"National security is the foundation of national rejuvenation. In adhering to the overall concept of national security, we resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, safety, and development interests." On August 1, 2023, the official WeChat account of China's Ministry of State Security made its debut with these powerful words, becoming an important window, through which the whole society could gain an understanding of the work conducted by national security agencies.

China's national security agencies are responsible for counter-espionage work, while also undertaking functions such as safeguarding political agency and overseas security. The national security agencies have always been shrouded in mystery, representing a covert front line with special status and missions. They have played an important role in defending the state power, maintaining social harmony and stability, and protecting people's lives and property.

To mark the fourth Chinese People's Police Day which falls on January 10, Global Times reporters went to two border towns in North and South China - Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, to conduct in-depth interviews with local national security officers, who faithfully practice the pledge of dedicated service to the people.

Head-to-head frontline battles

Manzhouli is covered in white snow amid the howling wind in December 2023. The city stands near the boundary marker of the China-Mongolia-Russia tri-border, and a borderline that stretches over 1,000 kilometers. Officers from the national security bureau of Manzhouli told the Global Times that this special geographical location has always made the city an important channel and springboard for hostile forces to infiltrate and sabotage the country. The continued sagas of silent struggles of infiltration and counter-infiltration, subversion and counter-subversion, and division and counter-division play out here on a regular basis.

During her first mission, Li Yue (pseudonym), a Generation-Z officer from the national security bureau in Manzhouli, experienced the acuteness and complexity of these struggles.

Similar to a plot straight out of a film, Li Yue had to disguise herself as a waitress in a restaurant to get closer to a suspect, in order to coordinate with her colleagues' next move.

"In the few steps that it took for me to come face to face with him, I tried to maintain my cool, not allowing myself to show any hint of nervousness. Trained professionals quickly notice such things, so I had to meet his gaze with a placid one," Li Yue recalled.

Like any ordinary waitress, she greeted the suspect with a smile, led him to his seat, offered him a glass of water, took his order, and also attended to the rest of the diners. "My colleagues and I did a lot of work beforehand, making contingency plans for various possible eventualities. The suspect would never know that a covert operation was fully underway."

Shortly after this mission, Li Yue changed her online handle to "actor." Exquisite "acting" skills were just some of the many skills and qualities possessed by the national security officers. The success of each operation relies on meticulous planning, creative thinking, strong psychological resilience, and unwavering courage.

Thousands of miles away on the Southwest China's border region, Xishuangbanna national security bureau officers guard the region with Laos and Myanmar, which stretches for nearly a thousand kilometers. Their main task is to prevent foreign spies and intelligence personnel from infiltrating or fleeing from China.

In 2015, the Xishuangbanna bureau successfully cracked down on an espionage case that was remotely plotted by a foreign intelligence agency. In August of that year, the bureau received a tip from higher-level authorities that a man surnamed Li, who used to work in an important governmental department, had been subverted and recruited as a spy by a foreign intelligence agency while studying abroad. Signs showed that Li was about to escape the country recently, very possibly via Xishuangbanna.

After receiving the arrest order, the officers of the Xishuangbanna bureau carefully analyzed Li's possible escape routes, mobilized all forces to set up checkpoints and surveillance, and finally tracked him down.

Song Bin (pseudonym), a Xishuangbanna bureau official who participated in the operation to arrest Li, told the Global Times that "during the operation, we found that Li was using various anti-surveillance methods to evade arrest. Various signs indicated that there were personnel from foreign spy intelligence agencies behind him [who had taught him how to evade police detection]."

On the sixth day of the arrest operation, Li arrived at an exit channel on the Xishuangbanna border. National security officials from the Xishuangbanna bureau, who were disguised as boat operators, waited at the exit channel and noticed that Li matched the photo in the arrest warrant and made their approach.

"We asked to see his identity (ID) card if he wanted to take our boat to go abroad. He provided us with a fake ID card, which showed his registered place of residence as Southwest China's Sichuan," Song said.

The Xishuangbanna bureau police would not be able to arrest Li if they could not confirm his identity, otherwise it would alert the target and the operation would fail. At this critical moment, one of the officials, who was familiar with various dialects in the southwest, had a brilliant idea: Now that Li had pretended to be a Sichuan native, why not converse with him in the Sichuan dialect?

This sudden "test" caught Li off-guard, and his expression changed drastically, revealing his guilt. The Xishuangbanna bureau officials then confirmed his identity as the fleeing suspect. The officers also immediately revealed their identities before taking Li into custody while he pleaded not to be arrested.
Silent, dangerous mission

In the process of safeguarding national security, national security officials have also demonstrated their great spirit of dedication and sacrifice.

"We often have to face unexpected dangers, and in some critical moments, we can only put our lives on the line," an official from the Xishuangbanna bureau surnamed Yan told the Global Times.

Yan recounted an instance in which a person suspected of engaging in activities that endangered national security fled to Xishuangbanna with the intention of leaving the country. During the arrest operation, while not sure of whether the suspect was armed, Yan and several other Xishuangbanna bureau officials decisively charged forward.

"Although he was alone, he had received relevant military training and had a mindset of fighting to the death. At that critical moment, we didn't have time to think; we could only rush forward and firmly restrain him. Fortunately, his luggage only contained cash and some forged documents," Yan said.

Being able to endure hard work and loneliness is how many national security officers evaluate their own work. Jiang Dingbian (pseudonym), an officer from the national security bureau in Manzhouli, has devoted himself to security operations for nearly 30 years. He told the Global Times that those officers have to make long-term contingency preparations for every case. "It may take three to five years, or even more than a decade, to track down just one lead."

The national security bureau in Manzhouli once arrested a target that had been under surveillance for years. Jiang spent three years in analyzing thousands of pieces of information before finally discovering evidence of the target's involvement in other illegal activities.

In order to promptly identify all possible risks, the national security bureau in Manzhouli has set up a room that is less than 20 square meters, where national security officers work in shifts around the clock. For a long time, this small space had no air conditioning and the water supply would occasionally be cut off. In the summer, the national security officers would often be drenched in sweat, while in the winter, they had to endure the freezing cold wind constantly seeping in through the cracks in the window at minus 30 C.

"Some cases have made no progress after years of effort, which made me wonder whether it was worth persisting. But we cannot overlook any potential national security risks and threats. This is our original intention and our duty," Li Yue said.

Whole-society defense line

National security is the common aspiration and fundamental interest of all ethnic groups in the country. Safeguarding national security is also the shared responsibility of all ethnic groups in the country.

Manzhouli national security bureau officer Li Bin (pseudonym) said that since the first National Security Education Day on April 15, 2016, the whole society has become more actively involved in various efforts to safeguard national security.

On one hand, the government, institutions, enterprises, and individuals actively cooperate with national security work and provide support. On the other hand, the whole society has formed an atmosphere of responsibility for national security and the public actively reports suspicious clues, providing strong support to the work of national security agencies.

Li Bin revealed that the national security bureau of Manzhouli once received a report from a retired person, who said to have found a telephone line of a classified unit that was tens of meters long pulled out in the courtyard, leading to a residential building across the street, on his way back home.

The veracity of the situation was confirmed shortly thereafter. It was a staff member of the unit who privately set up the telephone line for personal use, risking the leakage of classified information.

The national security bureau of Manzhouli quickly contacted the unit and requested immediate rectification of the situation to eradicate potential risks.

In 2015, the national security agencies officially launched the 12339 hotline for citizens. In 2018, China's Ministry of State Security launched the internet reporting platform website www.12339.gov.cn. In April 2023, the national security agencies honored individuals who had made contributions in reporting activities that endangered national security for the fifth consecutive year. In August 2023, the official WeChat account of the Ministry of State Security opened a reporting platform.

Some officials from the Yunnan national security department reached by the Global Times said that they have witnessed a significant increase in awareness in the recent past, along with an understanding and participation of the public in safeguarding national security. This has been reflected in the increased number and quality of reports received through the 12339 hotline.

In recent years, with the help of public reports, the Yunnan national security department has successfully solved multiple cases related to ecological and military security, preventing valuable samples of flora and fauna and sensitive military equipment information from being transferred to foreign intelligence agencies.
Selfless, anonymous heroes

"Sorry but I can't disclose the specific details due to confidentiality regulations;" "Please do not mention my name and personal information;" "As a national security officer, I am willing to be an anonymous hero." These are phrases that Global Times reporters have heard repeatedly during interviews, highlighting the uniqueness of covert operations - selflessness, anonymity, and humility.

In the archives of the national security bureau in Manzhouli, two large cabinets occupy an entire wall, filled with files on the same case. This case has spanned over 20 years, involving several generations of national security officers. Behind each page of these files are all-night efforts, undercover operations in harsh weather conditions, and thrilling covert confrontations. However, once they leave the office, these experiences are never mentioned and may never be known.

In the battlefield of safeguarding national security, the invisible gunshots and unheard gun battles have never ceased. It is because of the silent dedication and perseverance of every national security officer that the sovereignty, security, and development interests of the country are protected, and the peaceful lives of the people are undisturbed.

Jiang said that many national security officers silently dedicate their entire lives to their work, without receiving applause and without the spotlight and dazzling stage. They quietly exit the stage after remarkable service, and the driving force that supports them is their firm belief in their hearts.

Currently, the meaning, purpose, and value of national security in our country are richer than at any time in history, and the internal and external factors affecting the same are more complex than at any time in history. The challenges faced in safeguarding national security are unprecedented. As national security officers have stated, "We always maintain a state of readiness, prepared to fight against any behavior that threatens national security."

Hidden in silence, the sword shines in invisibility. In this new era, Chinese national security agencies are embarking on a new journey to faithfully fulfill their duties, safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, be an integral part of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and compose a new anthem for nameless heroes.

Every day, the tragic situation of people in the war-torn Gaza Strip, particularly that of sick and wounded children, deeply touches the heart of Guo Yan, the owner of a company based in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Despite being thousands of miles away, Guo promptly made a donation of 23,800-yuan ($3,334) to support the people in Gaza, which is sufficient to purchase 15-day basic food parcels for 50 families.

"I'm lucky to live in a country where there is no war or famine. But there are still people who live in darkness," Guo told the Global Times on Tuesday. "I think we have the responsibility to light up that small piece of darkness and haze in the world."

Guo and her company are among several Chinese enterprises, individuals, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have voluntarily donated money and supplies to Gaza, besides the humanitarian aid offered by the Chinese government, as they try to lend a helping hand to those enduring the ravages of war.

On October 26, the Beijing One Heart Sphere Charity Foundation (BOHS) and several Chinese civil commonweal groups, such as the Federation of Wenzhou Blazing Youth (Blazing Youth) and the Zhejiang Eternal Love Foundation (ZELF), initiated a campaign to provide basic food parcels that mainly include rice, lentils, oil, canned beef and sugar to more than 1,000 families in Gaza.

Each parcel costs $60, according to Weng Xiaoyou, director of Blazing Youth and ZELF initiator.

The involved organizations purchased the food parcels with financial contributions from Chinese donors including Guo, and hired local volunteers in Gaza to help distribute the supplies, said Ma Bin, who is responsible for the BOHS in Pakistan.

Ma said that people on the front lines understand the challenges of acquiring goods and the risks associated with transporting donated supplies. "Many of the volunteers have previously conducted business in China and have witnessed its development and prosperity, and they experienced the kindness and warmth of the Chinese people. They transformed their gratitude into practical actions, contributing their efforts to the cause of peace," he told the Global Times.

In the war-torn Gaza Strip, children lose their lives every day due to the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have been forced to migrate from the north to the south of Gaza. Many are now struggling due to the lack of medical care, a shortage of fresh water, and food scarcity, said Ma.

"The donated parcels represent the caring support from ordinary Chinese people to the victims in Gaza and convey their appeal for peace," he said.

In Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, local NGOs Blazing Youth and ZELF have also been actively calling for and collecting donations. Their efforts went toward 200 out of the latest batch of 500 food parcels that the BOHS and local volunteers helped purchase for people in Gaza. According to Lin Weiwei, deputy director of Blazing Youth, who also personally donated 20,000 yuan ($2,796), they are now raising funds for the next batch.

"Fortunately, there was a short cease-fire when local volunteers were distributing the latest batch of parcels in Gaza," Lin recalled. She added that they are trying to raise more funds during the cease-fires, as it allows the frontline volunteers to distribute supplies more safely.

"The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is physically far away from us in China, but I have found that many people in China are paying great attention to it and are willing to help [the victims and their families in] Gaza," Lin told the Global Times. "We live in a global community of shared future, and we want to provide assistance within our capacity."

Though most Chinese donors are not able to send supplies to Gaza in person, their love and care can be felt there in various ways.

Weng shared that they are inviting some teenagers in Wenzhou to draw pictures of love and peace. "The frontline volunteers will then print the soft copies of these pictures and distribute them along with our next batch of donated parcels as a way to express the love and well wishes of the Chinese people," he said.

Prior to the conflict, the BOHS, Blazing Youth, and the ZELF had made joint efforts to donate money and supplies to people in need around the world, including victims of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria earlier this year.

"As citizens of a responsible major country, we are eager to give a helping hand when there are natural disasters or humanitarian crises," said Weng. "I believe that love and care have no borders, and they can bear all things."

Editor's Note:

"Cognitive Warfare" has become a new form of confrontation between states, and a new security threat. With new technological means, it sets agendas and spreads disinformation, so as to change people's perceptions and thus alter their self-identity. Launching cognitive warfare against China is an important means for Western anti-China forces to attack and discredit the country. Under the manipulation of the US-led West, the "China threat theory" has continued to foment.

Some politicians and media outlets have publicly smeared China's image by propagating false narratives such as "China's economy collapse theory" and "China's virus threat theory," in an attempt to incite and provoke dissatisfaction with China among people in certain countries. These means all serve the seemingly peaceful evolution strategy of the US to contain China's rise and maintain its hegemony.

The Global Times is publishing a series of articles to systematically reveal the intrigues of the US-led West's cognitive warfare targeting China, and expose its lies and vicious intentions, in an attempt to show international readers a true, multi-dimensional, and panoramic view of China.

This is the fifth installment in the series.

The proverbial thief crying out "stop thief" seems to be a norm in the US' cognitive warfare against China. The US, as a veteran of public opinion attack and a major source of disinformation in today's world, has consistently attacked China for "manipulating information," an ironic and ridiculous indictment.

A recent report released by the US State Department is a typical example of the US' attempt to defame China in the information and public opinion fields. The report, which accused China of employing "a variety of deceptive and coercive methods as it attempts to influence the international information environment," is completely groundless and misleading, the Global Times found.

The "report" exposed the unprofessionalism and prejudice of the US government, which routinely launch smear campaigns against China. Through investigation and verification, the Global Times has found the US State Department report contains numerous loopholes and fabrications, a serious deviation from the facts.

Full of loopholes

In late September, the US State Department released multilingual versions of a report titled "How the People's Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment." Some mainstream US media outlets including the VOA and The New York Times soon ran with the report and started a new round of smear campaigns against China.

Looking into the 64-page report, the Global Times found many factual errors in its drawn-out narrative.

The accusation against StarTimes is a typical example. The report claimed that the Chinese-owned digital pay television service provider offers its overseas customers packages that "include CGTN (China Global Television Network) and dubbed Chinese entertainment content but does not include Western news channels," implying that Beijing can "influence content in various delivery platforms at the local level."

Contrary to this groundless accusation, StarTimes has clarified on numerous occasions that it has never deliberately excluded media content from the West. According to its official website, StarTimes has more than 630 channels in 11 languages worldwide, including international channels such as the BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera.

In a previous interview with the Global Times, a StarTimes' regional manager in Africa said that their users are fairly free to choose any international channel. "The StarTimes device does not block any channels," noted Wang Fan, the then CEO of StarTimes branch in Uganda.

The report also denigrated the normal statements of some Chinese diplomats on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook. It claimed that Chinese diplomats "promote pro-Beijing narratives and disinformation and attack." Without providing any persuasive evidence to support this claim, the report decried the increase in number of China's diplomatic and official media accounts in recent years, reaching 333 with a combined following of nearly 65 million as of August. Attacking Chinese diplomats and media for using X showed the serious double standard of the report authors, who may arrogantly believe that Chinese diplomats can't express opinions on social media as their US peers do.

Even ordinary internet influencers who share their lives or travel experiences in China, whether Chinese or expatriate, were targets of the report's attack. It accused China of "leveraging social media influencers to communicate directly with foreign audiences," saying that China "sponsors" some online influencers who, mainly post "innocuous content," "ostensibly to attract followers, and interspersing posts containing pro-Beijing propaganda."

Such malicious speculation is a slight at many online influencers and their followers who love China. In previous interviews, several overseas vloggers told the Global Times that they share their China-related experiences and thoughts freely. One vlogger noted that it is the anti-China propaganda campaign in the US-led West that has prevented international audiences from knowing more about a real China.

"The US' strategic pressure on China has evolved from its initial focus on economic and trade sectors to restrictions on high-tech standards, and has now been further upgraded to the cognitive field, trying to influence and shape the world's cognition on China, and trying to form of China containment with its hegemonic behavior," Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

"There is a growing trend in which the US has launched attacks on the 'battlefield' of social media," a Shanghai-based expert in international journalism and communication told the Global Times.

The expert pointed out that the US, through launching a public opinion war, positions China as a disruptor and challenger within the current globally dominated information order, and will continue to engage in activities that reinforce this narrative, an example being the criticism of Chinese diplomats and vloggers who share China's charm.

"This is a naked hegemonic act, further accelerating the breakdown of the international information order," he said.
Widespread criticism

Unsurprisingly, the report by the US State Department has sparked widespread criticism on social media platforms, with users in various countries mocking the US as "crying wolf."

Critical comments flooded a September 29 X post by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who shared the report as a "proof" of China seeking to "manipulate the global information environment."

"We must work to ensure people's access to free and open information everywhere," wrote Blinken.

"The US/EU doesn't [manipulate the information environment], Blinky?" an X user named "Luis F" commented under this post, along with an eye-roll emoji.

"This from an administration that tried to create a censorship department under the guise of 'disinformation'…what a joke…" commented another user named "Gregory Latham Jr." "You mean 'we must work to ensure people's access to the information we want them to have access to everywhere.'"

"How's the ongoing effort by the Biden administration to suppress social media discourse about Ukraine, COVID, and Hunter Biden coming along?" wrote a verified user by the name "Scott Ritter," a US author and international relations analyst. "Physician, heal thyself!"

"The US State Department shouts freedom of speech and information, but the 'freedom' has a precondition. That is, speech and information are led by the US," wrote a reader by the name "Jun Fan." "Any speech and information that is not directed by the US is false speech and false information that is harmful to the world…and must be strictly controlled."

In September, Microsoft, which accused China of using AI to influence US voters ahead of the country's 2024 presidential elections, also led to criticism from some US netizens. "Using AI to mess up the US elections is more like something that American politicians would do themselves," they said.

Indeed, some US politicians are making full use of AI in propaganda campaigns to serve their political activities, such as the elections. New York Mayor Eric Adams, for instance, has been using AI software to launch prerecorded calls to residents in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu, and Yiddish. The voice in the messages mimics that of the mayor, reported The Washington Post (WP) on October 26.

"Of course, fibbing politicians are nothing new, but examples keep multiplying of how AI supercharges disinformation in ways we haven't seen before," noted the WP article titled "Candidates, take this AI election pledge. Or 2024 might break us."

'Empire of lies'

Aside from the claim of "reshaping global information environment," the US government, some think tanks, and enterprises have released many reports to attack China, attempting to portray China as an enemy of global audiences in its cognitive warfare against the country, said observers.

Apparently, authors of the "reshaping information environment" report "saw no irony in these maxims coming from the US, the greatest state propagator of disinformation, narrative manipulation, and deception in the world," commented political analyst Timur Fomenko in an opinion piece published by Russia Today on October 17.

The US has rarely hidden some of its cognitive warfare tactics against China. In February 2022, a bill that allocated $500 million to "combat Chinese disinformation" reportedly moved through the US Congress. The bill was actually earmarked "for media outlets to produce journalism for overseas audiences that is critical of China," said The American Prospect magazine.

"The Senate bill aims to produce more anti-China media," the magazine said in an article it published that month. "Critics of escalating tensions with Beijing expressed concerns over the push for anti-China coverage, saying it could potentially undermine the credibility of journalists involved in the reporting," it added.

From the devastation its politicians inflicted on Iraq 21 years ago by presenting a small tube of white powder at the United Nations headquarters as evidence of Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, to the unfounded claim that the novel coronavirus came from a laboratory leak in China's Wuhan, analysts pointed out that the US has long been a serial perpetrator of false stories.

"Some in the US may think that they can prevail in the information war as long as they manufacture enough lies. But the people of the world are not blind," said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the US State Department report.

"No matter how the US tries to pin the label of 'disinformation' on other countries, more and more people in the world have already seen through the US' ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by weaving lies into 'emperor's new clothes' and smearing others," the ministry noted.

China will make final review ruling in accordance with the investigation procedures regarding lifting tariffs on Australian wine, Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday. 
On Tuesday, the ministry had disclosed the basic facts on which the ruling was based to the relevant stakeholders in accordance with the investigation procedures, and gave all parties an opportunity to express their opinions. 
Next, MOFCOM will make a final review in accordance with the investigation procedures based on the comprehensive consideration of the opinions of all parties, said He Yadong, a spokesperson of MOFCOM , in response to a media inquiry on whether China is to lift tariffs on Australian wine imports or not. 
The reply of MOFCOM also comes on the heels of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit New Zealand and Australia from March 17-21, and hold the 7th round of China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue.
Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Wednesday that China and Australia are making efforts to address mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation, which will help improve the momentum in bilateral relations.
China stands ready to continue stepping up dialogue and cooperation with Australia under the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and seeking common ground while shelving differences, so as to promote the steady and sound growth of bilateral relations, Wang noted.
MOFCOM said earlier that it began reviewing the anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine as of November 30, 2023. A five-year series of anti-dumping and countervailing tariffs on Australian wine was imposed on March 28, 2021.
While, Australian government officials and media outlets have frequently brought the issue up, indicating the great eagerness of Australian winemakers to return to the Chinese market.
At Thursday's press conference, the MOFCOM spokesperson has also mentioned the disputes such as wind towers from China.
China has serious concerns about Australia's trade remedy measures against China's wind tower and other measures, and hopes that Australia will respect WTO rules and properly address China's concerns, He said.

The share of the yuan in Russia's trade settlements in January further expanded, signaling steady progress for promoting the internationalization of the yuan.

Experts highlighted China's steady economic development and firm support as major advantages contributing to the yuan's global expansion, while outlining lingering challenges going forward.

The yuan accounted for 40.8 percent of Russia's export settlements and 38.5 percent of its import settlements in the first month of 2024. The settlement amounts reached $13.2 billion for exports and $9.1 billion for imports in US dollar terms, data from Russia's central bank showed on Monday.

In December 2023, the yuan accounted 35.8 percent of Russia's export settlement and 37 percent of its import settlement, Sputnik reported.

China's large and continuously growing economy has provided a solid foundation for the yuan's internationalization, and the country's ramped-up policy support for building the financial infrastructure and optimizing the mechanism for cross-border yuan settlements has created a favorable environment for promoting the internationalization of the yuan, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Wang noted that the yuan's stability has been further recognized by the international market as its exchange rate remained steady overall despite some fluctuations in recent years. This remains a significant consideration for global investors.

Cross-border yuan settlements have risen since 2009, accounting for nearly half of China's export payments and settlements. The yuan also ranks third in terms of the weight in the IMF's Special Drawing Rights basket, Lian Ping, chief economist and head of the Zhixin Investment Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The yuan is the world's fourth-largest payment currency, third-largest trade finance currency and fifth-largest foreign exchange trading currency, Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, told a press conference on March 6, adding that boosting the internationalization of the yuan remains the top priority for promoting high-quality financial opening-up.

Pan said that economic entities have increased internal demand for the use of the yuan, and the yuan has formed an initial network effect for international use with its continuously enhanced international monetary functions such as payments and settlements, investment and financing, and international reserves.

In December 2023, the PBC and the National Bank of Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding to establish yuan-clearing arrangements in Serbia, which will help enterprises and financial institutions of the two countries use the yuan for cross-border transactions and further promote bilateral trade and investment facilitation.

Amid the steady progress achieved for the internationalization of the yuan, experts vowed to tackle lingering challenges, which will contribute to deepen China's financial opening-up.

Both Wang and Lian stressed the importance of continuously expanding the yuan's global usage and market share, as it still has a large gap with major global currencies such as the US dollar and the euro.

Wang noted that China's financial market has further space for opening-up to meet global investors' demand, while more optimized regulations should be formulated to protect investors' rights.

Lian noted that measures such as prudently promoting capital account convertibility for the yuan and its internationalization, while maintaining the basic stability of the yuan's exchange rate and an overall surplus in the balance of payments, will be significant for bolstering the financial sector's high-quality opening-up.

China set to formulate law to promote private economy

China's leading digital economy with its large-scale data resources, diverse data types and rich application scenarios have provided advantages for the country's artificial intelligence (AI) sector, Qi Xiangdong, chairman of Qi An Xin Technology Group, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told the Global Times on Friday.

Qi said that AI depends on data, and China's rapidly developing digital economy provides a large source of data. He added that the total scale of China's digital economy reached 50.2 trillion yuan ($6.97 trillion) in 2022, and the breadth and depth of digital integration in the real economy has expanded.

Qi An Xin launched China's first industrial-grade large-model security AI product - Q-GPT a cybersecurity robot - which has numerous practical applications, Qi said.

Qi noted that he looks forward to the country accelerating the integration of cybersecurity and AI technology, promoting the application of innovative products in the field of "AI + security," and continuously improving China's ability to cope with cybersecurity risks and uncertainties.

China has seen no “exodus” of foreign enterprises. Against the backdrop of the global decline in cross-border investment, foreign investors’ enthusiasm for investing in China has not waned, and they remain largely optimistic about the country’s future growth prospects, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao said in a recent interview with Japanese media.

China, a market-oriented economy, experiences the normal phenomenon of foreign companies entering and exiting the market, Wu said. Adding that while some foreign companies choose to withdraw from the market, there has not been a large-scale “fleeing” of foreign-invested companies, Wu said, according to a statement the Chinese embassy published on its website on Friday.

In recent years, a variety of factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, the churning geopolitical tensions as well as rising trade protectionism have contributed to a general decline in global cross-border investment, Wu said.

Citing statistics from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Wu said that global cross-border direct investment plunged by 18 percent in 2023. The main destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) also experienced significant declines, with India’s FDI decreasing by 47 percent and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 16 percent. 

In contrast, China saw the launch of 53,766 new foreign-invested enterprises in 2023, up 39.7 percent year-on-year. The actual use of foreign capital amounted to 1.13 trillion yuan ($158 billion), the third highest year in history after 2021 and 2022. Additionally, China’s investment structure has kept on improving, with the proportion of foreign investment in high-tech industrial sectors reaching 37.4 percent, the ambassador said.

Given China’s ongoing economic transformation and upgrade, the rapid rise of domestic enterprises, and the increasingly competitive market environment, the exit of some foreign enterprises due to their lack of competitiveness is a result of market mechanisms, he said. 

It is also understandable if foreign enterprises adjust their business presence in China based on market rules. In fact, Chinese enterprises are also transferring some of their production capacity overseas. “If foreign enterprises have any feedback on China’s business environment, we are willing to listen carefully and actively address their reasonable concerns,” Wu said.

In 2023, Japanese investors established 888 new enterprises in China, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent, making it the third largest source of foreign investment in China, according to Wu.

A survey by the Japan External Trade Organization showed that 90 percent of Japanese companies hope to expand their business in China or maintain their current status. And a survey conducted by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China among its 1,700 member companies indicated that 88 percent of Japanese companies still consider China an important market. 

The rate of return on investment for foreign investors in China has been around 9 percent in the past five years, while Japanese companies achieved a return of 18 percent in 2022. For Japanese companies, the return on investment in the Chinese market remains higher than other markets, Wu said.

Since the normalization of diplomatic ties of the two countries half a century ago, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Japan has made great leaps in both quantity and quality. Bilateral trade has exceeded $300 billion for several consecutive years, and Japanese enterprises have accumulated investments in China exceeding $130 billion, demonstrating strong resilience and enormous potential, Wu said.

“Meanwhile, it should be noted that both the economic and trade volume and investment growth between China and Japan dropped in 2023, which requires high attention and efforts to address at an early date,” Wu said. He suggested that the two countries adhere to their partnership position, broaden their cooperation fields, and jointly build an open regional and global economy. The two should work together to maintain the stability and smooth operation of the global supply chains and promote continuous recovery and development of the world economy, he said.

Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc on Wednesday reported better-than-expected financial results for the 2023 fiscal year, with a rise in total revenue and non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net income.

For the 2023 fiscal year, Baidu generated total revenue of 134.6 billion yuan ($18.96 billion), an increase of 9 percent year-on-year, and non-GAAP net income totaled 28.7 billion yuan ($4.04 billion), up 39 percent year-on-year.

Both revenue and non-GAAP net income beat market expectations, according to the Securities Times.

For the final quarter of 2023, Baidu generated revenue of about 35 billion yuan, up 6 percent year-on-year. Non-GAAP net income during the period reached about 7.76 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 44 percent.

The company said ERNIE, Baidu's generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) product, has already started to contribute to Baidu's revenues. In 2024, incremental revenue will increase to billions of yuan, mainly from AI applications and a growing advertising business.

The remarks came after figures showed that AI has become a new growth driver for Baidu. Baidu AI Cloud's total revenue in the fourth quarter was 8.4 billion yuan, and AI large language models brought in approximately 660 million yuan in incremental revenue to the cloud business, Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said during a conference call on Wednesday.

According to Li, the company has made great strides in advancing ERNIE and ERNIE Bot, reinventing its products and services, and achieving breakthroughs in monetization. "Meanwhile, our core business has maintained its resilience and realized a healthy growth momentum," he said.

"Looking ahead, our commitment to generative AI and foundation models remains unwavering, paving the way for the gradual creation of a new growth engine," said Li.

Baidu Core also reported another solid quarter, with revenue growing 7 percent year-on-year to 27.5 billion yuan, boosted by the AI cloud business. Online marketing revenue reached 19.2 billion, up 6 percent year-on-year.

After the financial results were released, Morgan Stanley called Baidu the "best AI player in China," saying the company's generative AI will become a mid-term growth driver. China Merchants Bank predicted that the operating margin of its cloud business could continue to expand in 2024.

The allegation of "forced labor" in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is a huge lie, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, urging the US to immediately stop smearing China, stop intervening in China's internal affairs, and stop politicizing and weaponizing trade issues.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press briefing in Beijing, responding to media reports saying that the US Department of Homeland Security is intensifying scrutiny of supply chains of American solar companies as the Biden administration mulls to tighten a ban on products assembled in Xinjiang.

The Chinese side has repeatedly pointed out that the allegation of "forced labor" in Xinjiang is a huge lie. The US uses the so-called "forced labor" issue, which does not exist in Xinjiang, which often results in "forced unemployment" in Xinjiang, Mao said.

US' move has severely undermined the basic human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, violated international trade rules and disrupted international industrial and supply chains, the spokesperson said.

Mao said the US must immediately stop smearing China, stop intervening in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights, and stop politicizing and weaponizing trade issues.