Over the past decade, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), following the guiding principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, has grown into a global platform where countries along the routes work together to promote people's well-being and give a further boost to global development. As the BRI celebrates its 10th anniversary, Global Times reporters Shan Jie, Guo Yuandan, Shen Weiduo and Leng Shumei interviewed leaders and diplomats to learn about achievements of the cooperation in New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the past decade and their expectations for high-quality BRI construction in the next decade.

As President Alberto Fernández is scheduled to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to be held in Beijing this October, Global Times reporters interviewed Argentine Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja on the latest development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and its implications for the world amid geopolitical challenges.

Multiple cooperation projects between Chinese enterprises and those from other BRICS countries have been boosted following the recently concluded 15th BRICS summit, which experts said underscores the efficiency of the bloc and that there is great cooperation potential between China and other BRICS countries.

Shantou, a special economic zone (SEZ) located in coastal Guangdong Province, is home to a burgeoning private economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spanning toys to electronic equipment and machinery manufacturing have served as a strong foundation for the city's economic growth and employment resilience.

A team of South Korean researchers recently claimed to have discovered a superconducting material that works at ambient temperature and pressure, mainly a modified perovskite crystal structure (referred to as LK-99), a type of lead phosphate with copper doping, which allows electrical currents to flow without resistance or energy loss at ambient temperature and pressure.

In the early morning on June 16, 2023, a Tanzania Airways flight TC403 touched down at Julius Nyerere International Airport after an over 11-hour journey. Passengers onboard might be unaware that in the underbelly of the plane stood a consignment of special "guests" – 16,500 chicks from Beijing.

The exports of cooling products have increased with many Chinese exporters and producers reporting a rise in sales as the world braces one of the hottest summers in history.

Since mid-June, many places in China have experienced high-temperature weather, with some areas having broken the records of the highest temperatures in the same period in history. As the surface temperatures in some areas exceeded 70 C recently, cooling demands drove up power consumption in China.

Economic partnership between China and Saudi Arabia is reaping more fruits, as the two nations extend their cooperation beyond oil as the closer bilateral relations are set to unleash more trade potential, with a focus on new-energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturing.

Chinese e-commerce platforms are gaining increasing popularity among South Korean consumers thanks to affordable and high-quality products that are delivered rapidly. Experts said the phenomenon reflects close economic and trade ties between the two nations, adding that the South Korean government's siding with the US to contain China is set to incur heavy losses in South Korean economy.

Like riding a roller coaster, China's XR (extended reality) sector has met with ups and downs during the past two years. Players in the circle are adamant on the emerging trend, waiting for a product that could help boost morale. Now it has just arrived.

Walking in the "fashion shoe town," a planned 3.7-square-kilometer area in Lucheng district of Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, one would find shoes and related items almost everywhere.

There is a popular saying that "one out of the two people in the world wear glasses with lenses from Danyang", East China's Jiangsu Province, known as China's "capital of glasses."

The overseas Chinese community in Honduras has longed for the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Honduras for a long time, Xie Zuoqi, a representative from Association of Fujian in Honduras, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will pay a state visit to China from March 26 to 31 upon invitation, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced last Friday, which will be Lula's fifth visit to China, marking an upward trend of bilateral relations.

After six or seven complex procedures, a piece of complex and exquisite wedding dress is completed, which will be exported and dress up millions of brides around the world. This is a daily scene in factories of more than 600 wedding dress enterprises in Dingji town, East China's Anhui Province.

This is the second of three installments by the Global Times to examine the expected tremendous economic impacts of the Japanese government's reckless decision, including huge damages to its nuclear industry, its agricultural exports, as well as the fishery industry in Pacific countries.

Japan's restarting of its nuclear plants despite safety concerns could tarnish its reputation as a nuclear power operator, Chinese experts said, as Japan commenced the operation of equipment needed for its nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping plan for the first time on Friday at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and a prelude to the wastewater's final discharge into the open ocean.

On March 19, 2023, the Belgrade-Budapest Railway (Belgrade-Novi Sad section), a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), will soon welcome its first anniversary. With its outstanding product and service quality, the Belgrade-Novi Sad railway has offered a speedy, convenient, and comfort travel experience to the Serbian people. The railway is significant not only for the development of Serbia but also for the connectivity improvement between the region and other parts of Europe and Asia, contributing to improved connectivity among Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has, on multiple occasions, commended the progress made by the railway.

The tiger, one of the Chinese zodiacs, whose mighty power and spirit are broadly adored in the country, has the implied meanings of power, courage, wisdom and physical health - used for "dispelling evil" in traditional Chinese culture.

While the US just struck a deal with the Netherlands to control chip exports to China, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India on semiconductor cooperation in an obvious move to enlist India to join its small, exclusionary circle against China in the global semiconductor industrial and supply chain.

East China's Jiangxi Province, a major rare-earths production base, has issued a plan to crack down on illegal mining of strategic minerals such as lithium and rare earths, in a bid to promote the high-quality development of the mining sector.

A reported plan between the US and the EU to reach a trade agreement on critical minerals that aims to “reduce their dependence on China” is another push by the US to target China's leading industries through moves that are against market rules, a Chinese expert said on Thursday.

China plays a vital role in international infrastructure buildup, especially under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Foreign envoys have hailed China's overseas infrastructure projects, saying they have brought tangible socioeconomic benefits to local communities by promoting connectivity and creating jobs.

In late 2022, Bright Future, a Chinese television series that recounts the stories of grassroots officials tirelessly leading locals in the fictional Guangming County to prosperity, went viral in China. The series was so popular that it sparked widespread interests and a search for the "real place" in China that inspired the story.

China recorded new highs in output value and the export of photovoltaic (PV) products in 2022, with Europe remaining the most important export market, accounting for more than 50 percent of total exports, data from domestic industry group showed. It means that China has made important contributions to maintaining global energy security and stability, especially alleviating energy crises in the EU region.

With China reopening its borders and the gradual recovery of cross-border travel, those in the cruise industry market say they are taking a hopeful look into the earliest possible reopening of China's cruise market, which was the world's second-largest before the COVID pandemic struck.

As the competition between China and the US in the global industrial chain reaches white hot levels, people often talked about the regionalization or localization of supply chains, a topic often raised together with supply chain diversification. These are the reactions of supply chains to geopolitical tensions, but also to some of the recent global shocks like the pandemic and the outbreak of conflict in parts of the world.

The once-a-year Spring Festival, China's most important traditional holiday, had just ended with a stunning rebound in consumer spending. Shopping malls, restaurants were thronging with shoppers, and overseas travelling companies across the world from Thailand, Singapore to Indonesia were also eagerly welcoming the return of Chinese travelers with their biggest smiles.

Hengzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a renowned production base for jasmine flowers, has turned the small flower into a prosperous industry, supplying about 60 percent of the world's jasmine flowers and jasmine tea.

In recent interviews with the Global Times, a number of economists expressed their confidence in a rapid recovery across the Chinese economy in the first months of 2023, pinning their hope on the world's second-largest economy to lead a global economic recovery out of the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday afternoon, two lines of fully loaded trucks were waiting to be cleared at the Mangman passage of the Wanding Port in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

As flight CZ312 of China Southern Airlines from Toronto landed at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, South China's Guangdong Province at 0:16 am on Sunday, China officially entered a new phase in its response to COVID-19 as it largely removed entry restrictions.

Domestic private clinics are ramping up efforts to rollout their specially-designed testing service for COVID-recovered patients, with orders at some testing centers in Beijing quickly eclipsing all regular testing services, as China is quickly approaching peak infections after optimized epidemic control measures were implemented in mid-December.

In spite of economic pressure China is currently facing as a result of epidemic fluctuations and other factors, China's pace of financial market opening-up is progressing at a vigorous pace across a range of areas ranging from bonds to the mainland-Hong Kong stock connect program.

With optimized COVID measures and many now recovering from infections, many cannot wait to hit the slopes.

As the world's second-largest economy has optimized its COVID-19 response and vowed stronger support for economic growth, many Chinese provinces and regions have sent trade delegations to Europe, striving to fortify business ties with their overseas peers.

After China released 10 optimized measures against COVID-19 and lifted some anti-epidemic restrictions, many localities across the country are recording a surge in infections. However, the overall epidemic as well as the social and economic situation remain stable thanks to the country's robust and proven industrial and supply chains. To illustrate how China's resilient industrial and supply systems offer a necessary guarantee for anti-epidemic efforts and how the overall improving epidemic situation underpins economic recovery, the Global Times is publishing a multipart series. This is the first installment which focuses on China's medical supplies.

Across China, from East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces to South-west China's Sichuan and South China's Guangdong provinces, government-backed charter flights organized for private business groups - with the aim of snapping up more export orders - have been making headlines since late November, in a vivid display of the country's top-down fighting spirit and great enthusiasm, as the world's manufacturing base starts running in full throttle.

A US district judge in Brooklyn, New York on Friday dismissed an indictment against Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies. The move is purely a formality after a deferred prosecution agreement reached with US prosecutors in September 2021, which paved the way for Meng's release by Canadian authorities and her subsequent return to China.

A flurry of optimism prevailed on global markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve's announcement of its interest rate hike decisions for November, with markets anticipating that the pace of the hikes will ease next year given dismal economic data in the US.

China discovered its first large deep-water deep-stratum gas field with proven reserves exceeding 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) in the sea southeast of Hainan Province, marking strong progress for the country in accelerating deep-sea exploration which will further ensure national energy security.

Chinese exporters have seen weak demand for festive products for coming Halloween, with orders down nearly 40 percent year-on-year. However, Christmas consumption shows the opposite trend, as the festival is more commonly celebrated on a global level.

The conspicuous absence of India in the trade pillar, one of the four pillars of the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), underlines the dispute between India and the US regarding the mechanism, a US-led geopolitical tool in disguise of economy issues, and implies an uncertain future of the framework.

Chinese stocks have now replaced Tesla shares as an increasingly popular choice for South Korean retail investors. For example, Tianqi Lithium, one of the largest producers of lithium compounds used in electric-vehicle batteries.

A South Korean industry association said there is a chance that Chinese onion exports will help the country alleviate its inflation, as the South Korean government moved to keep zero tariffs on seven major foodstuff import items in an effort to rein in price rises.

An Afghan government official from the mining sector met with the representative of a Chinese mining company Sunday, and they discussed issues ranging from technical to financial operations of the Aynak copper project, the second-largest copper ore body in the world. But an insider said that no substantive progress was made.

It has been a year since China's national carbon market started online trading in Shanghai on July 16, 2021. As of Friday, the cumulative trading volume of the carbon market reached 194 million tons, with a cumulative turnover of 8.49 billion yuan ($1.26 billion), according to data released by the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange (SEEE).

The G7 Summit was concluded last week. It didn't reach a consensus because of the autocratic stance of the US on various policies. The outcome was not very positive, as it is challenged by internal disagreements over trade and climate policies. The G7 discussions focused on reducing Europe's dependence on Russian energy and finding other ways to increase the economic pain for Moscow; the group is considering imposing a price cap on Russian oil. Additionally, the bloc faces a looming global food crisis springing from the Russia-Ukraine tensions, which have resulted in shortages of wheat and other crops. The G7 countries failed to reach a consensus on these issues. External dynamics have also chipped away at the G7's global influence.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has planned to build a new district in its northern region to increase housing supply, especially for young people. The area will be developed into a tech hub, aiming at accelerating economic recovery and creating new growth momentums for the city.

Enterprises from the Hong Kong Science Park said they have been inspired by the President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Hong Kong and look forward to closer technology cooperation with cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as Hong Kong is developing into a leading innovation and technology hub.

Sales of cotton produced in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have dropped this year due to the joint effect of constrained domestic consumption and delayed export orders following the latest round of COVID-19 outbreak, while the US sanctions have only had a slight impact, companies and industry insiders said on Monday.

The Dunhuang Research Institute and Tencent on Wednesday launched a digital laboratory to build a full-scale digital scripture cave online of the world-famous Mogao Grottoes, sharing with the public the "fresh life" behind the cultural relics in an interactive experience.

Special livestreams are being held across China over recent days. Instead of selling products, these livestreams "sell" jobs. Tesla China and Foxconn have joined the craze.

Germany has initiated talks with the Senegalese authorities about gas extraction and liquified natural gas (LNG), Scholz said, according to a Reuters report on Monday. It said that Germany could help explore a gas field in Senegal, citing a German official.

Nofe Isah, a 25-year-old based in Nigeria, has been investing in crypto since January. Last week, she lost all of her $5,000 in savings as cryptocurrency luna went into free fall.

Chinese seafood processing companies are beefing up supplies in response to growing global demand, including from the US market, while dealing with lingering snags such as ports congestion in the US.

On a vast field in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a major cotton-growing region in China, unmanned tractors, guided by the Chinese-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, have been used in the busy spring farming of cotton from ditching, planting to laying film and covering soil, fulfilling an almost fully mechanized operation.

"As a fast-growing market, China can't be neglected by any winery," Henriëtte Jacobs, the international sales manager of Spier Wine Farm, told the Global Times, adding that the company's exports to China have continued to grow exponentially during the recent years, and the Chinese market is becoming one of the company's most important strategic markets.

Despite the pandemic in an increasingly complex world, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have seen a strengthened economic and trade ties this year ranging from initiatives under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to the deeply integrated industrial chains, amid joint efforts that have injected strong impetus into regional development.

When the Caldor Fire raced toward the southern shore of Lake Tahoe last year, its 100-foot (30-meter) flames spread across the tree canopy. Miles away, towns on the north shore took notice.

The outbreak of the pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to most businesses across the world. Now, two years have passed, those pioneers who are innovative and enterprising to meet the consumer demands have reaped rich rewards.

With the return of the crew of China's spacecraft Shenzhou-13, a total of 12,000 seeds finished their space breeding journey, which is expected to enhance food security, as seeds are as important as chips in the semiconductor industry.

As South Korean media lament another of the country's prized claims is losing to China, industry experts said Chinese companies have closed the gap with South Korean rivals in the past decade, while they emphasized that cooperation is still needed to push the industry forward.

For camping enthusiast Qiushen, the pastime of venturing into nature has become a regular outing event after he came to Shanghai to work in an architecture firm in 2021. Since taking up the hobby, he has become equipped with nearly every item of camping kit available on the market.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will take more effective administrative measures to combat the COVID-19 outbreak and stabilize business confidence and employment, the financial secretary of the HKSAR wrote on Sunday.

Government officials, railway service providers and international traders are putting in place contingency measures to ensure smooth operation and trade flow of the China-Europe freight train, a key transportation channel for trade covering countries along the routes of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), amid the deteriorating situation in Europe.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy to Cambodia responded to the sanctions, condemning the US for imposing sanctions on a Chinese firm in Cambodia, saying that the US is violating the firm's legitimate rights and Cambodia's sovereignty.

China has the foundation and conditions to keep its real estate market developing at a steady pace after rounds of efforts to stabilize land prices, home prices and expectations, Chinese officials said on Tuesday, as concerns remain over fluctuations in the property sector.

China's economy soundly beat market expectations, firing on all cylinders in the first two months as fixed-asset investment picked up and retail sales rebounded.

Fostering further cooperation between China and countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was among hot topics during the ongoing two sessions in China, including proposals on infrastructure, high technology, nuclear energy, vaccines and advanced medicine.

President Xi Jinping has called for proactive and prudent steps to advance carbon emissions peaking and carbon neutrality initiatives, while also stressing the need to ensure the security of energy, food, and industrial and supply chains in reducing carbon emissions, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

US President Joe Biden announced a ban on all Russian aircraft from American airspace during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, following similar moves by the European Union and Canada, amid the widening sanctions targeting Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

HERA, a high-end South Korean cosmetic brand under AmorePacific, recently announced that the brand is shuttering its bricks and mortar stores across China, while its official Wechat store suspended online sales on Tuesday.

Five decades ago when then US President Richard Nixon made a historic visit to China in 1972 that helped kick-start bilateral diplomatic engagement, he received a whole wool blanket as a gift from the Chinese people. The maker of the gift was a Shanghai-based textile company. Fifty years later, their garments were among the best sellers during Amazon's Black Friday sales in the US.

"Hello, audience. The outdoor sports watching index reached level four at the National Ski Jumping Centre on Monday. Because of weather influence, speculators watching outdoor matches in winter should enhance self-protection abilities," said Feng Shu, a popular weather broadcaster at China Central Television's weather forecast program.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, a global sporting event held amid the challenges created by the global pandemic, has left an indelible mark on the world for its "simple, safe and splendid" vision, while opening a new chapter for the people-to-people exchanges and business cooperation between countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for participating in a potential 1.4 billion winter sports market.

After more than six years of preparations, China is now in the middle of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. A number of companies across the aviation industry have been devoting themselves to the Games for years.

"You are the precious of snow and ice. You are our pride," US car brand Cadillac posted a message on its official Weibo account on Tuesday along with a video of Gu Ailing, minutes after the 18-year-old Chinese skier claimed the historic gold medal in the women's freeski big air of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

After the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games was aired on February 4, the topic of "what brands are athletes wearing during the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony" quickly flooded China's social media platforms.

Australian iron ore exports to China remained strong in January despite the backdrop of rising market prices due to multiple factors including weather disruption and labor shortage concerns.

China's 8.1 percent GDP increase in 2021, following on from 2.2 percent in 2020, exceeded that of any other major economy. However, as is well known, China's year-on-year growth rate fell to 4.9 percent in the third quarter in 2021 and 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter, showing downward economic pressure.

The UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne to jointly promote infrastructure investment in Indo-Pacific, according to a statement published by the UK government on Thursday.

The ravaging COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many sectors across the global economy, posing multiple challenges to enterprises and their manufacturing capacity. But there is one sector that has remained unaffected, witnessing record new development over the past two years: autonomous driving.

China exported 7.9 billion pairs of shoes and boots in the first 11 months in 2021, which literally means that the country has exported a pair of shoes for everyone on the planet.

As the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has created new opportunities for economic growth and stability via a number of projects that are in full swing across the South Asian country, many third-country investors are also showing interest in the project.

Conceived in 2013, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) enters its ninth year in 2022. In an exclusive interview, The Global Times' reporter Chu Daye spoke with Pakistan Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque, recapping the development of the CPEC over recent years and delving into the latest progress regarding third-party cooperation and a plan for phase-two development of the CPEC.

As the Spring Festival shopping rush, a time-honored tradition in the run-up to the Chinese New Year, kicked off, Chinese consumers are purchasing products ranging from food, clothes to cosmetics with unbridled enthusiasm. This year, the shopping season has been marked by more international products, prompting more foreign exports to China.

In an exclusive interview, The Global Times' Li Xuanmin talked with Wang Weidong, minister and chief of the Economic and Commercial Department at the Chinese Embassy in Germany, on issues ranging from political and economic cooperation to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.

Estrella Salazar, a 17-year-old science whiz from a working-class town near Mexico City, was inspired by her sister to develop an app to help deaf and hard-of-hearing Mexicans communicate more easily.

Several cities across China are welcoming a new round of airport construction projects in the new year. The projects range from airport expansion to new airport construction, spanning from South to East China, as cities look beyond the pressure generated by the ongoing pandemic.

The US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on December 15 set out plans to accelerate the withdrawal of multi-trillion-dollar stimulus and signaled an intention to raise interest rates three times next year after its bond taper ends.

The aviation industry, a major victim of the global pandemic, has been forced to slog through another tough year, dragged down by volatile passenger demand, and a pandemic which continues to rage around the world.

Currently, China has signed air transport agreements with 103 countries along the Belt and Road Initiative route, and maintained air services with 53 countries. The number of flights with countries along the route accounted for 65.9 percent of China's total flights.

As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) will take effect at the end of this week, as agreed upon, the business community is awaiting the prospect and potential of the landmark regional trade pact, which is widely believed to greatly boost economic development in the region, and foster trade between China and the ASEAN, China's largest trading partner.

As the new policy will soon take effect, which side will take the first move? Foreign automakers or their domestic partners? Industry observers believe three results are possible: both sides maintaining the status quo, foreign players increasing their share in the JV or domestic firms taking the initiative.

An industry insider, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times that the era of a livestream industry marked by internet celebrities and wild growth without sufficient regulation has ended, and the industry will embrace fairer competition.

With the arrival of winter, a bulk of companies have finished their recruitment drives for the year. However, some firms that targeted vocational and technical colleges as a source of new recruits have returned empty-handed. A teacher from a Shenzhen-based technical school said that many students have been snapped up by major enterprises before they finish their studies, with more than two offers per graduate.

As 2021 draws to a close, the Chinese new-energy vehicle (NEV) market, the largest in the world, has been engaged in a heated discussion around the winding down of subsidies in 2022 - and whether the adjustment may hold back the growth of the flourishing industry.

Belarus is ready to increase exports to China, boosted by the development of the country's agricultural sector, offering an alternative to Lithuanian products that were previously supplied to China, Belarusian Ambassador to China, Yuri Senko told the Global Times, noting the country will support China in the international arena on all other issues including Taiwan question.