For ten years, China and Central Asian countries have been more tightly bonded together through cooperation in the traditional energy section under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, the rise of Chinese companies specializing in renewable energy and scientific institutes equipped with technology on ecological preservation has been greening the BRI in the past decade. 

By using Chinese technology and experience to monitor and improve the ecology of Central Asia countries, imparting local people the expertise to build a hydropower station, and kick starting a cutting-edge photovoltaic power plant to help generate substantial renewable energy in the region, Chinese institutes and companies are helping turn the dream of a "Green Silk Road" into reality, while also making China-Central Asia cooperation in the green sector a paragon for other countries. 

Ecological cooperation 

The Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once the world's fourth-largest lake. Farmland expansion, rising temperatures and a lack of water-saving technology caused the sea to shrink to just 10 percent of its original surface by the end of the 1990s. Large areas of the lake bed have become bare and covered with salt or salt crust. The health of local residents has also been affected, with a significant increase in the proportion of people suffering from leukemia, kidney disease, bronchitis, and asthma.

In recent years, scientists from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Uzbekistan have been actively cooperating on the treatment of the Aral Sea. 

"The Aral Sea crisis is essentially a problem of an inland lake drying up due to excessive water extraction for agricultural irrigation," Li Yaoming, the director of the Research Center for Green Development of Silk Road at XIEG, told the Global Times. 

"China's Xinjiang region has also faced similar problems in the past, such as the management of the Tarim River. China has been implementing ecological water transfer from the Tarim River for many years and has relatively mature water resource management techniques, which can provide a reference for Uzbekistan," said Li. 

In the suburb of Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, stood a 5-hectare demonstration field for drip irrigation water-saving technology. XIEG participated in the project, established an observation station for plants, brought cotton and wheat seeds from China and used drip irrigation to improve plant productivity. 

The drip irrigation technology equipment and supporting farming machinery here are all from China, Shakhzod Saitjanov, a research fellow from the Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology of the Academy of Science of Uzbekistan, told the Global Times. He believes this project will elevate the quality of Uzbekistan's agriculture and boost the country's economy. 

"Traditionally, Uzbeks tended to use flood irrigation in cotton cultivation, which requires the use of a large amount of water to wash away the salt content in the soil. We have introduced new drip irrigation technology, which will help save a significant amount of water resources," said Li. 

In addition, Chinese scientists also helped in improving and managing saline-alkali land. They use salt-tolerant plants to reduce the salt content in the soil, creating conditions for growing other crops. Artificial forests are also planted on the sandy desert that formed after the drying up of part of the Aral Sea. All of these efforts play an important role in the protection of the Aral Sea.

Since the launch of the BRI, XIEG has conducted vast fundamental cooperation with regional countries in terms of improving the region's ecology. For example, the institute helped developed an integrated water-saving irrigation system for cotton in the Aral Sea region and a 25-hectare technology demonstration base has been established. The technology has been across a 200-hectare area. In 2021 and 2022, Uzbekistan found out that yields reached 404 kilograms and 414 kilograms per mu (0.06 hectare), respectively, while the water-saving rate reached 70 percent. Both yield and water-saving efficiency were more than double that of local cotton fields.

In Kazakhstan, XIEG introduced 32 species of plants with a total of 15,600 plants, and conducted training on planting techniques and irrigation measures. The institute completed the establishment of a 20-hectare protective forest belt demonstration zone, established a comprehensive health assessment system for man-made forests, and evaluated the ecological service functions of ecological barriers.

As the Earth is becoming hotter from global warming, inland and hydropenic Central Asian countries are facing severe environmental challenges. Such challenges are pushing China and Central Asia closer in cooperation in improving the region's ecological problems after the BRI was launched.  Ten years ago, people in Central Asia had little understanding of China's in water-saving and ecological protection technology. However, climate change has made them feel the urgency of environmental protection in recent years, said Li, noting that more and more research institutes and government departments in Central Asian countries have been approaching them, seeking cooperation.

He said that ecological protection has been gradually emphasized under the framework of the BRI and that he expects the governments of Central Asian countries to endow more support to relevant projects. 

Environmental protection was highlighted during the Xi'an Declaration of the China-Central Asia Summit, which concluded in Xi'an in May. As noted in the declaration, the Parties reaffirm the need for concerted efforts to ensure food security in a changing climate, and also note the importance of farming in the most environmentally friendly ways that support biodiversity, with the optimal use of water and land resources.

Li believes that the summit, as well as development of the BRI will be a turning point for China's environmental cooperation with Central Asian countries, as "collaboration in this field has been put in a higher position ever since."    

Teach a man to fish

The Tuyabuguz Hydropower Plant in Uzbekistan was the first project completed after leaders of China and Uzbekistan signed government-to-government energy cooperation during the Belt and Road Forum held in 2017 in Beijing. 

The project, contracted by Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC), was completed within 14 months and put into operation in April 2019. As of August, a total of 109 million kilowatt-hours of electricity has been generated by the project. The station can achieve uninterrupted power generation for 11 months in a year, with an annual electricity output sufficient to meet the power needs of 1,600 households in Uzbekistan. It will become profitable within four years.  

Sun Jianfeng, a DEC project manager in charge of the station, told the Global Times on August 18 that "all power generation equipment in the project was manufactured in China, and the key technologies for the water turbines and generators were independently developed using Chinese intellectual property rights."

Sun introduced that the project was located downstream from the Akhangaran River's Tuyabuguz reservoir in the Tashkent region, which was originally used for irrigation. It was built at the location with the highest potential energy, which it fully utilizes to generate electricity, making it highly economical.

"The hydropower station maximized the utilization of energy during the irrigation process. Moreover, the project takes measures to prevent the flow of water from damaging crops or facilities," said Sun. 

The project's environmental friendliness not only embodies the generation of green energy, it also does not cause environmental problems like the construction of traditional dams, as it was built under an existing reservoir, introduced Sun.

Uzbekistan has shown enormous interest in renewable energy in recent years. The country has set an ambitious goal - generate 30 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

Sun said that Uzbekistan government has been encouraging foreign investment into the renewable energy sector in recent years, which has created a friendly environment for Chinese companies. Meanwhile, Chinese companies' advanced technology in green energy also made them highly competitive in Uzbekistan. Thus, Sun believes cooperation between the two countries has great potential. 

In May 2022, Uzbekistan's investment committee and China's Ministry of Commerce reached an agreement to build a series of small and medium-sized hydroelectric power facilities worth a total of $2.7 billion, media reported.

Apart from exporting equipment, DEC is devoted to training local experts in the hydropower industry. Sun said his company held large-scale training sessions in 2018 and 2019. More than 60 Uzbeks took part in the sessions. 

"We taught them how to operate and maintain our equipment. The locals completed installation and debugging of our facilities during the final stage. The equipment has been functioning well and been well maintained during the past three years of operation," said Sun. 

"We did not send our people to the site for maintenance, we just provided guidance online. We sold our equipment and offered them our technology at the same time. There's an old idiom called 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' We taught them how to keep the project running for the next four or five decades, so the Uzbeks are going to operate it independently in the future," said Sun.

Meet local demands

Aziz, who works at the Zarafshan 500MW Wind Power Project, is always enthusiastic about her work. Whenever she encounters a problem, she relentlessly seeks answers from her Chinese colleagues. 

Aziz considers herself fortunate to have witnessed the installation of the first wind turbine at the Zarafshan wind power project in early June. This marks the first-ever wind turbine installation in Uzbekistan.

Constructed and run by SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. (SEPCOIII) in Zarafshan, Navoi Region, Uzbekistan, the Zarafshan wind power project is the first megawatt-scale wind power project implemented in Uzbekistan. With a total installed capacity of 500MW, it will also be the largest operational wind power project in Central Asia upon completion. 

Currently, the project is in its peak construction phase. Once completed, the project will provide sufficient green electricity for 500,000 households and save 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, making a significant contribution to Uzbekistan's energy transition and sustainable economic development goals.

Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has implemented a series of reforms since taking office, of which new energy reform is an important part. According to the government plan, by 2030, the share of renewables in Uzbekistan's energy will reach 25 percent of the energy mix.

Aziz still vividly remembers the nationwide power shortage that occurred in early 2023. Despite the overall stability of the political situation and the upward trajectory of the economy in Uzbekistan, the country still faces challenges in meeting its growing electricity demand. 

However, Aziz feels optimistic about the future of energy development in Uzbekistan. Aziz's confidence in the future of energy development in Uzbekistan is shared by many. The government's commitment to addressing the power shortage issue and its efforts to attract investments in the energy sector have instilled hope among the population.  

"Uzbekistan is an important country along the BRI route, and the production and construction of photovoltaic, wind power and other new energy fields are the strengths of Chinese enterprises, so the prospects for cooperation between the two sides are promising," Ji Jun, manager of the project from SEPCOIII, told the Global Times.

'Green Silk Road' realized

A power station located in Kapchagay, Kazakhstan, co-invested and constructed by Universal Energy, a Chinese renewable energy company based in Shanghai and its Kazakhstan partners, marked the largest single photovoltaic power plant in Kazakhstan. Starting operation in 2019, the station is also the region's first large-scale new energy power station. 

With the model of "100 percent Made in China, 100 percent Construction in Kazakhstan," the project is able to generate electricity at a much lower cost than other similar power stations, and has substantially reduced carbon emissions. Wu Xiaoliang, deputy manager of the Universal Energy told the Global Times that "the station can generate 160 million kilowatt-hours on annual basis, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 50,000 households in Kazakhstan for one year. The project can reduce carbon emissions by 160,000 tons annually."

Wu also pointed out that in 2023, the company completed an international green certificate transaction with a large international trader, selling carbon assets generated from the 7,000 megawatt-hours of electricity generated by the Kapchagay power station, offsetting approximately 5,950 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. 

"The company has six newly built renewable energy power stations in Kazakhstan that have provided a total of 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity to the local area, reducing carbon emissions by a total of 1.7 million tons."

In recent years, China and Central Asian countries have accelerated cooperation in the field of new energy such as wind power, solar power, and hydropower. According to data from China Power International (Kazakhstan) Investment Limited, by the end of 2022, the total installed capacity of a series of renewable energy projects invested and constructed by Chinese companies in Kazakhstan, including the Zhanatas wind power station and Turgusun hydropower plant, has exceeded 1,000 megawatts.

The accelerated cooperation is also aimed to cater for Central Asian countries' rising ambition in exploring usage of new energy. For example, Kazakhstan has made ambitious commitments to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions to 15 percent below their 1990 levels by 2030 and of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

Wu explained that Kazakhstan can realize self-sufficiency in providing electricity at the current stage, yet the country is facing the problem of an outmoded electricity infrastructure. 

"Most of the electricity-generation infrastructure was built during the Soviet era, which means their service time is reaching the limit. Insufficient maintenance and reinvestment in certain facilities are also evident. This means that if investment in the power sector is not increased soon, Kazakhstan may face significant power shortages in the coming years," said Wu.

Compared with companies from other countries such as Germany and Japan, Chinese companies' advantages are visible: Its leading photovoltaic technology, its deep connection with Central Asian countries and China-Europe freight train services have given such cooperation a better edge.

Wu said that the Kapchagay power station alone has more than 300,000 photovoltaic modules that were transported from China through China-Europe freight trains. The time and cost advantages brought by the China-Europe freight trains enabled the project to be completed and connected to the grid within only nine months.

China-Europe freight train services are helping China-invested wind power and photovoltaic power stations successfully land in Kazakhstan, which has accelerated exports of relevant Chinese equipment, and broken Europe's monopoly over Kazakhstan's new energy equipment, said Wu.

"The 'Green Silk Road' is becoming a reality," he said.

The "Out of Africa - Celebrating the Beijing Swifts" seminar was successfully held on Monday evening in the Belgian Residence in Beijing, coinciding with the World Migratory Bird Day to promote the conservation of migratory birds such as the Beijing Swifts and their habitats. 

Ambassador of Belgium to China H.E. Bruno Angelet, deputy director-general of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau Wang Xiaoping, deputy director of the Wildlife and Wetland Protection Division Ji Jianwei, Beijing Normal University professor Zhao Xinru, professor of Ornithology at the Sun Yat-sen University, Liu Yang and Beijing-based wildlife conservationist Terry Townshend, and several ambassadors attended the event.

Ambassador Angelet, the host of the event delivered a speech. He declared a love for birds, especially the Swifts as they are intelligent, social, gentle and free, adding that he was also a birdwatcher in Belgium and after arriving in Beijing in August, he was pleasantly surprised at the great variety of birds in the city, including sparrows, which have almost disappeared in Belgium, but can be found everywhere in Beijing. 

"I was so excited to discover that European and Chinese scientists have studied specific aspects of their journey. Through this study, we have discovered that the Swifts which nest in Beijing also come every spring from Africa, mostly from Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa," he told the Global Times. 

Ambassador Angelet also expressed his hope that embassies and their Chinese counterparts will join forces to improve bilateral international scientific cooperation.

Professor Zhao and Professor Liu, two of the best-known Chinese scientists who have been studying the bird species shared the results of the citizen science surveys to count the Swifts in Beijing to help understand the bird's population trends.  

The Beijing Swift, as a migratory bird named after "Beijing," is a landmark species and one of the ecological symbols of Beijing. It spends three months a year in Beijing to breed before undertaking an incredible migration to southern Africa in mid-July for the northern hemisphere winter, professor Zhao said at the event.

At the end of 2019, I accompanied an American and German media delegation to the offices of Chinese tech giant Huawei. Although it was only for one day, this brief encounter gave me a deeper understanding of this company.

In May of the following year, when Washington imposed a severe embargo to cut off the supply of high-end chips to Huawei, the Americans had actually done something stupid. In doing so, they were pushing the Chinese company to develop its own chips more quickly.

How did Huawei get to where it is today? During that visit, American and German media colleagues didn't seem to care about that question. Instead, they repeated queries about Huawei's relationship with the Chinese government and what level of technology the company had reached. After Huawei's mobile phones broke through the limitations of 5G chip technology, I've been thinking: If Washington could start to understand this Chinese tech giant from a spiritual level rather than just speculating on Huawei's technology and relationship with the government, perhaps it wouldn't have made that decision to embargo the company.

However, the Americans will not view this Chinese company in this way because what they despise most in their bones is the spirit of the Chinese people.

Washington has never considered giving China's rise and the development of made-in-China equal status. They feel threatened by the competition and believe that China is still copying or following US technology. As long as the containment of critical technologies is in place, the US believes it can stay ahead of the competition. This traditional view about the Chinese is full of ideological bias and causes Washington to underestimate Huawei's capabilities. So much so that some US experts were anxious and even shocked to learn that the Chinese company's new mobile phones used homegrown chips.

I remember during that visit, Huawei Chairman Liang Hua, after briefly introducing his company's development, suggested foreign journalists read about the 32-year long history of the company. Fortunately, I was given a book on Huawei's history, and learned about the company's development process and the struggles of many Huawei employees worldwide.

It was revealed that in 2009, when Huawei had more than 100,000 employees, about 1,400 of them were flying somewhere every day. A middle manager from Huawei said that whenever there are plane crashes or disappearances, he prays that no employees from his company were involved. 

Any Chinese individual who visits Huawei's offices will likely feel a strong sense of spirituality through the company's products and technologies. Behind Huawei's widely talked about "wolf culture" lies not a barbaric struggle but a set of modern enterprise payment systems closely linked with the norms of a market economy. The company, which has thrived in China's economic system, has a business model that fully harnesses the spirit of entrepreneurship and the pursuit of wealth, characteristics often associated with the Chinese people.

Chairman Mao Zedong wrote in a poem that nothing is impossible if you have a willing heart. While the Americans may be able to restrict the supply of chips, they cannot suppress the determination of Huawei employees and the Chinese people's spirit to fight for a happier life. Spirit is certainly not everything, but without it, nothing is possible. Made-in-China has come so far that it is inseparable from the traditional spirit of struggle that the Chinese people have, and this spirit is closely related to the concepts of the Chinese people's treatment of work, family and children's education.

Reform and opening-up have provided abundant opportunities for the Chinese people to pursue their dream of poverty alleviation and enrichment. This has also been their source of motivation to pursue wealth, which has been nurtured by the history of Chinese culture and the survival and development of the Chinese people. Any assessment or prediction of China's economy divorced from this point is bound to be misinterpreted and misjudged. By the same token, as long as China's future reform and opening-up revolves around how to continue to unleash this vitality, it will undoubtedly be able to walk out of a new path of modernization.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton never agree on much. But there is one topic they are in curious agreement over: the dropping of charges for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and his return to Australia.   

The indictment comprises 18 charges, 17 concocted (there is no other word) from the brew that is the US Espionage Act of 1917, risks earning Assange a prison sentence as long as 175 years.

In an effort to convince Washington to drop its ongoing legal proceedings against Assange, who currently awaits extradition to the US in London's Belmarsh Prison, a delegation of Australian politicians has been mobilized.  

The delegation of Australian parliamentarians heading to Washington on September 20 is unusually eclectic. From the outside, they seem a glorious rambling tumble of the country's views. They are doing so as part of what they see as an educating mission ahead of Albanese's October visit to the US capital. 

The delegates are promising slightly different approaches with a similar theme. Senator David Shoebridge wishes to make the case that Assange was an inspiring truth teller about US war crimes. His accompanying college, former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, however, wishes to focus on essentials: Assange committed no alleged offence as a US national. 

In Shoebridge's words, the delegates will also remind US lawmakers "that one of their closest allies sees the treatment of Julian Assange as a key indicator on the health of the bilateral relationship."

Australia is an excellent friend of the US and it's not unreasonable to request to ask the US to cease this extradition attempt on Mr Assange, said independent MP Monique Ryan earlier September. The WikiLeaks founder was "a journalist; he should not be prosecuted for crimes against journalism."

What should be expected when the delegation commences its round of information sessions?  For one, there is nothing to say that those in Congress, the State Department, and the Department of Justice will not give their own serving of teaching to the delegation. The narrative of Assange in Freedom Land is of a kindergarten rosy-simplicity: he soiled US national security by revealing secrets; he endangered confidential sources; he propagandised for open government, a Svengali hoping to seduce the intelligence community into the cause of open government. 

The fact that this visit is taking place ahead of the Albanese visit can be seen in a few ways.  A generous reading is that the prime minister will arrive to an audience aware about the concerns of Australian voters, the vox populi conveyed through representatives across the political spectrum.  

A less charitable interpretation is that Albanese is short of options and short of influence in the corridors of Washington. An ally so servile, so compliant, and so accommodating - one need only sees the AUKUS agreement and its designation of Australia as a forward US military base to monitor and target China - is an ally whose opinions can be ignored. 

The latter view is hard to ignore given the almost snorting dismissal of Australian concerns for Assange at the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations held between the two countries toward the end of July. These were the words of Australia's Foreign Minister, Penny Wong: "[W]e have made clear our view that Mr Assange's case has dragged for too long, and our desire it be brought to a conclusion, and we've said that publicly and you would anticipate that that reflects also the positive we articulate in private."  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken proved less than receptive. Assange had been "charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country. The actions that he has alleged to have committed risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named sources at grave risk - grave risk - of physical harm, and grave risk of detention."

A recent, dressed-up rumor disseminated by the US ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy is that a plea deal is in the offing. Former British diplomat Craig Murray has dismissed its credibility. His reasoning is sound enough. US undertakings in this regard are manifold and shallow; they mean little in the context of international law and practice. Sadly, where Albanese is concerned, there is a sense that these efforts are all ultimately conditioned by a process that is out of his, and Australia's hands. Impotent, an ally all too willing to give and all too reluctant to demand, Australia remains the most valuable of abused friend.

A recent mall shooting in downtown Bangkok leaving two dead was particularly shocking. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Thailand despite the Southeast Asian Kingdom's high rate of private firearms ownership. 

However, this is the third American-style mass shooting in recent years.

The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, was put into custody wearing a hat with a prominent American flag on it. Media reports claim the boy suffered from mental illness and was supposed to be taking prescribed medication. It also became known that he indulged in a growing obsession with violence, particularly on unrestricted social media platforms. Before the shooting, he had posted videos of himself training with a firearm at a firing range.

It is a pattern that has already become all too familiar in the US. Now it appears a segment of Thai society is being infected by this same brand of senseless violence. 

All signs point to a mentally ill youth whose condition was compounded by what he consumed and posted on social media, along with the American-style games and media he appears to have been absorbed by. However, much of the Thai media and Thai government seem to be reflexively focusing on "gun control" and increased security at public places - treating the symptoms rather than the source of the violence. 

For those who have lived in Thailand over the last two decades, they must have seen a lot of changes. Many of these changes have been very positive. Some of these changes are negative, and are clearly imported from abroad. 

Western-style fast food has bloated the waistlines of Thais in ways unrecognizable, compared with just 10 years ago. The youth are increasingly covered in Western-style tattoos and have adopted a distinctively Western, highly self-centered perspective relative to Thailand's traditions of hierarchy, respect for one's elders, community, family and one's personal sacrifice for the collective good.  

In many ways, these changes are shaping certain segments of the population in a way that looks more American than Thai, and these changes come with many of the chronic problems that undermine social stability in the US. 

One of America's biggest problems is its toxic culture of dehumanization and violence. It is something that is purveyed through not only the media -- through games, movies and TV series -- but also through acts of very real violence, including mass shootings, carried out across the US at alarmingly frequent intervals. 

Beyond this, America's toxic culture of dehumanization and violence is expressed through US foreign policy. The US maintains hundreds of military bases abroad including in nations it illegally occupies, and has waged wars of aggression against nations from North Africa to Central Asia and everywhere in between. 

The American public and those who consume US media are told that America holds primacy over the world and that American interests come first, even at the expense of other nations. This foreign policy expressed at the highest levels of American society filters down to the culture of violence that plagues American streets where perpetrators do not see or consider the humanity of their victims, just like Washington does worldwide.

Looking at Americans today, we see just what being more "Western" means and the consequences it has on the nations being transformed in this way. 

It is no surprise then that Thailand's youth find themselves increasingly falling into a similar culture of dehumanization and violence, influenced and inspired by modern American "culture" and "values." 

While the Thai government should look into stricter gun controls to ensure firearms are not sold to the mentally ill and/or to minors, someone infected with these particular American exports will remain a danger to themselves and others with or without access to firearms. Collectively, a population infected by this culture, or lack thereof, risks destabilizing in many of the ways we now see Western nations unraveling.  

For Thailand as a nation, its economic success is built on agricultural and industrial exports as well as tourism particularly from the rest of Asia. Social harmony is part of what has always made Thailand an attractive destination for tourists and a partner for regional neighbors. Allowing Thai society to be slowly infected by these American exports of dehumanization and violence, is to forfeit some of Thailand's best attributes.

Thailand cannot solve a growing trend toward American-style dehumanization and violence through "gun control" and increased security alone. It can only solve this and other social sicknesses by first recognizing them, then protecting themselves against them, and encourage social harmony as well as elements that prom

The CR400BF-GZ train, the smartest and most frost-resistant Fuxing bullet train model, was deployed in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Monday. It's the coldest and highest region the model has been used in so far. The Fuxing bullet train has a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

The trains will be operating for the first time during the ongoing 40-day chunyun or the Spring Festival travel rush on routes in China's northernmost alpine region, China Media Group reported.

Compared with other Fuxing models, the CR400BF-GZ has the highest speed level. It is more resistant to low temperature and snow and can operate under an extreme cold environment of -40 C.

The advanced technology represents a major breakthrough for China's high-speed railway technology. The nation's independently developed model can meet the operational demand under various temperature conditions.

The designated system and parts used for constructing the model have all been specifically equipped with low temperature-resistant design, while ensuring smooth ventilation and effectively preventing snow and ice from entering the equipment compartment through the filter.

The train is also more intelligent with advanced technology implemented in targeted fields such as safety monitoring, aiming to further elevate the service quality.

Two sets of the trains will undergo a series of test run, and start operating on lines in Heilongjiang.

The world's first hydrogen-energy urban train with independent intellectual property rights officially rolled off the assembly line in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Wednesday. The train adopted the key core technology of the Fuxing bullet train, with a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.

The three taikonauts from China's Shenzhou-15 crewed mission, known as the "dream crew," on Monday made their first appearance in public 57 days later after returning to Earth in June. The crem members shared their experience and feeling in the space and deeply felt the wonder of nature, the vastness of the universe.

China launched the manned spaceship Shenzhou-15 on November 29, 2022, sending Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu to China's space station core module Tianhe.

Having spent six months living and working in the China Space Station, the three Shenzhou-15 taikonauts safely returned to the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in June.

China Astronaut Research and Training Center has scientifically formulated a recovery plan. The recovery period is mainly divided into three stages - quarantine, recuperation and observation. So far, the crew has completed the first two stages, and they are in good physical and mental condition, and have been fully in the observation stage. They will resume regular training after completing all health and wellbeing assessments.

The four extravehicular activities (EVAs) are the highlight of our crew and the highlight of China's manned spaceship development. We believe that the following crew members will create more records, Fei said at Monday's press meeting.

"To realize a dream is not the end of the efforts, but a new starting point," Deng said. Deng has been made efforts for 25 years and finally fulfilled dream of missions in space.

Zhang who took the mission in the space for the first time took a lot of beautiful photos in space, many of them are about the motherland and hometown. Zhang again and again in the window looked at the motherland, and Zhang said that what impressed him most was extravehicular activities.

"Before my first extravehicular activities, I had been looking out of the porthole, which was so small that I couldn't get a full view." When I was faced with the boundless space for the first time, "I had a deep understanding of the wonders of nature and the vastness of the universe," Zhang said.

China has unveiled its preliminary plan on manned lunar landing. China planned to land its taikonauts on the moon before 2030 to carry out scientific exploration, according to a preliminary plan released by the China Manned Space Agency in July.

"We are fully aware of the mission and responsibility on our shoulders. We firmly believe that with scientific and systematic training, the full support of space science and technology staff, the unity of our crew, we can overcome any difficulty," Fei noted.

In half a month, two economic powerhouse provinces in East China relaxed their household registration limits, leaving many wondering what the lifting of rule which once restricted migration between rural areas and cities signals for the country? 

Household registration, known as hukou in Chinese, was formed in 1958. It serves to categorize citizens as either rural residents or non-rural residents.

For a long period, almost all large cities have set strict household registration thresholds, the more economically developed, the higher the bar for registering a local hukou. Obtaining a Beijing and Shanghai hukou could be very difficult as the top cities tend to restrict population growth from becoming overcrowded.

Jiangsu Province recently drafted regulations aiming to relax limits for registering a hukou, allowing residents from rural areas to register themselves in cities, except Nanjing and Suzhou.

Earlier, except provincial capital of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province also announced to ease restrictions.

A VOA report interpreted the policy shift aimed at propping up China's housing market.

Ma Li, former director of China Population and Development Research Center, told the Global Times that the driving force behind allowing new arrivals to become permanent residents in urban areas is aimed at expanding the available urban talent pool to boost local economic development. 

Propping up the housing market is not an explicit goal set by officials, but could be one of those benefits of scrapping household registration limits, Ma noted.

Niu Fengrui, a researcher from Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times that linking the current economic situation to hukou policy reform is too short-sighted, because the essence of lifting household registration curbs is aimed at closing the gap between rural and urban regions and accelerating the urbanization of rural populations, allowing citizens to enjoy equal basic public services, which serves the overall goal of achieving the country's modernization for the wellbeing of all Chinese people. 

Optimizing population distribution

The reform of allowing rural hukou holders to register in urban cities is not a new concept. In 2014, the third meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform proposed to facilitate 100 million rural migrants and other residents to resettle into urban areas by 2020.

Previously, Guizhou, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Hainan, Guangxi and other jurisdictions have also proposed full opening-up of household registration. At least 18 provinces in China have relaxed restrictions on household registration to date, according to media reports.

However, the policy shift may be less attractive to current residents in rural areas as obtaining a urban hukou leads to a possibility of losing their rural land contracting rights and their rights to use residential land. In well-developed provinces including Zhejiang, the shortened gap between rural and urban regions' living standards means any move to further relax restrictions only delivers marginal benefits, Ma noted. 

But, rural hukou holders who now work and live in urban areas will certainly embrace the change which allows them to move their permanent place of residence to larger cities. It will grant them the equal access with urban citizens to employment, social security, family planning and other social services, Ma said. 

Zhejiang Province said it will increase quotas for public schools and improve capacity for children of residence permit holders to receive education. 

Cai Fang, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, calculated that the number of migrant workers who live in urban areas but do not hold an urban hukou is likely between 130 million and 170 million. 

But Ma also noted if rural hukou holders convert their registration to an urban area but still are allowed to hold their rural land contracting rights, an urban hukou would become very attractive because of access to better education and employment in cities. "Cities are on the process of optimizing the relevant measures." 

For provincial capital cities including Hangzhou, first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou where public resources are already stretched, however, the opening up of the household registration policy is unlikely in the short term, experts said. 

According to a recent announcement by China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on further relaxing household registration, a points-based household registration system for mega cities with a permanent urban population of over 5 million will also be optimized, encouraging local governments to lift restrictions on annual quotas for local household registration.

"The removal of the household registration system has been discussed for many years in China, I personally believe that the economic and social conditions to scrap the policy are already in place, but the traditional mindset of hukou has slowed down the process of household registration reform." 

The lifting of hukou restrictions will lead to the concentration of populations in urban areas and the decline of rural populations, several demographers noted. 

Following major reform and opening-up, China's urbanization level has increased rapidly, rising from 17.92 percent in 1978 to 64.72 percent in 2021, with the country's urban population reaching 914.25 million, the Guangzhou Daily reported citing Xiao Jincheng, former director of Institute of Land Development and Regional Economy affiliated with the NDRC.

In other words, every year, more than 10 million people move from rural areas to urban areas, find jobs and live in cities. It is believed that China's urbanization level will exceed 70 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. In the next decade, more than 100 million people will migrate from rural areas to cities and towns, Xiao said.

In the future, as more rural hukou holders move to cities, the country's rural areas are expected to be revitalized as technology-empowered agriculture will nurture professional farmers and ensure talent remains in the farming economy, Ma told the Global Times. "Like those towns in Europe, each town has its own characteristics and own way of development."

Achieving the country's modernization is the process of re-optimizing the layout of China's population, Niu concluded.

Over the ground lies a mantle of white — on Pluto. Snow-capped peaks on the dwarf planet dot an otherwise ruddy terrain. But these snowy summits appear to be composed of methane, not water, researchers report online March 3.

Mountain tops in Pluto’s Cthulhu Regio, a dark landscape abutting the planet’s famous heart, reflect more light than the surrounding area. The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto on July 14, found that the bright regions correspond to surface deposits of methane. Mission scientists speculate that perhaps methane in the atmosphere on Pluto behaves like water in the air on Earth, building up on the ground as frost at the highest (and coldest) elevations.

Some people can evade diseases even though they carry genetic mutations that cause serious problems for others.

Researchers found 13 of these genetic escape artists after examining DNA from nearly 600,000 people, the scientists report online April 11 in Nature Biotechnology. Learning how such people dodge genetic bullets may help move inherited-disease research from diagnosis to prevention.

Hundreds of mutations that lead to genetic diseases have been uncovered since the discovery of a disease-causing flaw in the “cystic fibrosis gene” in 1989. But, says study coauthor Stephen Friend, “finding the gene that causes the disease is not the same as finding a way to prevent the symptoms or manifestations of that disease.”
Clues to preventing genetic diseases could come from studying people who should have gotten sick but didn’t, suggest Friend, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues. Finding people like that is a challenge, though, because they don’t have symptoms.

To find such people, the team assembled existing genetic data from 589,306 adults who had their DNA tested as part of 12 ongoing or past studies. The researchers then searched for mutations known to cause genetic diseases in childhood. Since study participants were adults, they should already have developed symptoms.

Initially, the researchers found more than 15,000 potential escape artists. Further analysis whittled the field to 42. Of those, medical records indicated that 14 had symptoms of their genetic disease after all. Another 15 were ruled out because a closer examination found that each person had only one copy of a mutated gene. The other copy was normal, so could compensate for the debilitated copy.

The remaining 13 people carried mutations associated with one of eight different diseases, but somehow had not developed symptoms. The study suggests that it is possible to find people who are resistant to getting genetic diseases.

But some resilient people may have been missed because the study included only a fraction of known disease-causing mutations, says Daniel MacArthur, a geneticist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. More troubling is that the researchers could not confirm that resistant people were disease-free or verify that they really have mutations. That’s because consent forms signed when participants agreed to share their genetic information did not contain provisions for researchers to contact volunteers later for retesting. “Some of their resilient cases may be mirages,” MacArthur wrote in a commentary, also in Nature Biotechnology.
Garry Cutting, a medical geneticist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is also concerned that some of the lucky 13 may not be true escape artists. Cutting studies genes and environmental factors that determine the severity of cystic fibrosis, a disease in which thick mucus builds up in the lungs, pancreas and other organs. People develop the disease when they inherit two defective copies of the CFTR gene. More than 1,800 mutations in that gene can cause the disease if inherited in double copies or in combinations of mutations.

Of the 13 resilient people in the study, three carry dual copies of a very rare mutation in the CFTR gene, but don’t have cystic fibrosis.

Only one person in a database of 88,000 cystic fibrosis patients carries two copies of the rare mutation. So finding three people with double copies of the mutation is extraordinary, Cutting says. “It’s so exceptional that I believe it requires more extensive verification.”

He says he would be “delighted” if the people really turn out to be resistant to getting cystic fibrosis, but he’s puzzled why that mutation alone allows escape. It could be that a variant in another gene counteracts that specific mutation in the CFTR gene. Or a second mutation in the mutant CFTR gene may reverse the effect of the disease-causing one. However, it is possible that the three people avoided cystic fibrosis because they have only one copy of the mutated gene and one healthy copy that the researchers missed with the methods they used, Cutting says.

MacArthur points out another potential drawback to the study: Even if the researchers expand the study to 1 million or more people, they may not discover enough “genetic superheroes” to create a sample size large enough to detect protective genes. Such an effort may require participation from hundreds of millions of people and researchers willing to share data on a global scale.