The Chinese sports delegation for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games was announced in Beijing on Saturday with netizens sending blessings and best wishes that the national sports delegation achieve the best of results and win the highest number of gold medals.

The delegation consists of a total of 716 people, including 405 athletes, 136 male and 269 female, competing in 30 sports at the Games to be officially opened on July 26. The average age of Chinese athletes is 25, with 42 Olympic champions and 223 first-time Olympians.

There are 26 minority athletes, coming from 12 different ethnic minorities of Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Uygur, Miao, Zhuang, Korean, Manchu, Dong, Bai, Tujia, and Kazakh.

The delegation includes 42 foreign staff  from 17 countries and regions, including Serbia, Spain, Italy, among which there are 34 foreign coaches.

Women's skateboarding player Zheng Haohao, 11, is the youngest member of the delegation, while the 37-year-old race walker Liu Hong, who is participating in her fifth Olympics, will be the oldest athlete of Chinese delegation.

The news received widespread public attention and quickly began trending topic on Chinese social media platforms soon after it was released. On Chinese X-like Sina Weibo, more than 24 million had viewed the topic within one hour of the announcement.

Netizens expressed their respect and blessings for the whole delegation and some expressed their deep admiration for their sporting idols. 

"Cheer for Quan Hongchan and Team China," one netizen commented on Sina.

"Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha, Fan Zhendong, go go go!" another said.

Over 10 thousand athletes from more than 200 countries and regions are expected to take part in the Paris Olympics from July 26 to August 11, according to Xinhua News Agency.

China has established a childbearing and child-rearing supporting system, with a number of  policies rolled out in localities across the country, including extending maternity leave to 158 days or longer, raising childbirth allowance and child-rearing subsidies, and providing more professional and affordable babysitter services at childcare institutions, Central China Television reported on Thursday, the 35th World Population Day, citing officials from China's National Health Commission (NHC). 

A demographer suggested that these policy measures should be further strengthened and added to cope with the fundamental concerns of young people, such as employment stability while more equitable income distribution, should be taken into consideration to boost China's birth rates. 

Themed under advocating a focus on family education and traditions and cultivation of marriage and child-rearing by the NHC, this year's population day aims to raise public awareness about further addressing China's declining birth rates in recent years and the demographic issues that may affect China's sustainable development. 

According to the NHC, all provinces have extended maternity leave by 60 days or more, and have set 15 days of paternity leave for families with newborns. In addition, five to 20 days of parental leave are given each year for families with toddlers, with all the provinces having extended their maternity leaves to 158 days or above. 

Compared with merely extending maternity leave, assuring women's employment after childbirth while offering flexible working hours may have a stronger positive effect, Li Jianmin, a professor of demography with the Institute of Population and Development at Nankai University, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

In order to alleviate the financial burden of childbearing, child-rearing and education, China established in 2022 the individual income tax special additional deduction for infants nursing for three years, with the deduction standard being 1,000 yuan ($137.53) per month for each child. In 2023, the threshold for special additional income tax deductions for taking care of children under age three was raised from 1,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan each month. 

Besides, subsidy policies for childbirth and child-rearing have been explored and rolled out in localities across the country. The subsidies offered in Southwest China's Yunnan Province and Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have covered the entire provincial regions.  

Yunnan provides a one-time subsidy of 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan to families having a second and third child, respectively, along with an annual childcare subsidy of 800 yuan until the child turns three years old. Ningxia offers a one-time subsidy of 2,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan to families having a second and third child, respectively, and a monthly subsidy of no less than 200 yuan to families with a third child until the child reaches three years old. 

According to Li, rather than introducing the individual income tax special additional deduction which has little impact on low-income families, the root cause of high costs of child-rearing expenses and the problems relating to income distribution must be addressed. 

Moreover, a unified national policy on subsidies should be introduced since governments in localities at all levels are currently acting according to their own financial capabilities with most subsidies being temporary and not being able to be sustained in the long run, Li said. 

According to the NHC, a lack of childcare services for infants and toddlers aged up to three years old is one of the major factors holding back childbirth. Last year, the NHC and China's National Development and Reform Commission selected 33 cities as the first batch of demonstration cities for national infant and toddler childcare service, and introduced relevant policies to support and encourage the development of affordable childcare services.

One of the 33 demonstration cities, Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province has adopted measures such as offering financial subsidies, providing venues, reducing rents and giving tax incentives to encourage social forces to participate in the establishment of an affordable childcare service system. 

On top of that, Li noted that policies that ensure stable employment and certainty around income will have positive effect on their family planning decisions. 

China continues to make efforts to improve comprehensive prevention and treatment capabilities for birth defects with the nationwide infant mortality rate and the mortality rate of children under 5 years old due to birth defects both decreasing by over 30 percent compared with five years ago. 

Japan and NATO are reportedly finalizing plans to establish a line for sharing highly confidential security information during the ongoing NATO summit in Washington, DC. This latest move, along with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's remarks implying China's "support" for Russia, underscores Japan's "pivotal role" to cater to the US' strategy in building an "Asian NATO" and to serve Japan's goal of breaking free from post-war restrictions, observers said.

Japan's introduction of NATO into the Asia-Pacific has drawn criticism for escalating regional instability and introducing uncertainty, with some experts expressing concerns about a potential arms race.

Kishida is expected to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to reach an agreement on Thursday to strengthen security cooperation by establishing a system on sharing high-level information even at ordinary times, The Japan News reported on Wednesday.

From Tuesday to Thursday, leaders of NATO's 32 member countries are conducting a three-day summit in Washington, DC. And for the third year in a row, the leaders of New Zealand, Japan and South Korea will attend the NATO summit.

"Japan has played a pivotal role in driving NATO's engagement in the Asia-Pacific and integrating the region into NATO's strategic framework. It has facilitated NATO's entry into the Asia-Pacific through various means and assisted the US in establishing cooperative relationships with neighboring countries," Xiang Haoyu, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Japan's enhanced cooperation with NATO serves two primary objectives: to leverage NATO's capabilities in countering China, especially in maritime disputes like the East China Sea and South China Sea, and to circumvent its constitutional constraints by pursuing unprecedented military expansion. This aims to shed Japan's status as a defeated nation in WWII and elevate its influence as a significant political power, Xiang said.

Hyping threats from North Korea, Russia and China, along with emphasizing the Taiwan question and maritime disputes is tactics that Kishida has taken to "persuade" the Japanese to back his plan to revise the pacifist constitution, bolster the defense budget and elevate cooperation with NATO, Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

In July 2023, Japan and NATO signed the renewed Individually Tailored Partnership Program, with both sides agreeing to expand cooperation on security issues across all domains of warfare. Also in recent years, Japan has been negotiating and signing new reciprocal access agreements (RAA) on defense training and capacity building with NATO member states, according to media reports.

The US is currently pushing for the convergence of the transatlantic NATO alliance and the Asia-Pacific alliance to align with its "Indo-Pacific strategy," collectively applying pressure on China to curb its rise. However, with its global resources spread thin and domestic factors like elections influencing its leadership, the US is also utilizing Japan's proactive engagement with NATO to achieve its strategic objectives, Xiang said.

Despite NATO's efforts to use the pivot to the Asia-Pacific as a catalyst to demonstrate its global influence, establishing an Asian version of NATO, which includes Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand or other countries - faces significant challenges in practice, analysts said.

Xiang noted that the diverse interests and demands of NATO's 32 member countries lead to substantial divisions on how to approach China. While NATO requires external threats to maintain internal unity as a military alliance, member states do not universally agree on whether China poses such a threat. Moreover, many countries maintain strong economic and trade ties with China, constraining NATO's focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

But NATO's expansion to Asia is also alarming. At a press conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that China's position on NATO is consistent.

We firmly oppose NATO acting beyond its characterization as a regional defensive alliance, inserting itself into the Asia-Pacific to incite confrontation and rivalry, and disrupting the prosperity and stability in this region. We urge NATO to make real contribution to world peace, stability and security, Lin said.

Da said that with NATO's increased involvement in the Asia-Pacific region and its heightened containment efforts against China, particularly concerning issues like the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits, China may face a deteriorating external environment.

Japan's efforts to introduce external influences into the Asia-Pacific have been criticized for increasing regional instability and introducing uncertainty. Their collaboration with NATO often prioritizes military aspects, thereby heightening the risk of arms races, Da said.

Moreover, when countries in a region shift their focus away from multilateral cooperation, free trade and regional welfare and development, instead prioritizing military buildup and mutual deterrence, it ultimately harms the region itself, said the expert.