China has become a global forerunner in terms of robot density, overtaking Germany and Japan to occupy the No.3 spot globally in the rankings of the use of robots in industry last year, according to an annual report released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The report underscored the growing competitiveness of China's industrial robot sector that is buoyed by tech innovation, massive manufacturing market and policy boost.

Recently, two sets of freshly-released data about "China Cars" underscore the latest achievements of China's reform and opening-up.

Now China has entered November. Noting that the year 2024 will end in less than two months, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to push forward with various work, especially the economic work, in an effective and solid manner, so as to deliver on the economic and social development goals for the whole year.

The 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled to be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, has entered the home stretch.

In Northern Cape, South Africa, the 100-megawatt Redstone concentrated solar thermal power plant, one of the largest renewable energy projects in the country built by a Chinese company, was successfully connected to the grid in mid-September.

Whenever you spot a big crowd of global buyers gathering at a booth in the Canton Fair complex, it's clear that high-tech, high-value-added products, such as industrial automation equipment, humanoid robots, intelligent bionic hands and hydrogen bicycles, are showcased by Chinese exhibitors.

Seventy years ago, a group of far-sighted British, represented by Jack Perry Senior, broke the ice and opened the door to developing China-UK trade, paving the way for enduring friendly exchanges. Over the decades, the "icebreaking" spirit carries on and contributes to fostering broad connections between the two countries. At the critical moment for China-UK relations, Global Times reporter Ma Jingjing (GT) interviewed Jack Perry Junior (Perry), chairman of the 48 Group Club and CEO of London Export Corp to seek his insight on China's economic development and improving China-UK relations. The interview was conducted during the Financial Street Forum 2024 held in Beijing from Friday to Sunday.

This year is the first year following the expansion of BRICS, and the first post-expansion summit will be held in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24. Concurrently with the summit, the new payment system BRICS Pay has drawn attention, highlighting the strengthening of economic and trade ties among BRICS countries.

As drones are increasingly becoming more common in daily life, new drone-related jobs are continuously emerging, such as drone assembly engineers, maintenance technicians and drone pilots. Particularly with the rise of the low-altitude economy in China, demand for talent is growing rapidly.

October 1 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). According to industry insiders, the rapid rollout of Hualong One, China's homegrown nuclear reactor, is indicative of the profound transformation of China's energy development in the past decades.

This year marks the 11th anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. During the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in May 2017, China announced that it launched the Belt and Road Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan, which consists of Joint Laboratory Initiative and the Science Park Cooperation Initiative and the Technology Transfer Initiative, among others.

The China-Europe freight trains now pass daily through Alashankou Port in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, becoming the new “steel camels” of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a modern evolution that takes on and carries forward the spirit of the ancient Silk Roads that originated 2,000 years ago.

During the just-concluded China International Fair for Trade in Services, an alliance for global services providers was officially initiated in the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) to share new opportunities for building the Hainan FTP with professional services providers.

Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China has transformed urban landscapes, rivers, and mountain cliffs into giant "screens" that project cultural stories on both sides of the Yangtze River using cutting-edge naked-eye 3D technology, creating an unforgettable immersive night tour.

"Three, two, one, get (Rwanda coffee) on the cart! Sold out!" Back in May 2020, James Kimonyo, Rwandan Ambassador to China, joined an online livestreaming event on e-commerce platform Taobao, during which he sold nearly 1.5 tons of Rwanda coffee beans in just a few seconds, before even finishing an introduction to the products. This amount is equivalent to Rwanda's total coffee bean sales from the previous year.

From selling stones to selling scenery, Yucun, a former small mining village in Anji county, East China's Zhejiang Province, has transformed from a polluting miner to an environmental steward.

The eagerness of Yiwu business vendors in learning foreign languages and doing their trades reflects the resilience of Chinese foreign trade in the face of complex external environment, analysts noted.

Yin Jifu is a senior engineer with the National Engineering Research Center of Dredging Technology and Equipment under the state-owned construction giant China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).

The recent suspension by American company OpenAI of its application programming interface access to users from China and other areas has caused concerns about the accessibility of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Workers brave the heat at an intake site for the Yangtze-to-Hanjiang Water Diversion Project in Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province on August 15, 2024. This 194.7-kilometer project, which channels water from the Yangtze River to the Hanjiang River, aims to enhance the Hanjiang Basin's water resource management, and it's a key aspect of developing the national water network. Photo: VCG

Chinese analysts believe that such dissections, which are common practices in the industry, reflect a genuine recognition of China's automotive manufacturing capabilities. While foreign manufacturers can produce similar EVs, they cannot replicate China's scale and industrial ecosystem.

A comment by the EU trade chief on EU members' likely readiness to back tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) is a typical rhetorical tactic to ramp up pressure on EU members, and it's also an attempt by the European Commission (EC) to show a tough and consistent stance on the issue, observers said, amid ongoing negotiations between the Chinese and EU sides over the EV tariff dispute.

Chinese regulatory authorities have recently introduced a series of policy documents and reform measures to improve the capital market regulatory system, comprehensively deepen capital market reform, and promote high-quality market development. These measures, when implemented together, are expected to increase the investment value of the market and boost confidence among investors.

The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, recently adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, has made an important commitment to developing a financial system for scientific and technological innovation to provide greater support for major national science and technology programs and sci-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Third Plenum of the 20th the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, convened in July, said that the government will take multiple measures to support the job market.

China's elderly care sector is ushering in an era of accelerated development empowered by artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, with a variety of "AI + elderly care" solutions such as nursing robots, smartphones for seniors and other assisting digital technologies being increasingly adopted to provide better services at affordable prices for seniors.

China-Africa cooperation has been continuously advancing in the digital sector covering a wide range of industries from infrastructure to e-commerce, bolstered by swiftly developing technologies, African officials and business representatives told the Global Times on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Digital Cooperation held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

Chinese technology companies are showcasing their cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) products to the world at the Paris Olympic Games, a move that has gained wide recognition, the Global Times learned from companies on Sunday.

Chinese poultry industry is expected to see more positive outcomes rather than any negative impact from a recent suspension of poultry exports announced by Brazil, Chinese industry analysts and insiders said on Monday, indicating the latest change on the supply side is expected to boost domestic supply and shore up a weak market.

The US Senate Armed Service Committee has reportedly released the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in which it held off demands to ban Chinese DJI drones from accessing the US market, which experts said on Tuesday once again demonstrates the resilient demand for Chinese advanced products despite decoupling attempts.

Therefore, if China rolls out measures to stimulate its domestic demand, it should consider issues from the perspective of the real situation of the Chinese economy, instead of the groundless hype about "insufficient domestic demand" and the false "overcapacity" narrative.

As the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held in Beijing from Monday to Thursday is expected to primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing high-quality development of the Chinese economy, how China will continue to adhere to a high level of opening-up and better utilize foreign investment for years to come has attracted widespread attention.

China's average first-half surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, down 0.2 percentage points year-on-year, indicating an improvement in the job market amid the overall economic recovery and support policies, official data showed on Monday.

China has proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) the establishment of an expert panel regarding a dispute over new-energy vehicle (NEV) subsidies and other measures under the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as the US has failed to reach a solution through consultations with China, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Monday.

The EU should listen more to internal voices within the bloc before announcing any decision to impose additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), Chinese experts said on Sunday, as EU member states are reportedly set to vote on Monday on the trade matter.

The rise of thermal mug original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for foreign brands in East China's Zhejiang Province and South China's Guangdong Province has led to the formation of thriving industrial clusters.

More than half of the surveyed Japanese companies in China consider China to be one of the most important markets in view of the development of the second largest economy, according to a survey released by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China on Wednesday, indicating the remaining importance that Japanese businesses attached to the Chinese market, despite external uncertainties.

China's semiconductor sales jumped 24.2 percent year-on-year in May, according to data from the US-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Chinese experts said on Monday that the data again show that China has formed a mature chip processing industry based on the country's huge demand from the downstream industry.

Amid the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Global Times reporters Li Xuanmin and Xing Xiaojing (GT)interviewed Aliya Mussabekova (Mussabekova), chief expert at the Asian Studies Department at Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Maryam Agharabi (Agharabi), research coordinator at China & Central Asia Studies Center (CCASC) in Kazakhstan.

Amid the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Global Times reporters Li Xuanmin and Xing Xiaojing (GT) interviewed Aliya Mussabekova (Mussabekova), chief expert at the Asian Studies Department at Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Maryam Agharabi (Agharabi), research coordinator at China & Central Asia Studies Center (CCASC) in Kazakhstan.

Chinese inventors have filed the highest number of patents related to generative artificial intelligence (AI) over the past decade, surpassing the US, South Korea, Japan and India by a significant margin, a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Wednesday showed.

China and Switzerland have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and agreed to formally launch negotiations to upgrade the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on Tuesday. This marks another major step in further boosting bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Regional development has been a priority under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) framework and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Central Asia has been transforming from a "landlocked" region to a transportation hub in Eurasia, witnessing great improvement in internal connectivity while also integrating itself more seamlessly into the global economic and logistics chain, Chinese company representatives and scholars from Central Asia said.

As the world closely watches the EU's additional tariff move on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), another "arrow of trade protectionism" shot by the EU toward China continues to unleash its destructive power.

Ahead of the highly anticipated visits, Global Times reporters (GT) interviewed Zhang Xiao (Zhang), Chinese Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Zhang said that since its founding 23 years ago, the SCO has significantly contributed to regional security, stability, and prosperity. At the upcoming Astana Summit, member state leaders will reinforce the "Shanghai Spirit," featured by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development, to establish a shared future community within the SCO.

The 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will take place in Astana, Kazakhstan in early July. Ahead of the SCO summit, Global Times reporters Li Xuanmin and Xing Xiaojing (GT) conducted an exclusive interview with Gulnar Shaimergenova (Shaimergenova), director of the China Studies Center in Kazakhstan, who during the interview highlighted the extensive role China plays in facilitating regional cooperation and economic integration. Shaimergenova was present when the concept of BRI was first put forward in Kazakhstan in 2013. During the interview, Shaimergenova shared her insights on how the initiative has opened up new opportunities of economic interaction and partnership, rising trade and prosperity in the region.

As the Chinese economy faced some challenges in recent years, some Western officials and media pundits have stepped up their smear campaign against China. They cherry-pick information and distort facts to hype their narratives such as "Peak China," but they always turn a blind eye to China's economic resilience and development potential. In order to set the record straight, the Global Times is launching a multimedia project, including in-depth articles, objective analysis and visual arts, to present a comprehensive and true picture of Chinese economy. This is the seventh installation of the series.

China's photovoltaic (PV) industry has made a great contribution to the world's low carbon development, and protectionism will only pose a burden on green transition costs, Chinese PV enterprises said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos.

In the middle of the Gobi Desert in Hami, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, rows of large mirrors sparkle like diamonds under the dazzling sunlight, resembling a scene from a sci-fi film. But these mirrors are not for viewing. They are installed to turn the sunlight into an endless supply of clean energy.

As the Chinese economy faced some challenges in recent years, some Western officials and media pundits have stepped up their smear campaign against China. They cherry-pick information and distort facts to hype their narratives such as "Peak China," but they always turn a blind eye to China's economic resilience and development potential. In order to set the record straight, the Global Times is launching a multimedia project, including in-depth articles, objective analysis and visual arts, to present a comprehensive and true picture of the economy. This is the sixth installation of the series.

Confidence among Chinese electric vehicle (EV) companies has been severely undermined following the EU's unilateral decision to impose anti-subsidy tariffs targeting Chinese EV, a report released by a Chinese business representative group in the EU revealed, underscoring the regrettable impact the bloc's protectionist behavior has brought against normal business activities as well as bilateral economic and trade relations.

Malaysia has consistently advocated for China's participation in regional dialogue and cooperation platforms. This was evident when China first proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Malaysia supported the policy and welcomed deeper cooperation among countries participating in the initiative, Unny Sankar Ravi Sankar, minister of Economic Affairs of the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

More Chinese brands are stepping onto the sponsorship field by rolling out and promoting their products during this year's UEFA European Championship, or Euro 2024, which runs from June 14 to July 14 in Germany.

China's State Taxation Administration (STA) said on Tuesday that it does not conduct national and concentrated investigations of companies, nor there is any plan for a probe reaching back 20 or 30 years. It stressed that some publicly listed companies being asked to pay overdue taxes is just a form of normal taxation enforcement, in line with laws and regulations.

A large mining mill, manufactured by Northern Heavy Industries Group Co, rolls off the production line after engineering debugging at an industrial park in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on June 17, 2024. The equipment is being dismantled and packaged for shipment to the State of Eritrea in Africa. The completion of the large gear marks another significant achievement by the Chinese company in support of development of the Belt and Road Initiative. Photo: VCG

Perth has solidified its economic ties with China, and the cooperation will get stronger in the future, city mayor Lord Basil Zempilas, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview, as Chinese Premier Li Qiang has started his official visit to Australia on Saturday.

When you place an order on popular e-commerce platforms, farmers in Zigui county, Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province, swiftly pick navel oranges from the trees in their orchards and use drones to transport them to a nearby highway collection point.

Turkey's recent decision to impose an additional 40-percent tariff on vehicles imported from China is "unlikely to have a substantial impact" on Chinese auto industry, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The wholesale prices of freshly imported salmon have notably declined in the Chinese market. Experts and media reports attribute this to various factors, including ongoing weak global demand, particularly in major consuming markets like the US.

Nicaragua, a Central America country, is benefiting from strengthening economic and trade relations with China. According to statistics from China's General Administration of Customs, the bilateral trade volume between China and Nicaragua reached $850 million in 2023, marking a 13.5 percent year-on-year increase, reflecting the continuous improvement of the economic and trade relations between the two countries.

The joint declaration of the 9th China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit Meeting stated that the joint efforts of the three countries in the economic and trade field play an important role in the prosperity and stability of the regional and global economies. Business leaders from Japan and South Korea in China said that they attach increasing importance to the Chinese market and anticipate the meeting will inject new impetus into future cooperation among the three countries.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the General Administration of Customs and the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission issued a joint notice on Thursday, announcing export controls on certain equipment, software and technologies in key sectors ranging from aerospace to shipbuilding that matter to national security.

The final steel girder of the main channel bridge of the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, which connects the cities of Changzhou and Taixing in East China's Jiangsu Province, fits in place on May 29, 2024. It is the world's longest span cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 388 meters. After 16 months of construction, the highway-railway dual-purpose bridge is expected to achieve full closure in early June. Photo: VCG

An advertisement for national bonds is displayed inside a bank in Hai'an city, Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province on May 24, 2024. A total of 40-billion-yuan ($5.63 billion) worth of 20-year ultra-long-term special government bonds are being issued as part of a massive 1-trillion-yuan planned sale of such bonds. The issuance is an important part of this year's proactive fiscal policies. Photo: VCG

Amid growing global challenges, the upcoming trilateral summit between China, Japan, and South Korea holds great importance for bolstering trilateral economic cooperation, Park Seung Chan, chairman of The Federation of Korea-China said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times, highlighting the top-level meeting as a chance to pave the way for more business potential and economic engagements.

China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), has been deployed in massive applications in various fields with daily average usage exceeding 600 billion times in 2023, according to an industrial report over the weekend.

As China's new-energy industries rise to global prominence, US officials have started a smear campaign based on false "overcapacity" claims. The rise of China's new-energy industries is due to innovation, rather than subsidies, and is beneficial for the world, instead of posing threats to other countries. To illustrate this, the Global Times is publishing a multi-part series under the theme of "New Energy, New Opportunities." This story focuses on how the Chinese electric vehicles (EV) industry draws its competitiveness from competition, debunking the groundless narrative that the Chinese EV industry's strengths came from government subsidies.

A track-laying machine made a rumbling sound as concrete sleepers are placed on the roadbed. Two-hundred-meter-long rails extend and fall steadily onto the sleepers through a mix of manual labor and high-tech machinery.

Peru and China are pursuing green transformation and high-quality development. In this regard, there are many opportunities for enhanced collaboration in the green economy, Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea Franco told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.

After China's economy mounted an impressive start to the year, global attention has now shifted to what China plans to do to sustain the great momentum in the recovery of the world's second-largest economy for the rest of the year.

Azerbaijan has been one of the earliest and most active respondents and participants of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), having actively engaged in a wide range of investments and projects. As bilateral relations between China and Azerbaijan have reached an unprecedented level, advancements within the new-energy vehicle (NEV) industry and the China-Europe freight train sector are viewed as two main highlights in the bilateral cooperation. In a recent exclusive interview with Global Times (GT) reporter Yin Yeping, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to China, Bunyad Huseynov (Huseynov), conveyed his aspirations to deepen ties with China within the framework of BRI cooperation for mutual benefits.

Economic growth drives job creation, so stable employment is inherently reliant on sustained economic growth. Over the past few decades, China's economy has grown rapidly, particularly the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, which has boosted non-agricultural jobs for tens of millions of rural laborers, leading to an unprecedented expansion in employment.

Real estate is a pillar industry of the Chinese economy. It directly drives the development of adjacent industries such as construction, building materials and furniture, and indirectly stimulates the growth of industries like finance, manufacturing, logistics, and other services. The stable and balanced development of the real estate industry is of great significance for the steady development of the Chinese economy.

There is a clear contradiction in the Western slander and disparaging of the Chinese economy. On one hand, they hype unnecessary concern and even slander toward China's rapid development in industries such as new-energy vehicles, solar cells and lithium-ion battery products. On the other hand, they concoct new narratives to disparage the Chinese economy, such as the "China peak" rhetoric.

Some Western media and institutions have been constantly hyping the narrative that "China is experiencing deflation" in an attempt to undermine the Chinese economy and mislead the public. However, considering the actual situation of Western economies, the effectiveness of this smear campaign to mislead the public's cognition of the Chinese economy is likely to be diminished.

​Chinese manufacturers have responded strongly to EU's escalated protectionist move targeting new energy-related products, including the latter's probe into Chinese wind turbines and a solar panel project, warning that such actions are disturbing and will backfire.

US credit ratings agency Fitch's decision to downgrade China's sovereign credit rating outlook from stable to negative - which came shortly after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's recent visit to China during which she complained about the country's "overcapacity" - is politically biased and intellectually fraught. They simply cannot comprehend the shift that Chinese authorities are now executing, namely toward more high-quality and high-tech growth.

​In September 2020, China set ambitious goals to achieve “peak carbon” emissions by 2030 and strive for “carbon neutrality” by 2060, marking a monumental step in the global shift toward sustainability. This decisive action has not only galvanized state institutions, bolstered business confidence, and elevated public expectations, but also marked a pivotal policy for expanding and accelerating green development efforts worldwide.

Multiple Chinese academic institutes on Tuesday unveiled an upgraded version of the model law on artificial intelligence (AI), which added details focusing on open source AI and intellectual property (IP) protection.

The EU is reportedly set to launch a probe into Chinese medical device procurement. Experts and industry insiders anticipate that this move, which comes after recent EU actions targeting China's wind turbines and electric vehicles, will escalate bilateral economic tensions, affecting the normal business development of Chinese companies within the bloc.

A large number of foreign buyers were attracted by an intelligent forklift automated guided vehicle (AGV), stopping to watch and take photos and videos, upon entering the exhibition hall of intelligent automation and intelligent manufacturing at the ongoing 135th session of the Canton Fair.

"I was informed of several ways to change money by staffers at the airport. They also taught me how to make mobile payments through Alipay. I can't wait to experience digital payments," Sophie, a first-time Canton Fair purchaser from Germany, told the Global Times on Sunday at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in South China's Guangdong Province.

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has concluded its three-month spring recruitment campaign, distributing more than 6.6 billion yuan ($930 million) in subsidies, showing the government's latest efforts for supporting employment.

In November 2018, China and Micronesia signed a Memorandum of Understanding under the Belt and Road cooperation framework, embarking on a new chapter of deepening cooperation. In recent years, the two countries have reaped a number of fruitful achievements under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in sectors including agriculture, economy and trade as well as climate cooperation.

Since the beginning of 2024, a number of Western governments and media outlets have been hyping the so-called “overcapacity” of Chinese new-energy production, claiming it as a matter of great concern for them. By spinning the “overcapacity” narrative, the West has moved to apply trade restrictive measures on Chinese-made EVs, lithium batteries, solar products, in an attempt to protect its own uncompetitive industries, Chinese industry insiders said, noting that such overt schemes are detriment to global climate control efforts.

South Korean tourist arrivals in China rose more than nine times year-on-year in January, data released by the South Korean authorities showed, indicating a clear recovery in inbound tourism in the post-pandemic era, according to media reports.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is well known in China for her high-profile posting within the US government, including as a former head of the US Federal Reserve. But in her last two visits to China, her choices of different types of Chinese food - and her proficiency in chopsticks made headlines both in China and abroad.

On Sunday morning, the Global Times visited a Xiaomi store at a Beijing shopping mall. Despite it being the first working day after the Qingming Festival, there was a steady flow of vehement customers inquiring and trying out Xiaomi's first electric vehicle (EV) model SU7.

Global leading financial institutions,including Neuberger Berman and Fidelity International, have announced moves to increase their registered capital or set up branches in China recently, highlighting their confidence in the future of the Chinese economy as well as vast opportunities the market creates for foreign financial players.

Despite the complex and volatile international environment, foreign financial institutions continued to increase their investment in China since the beginning of 2024, representing a vote of confidence in the prospects of the Chinese economy and eyeing more opportunities brought about by the country's high-level opening-up.

During his closely watched trip to China, Apple CEO Tim Cook notably did not mince words when talking about the critical role China plays for the US tech giant.

The Chinese government work report submitted on March 5 to the national legislature set an "around 5 percent" GDP growth target for 2024, and China's pursuit of new quality productive forces has become a major focus at the two sessions in early March. Global Times reporters Chen Qingqing and Bai Yunyi spoke to veteran economist Tatsuhito Tokuchi, executive board member and research fellow at Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance of Tsinghua University and former chairman of CITIC Securities International Co Ltd, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing China's economy.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pressure on the real estate market and fluctuations in the stock market have caused asset-side shocks, resulting in adjustments to the balance sheets of various sectors of China's real economy. This has, to some extent, restrained the expansion of total demand and hindered the economic recovery.

Currently, some observers assert that China's economic growth has peaked, drawing parallels to Japan's situation in the 1990s. This implies that China may face a 30-year stagnation, potentially missing the opportunity to surpass the size of the US economy. However, this perspective is a misconception, as it interprets China's cyclical adjustments as indicative of a long-term economic downturn.

In his State of the Union Address delivered on March 7, US President Joe Biden touted that "I've revitalized our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific," as he appears to be taking a victory lap for his China policy.

The northbound travel program took effect on January 1, 2023 for Macao. This program is one of the important measures taken by the central government to support the development of Hong Kong and Macao and promote the construction of the GBA.

China's Government Work Report has set a GDP growth target of around 5 percent for 2024. Considering the international and domestic economic conditions, with a potential annual growth rate of 8 percent, it is entirely possible for China to achieve an economic growth rate of above 5 percent.

Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) pose for a group photo after the second plenary meeting of the second session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 7, 2024. Photo: cnsphoto

Food security is one of the core issues being discussed during the annual two sessions in China, with political advisors in the agriculture sector emphasizing the need for technology innovation and seed revitalization to ensure stable food supplies.

Developing new quality productive forces has become a major theme in China's policymaking since it was first put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2023. It is also listed as a priority for this year's economic tasks outlined in the Government Work Report delivered to the ongoing two sessions in Beijing.