Chinese officials on Monday vowed to make concrete efforts to mitigate financial and other risks and boost high-quality development following the two sessions, which concluded on the day in Beijing, where a slew of social and economic development targets were determined for the year.

As the Government Work Report approved by the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, called for greater efforts to effectively prevent and resolve risks in key areas, officials in various economic and financial fields stressed that they are rolling out a slew of measures to help tackle risks and will be able to ensure security and stability.

With the two sessions successfully concluded, the top priority for officials at all levels is to carry out policy measures to make sure that various development goals outlined in the Government Work Report will be met, economists said, as officials have plenty of tools at their disposal to do so thanks to the country's solid economic foundation.

"As the two sessions have concluded, the next step is to focus on implementation," Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), told reporters on Monday afternoon, after the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th NPC. He remarked that China's financial risks are generally controllable.

Noting that China's long-term positive development trend has remained unchanged and the NFRA has more tools to prevent and resolve financial risks, Li said that "China has the confidence, conditions and capabilities to maintain financial security," according to a Xinhua report.

Tackling financial and other risks has become a top priority, as the Government Work Report called to better coordinate development and security, and to effectively prevent and resolve risks in key areas. Specifically, the report urged to address both the symptoms and root causes to resolve risks in areas such as real estate, local debt, and small and medium-sized financial institutions, so as to maintain overall economic and financial stability.

Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said China has been focused on tackling risks in various areas, including in real estate and local government debts, and has achieved "quite good" results. Though further efforts are still needed, "generally speaking, the risks are controllable," Cong told the Global Times on Monday, noting that the Government Work Report also contained various major measures to tackle risks.

This year's Government Work Report, budget report, and the economic and social development plan report approved by the NPC have all laid out comprehensive strategies to prevent and resolve local debt risks. Among various measures, the central government plans to issue ultra-long special treasury bonds starting this year and over each of the next several years, which analysts said could help ease local government debt pressures.

"Thanks to efforts to tackle financial risks in recent years, our risk-fighting tools are advanced and there are also more tools in our tool box," Li Chang'an, a professor with the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday.

Li said on Monday that the NFRA is working with local authorities to implement precise measures to effectively resolve risks in an orderly manner. The financial regulator will also step up financial support for major projects and further implement the financing coordination mechanism for the real estate sector.

The NFRA will also fully support scientific and technological innovation to help develop new quality productive forces and expand effective consumption, Li said.

Boosting growth

Accelerating the development of new quality productive forces, which focuses on sci-tech innovation and breakthroughs, and expanding effective consumption have also become a key theme at the just-concluded two sessions and the top priorities for China's economic agenda for 2024 and beyond, as the country aims to boost high-quality development.

In order to speed up the development of new quality productive forces, Shen Changyu, head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), said on Monday that the CNIPA will further bolster the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and treat all state-owned enterprises, private businesses and foreign companies equally in terms of IPR protection.

Shen said China will also step up the transformation and application of patents and cultivate more specialized small and medium-sized enterprises in the high-tech sector. At the end of 2023, China owned more than 4 million domestic valid invention patents, up 22.4 percent year-on-year, according to the CNIPA.

Chinese officials have also vowed to step up efforts to support various aspects of the Chinese economy, from tourism to exports, as China has set a GDP growth target of around 5 percent this year.

Yu Jianhua, head of the General Administration of Customs (GAC), said on Monday that China's trade sector has got off to a solid start in 2024, and imports and exports are expected to remain on a growth trend in the first half of the year.

Also speaking to reporters after the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th NPC, Yu said that in order to achieve the full-year development goals laid out in the Government Work Report, the GAC will roll out targeted policy measures to boost cross-border trade and improve services to support businesses' operations.

According to the GAC, China's imports and exports of goods in the first two months of 2024 hit a record high of 6.61 trillion yuan ($918.3 billion), up 8.7 percent year-on-year, beating forecasts and singling a positive start to the new year.

Also, in a bid to boost domestic tourism, Sun Yeli, minister of culture and tourism, said on Monday that China's tourism industry has seen a robust recovery over the past year, particularly since the beginning of 2024, and given Chinese consumer's enthusiasm to travel, "the tourism boom" will continue.

Beyond the support measures for specific areas, China also has plenty of macro-policy tools to support the economic recovery and ensure that the growth target will be met at the end of 2024, economists said.

For example, given the low inflation, "we still have plenty of room for monetary policy," during this phase of economic recovery, Cong said.

During a press conference on Wednesday on the sidelines of the two sessions, China's monetary policymakers said they have a rich toolbox and ample options, and there is still further room to slash the reserve requirement ratio.

Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co (ZPMC), a major global maker of ship-to-shore cargo cranes, said in a statement on Sunday that its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity risk to any port, responding to the US government's reported plan to invest billions in its own cargo cranes to replace ZPMC cranes.

The company said that it takes the concerns of the US into serious consideration, while the US government allegations about its products, not supported by the facts, could easily mislead the general public. ZPMC has strictly abided by the laws and regulations of relevant countries and regions and is operating in compliance with local laws.

Industry observers said that the so-called cybersecurity threat was categorically groundless, and it will be difficult to replace China-made cranes across ports in the US due to the high cost of localization.

The Biden administration plans to invest billions of dollars in America's own manufacturing of cargo cranes, amid the government's narrative that the prevalent use of China-built cranes with advanced software at many US ports could pose a potential "national security risk," the Wall Street Journal reported on February 21.

US wages have been increasing, so the cost of human labor has been rising fast, especially for American manufacturing enterprises planning to build plants there, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Hu said that the US ports can hardly find products with comparable prices and performances as the high-quality and inexpensive cranes that are manufactured by Chinese companies like ZPMC.

Hu said that the US allegation was just political hype. "US port data is usually publicized by the US customs authority, and there is no point for China to monitor those data," he said.

Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday that the US is struggling to rebuild its manufacturing sector but it always blames the difficulty on China.

"China has the world's largest shipping industry, most powerful capacity for shipbuilding  and related equipment, and is the major trade partner of more than 140 countries and regions, so it will be very difficult and costly to move away from Chinese supplies," said Wang.

Chinese officials have firmly rejected the "China threat" hype by the US. 

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said in January that some US politicians have been blowing up a bubble of the "China threat," while exposing their real aim of suppressing China's development in the name of national security. 

Two US congressional committees have looked into Swiss engineering group ABB's operations in China, regarding the installation of ABB equipment by ZPMC on ship-to-shore cranes bound for the US.

"If China-made cranes are alleged to have national security risks for the US, it means US-made Tesla electric cars and iPhones are also transmitting Chinese users'data back to the US," Hu noted.

Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) were subject to a special customs registration process starting from Thursday by the European Commission (EC), as the EU is moving closer to adopting new protectionist measures such as punitive tariffs targeting Chinese EVs in the bloc.

The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) on Wednesday evening voiced its disappointment with this move, according to a statement the chamber sent to the Global Times.

The mandate may have some impact on EV exports to Europe, as it may possibly be followed by punitive tariffs, according to experts and media reports. However, the impact will be short-term and limited, as the EU still needs Chinese EVs for its green transformation, a Chinese industry expert said Thursday.

The EU issued on Wednesday the Official Journal of the EU regarding its commission's implementation regulation that makes imports of battery EVs designed for passenger use originating in China subject to registration.

This regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, according to the Official Journal of the EU.

The CCCEU said that the chamber has observed that a new implementation regulation was issued on Wednesday, concerning the registration of EV imports from China by the EU. The purpose of the registration requirement is to address Chinese imports and potential retrospective measures, the chamber said.

Both the chamber and its members expressed concern over potential retroactive measures in the future, the CCCEU said.

According to EC data, between October 2023 and January 2024, the EU imported 177,839 Chinese EVs. Compared with the coverage period of the "countervailing investigation" (from October 2022 to September 2023), the average monthly import volume increased by 11 percent.

The chamber highlighted that the recent surge in Chinese EV imports reflected increasing demand for EVs in Europe and underscored Chinese car companies' commitment to fostering the European market.

"We earnestly hope that the European side will effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and establish a fair, impartial and non-discriminatory business environment for them," the China chamber said.

"This, in turn, will facilitate our joint contribution to the global low-carbon and green transformation," the chamber further noted.

In February, China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that China is highly concerned about the trade remedy investigation targeting Chinese EVs and other products, and he also expressed strong dissatisfaction regarding the investigation, which he said lacked a factual basis.

The EU's latest move came in response to alleged subsidies for EVs by the Chinese government, even though China has largely ended early-stage NEV subsidies.

Subsidies for both public buses and private passenger cars stopped in 2022, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, told the Global Times. "When there were subsidies in China, they were on a much smaller scale than those in European countries."

The EU's action aimed at Chinese EVs was much as expected as part of its trade protectionism measures against China, Cui said.

The customs registration targeting Chinese EVs could be an initial step, and it's likely to be followed by further measures such as punitive tariffs, he warned.

Despite the foreseeable impact on Chinese EVs exported to Europe, Cui said that it will only be temporary and won't undermine the competitiveness of Chinese EVs in the global market.

China is the world's largest car exporter, having surpassed Germany and outpacing Japan. By destination, the EU held the majority share, accounting for 47 percent of China's EV exports in value last year, according to a report by Citi Research in January.

As the EU is in great need of more cost-effective and high-quality products for its green transformation, demand will only grow stronger in the long run, Cui said.

While the travel craze during the Spring Festival holidays has only just ended, Chinese tourists are eagerly planning their upcoming trips for the May Day holidays, summer vacation and even National Day holidays in October, with bookings for outbound trips already picking up steam, according to online travel agencies.

Experts on Tuesday noted that as China continues to ease conditions for entry and exit, coupled with the increasingly robust economic recovery, Chinese outbound tourism will further rebound in 2024, significantly contributing to the global tourism market's recovery.

The number of users who have shown an early interest in travel for the upcoming May Day holidays is up more than 50 percent compared with 2023, according to data sent to the Global Times by Tongcheng Travel on Tuesday.

For outbound flight bookings, the week after the Spring Festival holidays saw a nearly twofold increase in reservations for the May Day holidays, compared with the period before the holidays. Tickets for flights to tourism destinations like Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia are the most popular, Tongcheng said.

With international flights resuming, this summer is set to see a boom in outbound travel, with smart travelers already making visa applications and booking flights, travel platform Qunar said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

On Qunar's platform, flights from Shanghai to Manila in the Philippines, Seoul in South Korea, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand in early July are now all priced at under 1,000 yuan ($139).

The impressive recovery of the tourism market during the just concluded Spring Festival holidays has boosted confidence in the industry and spurred growth in related consumption sectors, setting a continued positive tone for the tourism industry in the first half of 2024, experts said.

China's outbound tourism has been on a steady path to recovery since last year. While it has not yet fully rebounded to pre-pandemic levels due to factors such as limited flight capacity, it is showing an accelerating trend toward recovery, Jiang Yiyi, a deputy head of the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Mao Ning, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a press briefing on Monday that China has rolled out six new measures to facilitate cross-border travels.

The new policies include shortening visa application forms, lowering visa fees for the entire year, streamlining approval procedures for foreign students, exempting certain applicants from fingerprinting, providing walk-in visa application services and extending the unilateral visa-free policy to France, Germany and some other countries on a trial basis, Mao said.

These efforts have not only promoted a more open approach to inbound tourism, but also contributed to the recovery of outbound tourism, Jiang said.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, about 6.83 million cross-border trips were made during the Spring Festival holidays. Outbound travel accounted for about 3.6 million trips, close to the levels seen during the same period in 2019.

Qunar data indicated that during the Spring Festival holidays, Chinese tourists visited 125 countries and regions around the world. There was a notable increase in bookings for the three latest countries to reciprocally waive visas with China: Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Since 2013, Chinese tourists have become the primary source of visitor arrivals for many popular overseas destinations. This is attributed to their substantial numbers and robust spending power, Jiang said.

"As China continues to facilitate travel and with its economy steadily recovering, the number of outbound tourists is expected to further increase this year, providing additional momentum for the global tourism market's recovery," Jiang noted.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday refuted recent remarks by high-ranking US officials denigrating Chinese-made cars, noting they are creating a false narrative, and this clearly reflects Washington's practice of making economic and trade issues into ones of politics and security.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, made these remarks after US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a recent interview with US media outlet MSNBC that "cars these days are like an iPhone on wheels… You connect your phone and you might receive the text message… Imagine a world with 3 million Chinese vehicles on the roads of America, and Beijing can turn them off at the same time."

Mao said that by that logic, shouldn't China be more worried about Washington's ability to get hundreds of millions of Apple phones of Chinese users to channel collected information back to the US, or even cause a blanket screen shutdown?

Hua Chunying, another Foreign Ministry spokesperson, on Sunday addressed Raimondo's remarks on X, saying that "cars are like iPhones on wheels? Beijing can turn off millions of Chinese vehicles on US roads at the same time? Kindly remind @SecRaimondo that iPhones are American products. Were you suggesting that iPhones, Tesla and even Boeing… have been sending secret data back to the US and could be shut down at any time by Washington?"
Hua also posted a graphic comparing the behavior of China and the US in the automotive industry, asking "Who is using 'unfair practices' in global auto market?"

The image showed that China's approach is "open to global auto companies," while the US is taking "unprecedented steps" against Chinese vehicles.
The top half of the picture shows Tesla CEO Elon Musk being warmly welcomed in Shanghai during his visit to China in 2023, with Chinese employees posing for photos with him; the bottom half of the picture shows Chinese electric cars labeled as "under investigation."

Hua said, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The post is accompanied by an image listing the US "China threat" items including Huawei, TikTok, weather balloons, cargo cranes, corn mills, garlic, vehicles and more to come, depending on politics.
The US government plans to investigate Chinese-made electric vehicles to make sure that the vehicles have no data security loopholes. In response, Mao said on Friday that Chinese-made cars are popular globally not by using "unfair practices" but by emerging from fierce market competition with technological innovation and superb quality.

"China's door has been open to global auto companies, including US auto companies, that fully shared in the dividends of China's big market. By contrast, the US has engaged in trade protectionism and set up obstacles including discriminatory subsidy policies to obstruct access to the US market by Chinese-made cars. Such acts of politicizing economic and trade issues will only hinder the development of the US auto industry itself," Mao noted.

China urges the US to respect the laws of the market economy and the principles of fair competition, stop overstretching the concept of national security, stop its discriminatory suppression of Chinese companies, and uphold an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment, the spokesperson added.

The good news is that EU members blocked on Wednesday new rules requiring large companies to check if their supply chains use so-called forced labor or cause environmental damage, but it is not yet time to celebrate, as there are still many tough battles ahead.

The business community had criticized the rules, fearing they will create bureaucracy and legal uncertainties for EU companies. As reported by the SCMP, the rules would have required EU firms with more than 500 staff and 150 million euros ($162.7 million) in net turnover worldwide to conduct detailed audits of their suppliers and partners, including those in China.

The problem is that such detailed audits will put heavy and unnecessary political shackles on EU companies. What's even worse, the audits may be used as tools to politicize the issues of human rights and environmental protection, disrupt global supply chains and hinder normal cooperation between EU enterprises and their partners. There is no doubt that the EU's supply chain rules would result in economic losses for EU enterprises.

A Wednesday vote of the bloc's 27 members in Brussels fell short of the qualified majority required to adopt the rules. It is indeed a positive step by the EU. It proves that at the current time, there are more than a few political elites in the EU who don't want to see a serious conflict between the EU's political strategies and enterprises' business interests. This helps maintain European policymakers' basic strategic sobriety and rationality in the current complex situation of internal and external challenges.

In December 2021, the US signed the so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law. While the act is drafted in a way that seemingly only targets certain products made in China's Xinjiang, all enterprises in the supply chain, including Western ones, suffer losses because they must prove themselves "not guilty," against the backdrop that the US government has made a presumption of guilt against them. This would cost companies a lot of time and money, even if they could prove it, which is nearly impossible.

It is not much of a surprise that the US may have hoped Europe could take similar steps to politicize issues such as human rights. So, especially when the US is pushing toward this direction from the outside, it is both timely and necessary for European leaders to have blocked new rules that would hold big companies responsible for so-called human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains. In the current complex international environment, European leaders' strategic sobriety and rationality will help provide more room for the development of the European economy.

However, although Wednesday's vote fell short of the qualified majority, it is believed there will still be a small group of EU politicians who will try to continue to politicize human rights issues. Especially, Wednesday's vote may make the US more aggressive in pressuring Europe. This will test the independence of Europe's policy.

In recent years, the US has become increasingly unscrupulous in its campaign to contain China's economic rise, but the more the US wants to suppress China, the more it will drive China's development. 

China's Xinjiang is a good example. In 2023, Xinjiang's foreign trade totaled 357.33 billion yuan ($49.71 billion), a year-on-year increase of 45.9 percent, ranking second among China's provincial-level regions in terms of growth. 

Despite Western smears and malicious crackdowns, Xinjiang has entered the fast lane of development. A large number of European companies have invested in Xinjiang. 

The economies of China and Europe have a high degree of complementarity. Both sides should strengthen the complementarity of the market and supply chains, exploring new models of further cooperation.

US companies are welcome to continue to invest in China and cultivate the Chinese market to share development opportunities, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday when meeting a US business delegation in Beijing, stressing that "decoupling" and the "small yard and high fence" approach are not in the fundamental interests of both sides.

During his meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce (USCC) delegation led by President and CEO of the Chamber Suzanne P. Clark, Li said that the Chinese and US economies are highly complementary and their interests are deeply integrated. Strengthening economic and trade cooperation is a win-win outcome for both countries.

"China is pursuing Chinese modernization in an all-round way through high-quality development. US companies are welcome to continue to invest in China to share development opportunities. It is hoped that the USCC and entrepreneurs will continue to play the role of a bridge in promoting more communication and mutual understanding," said Li.

Clark said the US-China relationship is extremely important and "decoupling" is not a viable option. The USCC is willing to act as a bridge to deepen US-China economic and trade relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the steady development of US-China relations.

There are rising signs of improved engagement between the Chinese and US business communities. One of the latest examples is the ongoing visit by the delegation led by USCC at the invitation of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). During the visit from Tuesday to Thursday, the delegation will hold discussions with US enterprises operating in China and relevant industry associations as well as government officials.

The increasing frequency of meetings and visits between Chinese and US officials and business leaders is a sign that the world's two largest economies remain committed to stabilizing their relationship despite lingering differences and tensions, analysts said.

The delegation members included Clark, President and CEO of the USCC and Susan C. Schwab, former US Trade Representative, Yang Fan, a spokesperson for the CCPIT, said on Wednesday during a press conference, adding that the visit aims to promote cooperation between the business communities of the two countries.

"The delegation will learn about the latest developments in China's economy and business environment, which once again proves that the US business community attaches great importance to and continues to pay close attention to the Chinese market," said Yang.

Yang outlined that Ren Hongbin, Chairman of CCPIT, met with Clark on Tuesday at a working luncheon. Ren noted that CCPIT is willing to strengthen communication and contact with the USCC and further deepen practical China-US cooperation in organizing delegation visits, holding exhibitions and forums, and promoting information sharing, in order to inject stability and positive energy into bilateral economic and trade relations.

When meeting Ren, Clark said that China is an extremely important market for US companies. The USCC is willing to continue to play its role in supporting US companies in doing business in China, deepening pragmatic exchanges between the business communities of the two countries, and promoting the sound and steady development of US-China relations, according to Yang.

The USCC is the largest business organization in the US. Its members include global corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, local chambers and industry associations, according to the Chinese Embassy in the US.

The delegation held discussions with US enterprises operating in China and relevant industry associations, said Yang.

Prior to the delegation's visit, trade chiefs of the two countries met on the sidelines of the ongoing WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. The third China-US Economic Working Group meeting was held in Beijing in early February. Chinese and US officials held the third meeting of the Financial Working Group in Beijing on January 18 and 19. More high-level US officials, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, are expected to visit China later this year.

China and the US are continuing to step up engagement, which analysts saidwould provide much-needed confidence for businesses in both countries and the international community at a time of increasing global challenges.

The economic cooperation between China and the US is not only a matter of the two sides but also bears on the stability and prosperity of the global economy. Recent activities send a positive signal of stable relations and help allay the growing concerns of businesses and governments around the world, Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"Therefore, the two sides should continue to strengthen communication and cooperation to jointly cope with global challenges and promote the sustainable development of the global economy," said Wang.

The significance of such exchanges is to achieve mutual assurance of win-win cooperation, thus making the supply chain more stable, efficient and economically viable, and strengthening commercial trust, Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"China-US economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial. This is why the US wants to engage with China, even as it focuses on competing with China and in some cases even containing it," said Hu.

However, to maintain this stable trend, the US must match its words with deeds, commit to not seeking to contain China, abandon its Cold War mentality, and focus on win-win cooperation, Hu warned.

At present, the US has not changed its positioning of China as a "strategic competitor."

Technological innovation has empowered the energy transition and green development of Beijing, which has also had a spillover effect on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region in North China, the Global Times observed through a visit to the national green development demonstration zone in Tongzhou district, Beijing's sub-city center.

"Advanced" and "well-developed" are apt words for the new types power systems observed by a Global Times reporter who visited the green demonstration zone.

For example, unmanned quality inspections of electric vehicle (EV) charging piles can be realized through assembly lines that are equipped with fully automated robotic arms, which can finish 172 test items.

As the country's first automated verification and testing assembly line for EV charging piles, the testing devices have a maximum power of 900 kilowatts, with a maximum daily testing capacity of 30 units, and the testing efficiency is 90 times higher than the original system, Wang Liyong, chief engineer of the Electric Power Research Institute of State Grid Beijing Electric Power Co, said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Friday.

"The assembly line won special awards at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in 2023, the world's leading annual event devoted exclusively to invention, which showed that China's manufacturing is fully recognized by the world," said Wang.

Cutting-edge technologies and key equipment independently developed by China are going global, Wang said.

The assembly line is part of the new power system experimental base located in the national green development demonstration zone. Covering 3.7 hectares, the laboratory is now a "test field" to boost green and low-carbon development with scientific and technological innovation in Beijing, the Global Times learned.

According to Wang, the experimental base has built a new type of power system featuring a smart distribution network to ensure effective interaction of source-network-load-storage flexible resources, which is empowered by artificial intelligence.

"The new power system can promote accurate matching between supply and demand and ensure reliable power supply," Wang noted.

Building a new type of power system with a smart distribution network is part of the goal of developing new productive forces in the energy and power industry, so as to accelerate talent training and promote industrial development, Wang said.

The new power system has been applied in various areas in Tongzhou, for instance, in the "Green Heart" Park, which is just beside the Grand Canal - a vast waterway system running from Beijing to East China's Zhejiang Province.

There are four newly built switching stations and 11 power distribution rooms in the "Green Heart" Park, enabling power supply reliability in the area to reach 99.9999 percent, Kang Qi, a deputy manager of State Grid Beijing Electric Power Co, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The demonstration base is a prime example of the stepped-up efforts by Tongzhou to realize high-quality development in a green manner, said Kang.

"State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company is dedicated to the construction of a new type of power system that is clean and low-carbon, cost-effective, supply-demand coordinated, flexible and intelligent, so as to promote the clean and low-carbon energy transition in the sub-city center of Beijing," Kang said.

Experts said that the application of the new power system can be widened to the rest of Beijing, and also the Jing-Jin-Ji area.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of coordinated development in the Jing-Jin-Ji area. During the past decade, innovation-driven development has led to breakthroughs in green transformation, which have brought a cleaner and greener environment to people in the region.

In 2017, as a further boost to the coordinated development of the region, China announced the establishment of the Xiong'an New Area in North China's Hebei Province, which is meant to be built into a model of green development.

The digitalization of all power substations in the Xiong'an New Area has been completed, the Global Times learned from the local power supply unit of the State Grid during a recent visit to the area.

For example, the 220-kilovolt Jucun electrical substation is equipped with tech-enabled environmental monitoring devices and digital inspection robotics, which allow operators to make data-driven decisions and proactively address potential issues.

Chinese agricultural companies have ratcheted up collaboration with Brazilian counterparts through mergers and acquisitions, reflecting closer economic relations and China's imperative to secure and diversify food supplies, as the two countries celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.

As part of the latest efforts to deepen cooperation, Chinese companies such as Syngenta and Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co have made their moves this year in lining up to acquire stakes in Brazilian seed companies, according to media reports.

Chinese experts have said that the latest moves by the Chinese industry conglomerates showed their strong willingness to expand supply chain cooperation with the South American country in a wide range of areas, including trade, investment, business operations, technology interactions and more.

The cooperation has been strengthened after the bilateral relations have become closer than ever, with the visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in April, 2023. Agricultural cooperation was an important focus during Lula's trip.

Food security

Experts said that with food security being placed at the core of Chinese government agenda, the bilateral cooperation in the field will only get deeper and wider. Both Syngenta and Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co have strengthened their presence in Latin America through acquisitions since this year.

Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co will acquire 90 percent of the shares of the Cereal Ouro soybean seed processing plant located in Rio Verde, Brazil, according to jiemian.com on February 18, a move marks that the Chinese industry player's business in Brazil enters a new market segment.

This was not the first time that Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co expands the Brazilian market. The company has already opened up the South American market through a number of acquisitions. For example, in 2023, it opened research and development (R&D) centers in places such as Maranhao and Goias, while the R&D center in Parana is expected to be completed in 2024.

Similar to Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co's development path, Syngenta Vegetable Seeds announced its completion of the acquisition of Feltrin Sementes, a Brazilian vegetable seed company serving smallholder growers and home gardeners, in 2023.

Currently, Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co ranks third in the Brazilian corn seed market, behind Corteva of the US and Bayer of Germany.

Through cooperation, such as business mergers and acquisitions, Chinese companies can contribute to the advancement of the Brazilian farming industry by providing needed capital and technologies, Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

These mergers and acquisitions can also enhance the management of the supply chain, leading to further stabilization in the quality and quantity of agricultural products including soybeans, Li said.

Currently, the US and Brazil both serve as primary sources for China's soybean imports, with China's proportion of agricultural imports from Brazil steadily increasing.

Total soybean imports into China in 2023 reached 99.41 million tons, marking an 11.4 percent increase year-on-year. Among them, Brazil's share rose to 70 percent, while the US share decreased to 24 percent, according to public data.

In 2023, agricultural products exports from Brazil to China hit a record high to $58.618 billion, accounting for 24.85 percent of China's overall agricultural imports, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

Key factors driving this trend include Brazil achieving a historic high in soybean production last year, leading to sustained price declines on the market.

Concurrently, soybean yields in the US dropped compared with the previous autumn, compounded by lower water levels in the Mississippi River impacting barge transportation in the Gulf of Mexico, and low water levels in the Panama Canal affecting transit shipping. These factors slowed down export momentum to China, prompting Chinese buyers to expedite procurement in Brazil to secure grain supplies, Li said.

Cooperation potential

This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Brazil, with more cooperation expected to take place at the governmental and business levels. With this backdrop, experts said there is a much larger scope for cooperation that the two agricultural powers can explore.

China's robust demand for imported soybeans, often utilized as animal feed, has been greatly bolstered by the rising demand for pork.

In 2023, China's soybean imports remained above 60 percent of the world total. Experts anticipate the trend will persist with the expectation of a sustained market recovery after the pandemic.

On the other hand, Brazil is seeking to gain more access to substantial markets like China and attract more investment from China to facilitate the sale of its products and stimulate economic recovery, Wang Youming, director of the Institute of Developing Countries at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times.

"The potential for cooperation is indeed substantial for both parties," Wang said, citing the example of how Chinese companies can meet their business development needs by taking part in the construction of Brazil's infrastructure, in line with local policies.

Brazil primarily transports its agricultural products from production areas to ports via railways and waterways, but these systems are outdated and insufficient, severely hampering the development of Brazil's foreign trade, Wang said.

Currently, Chinese companies have successfully applied advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data, remote sensing and artificial intelligence in agricultural production. This has enabled real-time monitoring of crops and soil while effectively reducing pest and disease rates, and improving crop yields and quality.

"Brazilian companies can collaborate with Chinese counterparts to apply these advanced technologies to agricultural production in Brazil," Li said.