Taking Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's China visit as an opportunity, the two countries expressed their willingness to strengthen multilateral coordination, oppose division and confrontation, as well as decoupling and disconnection, and work together to address global challenges, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson revealed on Wednesday at a press conference.

Meloni has just concluded her five-day visit to China from Saturday to Wednesday. The trip marks Meloni's first visit to China since she took office. She is the first European leader to visit China after the third plenum.

As this year marks the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death, both sides will deepen cultural, educational, tourism, and sports exchanges and cooperation, making the friendship between the two countries more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian introduced at Wednesday press briefing.

Both sides support the deepening of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Europe, support resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, and support avoiding the escalation of economic and trade frictions. Both sides are willing to strengthen multilateral coordination, oppose division and confrontation, oppose decoupling and disconnection, and work together to address global challenges, according to Lin.

During her time in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Meloni, while Premier Li Qiang and Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Zhao Leji held separate talks and meetings with the Italian leader, Lin stated.

Noting this trip coincided with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Italy, Lin said the two countries issued a 2024-2027 action plan on strengthening their comprehensive strategic partnership, emphasizing their willingness to uphold the Silk Road spirit, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote cultural exchanges, and elevate bilateral relations to a higher level, making greater contributions to world peace, stability, and prosperity.

During the visit, Li and Meloni jointly attended the opening ceremony of the seventh meeting of the China-Italy entrepreneurs committee and witnessed the signing of multiple cooperation agreements covering industry, education, environmental protection, geographical indications, food safety, and more. Meloni also visited Shanghai, according to the Chinese spokesperson.

During the meetings and talks, the leaders of both countries exchanged in-depth views on China-Italy, China-Europe relations, and the international situation. Both sides agreed that friendly exchanges between China and Italy have deep historical roots and have made significant contributions to the exchange and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations. They pledged to inherit and promote the friendly traditions, maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges, strengthen political mutual trust, and jointly build a more resilient and mature bilateral relationship, Lin stated.

The Italian side reiterated its adherence to the one-China principle. Both sides agreed to make good use of the China-Italy government committee and various dialogue platforms to enhance practical cooperation in trade and investment, industrial manufacturing, technological innovation, green energy, artificial intelligence, and other fields, Lin told the press.

With the lighting of the Olympic flame in Paris on Friday night, the world has officially entered Olympic time. At this very moment, the Chinese delegation has been fully prepared for this grand event. 

Chinese athletes are intensively preparing in various locations, from the athletics track to the swimming pool, from the gymnastics hall to the shooting range, with each training venue brimming with the sweat of their hard work.

Table tennis, China's national sport, carries some of the highest expectations of Chinese spectators. This time, veteran Ma Long will serve as the flag bearer for the Chinese delegation at the Olympics. Ma, also the men's team captain, said that this role has given him great confidence and encouragement. 

"Over the years, our predecessors have laid a solid foundation through their efforts, and now the baton has been passed to our generation. I hope to continue this legacy and tell the story of the spirit of Chinese table tennis and the spirit of Chinese sports at the Paris Olympics," Ma told media, according to a report by the Beijing Youth Daily on Thursday. 

Ma is aiming for his sixth Olympic gold medal in Paris.

Another highly anticipated team is China's diving team, known as the "Dream Team." On July 21, the Chinese diving team arrived at the Paris Olympic Village. Just a few hours later, the entire team completed their first training session at the aquatic sports center, making their final push.

Chinese gymnastics team departed from Beijing on July 18, starting their journey to the Paris Olympics. In Tokyo three years ago, the Chinese gymnastics team won three individual event gold medals. This time, they aim to defend their titles in their strong events while seeking breakthroughs in team events in Paris.

To better acclimatize for training, the Chinese swimming team arrived in Paris on July 6. The team consists of 31 athletes, including 18 female and 13 male swimmers, featuring Olympic champions such as Zhang Yufei and Ye Shiwen.

The total size of the Chinese sports delegation for the Paris Olympics is 716, including 405 athletes (136 men and 269 women) and 311 officials and support staff. The athletes' average age is 25, with the oldest being 37-year-old race walker Liu Hong and the youngest being 11-year-old skateboarder Zheng Haohui. The delegation includes 42 Olympic champions, and 223 athletes are making their Olympic debut.

Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day state visit to China. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs described President Putin's visit as "importantly timed and fruitful." The two heads of state signed and issued a joint statement on deepening China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries (hereinafter referred to as the joint statement). The joint statement is over 12,000 words long, with the word "cooperation" appearing over 130 times.

Currently, China-Russia relations are at their best in history, and this year marks a milestone in the development of relations between the two countries. Looking back, pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia has a solid foundation and strong internal impetus, ensuring economic and social common development and integration of both countries. Looking forward, pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia is an important guarantee for tapping the development potential of both sides and exploring long-term autonomous development. Clearly, the development of relations between the two countries is not a temporary expedient but has strong internal impetus and intrinsic value.

The rich connotation of China-Russia cooperation will continue to be enriched and elevated, and this is highly certain. For example, in terms of economic and trade cooperation, the trade of traditional labor-intensive, low-value-added electromechanical products used to be the mainstream of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation. However, in recent years, high-value-added products represented by automobiles and engineering machinery have developed rapidly. In 2023, Russia became the top destination for Chinese automobile exports, with over 900,000 vehicles exported to Russia. Additionally, many Chinese brands of mobile phones, home appliances, engineering machinery and other products are gaining increasing recognition and popularity in the Russian market. With their high quality, durability, and cost-effectiveness, they are increasingly favored by Russian consumers.

Based on mutual benefit, China and Russia continue to advance practical cooperation, benefiting the people of both countries. Maintaining a solid foundation in traditional areas such as economic and trade, energy, and agriculture is an important basis for maintaining good momentum in cooperation. Cooperation projects in these areas are also important starting points for deepening future development. For example, in agriculture, China and Russia have highly complementary advantages. If the coordination efforts in standards certification, technical specifications, and other areas of bilateral agricultural product trade continue to increase, it will lay the foundation for the development of the China-Russia agricultural cooperation experimental demonstration zone proposed in the joint statement.

At the same time, new areas such as artificial intelligence, high-tech, and basic research are also realistic choices for cooperation between the two sides. Especially in the context of the continuous impact of anti-globalization trends such as "decoupling" and "small yard, high fence," deepening practical cooperation in the new era between China and Russia will help counter external obstacles and restrictions on the technological development space of both countries, ensuring the high-level development of technology on both sides. More importantly, unleashing the potential for cooperation in cutting-edge areas will help both countries grasp the future development trend. Therefore, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia is a proactive effort rather than a passive response.

In particular, with the deepening of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, international cutting-edge technological development presents the characteristics of multiple breakthroughs and intersections in various fields. China's technology and industry are rapidly upgrading, with the obvious feature of the "engineer dividend," and the scale and intensity of basic research and development investment are continuously increasing. In the international cutting-edge technological competition, China is gradually shifting from "following" to "keeping pace" and even "leading" in some areas. This means that through cooperation with Russia in new fields, bilateral technological mutual benefit development can be effectively promoted, helping Chinese technology research and development expand into more application scenarios, benefiting both sides' enterprises and people, promoting bilateral and even regional technological standards and norms interoperability, and jointly catching up with or even leading the future trend of cutting-edge development.

The current period is an important window for practical economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia, and the two sides' connections in politics, economy, technology, and culture will continue to be strengthened. This will not only help promote bilateral economic development and stimulate growth potential, but also promote regional peace, stability, and prosperity, sharing the dividends of each other's development, gradually realizing global economic recovery and development, and making greater contributions to promoting inclusive and beneficial economic globalization. As President Xi Jinping said, steady development of China-Russia relations is not only in the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples, but also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world at large.

Xiang Piao Piao's stock price soared on Monday and hit the daily up limit after netizens found one of its products sold in a store in Japan have cup sleeve satirizing Japan's handling of nuclear-contaminated wastewater.

The Chinese milk tea brand has reportedly seen a 400 percent surge on its live streaming sales in China as millions of netizens bought the products from Saturday to Sunday.

A Chinese netizen discovered that MECO fruit tea, a drink under the brand of Xiang Piao Piao, sells products in a store in Japan with slogans on their cup sleeves showing "the ocean is not Japan's sewer" and "0.1 percent of the land pollutes 70 percent of the ocean." The picture was then exposed on Chinese media social platform.

Tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers visited Xiang Piao Piao's  live stream over the weekend after the matter went heated, in which three of the six items were sold out during the live. The daily sales of its store have skyrocketed from 2,500 yuan ($346) to 1 million yuan, according to media reports. 

The cup sleeves have also been out of stock as the demand is increasing, and it will be replenished at a later date, according to the anchor of the event. 

The official Weibo account of Xiang Piao Piao also released a statement on Saturday saying that "our staff are awesome" after its action triggered heated discussion on Chinese social media platforms. According to media report, the president of Xiang Piao Piao said during the live stream on Sunday that he would award 100,000 yuan to the related employees and donate all the income from the live stream from 8 pm to 12 am that night to the Environmental Protection Foundation.

The hotline staff from Xiang Piao Piao said that it was a personal behavior of the employees, not an initiative of the company, according to the 21st Century Business Herald. The Kyowa store in Okubo of Japan also told the media that the store has not sold drinks with such cup sleeves.

According to previous reports, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) started to dump the fifth batch of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean on April 19. In Japan's fiscal 2024, which ends in March 2025, TEPCO plans to release a total of 54,600 metric tons across seven rounds, the Japan Times reported.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Hungary, the two sides decided to elevate the current comprehensive strategic partnership to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era, which experts said on Friday will provide new economic and trade cooperation opportunities for the two countries. 

Embracing the elevated partnership, China and Hungary will eye strengthened cooperation in infrastructure construction, agriculture, digital economy, green development as well as other emerging industries. Moreover, the two countries' pragmatic and fruitful achievements have set a good example for China's collaboration with other European countries, analysts noted.

"Deeper and precise cooperation will become the key word between the two countries under the all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era, which means both sides will formulate cooperation policies that are more closely aligned with each other's development strategies," Song Wei, a professor from the School of International Relations at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Friday.

According to the joint statement released by the two countries, emphasis is placed on enhanced cooperation in infrastructure construction under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

The two countries are willing to actively promote the construction of the Hungarian section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway, and jointly promote high-level connectivity in Central and Eastern Europe.

In addition, the two sides will support the sound and steady development of the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line, and promote connectivity and trade between China and Hungary.

The two sides spoke highly of the development of the China-Europe Railway Express between China and Hungary, and agreed to establish an inter-governmental cooperation mechanism on the China-Europe Railway Express, promote infrastructure connectivity, and jointly take practical measures to ensure the security of the transport routes and improve the quality and efficiency of the China-Europe Railway Express, so as to provide important support for deepening economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

"From the Hungary-Serbia Railway to China-Europe Railway Express, infrastructure cooperation has promoted cross-border connectivity which then helps related countries become embedded in the European and global value chain, reducing the cost of logistics and personnel," Song noted.

Moreover, the two sides recognized the huge potential in agricultural cooperation between them and will strengthen economic, trade and investment cooperation between agricultural enterprises of both sides, widen market access, promote the cooperation of "small and beautiful" projects, and strengthen cooperation in areas such as animal health and joint research and development of deep processing technologies for agricultural products.

In the latest achievement in bilateral agricultural cooperation, China's General Administration of Customs announced on Friday that it has allowed, effective immediately, the import of Hungarian fresh cherries that meet the relevant requirements. 

According to the statement, the two sides will promote orderly cooperation in emerging fields including clean energy, artificial intelligence (AI), mobile communication technology and nuclear energy and technology. They will deepen cooperation in digital economy and green development, foster new drivers of trade and economic growth, expand the scope and depth of economic and trade cooperation, and jointly safeguard the stability and security of industrial and supply chains.

The two sides will also further deepen cooperation in finance, encourage financial institutions of both sides to provide financing support and financial services for trade and investment cooperation, further tap the cooperation potential in green finance and other fields, and continue to jointly issue green Panda bonds. 

"The joint statement covers a wide range of cooperation fields, including economy, science and technology, and culture, showing the comprehensive and multi-dimensional character of China-Hungary cooperation," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

Looking ahead, Wang noted that with the transformation of the global energy structure, cooperation in the field of clean energy is particularly important. China and Hungary can develop in-depth cooperation in the fields of solar energy and wind energy. Moreover, there are also high expectations that collaboration in AI and mobile communication technology will be enhanced.

Wang said the pragmatic cooperation between China and Hungary provides a successful example of cooperation between China and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This model of cooperation can serve as a reference and a model for other countries and promote cooperation and development in the region as a whole.

"In the context of geopolitical tensions, especially the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Central and Eastern Europe itself is facing a series of challenges, and strengthening cooperation with China is conducive to its independent development and regional stability," Song noted.

When my foreign friends asked, "Have you felt any discrimination in Xinjiang," I recognized how misinformation from Western reports affected people's impressions of Xinjiang. Such false narratives not only lead to some people from Western countries believing that Xinjiang is still full of ethnic conflict, but also create an air of mystery and suspicion among people yet to visit the region. 

This partly explains why Xinjiang has to stick to opening-up. Besides considering the national strategy, for the region itself, it is also time to step out of the shadow of Western political and media-driven propaganda to confidently show a real Xinjiang to the whole world. 

Forget the so-called genocide, forget the so-called re-education camps - Xinjiang is far more vast, far more beautiful, and has a far richer history and culture heritage than you can read in any biased and maliciously skewed reports.   

What is Xinjiang really like? 

It is a wonderful land comprised of three mountain ranges and two basins, a place where lush pastures stretch out as far as the eyes can see and is complete with four seasons from the south to the north. 

It is also characterized by the smiling Uygur concierge in the hotel waiting for you at midnight, extending services with the phrase "please come to me whenever you need any help." It is the talented young Kazakh men proficient in five languages conversing with guests from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran like old friends. It is also the Han resident who would simply and directly tell you: "Our Xinjiang is the best."   

It is a paradise of fruits, from figs and various kinds of grapes to pomegranates. It is known as the home of succulent lamb and beef. As the locals say, "when we eat lamb, we are receiving nutrients from nature as what our sheep eat is all the grass and herbs naturally grown on the land."

Xinjiang's beauty beats the limited imagination of some. In the past, Xinjiang has been unable to effectively protect itself against politically-motivated mudslinging. For its admirers, both in China and in the rest of the world, simply taking in its beauty through images available online is an overwhelming experience, but some have embraced the adventure it holds and visited the region of themselves. 

But as 2023 has witnessed historical opening-up efforts, it is certain that the region will shake off the haze of the malicious campaigns against it and firmly move forward on its own track of development, playing a better role in serving as the country's bridgehead in its westward opening-up.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has arrived in Shanghai, to preside the launch of a new flagship Apple store in downtown Shanghai on Thursday, local media reported. He last visited China in October 2023.

Observers said that Cook was in Shanghai to inaugurate the new Apple store and attend a series of activities to boost Apple's business in China.

According to Cook's post on Chinese social media account Sina Weibo, he spent Wednesday morning walking the Bund with Chinese movie star Zheng Kai, and had a classic Shanghai breakfast. On Tuesday, he also posted, offering his congratulation to the opening of the new store at Shanghai's Jing'an district.

Sina Weibo user named "Keneng Youdian Xie" commented that Cook might be the most frequent visiting US CEO to China. Other netizens said they were looking forward to meeting Cook at the opening of the new Shanghai store.

Apple Jing'an store is the highest-standard Apple store in the Chinese mainland. According to media reports, the store covers an area of 3,835 square meters, with a total investment of 83.4 million yuan ($11.61 million). Only the Apple store on New York City's Fifth Avenue costs more.

Apple is expected to bring high-quality devices and services to Chinese consumers, as the company faces increasingly fierce competition from a slew of Chinese local brands, industry insiders said.

Apple iPhones have struggled in the Chinese mainland market over the first six weeks this year, with sales plunging by 24 percent year-on-year, a report by market research organization Counterpoint Research said on March 5, noting that the US tech giant's market share has been squeezed by aggressive pricing from OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi.

Experts said that Apple's move is understandable since China remains its second largest market after the US, underscoring the company's confidence in exploring the massive Chinese market, while adding that Apple needs to ramp up investment in research and development to make new technological breakthroughs and regain lost market share in one of the world's most important markets.

Tianshui spicy hot pot, based in Northwest China's Gansu Province, has been trending on China's social media recently, attracting troves of tourists for this delicious and mouth-watering delicacy.

Driven by social media buzz and local marketing promotions, tourists and foodies alike have flocked to Tianshui.

Searches for travel to the medium-size city Tianshui have surged. Data from Chinese travel giant, Tongcheng Travel, revealed that, as of Thursday, searches for travel to the city surged by 186 percent during last week, which have kept on growing up. Bookings in Tianshui for hotels and attractions were up 40 percent year-over-year during the past month, another online tourism site Trip.com reported on Tuesday.

Related topics about Gansu Tianshui spicy hot pot have also appeared on Sina Weibo's trending list, garnering at least more than 94 million views as of press time on Sunday.

The Gansu-style spicy hot pot, with features fragrant splashed chili oil and distinctive and wide noodles, has recently been popular, attracting foodies from all over China. It is a tongue-numbing spicy dish loved for its satisfying flavor and the richness of colors.

Different from Sichuan cuisine, another place in Southwest China famous for its hot pot, the secrets for tickling the taste buds come from local specialty ingredients in Tianshui - Maiji peppercorns and Gangu chili peppers. Both belong to local specialty agricultural industries.

"I never thought that Tianshui would one day become an 'online celebrity' in the catering and tourism industry for the spicy hot pot, considering the city was once known as an important route of the ancient 'Silk Road' and blessed with a rich history, cultural heritage destination in northwestern China," Wang Kaixuan, a 23-year-old University student from Tianshui told the Global Times on Sunday.

While some say Tianshui's hot pot sensation is aimed at emulating the success of Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Zibo in East China's Shandong Province, two phenomenal travel hits thanks to social media promotion, hospitality of local people and the high level of services provided to vast tourists.

Wang said he plans to invite his friends to come for a visit to Tianshui and enjoy the local hot pot during the Qingming Festival in April. "I definitely hope my hometown to become the next Harbin, as my city is well prepared and is grasping the chance and welcoming tourists with sincerity and well-equipped facilities."

Domestic tourists made nearly 4.9 billion trips in 2023, with total tourism expenditure approaching 5 trillion yuan, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute told the Global Times on Sunday. "With such a tourism boom in domestic market, we have every reason to believe that in 2024, more internet celebrity tourism spots will emerge in China. And with favorable policy support from the authorities, China will see more robust recovery, and vigorous growth in cultural, tourism industries as well, Zhang noted.
Nowadays, a Tianshui spicy hot pot restaurant is a must-go visit in the city. To better allow tourist enjoyment of the delicious food, the local government not only provides special bus commute but also prepares agricultural specialties, boutique cultural tourism routes, and exquisite local products, allowing tourists to experience the charm of local culture while savoring the delicacies.

Meanwhile, local tourism authorities are capitalizing on the city's newfound fame to stimulate the local economy. Starting from Saturday, the local authorities launched a food festival to showcase a variety of Tianshui cuisine. The week-long event is expected to attract dozens of local businesses and hundreds and thousands of tourists from all over the country to join in the spicy hot pot "carnival".

The popularity of Tianshui's spicy hot pot has had a significant impact on local cultural tourism, consumption and boosted local service sector growth.

Meanwhile, the popularity of Tianshui spicy hot pot fuels stock market surge as well. On Friday, shares related to spicy hot pot, such as Junsun Fungi Co and Yatai Holding Group Co surged. Other food companies' stocks, including Lanzhou Huanghe Enterprise Co and Lanzhou Zhuangyuan Pasture Co have also made gains.

The Chinese economy has fared quite well and has showed strong resilience under the huge combined pressure over the past years. We still believe that China was, is, and will remain the factory of the world thanks to the improved productivity levels, broad and deep industrial clusters, and well-established infrastructure, Denis Depoux, Global Managing Director at Roland Berger, told the Global Times in an interview on Thursday.

"The combination of a broad local market and the strong legacy export base make China difficult to replace," Depoux said, noting that China's fundamentals will be solid in the long run amid continuous transformation of new growth drivers.

China is no longer a cheap labor market, neither is it environmentally permissive. Fixed-asset investments are shifting from infrastructure and real estate to industrial modernization, the energy transition, as the new engines of the Chinese economy. Global geopolitical tensions, supply chain reconfiguration and a slower global economy have accelerated this trend. Domestic consumption should top these new engines, he said.

During the ongoing two sessions - annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - Chinese policymakers set an annual GDP growth target of around 5 percent for 2024, showing their confidence of maintaining high-quality growth despite uncertainties and challenges at home and abroad.
Achieving the target "is not a low-hanging fruit," Depoux noted, adding that ensuring economic stability continues to be an important task for the Chinese government in 2024.

In the short term, government stimulus should remain targeted and limited to support the country's long-term and major strategic planning and construction of key areas. Meanwhile, the central and local governments can activate more structural policy levers, with reforms that in some cases already have started, he said.

"2024 is an important year to transform. It provides an important opportunity for Chinese companies to push the transformation," Depoux said, urging companies to end their "wait-and-see" approach, face the changes and start to take concrete actions to implement the transformation to prepare themselves to better fit into the future and support the economy.

After decades of development, China's old engines of growth are gradually being phased out, but the powerhouse lives on, Depoux said. He said there are three key drivers that will structure China's future development, namely industrial modernization, energy transition and decarbonization, and transformation of domestic consumption.

We have seen China leapfrogging others in some new areas such as electric vehicles, energy storage, and more will be expected in healthcare, space, new materials and artificial intelligence, Depoux.

"In the area of decarbonization, technology is not everything, and services, activating specialized know how, are at least as important - a strong potential for foreign companies to strive in China," he said.

In recent years, China has been putting in effort to re-boost the confidence of foreign business and restated that foreign business would continue to play an important role in China's future economy, Depoux said.

This year's Government Work Report pledged that the country will pursue higher-standard opening-up and promoting mutual benefits in 2024. It stressed that all market access restrictions on foreign investment in manufacturing will be abolished, and market access restrictions in services sectors, such as telecommunications and healthcare, will be reduced.

"Given China's economic prospects, we expect our strategy and operations consulting business to continue to grow," Depoux said.

China will strive to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace, according to the Government Work Report submitted to the second session of the 14th National People's Congress on Tuesday, as part of the major tasks for the economic and social development of the world second largest economy in 2024.

The report listed several tasks, including industry and supply chain improvement and upgrading, and the cultivation of emerging sectors and future-oriented industries such as hydrogen power and new materials. Innovative development of the digital economy will be promoted, with an AI-Plus initiative to be launched, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Experts said that the moves showed the determination of the Chinese government in deepening reform and further opening-up while achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, which is the core for the nation's development of new quality productive forces.

Technological innovation will maintain the competitiveness of China's industry and supply chains, particularly in high-end and booming industries such as new energy and the digital sector, while making breakthroughs in some key areas like manufacturing of advanced chips amid the technology crackdown by the US, experts said.

The Chinese government will vigorously advance new industrialization, make more breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, promote coordination between innovation chains and industry chains, and drive forward industrial innovation through technological innovation, according to a report submitted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planner, on Tuesday to the national legislature for deliberation.

New growth drivers and new strengths will be fostered and expanded to keep raising productivity, the NDRC's report said.

In order to do that, a score of major tasks need to be conducted. Among these are improving the nation's capacity for scientific and technological innovation; accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries; fostering emerging and future industries; promoting the further integration of the digital and real economies; spurring the development of modern services, and speeding up the building of a modern infrastructure system, according to the NDRC's report.

As part of this effort, the central government has pledged to allocate 370.8 billion yuan ($51.51 billion) for science and technology in 2024, an increase of 10 percent, with a focus on basic research, applied basic research, and national strategic tasks in science and technology, it says in a separate report on budgets submitted by the Ministry of Finance.

The government reports also reviewed key achievements made in 2023, which have provided a solid foundation to facilitate development of new quality productive forces.

In 2023, the government vigorously pursued innovation-driven development, and China's self-reliance and strength in science and technology improved markedly, the NDRC's report said.

Spending on research and development (R&D) reached 3.32782trillion yuan, an increase of 8.1 percent, accounting for 2.64 percent of China's GDP, the NDRC's report said. 

Experts said that the government reports submitted on Tuesday demonstrates the government's commitment and determination to achieve high-quality development, while the promotion of scientific and technological innovation serves as a crucial means to achieve this goal.

As China enters a new stage of development, attention is increasingly focused on new quality productive forces that can support high-quality growth, which is reflected in the government reports today, Zhou Hongchun, a professor with the Development Research Center of the State Council, the cabinet, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China is undergoing industrial transformation, which fundamentally involves shifting from traditional production factors to new drivers, the expert said.

Explaining this trend, Zhou said that previously, the economy mainly relied on real estate and infrastructure. But now, as major projects are completed nationwide, urban development hinges on heightened productivity and efficiency, underscoring the crucial role of technology innovation.

In recent years, developed countries led by the US have increasingly sought to constrain China's development in technology, highlighted by high-end chips.

In the face of the intensified US moves, China's technological innovation needs to be primarily self-reliant in order to ensure that its industry and supply chains remain globally competitive while curbing disruption by the US, Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom observer, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

In recent years, China has made significant investments in technology, which is reflected by the rising numbers of high-tech talent, contracts and patents in the field. In 2023, there were 950,000 technology contracts signed, with a transaction volume reaching 6.15 trillion yuan, marking a 28.6 percent increase year-on-year, Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun said on Tuesday.

Moreover, the number of authorized invention patents reached 921,000, a rise of 15.3 percent year-on-year.

China's advances in the new-energy vehicle sector provide a good example of productivity in high-quality sectors. With more government support and active business participation in the innovation and application of advanced technologies, the nation's industry will rise to a higher level, boosting the development of new quality productive forces, Ma said.