A farmer picks grapes at a planting base in Yuncheng, North China's Shanxi Province on September 13, 2024. Farmers are ramping up efforts to send fresh grapes to the market to meet surging demand during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holidays. Photo: VCG
The China Table Tennis Association (CTTA) issued a statement on Saturday, condemning corrosive fan culture and expressing full support a crackdown on any crimes and violations.
The CTTA stated that “fan culture” chaos has severely disrupted the Chinese table tennis team’s training and competitions, negatively affecting the work, lives, and families of athletes, coaches, and staff, while also causing a damaging social impact.
“The association will collect evidence and hold accountable any organizations or individuals who engage in insults, defamation, slander, or other forms of malicious attacks against the Chinese table tennis team or its members online or in other public venues,” according to the statement.
The statement follows a series of actions by Chinese authorities targeting online harassment and defamation on sports players.
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Public Security revealed four cases involving online harassment targeting athletes. Among these, a 29-year-old woman from East China’s Jiangsu Province and a 38-year-old woman from Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province were taken into custody for allegedly defaming table tennis players and coaches online.
Authorities also dealt with a case in East China’s Shandong Province where a 23-year-old man fabricated a defamatory article questioning the legitimacy of a Chinese Olympic champion’s victory. Another man from Hebei Province shared the article widely online. The pair were both given administrative penalties. In Central China’s Henan Province, an 18-year-old woman faced administrative punishment for publicly insulting a gymnast on social media.
The ministry emphasized that the internet is not a “lawless zone” and warned against spreading false information or engaging in personal attacks.
During the women’s singles final at the Paris Olympics on August 3, which featured Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng, some fans displayed favoritism toward Sun while booing Chen when Chen defeated Sun becoming the women’s singles champion.
Earlier this month, several social media platforms, including Sina Weibo and Douyin, announced measures to curb “an culture” violations in sports, including removing harmful content and suspending related accounts.
During an interview on August 7, after China advanced to the semifinals of the women’s table tennis team event, Chen had urged fans to appreciate the athletes’ determination and approach competition outcomes with a balanced perspective, rather than focusing solely on the results.
Pan Zhanle, a 20-year-old swimming prodigy who recently broke a world record at the Paris Olympics, disbanded his fan group earlier this week. Pan previously mentioned in a CCTV interview that some fans waited for autographs outside his hotel and he said he just “hoped to be low-key and quiet.”
“Most of these so-called fans do not understand or appreciate the professional skills or talents of famous athletes. Instead, they tend to focus solely on the athlete's image and appearance,” Wang Dazhao, a Beijing based sports commentator, told the Global Times. “To support their idols, fans in this toxic culture see no teammates, only enemies. Anyone who hinders their idol's pursuit of victory becomes a target for attack.”
“Those who invade others’ privacy should be punished, while those who do not violate criminal laws should be guided and warned through education,” Wang said.
The Embassy of the Czech Republic in China and the Czech-China Contemporary Art Gallery jointly inaugurated the exhibition "My Room," which was opened at the Czech Embassy in Beijing on August 20.
Featuring artists Feng Runde, Li Lang, Jiri Straka, Wu Zixian and Yang Yuzhe, the exhibition provides a platform for young artists from the Czech Republic and China to learn and exchange ideas, and has won unanimous praise from Chinese and foreign visitors.
The people-to-people exchanges between the Czech Republic and China are expected to continue to expand into new areas. The exhibition aims to help young artists and show the public their ideas and experiences in the face of a complex world independently.
"The works of the five artists have some common features that impress me: The appearance of their works is very different from the works of their elders; regardless of where they live, their art is close to the real life," said curator and artist Shu Yang.
The 2024 Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival (ACT) will run from September 6 to October 13, offering audiences a series of captivating performances.
This year's festival will be themed "The Field of Memory" and continue its focus on "contemporaneity" and "innovation."
In addition to Chinese productions, it has invited theater troupes and artists from Italy, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Australia, and Croatia to participate.
The festival will feature nine performances, covering various genres such as drama, mime, experimental performance, and dance theater. Most of these productions are new works from leading international performance troupes, with three making their Chinese mainland debut and two having their first-ever showings in Asia.
The ACT is an annual international festival for the performing arts held at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and other partner venues since 2005. Its small theaters bring the audience very close to the stage for many face-to-face interactions.
In almost two decades, ACT Shanghai has cultivated a young, curious audience unique to Shanghai and become an important platform for connecting local and international artists with the Chinese audience.
As the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), set to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6, draws near, the "debt trap" slander targeting China-Africa cooperation is becoming rampant again.
In fact, whenever the FOCAC is held, the West will always stir up a new round of smearing with absurd accussations against China.
The FOCAC was established in 2000. Over the past 20 years, China has truly promoted the modernization process in African continent through grant, investment, and trade, and has also won wide recognition and acclaim from African partners.
China has used interest-free loans to help Africa build much needed facilities such as hospitals and schools. Meanwhile, Chinese financial institutions have actively provided financing support to support infrastructure construction, such as railways, roads, and electricity facilities in African countries.
The China-Africa Development Fund, an equity investment fund managed by the China Development Bank, has provided financing totaling more than $6.6 billion to Africa and has facilitated Chinese companies to invest more than $31 billion in Africa.
The West is the main culprit behind Africa's debt crisis. Notably, in recent years, the West believes that the African economy has shown some signs of improvement, so they prematurely pushed Africa to the global capital market, leading to African countries borrowing excessively and causing the current high proportion of external debt faced by Africa. It can be said that the West has directly pushed Africa into a "debt trap."
Although China is not the main creditor of African countries, it actively participates in the resolution of debt issues faced by African countries and helps them explore solutions to promote development and ultimately solve their debts. China never uses debt collection as a pretext to seek private gain - this is the core difference between China's approach and that of the West in managing debt.
However, it needs to be acknowledged that the ultimate solution to the debt problem must rely on economic development. Only by helping Africa solve the bottlenecks that restrict African development, can African countries be fundamentally lifted out of the debt distress.
Currently, Africa urgently needs more development funds, as progress on several indicators of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development remains slow. In light of this, China will continue to roll out a package of aid measures under the FOCAC to help Africa tackle their challenges.
China has never been the main creditor for African debt. Under the framework of the FOCAC, China has provided a package of assistance measures to Africa and offered support.
Through interest-free loans, concessional loans, and other development financing, China has provided significant support to back up Africa's development. A series of infrastructure projects and talent training have started, laying the foundation for poverty reduction and independent development in Africa.
China on Friday urged the US to stop official exchanges with China's Taiwan island and cease support for any form of "Taiwan independence" separatist activities, after senior officials from the island reportedly made a secret trip to the greater Washington area for talks with US officials recently.
China firmly opposes any forms of official exchange between the US and Taiwan. This position is consistent and clear, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, urging the US to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, deliver on the commitments made by the US leaders on the issues related to Taiwan, handle the Taiwan-related issues with utmost prudence, and stop any official exchanges with Taiwan.
The US should stop upgrading its substantive relations with the region, and stop conniving at and supporting "Taiwan independence" separatist activities in any form, Mao said.
The head of the external affairs authority of Taiwan island, Lin Chia-lung and Joseph Wu, the security adviser to Lai Ching-te, travelled to the Washington area this week through a "special channel" to hold talks with the US, according to Financial Times, without naming the US officials.
"The visit by the two high-ranking officials to the US is significant at this particular juncture, and it is sensitive and contains secrets between the two sides," an analyst on Taiwan affairs, who preferred to be named Li, told the Global Times.
"Through deliberately analyzing and strategizing their next steps, the US and the DPP authorities are seeking to come up with something to further challenge the mainland without inciting a significant backlash from it," Li said.
He explained that the US' engagement with Taiwan is aimed at more effectively deploying its strategic maneuvers to contain the Chinese mainland, when the US is showing fatigue and weakness in dealing with both Asia-Pacific affairs and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The US government is also attempting to engage with its protected parties, including the island, to reaffirm its commitments, dispelling any doubts about the US' promises and Taiwan authorities' confidence in US protection, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
"A US powerless in dealing with international affairs including the Ukraine crisis leaves Lai Ching-te increasingly perplexed, so can the chess piece of Taiwan still be supported in this circumstance?" Lü asked.
The visit serves to alleviate Lai's concerns, gauge their position within the US strategic landscape and seek to strengthen the so-called protection from the US, he said.
However, the fact is that collusion with the US, which views Taiwan as merely a chess piece, will only lead the island toward greater chaos, more intense internal strife, and a further loss of direction. The US has always maintained strategic ambiguity when it comes to "defending Taiwan," Li explained.
Despite the small move that the US and DPP authorities have made, the mainland will remain confident and methodical in its approach to dealing with the Taiwan question, Lü emphasized.
This year's government report showed that the mainland will implement the overall policy for the new era on resolving the Taiwan question, stay committed to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and resolutely oppose separatist activities and external interference. The mainland will promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, and be firm in advancing the cause of China's reunification, according to the report.
While acknowledging the challenges players face when moving abroad, Argentine basketball star Luis Scola insisted that playing overseas will benefit basketball players more.
"When players leave their country and go to bigger countries, they grow. It helps them improve their game," Scola told reporters on Sunday in Beijing, where an NBA-themed exhibition is in full swing at the Indigo Mall.
"Sometimes, the [domestic] system protects the players... I do believe that good talent, they need to find ways [to go] outside their own countries."
The Argentine is particularly popular in China thanks to his stint with the Houston Rockets in the NBA, when he was teamed up with Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming.
Asked specifically about young Chinese player Cui Yongxi, who is with the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA Summer League, Scola admitted he was not very familiar with the 21-year-old Chinese player, but reiterated his advice for all talented players to seek opportunities outside China.
"If they're good, they need to find other opportunities in other different countries," he advised.
Scola stressed the importance of being in excellent physical shape and making the most of opportunity.
"Maybe the Summer League is hard, but you just have to play hard and be in good shape. It's an opportunity, and you need to be really good shape," he emphasized.
A youngster-led Chinese national team is also currently playing in the NBA Summer League this month.
When asked about his views on Chinese basketball, Scola, who played for Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) teams the Shanxi Loongs in 2017-18 season and the Shanghai Sharks in 2018-19 season, was optimistic. He said China has a wealth of opportunities and resources that will enable the sport to flourish.
"China has a lot of opportunities to grow. You've got a lot of players, a good league, and a lot of resources. I think Chinese basketball is going to be very good, very soon," he said.
Scola also touched on the policies of the CBA regarding foreign players. He emphasized the importance of an open league system.
"The more open the league can be, that's the best way to bring the best talent. And talent eventually creates more talent," Scola stated. He highlighted the NBA's model, where there are no limits, as a successful example that fosters local player development.
Looking ahead to the Olympics, Scola was enthusiastic. He anticipates a competitive tournament, with the US expected to field the strongest team.
"I think it's going to be a good Olympics. The US is going to be the best team. But there are other strong teams like Spain. It's going to be a good tournament," he predicted.
China's paleontology research team has recently identified a new genus and species of tyrannosaur that marks the first deep-snouted tyrannosaur discovered in southeastern China, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The research was conducted by four paleontologists from the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, and they named the new species "Asiatyrannus xui" in honor of Xu Xing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has been dedicated to dinosaur research and has long supported the academic and popular science work of the museum.
Zheng Wenjie, deputy director of the Earth Sciences Department and a researcher at the museum, explained that the dinosaur, given the name "Asiatyrannus xui", lived during the Late Cretaceous period, which dates back 66 to 72 million years ago, according to Xinhua.
The fossil specimen includes an almost complete skull as well as tail vertebrae and hind limb bones. This dinosaur belongs to the more advanced Tyrannosaurinae subfamily within the Tyrannosauridae family. The related academic paper was published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.
Zheng noted that tyrannosaurs are a large family classified under the superfamily Tyrannosauroidea. They first appeared around 165 million years ago in the Middle Jurassic and went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, which is about 66 million years ago. Within the superfamily, the Tyrannosauridae family members were the top predators in Asia and North America during the last 20 million years of the dinosaur era.
Many people think tyrannosaurs have large heads. Zheng explained that based on snout characteristics, tyrannosaur heads can be divided into two types.
Most Tyrannosauridae dinosaurs have deep-snouted heads, with relatively short skulls front to back and higher vertical distances between the upper and lower jaws, making them appear somewhat "square." The skulls of Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus are examples of this type. Asiatyrannus xui measures 47.5 centimeters in length and also belongs to the deep-snouted type.
Another group of Tyrannosauridae dinosaurs has long-snouted heads, with narrow snouts, and these dinosaurs are classified under the branch called Alioramini.
In the central Asian Gobi region, scientists have discovered deep-snouted tyrannosaurs and long-snouted Alioramini living at the same time. The former are larger, possibly occupying different ecological niches. In southeastern China, however, the body size comparison is reversed.
Asiatyrannus xui, which lived at the same time as the long-snouted Qianzhousaurus, was relatively small, while The Qianzhousaurus, estimated to reach a length of about 9 meters, was much larger.
The newly discovered Asiatyrannus xui, although an immature dinosaur, had passed its fastest growth stage with a body length of only about half that of Qianzhousaurus. They likely occupied different ecological niches and employed different hunting strategies to avoid direct competition.
China Eastern Airlines received its seventh C919 plane on Monday. The delivery marks the third C919 aircraft received by the air carrier, the world's first C919 customer, this year.
At 16:25 on Monday, the C919 with the aircraft number B-919H flew from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, as the plane is officially joining China Eastern Airlines' fleet.
On May 28 this year, the first anniversary of the commercial operation of the C919, China Eastern Airlines' fleet welcomed the sixth C919. This was also the first of the 100 C919 aircraft ordered by the airline.
China Eastern is currently the world's largest user of the home-made C919 aircraft.
On September 28 of 2023, China Eastern Airlines and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) signed an agreement to order additional 100 C919 large passenger planes.
At present, the C919 aircraft operate four regular commercial routes between cities of Shanghai to Chengdu, Beijing, Xi'an and Guangzhou.
The airlines said that more new routes are expected with the delivery and introduction of new C919 aircraft.
As of Sunday, China Eastern Airlines' C919 fleet has completed a total of 3,031 flights, facilitating nearly 405,000 passenger trips.
Suparna Airlines, known in Chinese as Jinpeng Airlines said it will receive its first C919 aircraft in the fourth quarter of this year, making it be the first private company in the world running home-made C919.
Domestic flagship carriers like Air China and China Southern Airlines have also placed additional orders for 200 C919 planes. At present, the global orders placed for C919 have exceeded 1,000 planes.
