity and lives.
\n
On July 11, 2024, The Asahi Shimbun reported that the Okinawa prefectural assembly "unanimously adopted a resolution and a statement of protest against the US military and the central government over a series of sex crime cases involving US servicemen stationed here." The assembly also demanded measures to prevent recurrence and called for revisions to the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.
\n
Similarly, The Korea Times reported on Oct 8, 2024 that "the number of crimes committed by US Forces Korea (USFK) personnel has increased steadily over the past five years," sparking widespread public protests.
\n
Additionally, The Asahi Shimbun reported on Feb 7, 2024 that the Okinawa prefectural government has repeatedly urged US military bases to investigate water pollution linked to carcinogenic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances detected near military installations. However, the US military has consistently ignored these requests.
\n
The ongoing torture regime at Guantanamo prison. According to a report by The New York Times on Dec 18, 2024, detainees at Guantanamo have been imprisoned for approximately 20 years. The prison's torture system persists to this day, with inmates routinely subjected to inhumane abuse.
\n
One detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, endured various forms of torture, including waterboarding, mock executions, rectal force-feeding and sleep deprivation. He was suspended naked in a basement, confined to a cramped and sealed space where he could only touch the ground on tiptoes, forced into contorted positions until his limbs dislocated, and deprived of sleep for over 10 consecutive days.
\n
The Center for Victims of Torture reported on May 15, 2024 that interrogators at Guantanamo employed brutal methods causing "physical and psychological trauma" from which "survivors will never fully recover".
\n
On Sept 11, 2024, UN human rights experts issued a statement highlighting unresolved issues stemming from US practices, including illegal renditions, torture, inhumane detention conditions, unfair trials by irregular military commissions, arbitrary detention and other violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. These practices have undermined justice for victims of terrorism, perpetuating impunity and denying redress.
\n
Conclusion
\n
The tumultuous political stage of the United States in 2024 acts as a prism, reflecting the structural dilemmas of American-style human rights. Under the collusion of power and capital, human rights have been distorted into mere props in a political "show" and bargaining chips in a power "casino," completely deviating from the core values and fundamental principles of human rights. How to effectively address the genuine needs of the American people and translate respect for and protection of human rights into tangible actions remains an inescapable challenge for the US government.
Residents of Mingora, the main town of Pakistan's Swat Valley, sift through mud and debris on Saturday to recover vehicles after devastating flash floods struck on Friday. Torrential rains since Thursday have triggered widespread flooding and landslides across the country, leaving at least 344 dead and more than 150 missing.
The Republican governors of three US states are deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington at the request of President Donald Trump's administration. The announcements on Saturday of troops from West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio came a day after DC officials and the Trump administration negotiated a deal to keep Mayor Muriel Bowser's appointed police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the police department after DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit to block the federal takeover of the department. Trump said last week he was deploying hundreds of DC National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department to curb what he depicted as a crime and homelessness emergency.
\n
3 killed, 8 injured in NYC club shooting
\n
Three people were killed and eight others wounded after a shooting in a crowded New York club on Sunday morning. Investigators believe a shooter or shooters opened fire with multiple weapons at Taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn after "a dispute" just before 3:30 am, killing three men, NY Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Officers are probing at least 36 shell casings from the lounge, as well as a firearm that was discovered in a nearby street, she said.
\n
SOUTHEAST ASIA
\n
Cambodia, Thailand agree to avoid clashes
\n
Regional military chiefs from Cambodia and Thailand vowed on Saturday to avoid clashes after a recent ceasefire deal reached by both countries, said a release by the Cambodian side. Their commitment was made during a meeting on border issues held in Thailand. The release said both sides agreed in principle to establish a coordinating group to enhance communication at all levels. "As border demarcation is currently underway, demining can be considered in areas that are demarcated or in non-disputed areas, as agreed upon by the Joint Boundary Commissions of the two countries," it said.
\n
INDIA
\n
Talks with Washington on trade deal called off
\n
A planned visit by United States trade negotiators to New Delhi from Aug 25 to 29 has been called off, a source said, delaying talks on a proposed trade agreement and dashing hopes of relief from additional US tariffs on Indian goods from Aug 27. The current round of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade deal is now likely to be deferred to another date that has yet to be decided, the source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The US embassy in New Delhi said it has no additional information on the trade and tariff talks.
\n",
- "content": "
UNITED STATES
\n
3 Republican states to send Guard troops to DC
\n
The Republican governors of three US states are deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington at the request of President Donald Trump's administration. The announcements on Saturday of troops from West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio came a day after DC officials and the Trump administration negotiated a deal to keep Mayor Muriel Bowser's appointed police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge of the police department after DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit to block the federal takeover of the department. Trump said last week he was deploying hundreds of DC National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department to curb what he depicted as a crime and homelessness emergency.
\n
3 killed, 8 injured in NYC club shooting
\n
Three people were killed and eight others wounded after a shooting in a crowded New York club on Sunday morning. Investigators believe a shooter or shooters opened fire with multiple weapons at Taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn after "a dispute" just before 3:30 am, killing three men, NY Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Officers are probing at least 36 shell casings from the lounge, as well as a firearm that was discovered in a nearby street, she said.
\n
SOUTHEAST ASIA
\n
Cambodia, Thailand agree to avoid clashes
\n
Regional military chiefs from Cambodia and Thailand vowed on Saturday to avoid clashes after a recent ceasefire deal reached by both countries, said a release by the Cambodian side. Their commitment was made during a meeting on border issues held in Thailand. The release said both sides agreed in principle to establish a coordinating group to enhance communication at all levels. "As border demarcation is currently underway, demining can be considered in areas that are demarcated or in non-disputed areas, as agreed upon by the Joint Boundary Commissions of the two countries," it said.
\n
INDIA
\n
Talks with Washington on trade deal called off
\n
A planned visit by United States trade negotiators to New Delhi from Aug 25 to 29 has been called off, a source said, delaying talks on a proposed trade agreement and dashing hopes of relief from additional US tariffs on Indian goods from Aug 27. The current round of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade deal is now likely to be deferred to another date that has yet to be decided, the source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The US embassy in New Delhi said it has no additional information on the trade and tariff talks.
BRUSSELS/MOSCOW/KYIV — European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington on Monday, in an attempt to seek an end to the Ukraine conflict.
\n
It follows US President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday that failed to produce any breakthrough.
\n
The leaders heading to Washington on Monday include those from Britain, France, and Germany, and the NATO secretary-general.
\n
A day before the talks with Trump, leaders of France, Germany and Britain hosted a video call for their so-called "coalition of the willing" to discuss steps toward ending the Ukraine conflict.
\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is also going to the White House, and Zelensky, who arrived in Brussels on Sunday, also dialed in.
\n
In a joint statement on Saturday, European leaders said Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be fully respected.
\n
They underlined that Ukraine must receive "ironclad security guarantees" to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
\n
Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the conflict broke out, had been one of the US president's core demands before the summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited.
\n
But after a meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday that yielded no clear breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
\n
The talks, which lasted about three hours, focused primarily on the Ukraine crisis, as well as on reshaping bilateral relations that have largely stalled in recent years.
\n
Putin on Saturday said at a meeting on the results of his talks with Trump that Russia respects the position of the US administration, which sees the need for an early cessation of hostilities. Russia would like to move on to resolving all issues through peaceful means, according to a statement released on Saturday by the Kremlin.
\n
Putin said his visit to the US state of Alaska was timely and very useful, adding the talks covered almost all areas of Russia-US cooperation, as well as a possible settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a fair basis.
\n
He said the conversation with Trump was "very frank" and "brings us closer to the necessary decisions".
\n
Trump spoke with Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back to Washington, saying afterward that it was determined by all that the best way to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine "is to go directly to a peace agreement".
\n
Ceasefire agreements "often times do not hold up", Trump added on his Truth Social platform.
\n
Zelensky said he had a "long and substantive" conversation with Trump early on Saturday. He said they would "discuss all of the details" regarding ending the hostilities on Monday.
\n
It will be Zelensky's first visit to the US since his last Oval Office visit in February that ended in an extraordinary shouting match, with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance publicly berating Zelensky for not showing enough gratitude for US aid.
\n
Trump, who also held calls with European leaders on Saturday, confirmed the White House meeting and said that "if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin".
\n
Despite a flurry of diplomatic moves, the conflict raged on as Kyiv and Moscow launched attack drones at each other on Sunday.
\n
Kyiv's air force said Russia attacked Ukraine with 60 drones as well as an Iskander missile.
\n
The governor of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, said Russian attacks killed five people in the area on Saturday.
\n
In Russia, the defense ministry said Kyiv launched 46 drones at the country, mostly over border regions but also over the Nizhny Novgorod region.
\n
The acting governor of the border Kursk region, Alexander Khinstein, said a Ukrainian drone attack killed a man in his car.
The United States' enforcement of steep tariffs against most of its trading partners is disrupting the global trading environment, which has pushed Asian countries to rethink their export strategy of primarily serving the US market, focus on alternative economic partnerships and move higher in the supply chain, analysts said.
\n
US President Donald Trump's punitive tariffs took effect on Aug 7, with Asian countries slapped with duties ranging from 10 percent to as high as 50 percent. These duties are significantly higher than the Most Favored Nation rates.
\n
"I'm a believer in the multilateral trading system, but it is dead (now)," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis. She said the US government has "killed" the Most Favored Nation rates, the "common denominator for every country".
\n
Garcia-Herrero said the steep US tariffs have forced some countries to treat the US favorably but at the expense of other trading partners.
\n
"Because everybody will be scrambling to survive, the system will collapse from inside," Garcia-Herrero said.
\n
Observers have noted, for example, how members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, instead of negotiating as a bloc, were forced by the US to negotiate bilaterally. This resulted in a "race to the bottom", with individual ASEAN nations offering duty-free access to the US and committing to buy US aircraft and energy in exchange for reduced tariffs.
\n
"Every country has actually paid a fairly high price for entering into a deal with the US," said Amitendu Palit, a senior research fellow for the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. And yet, Asian countries continue to get charged with tariffs and don't have full access to the US market.
\n
Palit also expects the latest US tariffs to lead to a more fragmented global trading system. This is because supply chains will become increasingly complicated due to different sets of tariffs — country-specific tariffs, Section 232 tariffs, and transshipment tariffs — that the US has imposed on its trading partners.
\n
Palit said it would be "extremely difficult" for supply chain managers to understand how much tariff would eventually get charged on certain products and what would be the best route of bringing these products into the US market.
\n
Lakhvinder Singh, director of peace and security studies at The Asia Institute, a think tank in South Korea, said in order to counter the pressures of higher US tariffs, countries like India "will likely be compelled to move up the value chain in sectors that are less tariff-sensitive" such as critical minerals processing, specialty chemicals, and industrial software.
\n
Tightly interlinked
\n
Singh said Asian supply chains are "tightly interlinked", which is why tariffs imposed on one economy tend to "leak back" through intermediate-goods trade to suppliers in the Southeast Asian region, South Korea and India.
\n
He said Asian companies can mitigate this risk by diversification — reaching out to the European Union, the Middle East, and intra-Asia while also placing last-mile assembly in Latin America, notably Mexico, to navigate rules-of-origin and keep US market access viable.
\n
Analysts said that global economic partnerships such as BRICS and free trade agreements like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership have an increasingly important role to play as Asian economies need to diversify on the back of rising US protectionism.
\n
Palit said BRICS members "offer between themselves large opportunities for exchanging with each other in terms of the products which earlier used to be focused largely on the American market".
\n
He has also envisioned the rise of more multicountry coalitions and regional frameworks like the ASEAN Plus framework, as they will create more opportunities for diversification.
\n
Singh said a stronger role by partnerships like BRICS is the "urgent need of the hour". For example, the New Development Bank, established by BRICS, can be leveraged to fund cross-border logistics, industrial parks, and energy corridors linking Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This will open up alternative, non-US demand corridors and absorb potential trade shocks brought by US tariffs, Singh added.
\n
"This is not a wholesale decoupling: US tariffs will reprice access rather than sever it," Singh said.
The United States' enforcement of steep tariffs against most of its trading partners is disrupting the global trading environment, which has pushed Asian countries to rethink their export strategy of primarily serving the US market, focus on alternative economic partnerships and move higher in the supply chain, analysts said.
\n
US President Donald Trump's punitive tariffs took effect on Aug 7, with Asian countries slapped with duties ranging from 10 percent to as high as 50 percent. These duties are significantly higher than the Most Favored Nation rates.
\n
"I'm a believer in the multilateral trading system, but it is dead (now)," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis. She said the US government has "killed" the Most Favored Nation rates, the "common denominator for every country".
\n
Garcia-Herrero said the steep US tariffs have forced some countries to treat the US favorably but at the expense of other trading partners.
\n
"Because everybody will be scrambling to survive, the system will collapse from inside," Garcia-Herrero said.
\n
Observers have noted, for example, how members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, instead of negotiating as a bloc, were forced by the US to negotiate bilaterally. This resulted in a "race to the bottom", with individual ASEAN nations offering duty-free access to the US and committing to buy US aircraft and energy in exchange for reduced tariffs.
\n
"Every country has actually paid a fairly high price for entering into a deal with the US," said Amitendu Palit, a senior research fellow for the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. And yet, Asian countries continue to get charged with tariffs and don't have full access to the US market.
\n
Palit also expects the latest US tariffs to lead to a more fragmented global trading system. This is because supply chains will become increasingly complicated due to different sets of tariffs — country-specific tariffs, Section 232 tariffs, and transshipment tariffs — that the US has imposed on its trading partners.
\n
Palit said it would be "extremely difficult" for supply chain managers to understand how much tariff would eventually get charged on certain products and what would be the best route of bringing these products into the US market.
\n
Lakhvinder Singh, director of peace and security studies at The Asia Institute, a think tank in South Korea, said in order to counter the pressures of higher US tariffs, countries like India "will likely be compelled to move up the value chain in sectors that are less tariff-sensitive" such as critical minerals processing, specialty chemicals, and industrial software.
\n
Tightly interlinked
\n
Singh said Asian supply chains are "tightly interlinked", which is why tariffs imposed on one economy tend to "leak back" through intermediate-goods trade to suppliers in the Southeast Asian region, South Korea and India.
\n
He said Asian companies can mitigate this risk by diversification — reaching out to the European Union, the Middle East, and intra-Asia while also placing last-mile assembly in Latin America, notably Mexico, to navigate rules-of-origin and keep US market access viable.
\n
Analysts said that global economic partnerships such as BRICS and free trade agreements like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership have an increasingly important role to play as Asian economies need to diversify on the back of rising US protectionism.
\n
Palit said BRICS members "offer between themselves large opportunities for exchanging with each other in terms of the products which earlier used to be focused largely on the American market".
\n
He has also envisioned the rise of more multicountry coalitions and regional frameworks like the ASEAN Plus framework, as they will create more opportunities for diversification.
\n
Singh said a stronger role by partnerships like BRICS is the "urgent need of the hour". For example, the New Development Bank, established by BRICS, can be leveraged to fund cross-border logistics, industrial parks, and energy corridors linking Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This will open up alternative, non-US demand corridors and absorb potential trade shocks brought by US tariffs, Singh added.
\n
"This is not a wholesale decoupling: US tariffs will reprice access rather than sever it," Singh said.
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