Chinese oil giant CNOOC said on Sunday it has made a significant discovery in the Bozhong 26-6 oilfield in the country's northern Bohai Sea, revealing additional proven reserves exceeding 40million cubic meters. The oilfield's petroleum reservoir now boasts an accumulative 200 million cubic meters, making it the world's largest metamorphic oilfield.
Located in the southern waters of the Bohai Sea, about 170 kilometers offshore Tianjin city, drilling and exploration at Bozhong 26-6 area has kept on.
Of which, the Bozhong 26-2 North 2 Well encountered a 118-meter-thick oil and gas layer during the drilling process.
The test results showed that the average daily oil production of the well exceeded 390 cubic meters, and the daily gas production exceeded 50,000 cubic meters, setting a record high for the test productivity of new drilling wells in the oilfield.
It is expected that the Bozhong 26-6 oilfield can extract more than 30 million cubic meters of crude oil, meeting the daily transportation needs of urban residents with a population of one million for more than 20 years, after being refined into gasoline.
At the same time, it can extract more than 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which can satisfy the household gas needs of urban residents with a population of one million for more than 60 years, the company said.
The reservoirs of the Bozhong 26-6 oil field are buried in seabed hills thousands of meters deep below the surface. They are mainly composed of metamorphic rocks.
Traditional theories believe that due to the continuous strong activity of faults in this area, deep oil and gas reservoirs are easily destroyed and it is difficult to form large-scale oil and gas accumulation. Previously, more than 80 deep-water wells drilled by many well-known foreign oil companies have not made meaningful discoveries.
"To better guard against risks, it is necessary to take an unequivocal stance to deal with market wrongdoings, and financial regulators should clarify their responsibilities and strengthen policy coordination to ensure a healthy financial industry development," Zhang said.
And, promoting self-reliance in technology also requires the support of the financial sector. When financial institutions serve the national strategy, they must sacrifice temporary short-term interests, Zhang noted.
China sent a strong and renewed signal on building itself into a financial powerhouse as part of its efforts to pursue high-quality development of the financial sector.
Chinese leadership said last week that a country with a strong financial sector should have a strong economic foundation, and lead the world in infrastructure, technology and comprehensive national strength.
Such a nation should be backed up by a series of core financial fundamentals, such as a strong currency, a strong central bank, strong financial institutions, strong international financial centers, strong financial supervision, and a high-caliber team of financial talent, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
To be a financial powerhouse shows that China has taken financial development from a strategic perspective, which is unprecedented and shows the central government's emphasis on finance, said Wang Wen, professor and executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
"We must look at the current difficulties and challenges, for China is not a financial powerhouse yet," Wang said.
It's important for China to boost the yuan's role in international financing in international trade in a bid to pursue high-quality development of the financial sector, said Wang.
"Monetary policy is one of the main means of macro-control and plays a key role in the stable operation of Chinese economy. We must maintain the basic stability of the exchange rate and prioritize a strong currency as the key element of a financial power," Zhao Xijun, a professor of finance at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.
Zhao underlined that the Chinese yuan's exchange rate should be kept generally stable at a reasonable and balanced level, "because money is also economic language that represents state power and national identity and it can invigorate the capital market and boost investor confidence."
China and Japan could collaborate with each other, bringing mutual benefits and achieving common progress despite differences between the two countries, Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation and the top advisor of a Japanese business delegation which is on a visit to China, told the Global Times, noting that the Japanese side is now making joint efforts with the Chinese side in this direction.
The Japanese business delegation is made up of 200 Japanese company representatives. It has been making a visit to China from Tuesday to Friday, the first of its kind in four years. It also marked the 46th time that a Japanese business delegation visited China since 1975.
On Friday, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong met with the delegation, during which he pointed out that industries in both countries are highly integrated and complementary. Jin said that strengthening bilateral industrial chain cooperation is not only in line with market rules but also the real needs of the respective industries.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang also met with the business delegation on Thursday in Beijing. During the meeting, Li expressed the hope that the Japanese business community will play a positive role in facilitating win-win bilateral cooperation.
With regards to the result of the visit, Kosei Shindo, head of the Japan-China Economic Association, who led the delegation, said during a press conference on Thursday night that through direct dialogue, the Chinese and Japanese sides have affirmed their position, therefore "providing an opportunity for both sides to return to the original aspiration and think about bilateral economic exchanges."
He told the Global Times that the reaffirmed position of "comprehensively advancing the strategic and mutually beneficial relations" between China and Japan was mentioned several times during the visit. He added that the visit creates valuable opportunities for direct dialogue between Japanese and Chinese business communities, which is conducive to bringing bilateral relations forward.
Leaders of the two countries reaffirmed the position of comprehensively advancing the strategic and mutually beneficial relations between China and Japan during a meeting in San Francisco in November.
"It is a great position that is conducive to building constructive and stable bilateral relations. The Chinese side also mentioned the phrase 'largely identical but with minor differences' during the exchange," Tokura said, while listing a number of areas in which the East Asian economies could work together, such as sharing solutions to aging populations and low birth-rates as well as cooperating further in green transformation.
Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Ken Kobayashi also stressed that China and Japan can cooperate with each other despite differences in their national systems and conditions.
"It is the use of Chinese characters in both Japan and China that made the two countries jointly propose the 'strategic and mutually beneficial relations,' which is difficult to convey in English. And it is hoped that the business communities in both countries can conduct cooperation based upon this position," said Kobayashi.
Shindo said China and Japan could work together in tackling global challenges such as climate change, and conduct wide-ranging cooperation in medical, nursing, and emerging industries.
"The two countries could facilitate regional communication in various aspects under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and make contributions to the stability of Asia and the world," said Shindo.
China and Japan are Asian neighbors and the second- and third-largest economies in the world respectively. China is also Japan's largest trading partner and one of the top investment destinations for Japanese companies.
Bookings of Chinese tourists for outbound travel during the upcoming Spring Festival holidays (February 10-17) have boomed, as the eight-day holidays are expected to become a global Golden Week, serving as a shot in the arm for the global tourism recovery.
Since mid-December 2023, searches for overseas hotels on Chinese online travel agency platform Qunar started to show a notable increase, with countries and regions including Thailand, Japan Singapore, Australia and Indonesia as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region among the hot outbound travel destinations, according to a report the company sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
Increases of flights to participating countries of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative have also driven up outbound travel bookings. According to Qunar, searches for hotels in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt so far in January are up 100 percent month-on-month.
In addition, some countries have stepped up marketing in China in order to attract Chinese travelers.
For example, the Qatar Tourism Authority released a video on its WeChat account that invites Chinese tourists to see pandas in Qatar during the upcoming Spring Festival holidays.
China is one of the most important tourist sources for multiple countries. The return of Chinese travelers is expected to give a boost to the growth of many countries, especially those that see the tourism sector as a major driver of economic growth, such as the Maldives.
Xu Xiaolei, a marketing manager at China CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Tuesday that inquiries for outbound travel on the platform during the upcoming holidays have increased by 200 percent compared with the previous Spring Festival (January 21 to 27, 2023).
CYTS Tours offers a series of in-depth outbound travel products to countries including France, Italy, New Zealand and Australia, which are popular among Chinese travelers.
"In general, Chinese tourists show strong willingness and consumption power during the Spring Festival holidays. The outbound tourism boom during the Spring Festival holidays is expected to trigger a super consumption week around the world," Xu said.
Xu said many countries are recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling for efforts to strengthen international flights and hospitality facilities to boost the recovery of the global tourism industry with quality services.
Thanks to the implementation of five measures to facilitate foreign nationals coming to China as well as moves to waive or ease visa requirements, China's inbound tourism market is also expected to get a boost. The measures were effective from January 11.
According to data from online travel agency Trip.com, the number of inbound tourism bookings for the eight-day holidays has surged 10-fold compared with the Spring Festival in 2023, with travelers mainly coming from Japan, the US, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia.
Apart from enthusiasm for ice and snow tourism in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, other activities with local characteristics such as lantern festivals, temple fairs and hot spring tours in other cities across the country will a
China will increase investment in technological innovation to bolster strategic emerging industries, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) said on Wednesday during a press conference, in a move to accelerate the country's technology advancement and foster new productive forces.
Yuan Ye, deputy director of the SASAC, said that centrally administrated state-owned enterprises (SOEs) completed 2.18 trillion yuan ($307.8 billion) of investment in strategic emerging industries in 2023, rising 32.1 percent year-on-year.
Investment in research and development reached 1.1 trillion yuan, surpassing the level of 1 trillion yuan for a second consecutive year.
Zhuang Shuxin, a spokesperson for the SASAC, noted during the press conference that the SASAC has initiated a number of new projects in photovoltaic hydrogen production, carbon fiber manufacturing and automotive chips; set up new enterprises in laser technology, quantum communication and satellite internet, and reorganized and merged companies in the areas of electronics, new energy, environmental protection and intelligent vehicle production.
"We will build strategic emerging industry clusters and actively apply artificial intelligence technology into various sectors in order to achieve development progress in key areas of biology, new materials and new-energy vehicles," said Zhuang.
Regarding the extremely cold weather this winter, the SASAC said it will enhance the development of the new-energy sector, including hydrogen and nuclear power, power storage and virtual power plants to ensure energy security.
As of September 30, 2023, the assets of 383 listed SOEs reached 53 trillion yuan, of which 154 companies, or 40 percent, were in emerging industries.
"The SASAC will encourage centrally administrated SOEs to increase the proportion of revenue and value-added across strategic emerging industries to facilitate more companies to turn to an innovation-driven growth pattern and help foster new productive forces," said Yuan.
China on Wednesday posted a robust GDP growth of 5.2 percent for 2023, successfully beating the government's pre-set yearly target of around 5 percent. This highlighted the strong internal dynamics of the world's second-largest economy and its significant potential for continuous expansion, even amid a turbulent international macroeconomic environment, continuing to drive global resurgence.
The country's economy particularly achieved a standout performance in the fourth quarter, growing 5.2 percent between October and December. Chinese Premier Li Qiang has already projected a 5.2 percent GDP growth for 2023 during a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday.
Despite factors including a slowdown in the real estate industry, China's economy emerged from the shadows of the pandemic over the past 12 months, achieving a remarkably steady growth. Standout achievements included vibrant services sector spending, substantial investments in high-end manufacturing, and notable advancements in foreign trade activities. These compelling data refuted the continuous attempts by certain foreign media outlets to paint a negative picture of China's economic recovery.
Analysts noted that the fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain solid, with new growth drivers continually emerging, while certain risk factors are being steadily addressed by government policies. Despite challenges expected in 2024, there is a positive outlook for the Chinese economy to navigate the choppy waters, ensuring continuous and steady growth.
In 2023, China's annual GDP reached 126.06 trillion yuan ($17.52 trillion), registering a 5.2 percent growth compared to the previous year. Despite stiff headwinds, the national economy demonstrated resilience, achieving a new milestone in overall economic development, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
Bright spots
In terms of industry breakdown, the value added in the primary sector surged to 8.98 trillion yuan, showing a robust 4.1 percent increase from the previous year. The secondary sector contributed significantly with 48.26 trillion yuan, marking a steady growth of 4.7 percent, while the tertiary sector added 68.82 trillion yuan, experiencing a notable 5.8 percent increase.
Looking at the quarterly performance, the year-on-year GDP growth rates were 4.5 percent in the first quarter, 6.3 percent in the second quarter, 4.9 percent in the third quarter, and 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter.
In 2023, China's total grain output reached 1.39 trillion jin (695 billion kilogram), an increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year, consistently exceeding 1.3 trillion jin for the ninth consecutive year.
The annual value-added of the national industrial enterprises above a designated size increased by 4.6 percent compared to the previous year. In particular, that of the equipment manufacturing industry grew by 6.8 percent, 2.2 percentage points higher than that of the overall industrial enterprises above a designated size.
The total retail sales of consumer goods recorded 47.15 trillion yuan, up 7.2 percent year-on-year. Spending in the services sector experienced rapid growth, with a year-on-year retail sales increase of 20 percent .
The annual per capita disposable income of residents nationwide reached 39,218 yuan, marking a nominal growth of 6.3 percent compared to the previous year.
Analysts have taken stock of highlights in the country's economic performance in 2023.
"For starters, it is the commendable and sustained industrial upgrades from medium and low value-added industries to high value-added industries," Tian Yun, an independent macro analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Tian highlighted automotive, airplane and ship manufacturing as highlights that beat market expectations the most.
In 2023, China's auto production and sales for the first time both exceeded 30 million units, a record high, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers last week. By shipping over 5 million automobiles overseas, the country is estimated to have overtaken Japan as the world's largest auto exporter in 2023.
The annual national fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) reached 50.3 trillion yuan, showing a growth of 3 percent compared to the previous year. Notably, investment in the manufacturing sector increased by 6.5 percent. The high-tech industry investment emerged as a highlight, growing by 10.3 percent and surpassing the overall investment growth by 7.3 percentage points. Investments in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech services increased by 9.9 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.
"The second notable highlight is evident in addressing and strengthening the weaknesses or shortcomings [in high-tech sectors]," Tian said.
For instance, in the field of semiconductor technology, China has witnessed a decline in chip imports, yet its domestic production has not only been maintained but has also demonstrated higher efficiency, Tian said, stressing that it was an impressive progress in the face of an ongoing US blockade.
China's global trade position is unassailable. Without the export of high-quality and low-cost technologically advanced products from China, many countries, especially developing and low-income nations, might face even more severe development challenges than they currently do, Tian added.
During a Friday interview with the Global Times, Yu Xiangrong, Citi's chief economist for China, also highlighted the accelerated recovery of spending of services, improvements in the export chain and the rapid development of high-end manufacturing as bright spots in China's performance over the past year.
As the Spring Festival holidays approach, domestic travel, outbound and inbound travel bookings have all witnessed significant growth. For the upcoming holidays, domestic travel bookings have grown over 7 times compared to the previous year, while both outbound and inbound travel bookings have increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, per data sent to the Global Times by online travel agency Trip.com on Tuesday.
On Friday, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) released China's foreign trade data for 2023, revealing trends that exceeded expectations. Total trade grew 0.2 percent year-on-year to 41.76 trillion yuan.
GAC deputy head Wang Lingjun told a press conference that "China's imports and exports performed 'better than expected,' and it is expected to maintain its position as the world's largest goods trading nation for a seventh consecutive year."
According to the World Trade Organization, the international market share of China's exports in 2023 was likely to have remained at a high level of around 14 percent.
Managing risks
While highlighting the lingering challenges, the real estate sector saw its investment decline by 9.6 percent. The national sales area of commercial residential buildings stood at 1.12 billion square meters, reflecting a decrease of 8.5 percent.
Tian noted that the risks associated with local government debt and the real estate sector are entirely manageable. In fact, the levels of indebtedness in the real estate industry to overseas creditors decreased significantly last year, he added, noting that "moreover, there is still sufficient room for further improvement in China's urbanization rate."
"We see the drag by the property sector will likely diminish in 2024," Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist with ANZ Research, told the Global Times in a written interview.
Xing further predicted that China is expected to set a GDP growth target of 5 percent for 2024 and "potential growth should still be above 5 percent."
Yu Yongding, academic advisor to the CF40 and Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also said in a recent article shared with the Global Times that "In my opinion, the economic growth target for China in 2024 should not be lower than 5 percent."
As the new year begins, efforts are being made to achieve a robust economic start to the year all over the country.
Bustling tourism in Harbin, the capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is propelling the rapid recovery of the national cultural and tourism industry. Major projects are being commenced across the country, targeting areas such as improving living standards, advancing infrastructure and urban renewal, and upgrading industries.
"Politically, 2024 is the Voldemort of years," reads the latest report issued by Eurasia Group, a US-based global political risk research and consulting firm.
In its annual report, "Top Risks for 2024," released on Monday, Eurasia Group provided the reason for this view: Three wars will dominate world affairs in 2024: Russia vs. Ukraine, Israel vs. Hamas, and the US vs. itself. The top three global risks listed in the report are "the US vs. itself," "Middle East on the brink" and "Partitioned Ukraine."
In other words, the world is entering a year of grave concern - "the Voldemort of years" because of the US, as all three top risks are related to the US. It's fair to say the US is the source of global risks in 2024.
According to Eurasia Group's report, US public trust in core institutions - such as Congress, the judiciary, and the media - is at historic lows; polarization and partisanship are at historic highs. The report said that if the current Republican candidate, Donald Trump, loses to incumbent President Joe Biden in the next election, he will allege mass fraud once again and "incite widespread intimidation campaigns" against election workers and secretaries of state in both red and blue states. At the same time, Biden would be 86 years old at the end of his second term. "The vast majority of Americans want neither to lead the nation."
The US election has now become an either-or choice between "worse" and "the worst." Americans are helpless, yet they have no better choices. The election risk is rooted in the internal political division within the US, and the conflict of interests between the Democratic and Republican Parties has reached an irreconcilable point. The current political system in the US cannot bridge such contradictions and conflicts, leading to a political deadlock, which means that whoever takes office will not have the ability to point out a path for the US, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
With the increasing polarization and social division in American politics, some polls show that Americans have a more open attitude toward using violence to achieve political goals. The US has increasingly become "the United States of Political Violence." Now, the US has become a country that makes the world worry.
"When a country's internal risks reach a certain level, it is highly likely that the conflict will spill over. The US wants to shift its risks to other countries and divert domestic attention, making other countries share the pressure of its internal issues. This is terrifying," Lü said.
Regarding the other two top risks faced by the world mentioned in the report, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza war, the US also bears an undeniable responsibility.
The US' push for NATO's eastward expansion directly led to the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war and the US has acted as the biggest hurdle to a ceasefire. Michael von der Schulenburg, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General revealed at the end of 2023 that "just one month after the start of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators had come very close to an agreement for a ceasefire and to an outline for a comprehensive peace solution to the conflict." But "these peace negotiations failed due to resistance from NATO and in particular from the US and the UK. The reason is that such a peace agreement would have been tantamount to a defeat for NATO, an end to NATO's eastward expansion, and thus an end to the dream of a unipolar world dominated by the US."
In 2024, the US and some other Western countries may experience "Ukraine fatigue" to some extent in terms of providing aid to Ukraine, but due to the need to maintain their geopolitical advantage, it is expected that they will continue to use Ukraine as a pawn to engage in fierce competition with Russia.
On another battlefield, Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. However, the US has consistently maintained its "taking sides" stance. And the US has never truly had the intention and capacity to promote peace.
The US is indeed the source of global risks. What is even more tragic is that even though the Eurasia Group predicted future risks, we still cannot avoid them. Furthermore, US think tanks, consulting firms, and politicians have shown little interest in restricting US' destructive actions on the world.
At present, one of the core objectives for countries around the world to engage with the US should be to avoid the US bringing more risks to the world, said Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University.
China's Ministry of Education (MOE) on Thursday published a list of 184 primary and secondary school artificial intelligence (AI) education bases across the country including North China's Beijing, Tianjin, and East China's Shanghai, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, and South China's Guangdong Province, aiming to promote AI education systematically nationwide.
The publicity period lasts from Thursday to January 17. Anyone who has objections can submit relevant information during this period, according to the ministry.
In May 2023, the MOE issued an action plan for deepening the reform of the basic education curriculum, in which it required teaching equipment and usage to be improved, and a group of characteristic high-level science and AI education primary and secondary school bases to be selected.
In Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and a few provinces, there are six schools on the list. Some schools started AI education in recent years in the face of the rapid development of AI technology, as a way to encourage more students to gain more knowledge in this sector, and inspire their creative capability to learn how to analyze data and identify patterns based on AI algorithms.
One example is Wenzhou No 22 Senior Middle School in East China's Zhejiang Province , which was founded in 2002. The school has always been at the forefront of information technology in the country, and has been awarded the title of one of the first "100 digital campus demonstration schools" in China.
"AI education has been explored in our school for nearly five years," Ding Die, vice principal of Wenzhou No 22 Senior Middle School, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The school has integrated the curriculum standards related to AI in the fields of information technology and general technology, and has incorporated the course content and practical applications into the school's AI education space. The space integrates the fields of design, teaching, and operation, and is equipped with 3D printers, laser engraving machines, high-end computers and other equipment, according to Ding.
Ding said that the schools will continue improving the relevant AI courses and popularize them among students. The school will also strengthen the connection between students and AI projects in universities, to make students' career planning clearer during their learning process.
Shanghai Luwan Senior High School has also been conducting AI education practice and exploration in recent years. This initiative to establish primary and secondary school AI education bases is highly beneficial to the public, and will be welcomed by parents and students, Zhang Xiaojun, a teacher who tutors students in science and tech classes from this school, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Due to the lack of equipment and teacher resources in some schools, students have limited space to learn more in this sector. With a nationwide drive to build AI bases, students will have the opportunity to delve into real technical content, participating in and gaining knowledge in this field, according to Zhang.
In the school, students are categorized into general courses, advanced courses, and high-level courses specifically designed for a few students. Every student can have access to some basic AI content, such as graphic programming, and using AI to solve practical problems. For advanced courses, they will study specific projects, such as autonomous driving, intelligent logistics, and drone programming, Zhang said.
Zhang said that systematic training and an incentive mechanism will be beneficial to cultivating more teachers in this sector. Ding, the vice principal, also echoed the opinion that it will encourage teachers to take every opportunity to train in AI teaching.
China will carry out further training sessions to boost the scientific competence of primary and secondary school teachers, said a circular jointly issued by the general offices of the MOE, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Association for Science and Technology in July 2023. More than 3,500 teaching staff and science counsellors in primary and secondary schools have participated in the training sessions, which started from mid-July, according to the authorities.
