As Macao celebrated the 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland on Friday, the city highlighted the vigorous development and achievements of its deepening integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
With a population of approximately 87 million and a GDP exceeding 14 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion), the Greater Bay Area is offering boundless opportunities for Macao, the Xinhua News Agency has reported. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of the GBA Development Plan.
Today, Macao thrives as a vibrant hub of economic diversity, scientific innovation, youth dynamism, and cultural exchange.
Macao's rapid development is characterized by a diverse and vibrant industrial landscape, attracting high-end talent. It has emerged as a global hub for innovation and one of the most sought-after destinations for investment and tourism, steadily enhancing its international influence.
The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has actively pursued moderate economic diversification. In 2024, Macao unveiled its first comprehensive plan for this diversification, targeting rapid growth in key sectors such as health, modern finance, high-tech industries, trade exhibitions, and cultural sports. The Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin is dismantling institutional barriers, facilitating Macao's economic diversification and enhancing its integration into the national development strategy.
Today, Hengqin is home to a plethora of innovation platforms. These platforms are attracting high-end manufacturing enterprises and research institutions that are breaking through critical technological barriers, while providing youth with a vibrant stage to pursue their dreams in Macao.
Technological innovation has also become a new engine for economic growth, with four state key laboratories producing high-level research results in fields such as traditional Chinese medicine, space science, and health sciences.
"Hengqin serves as a robust support platform for Macao's moderate diversification, featuring six youth entrepreneurship bases that provide opportunities for young people to enter the mainland market. Cultural exchanges are also flourishing, with activities showcasing the intangible cultural heritage of South China's Chaozhou in local schools, allowing students to experience the richness of Chinese culture," Lao Chi Long, vice president of the Macao Youth Federation, told the Global Times.
In 2024, local authorities organized educational exchanges that facilitated visits for high school students from Macao to Hengqin, enabling them to explore the latest developments and broaden their horizons. Over 2,000 students have participated in this initiative, according to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA official website.
Lao said that many young students in Macao have opportunities to study at renowned institutions on the mainland. They later return to share their experiences and foster a sense of national identity among their peers.
More, Macao's unique blend of Eastern and Western cultures, diverse culinary offerings, and distinctive architecture make its tourism sector a vital aspect of its moderate economic diversification.
The SAR government is dedicated to showcasing Macao's charm to the world, attracting visitors to experience the city's rich heritage. In 1999, only 7 million tourists visited Macao; by December 7 of 2024, that number had soared to around 32.55 million, according to official data.
Today, Macao boasts one of the highest concentrations of UNESCO World Heritage sites, striving to become a global tourism and leisure center.
According to a survey by the China Tourism Academy, Macao was rated as the most satisfying destination for mainland outbound tourists in the first quarter of 2024.
Events like the 2024 Macao International Parade, the Macao Arts Festival, and the Arts and Cultural Festival between China and Portuguese-speaking countries draw visitors from all over, while thrilling competitions like the Grand Prix showcase the city's vibrant sports culture.
The second installment in Yang Xiaoyan's Nanjing Massacre book series is set in 1937 and follows Wu An, a 12-year-old boy who is sold to a Chinese soldier hoping to disguise himself as a father and a civilian to evade the Japanese troops and rejoin the fight.
"'An' literally means 'safe' in Mandarin, as I wanted him to be safe. Wu is my grandma's surname," Yang said in an interview with Xinhua.
In November 1937, Yang's grandparents fled from Nanjing, then the Chinese capital, shortly before it was captured by invading Japanese troops on Dec. 13. Over six weeks, the invaders killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric episodes of World War II.
"I felt obliged to teach our next generation, in the form of children's literature, about the bitter past of our nation," she said, noting that she had read all available survivors' accounts of the massacre to write the series.
As the remaining survivors of these atrocities more than 80 years ago are now passing away, many like Yang are taking over the baton to disseminate the truth of this dark time in history. AFTER THEY LEAVE
Nanjing, located in east China's Jiangsu Province, was a prosperous city in 1937.
"There were people doing acrobatics in the streets, and people telling stories and selling snacks," massacre survivor Chang Zhiqiang recalled in an earlier interview. He was a happy 9-year-old boy when his life changed on Dec. 13, 1937, along with the lives of tens of thousands of others.
Chang witnessed the torture and killing of six of his family members in the Nanjing Massacre, including his infant brother, who was tossed into the air by Japanese soldiers using a bayonet.
His daughter, Chang Xiaomei, is now 65 but didn't learn the details of the tragedy her father had lived through until about 10 years ago, when a Japanese scholar visited the family.
"Childhood trauma had tormented him all his life, and I knew I had to do something for him," Chang Xiaomei said. After the visit, she began accompanying her father when he went to rallies, gave testament and took interviews, and she gradually grew to understand her family's past.
She found that many people didn't know about the Nanjing Massacre. Once when she was on a train, a young man asked her if 300,000 people had really been killed in Nanjing, she said.
"We must help generations of people to remember that period of history, remember our suffering and inspire us to move forward on the road ahead."
She began documenting her father's life in 2017 to share the impact the events had had on him with other people. Three years later, she published a book that was later translated into Japanese and English.
Chang Zhiqiang passed away in December 2022. Today, there are just 32 registered Nanjing Massacre survivors -- who have an average age of over 94 -- down from the 1,756 figure recorded when Nanjing counted survivor numbers for the first time in 1987.
"There are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the story," said Chang Xiaomei, who was granted the official status of inheritor of historical memories of the Nanjing Massacre in 2022.
According to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, there are currently 32 people who have been given this status, the youngest of whom is just 9 years old. These inheritors record the lives of the survivors, open social media accounts to spread the truth of this history, and pass that truth on over generations.
Chang Xiaomei often gives lectures in primary schools. She is now considering documenting her father's experiences in a picture book to help more children learn about this period in history. AFTER THEY GROW UP
Like Chang Xiaomei, author Yang Xiaoyan learned the specifics of her family's bitter past quite late -- shortly before her grandfather died in 1991. She learned that although her two uncles had managed to leave Nanjing before the massacre, they did not survive the war.
It was not until 17 years later, when she came across historical materials on the Nanjing Massacre in a library, that she had the idea to teach children about these events.
With great support from the press, the author and primary school English teacher has completed the first two books in her "Smile in the Thorn Bush" trilogy. And her first book, "Xiaocong," is set to be translated into Arabic.
Yang said that while doing her research, the history she was learning would sometimes plunge her into darkness. During meetings, she had to sit near the door so she could escape easily should she need to.
"I do wonder if children would be able to accept these stories," she said. "So I avoid direct depictions of bloody scenes. But I cannot completely avoid the violence that took place, otherwise the work would not be powerful enough."
Yang once met a young girl at a lecture she was giving who told her that her mother wouldn't allow her to read the books because she thought they were too scary. Yang remembers telling her to read them when she had grown up.
More often than not, Yang's feedback from readers is positive. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was surprised to see a great number of people at a lecture she was giving during a book fair in Shanghai. Some parents even told her that they hadn't known much about the massacre before they had read her books, and that they would buy more books for their children to read.
In 2014, China's top legislature designated Dec. 13 as a national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. On that day each year, a siren sounds through the city and Yang teaches her students its simple lesson: If they had been in the same classroom more than 80 years in the past, the sound would signal that they couldn't stay in the school and learn. This lesson, she tells the children, teaches everyone to cherish the lives they can lead today.
"A nation without a past has no future," she told Xinhua. "Young people are in a period when their perceptions of the world and of life are being formed. I hope that they will read more history books."
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, located at a burial site for massacre victims, opened to the public in 1985. Yang said that she had been impressed by the design of a contraption in the hall that releases a drop of water every 12 seconds, with each drop representing someone who was killed in the massacre and the number of seconds between drops reflecting the frequency of deaths during the tragic episode in Nanjing's history.
Since it became the main venue for the national memorial ceremony in 2014, the hall has attracted approximately 5 million visitors every year. It has received 125,278 comments from visitors so far this year, with a daily average of more than 400. Words such as "history," "peace," "remember" and "prosperity" appear frequently in these comments.
According to memorial hall statistics, about 70 percent of all users of its 11 online platforms are below 35 years of age. From 2014 to 2023, content including key words such as "national memorial" and "national memorial day" on its Sina Weibo account saw views increase from 2.03 billion to 32.2 billion.
MAY PEACE PREVAIL
The Nanjing No.12 Middle School was founded by U.S. missionary John Magee, who covertly recorded 105 minutes of footage documenting the barbarity of Japanese invaders in 1937. This footage is thought to be the only film record of the massacre.
Shi Xiaobing, vice president of the school, told Xinhua that the massacre is something that many adults in Nanjing know all about. When the siren wails on the national memorial day each year, his family stands on their balcony to mourn, he said.
"The future is to be carried by generations of children, who should shoulder their own responsibilities," said Shi, 43. "By learning the history we hope to teach them to love their motherland, and to understand the hardship through which the happiness they know today was achieved."
The school puts on a host of activities every December, including speeches, debates and singing competitions. One recent debate marked China's new visa-free policy for Japanese tourists.
Shi used to volunteer in the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, and he found that in recent years, knowledge of the Nanjing Massacre has increased among children and young people. "Children are confident enough amid the fast development of our country, and they can look our devastating history square in the eye."
Chen Baoyi, 16, will be the host of the school's mourning gathering on this year's national memorial day. She has known about the Nanjing Massacre since she was very young. Through education both at school and in the memorial hall, she has developed a rational view of the tragedy. "When it occurred, China was underdeveloped," she said. "So we now have the obligation to build a stronger country to avoid a repeat of such a tragedy."
Her classmate, 17-year-old Gao Jing, sees the study of the Nanjing Massacre as a way to commemorate its victims. Learning the truth about this history has not made her hostile to present-day Japan. Like many of her peers, she likes to watch animated Japanese movies like "Detective Conan," and she often buys cultural products associated with these films.
And that is what Shi Xiaobing likes to see. "Remembering history is not remembering hatred," he said.
Shi's views are shared by Yang Xiaoyan. "The message we would like to send is not that we should hate any particular country, but that we should hate war itself. In Japan, many people also lost their lives in the war," she said. Remembering history is not in conflict with traveling to Japan, she noted, and she herself is a fan of Japanese movie stars such as Yamaguchi Momoe.
"We hope that in the process of learning history, we can cultivate the critical thinking abilities of young people, so that they can gain a proper view of history. We would also like to see China and all countries in the world enjoy peace in the future."
To bring the history of the Nanjing Massacre to a broader international audience, Yang plans to translate her works into English. In addition to her "Smile in the Thorn Bush" trilogy, she has also authored "Ningsheng Ningsheng," which was inspired by a commemorative poster bearing the images of two children -- one from 1937 and the other from 2017 -- looking at each other across time.
At the end of the book, eponymous protagonist Ningsheng has become a college student and reads a comment in the memorial hall guestbook: "History is not horrible. What is horrible is the disregard for and oblivion of history. May peace prevail."
The inauguration of the Chancay Port in Peru, located near the capital Lima, in mid-November is of significant strategic importance in reshaping global trade.
Construction of the port began in 2019 when China's COSCO Shipping Ports Ltd acquired a 60 percent stake in the Chancay Terminal from Volcan Compania Minera. The investment allowed COSCO Shipping to develop the adjacent ocean area with exclusive rights as the terminal operator. Following the resolution of legal disputes regarding the surrounding port area, this infrastructure promises to cut travel time from China by more than 10 days, reducing it to 23 days. Departures from Shanghai, the world's largest port, will particularly benefit a lot. Products including mineral resources, fruits, soybeans, timber, and frozen fish from Peru will be exported to China through weekly connections.
Peru has long-standing ties with China, dating back to the 19th century when migration brought over 100,000 Chinese to the South American nation. Today, about 8 percent of Peru's population descended from those early immigrants. The cultural exchange is evident, with Chinese words integrated into Peruvian vocabulary, and in recent years, February 1 has been declared as Peru-China Fraternity Day.
These historical ties have paved the way for flourishing trade relations, especially since the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013. Trade volume further surged from 2016 to 2023, growing at an average annual rate of 14.6 percent. In the first 10 months of this year, trade peaked at $35 billion, marking a 16.8 percent year-on-year increase. Notably, Peru boasts a GDP of about $270 billion and a per capita income of under $8,000 for around 33 million citizens. China's primary exports to Peru consist of consumer goods and machinery, while Peru exports agricultural products and raw materials such as copper.The Chancay Port, expected to become a major hub in South America, features a depth of around 18 meters, enabling it to accommodate advanced container ships with capacities of 18,000 TEUs. It is the only port of its kind along South America's southwestern coast. Mario de Las Casas, COSCO Shipping's external relations manager in Peru, said that the port is an opportunity not only for Peru but for all of South America.
The port will also benefit Brazil, as the two nations are connected by the Intraoceanic Highway, traversing key agricultural regions like Acre and Rondonia. This connectivity is particularly relevant as China's demand for soybeans continues to rise.
China's exploration of alternative trade routes can be likened to the historical endeavors of Admiral Zheng He during the Ming Dynasty (1358-1644), who explored new routes between India and Africa. Modern challenges such as prolonged geopolitical conflicts have necessitated strategies like the Chancay Port and the China-Europe freight train service launched in 2013.
Chile's mid-June request to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) underscores the region's economic transformation. Chile already benefits from a free trade agreement with China, facilitating the export of copper, lithium, wine, and fruit, including 377,000 tons of cherries in the 2023-2024 period.
By joining RCEP, Chile will connect its 33 existing trade agreements to the Asia-Pacific bloc, further enhancing China's economic footprint.
In 2023, trade within the RCEP region rose to $5.6 trillion. The region attracted $234 billion in greenfield investments. With anticipated protectionist policies in global trade, China's growing relations with Peru, Brazil, and Chile highlight its strategic pivot toward South America.
China should and also have the capability to become an important supporter, torchbearer, and promoter of the continued development of Global South countries, Li Xiaoyun, a professor at China Agricultural University, said at the Global Times Annual Conference 2025, themed "Moving forward in Partnership: Resonance of Values between China and the World," which took place in Beijing on Saturday.
During the session on "The Resurgence of the Awakening of the Global South: Mutual Learning and Resonance," Li emphasized the need to recognize the complexity of national conditions of Global South countries, stating that their development must take into account geopolitical changes and various other factors, instead of original imagination.
He noted that China is a member of the Global South while also having some differences from other Global South countries. Li pointed out that without a core driving force, the Global South would be fragmented. In his view, this core driving force should have the capacity to provide economic support, development experience, and to establish organizations that serve the interests of Global South countries. From this perspective, he believes that China currently meets the requirements.
Li made further remarks: first, China is the only country within the Global South that has the capacity to engage in substantial South-South cooperation; second, China possesses unique development experiences; and third, China actively promotes organizations focused on the development of Global South countries, such as the BRICS New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
China's positioning among Global South countries should be as an important resource supporter, experience provider, and a true force for unity, Li said.
China successfully sent the first group of low Earth orbit satellites for a satellite internet constellation from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern Hainan Province on Monday.
At 6:00 p.m. (Beijing Time), this group of satellites was launched by a Long March-5B carrier rocket with a Yuanzheng-2 (Expedition-2) upper stage atop the rocket. The satellites have entered the preset orbits.
The launch marked the 552nd mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.
China's first fully electric single-seater flying "go-kart," the AnTGOne, is about to enter production. Impressively, it takes only three minutes for beginners to experience the fun of flying, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Friday.
As a manned aircraft, the AnTGOne is equipped with a self-developed flight control system, crafted from aviation aluminum and carbon fiber materials. With a maximum payload capacity exceeding 200 kilograms, this remarkable vehicle prioritizes a lightweight and foldable design, making it perfectly suited to meet the diverse demands of the market, according to Science and Technology Daily.
This product is designed to deliver an exhilarating flying experience, with a focus on ultra-low altitude flight. It allows users to freely switch between three flight modes: experience mode, player mode, and automatic mode, and even complete beginners can experience the joy of flying after just three minutes of learning, according to the report.
The person in charge of the company that produced the go-kart, Feng Guangwei, said that hundreds of hours of simulated manned flights, conducted at a weight of 75 kilograms, have already been carried out. Manned flight tests will be carried out according to the established timeline, and the product will undergo additional testing and finalization, with formal production expected to commence in March 2025, Feng added.
At present, the company has received nearly 500 orders, and the first batch of products has been designated for export, according to the report.
As over 1,300 participants from over 100 countries and regions as well as international organizations attended the opening ceremony of the second China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), which kicked off on Tuesday in Beijing, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng called for promoting win-win cooperation, optimization and upgrading as well as green transition of global industrial and supply chains.
China will adhere to the right course of economic globalization and enhance business and industrial capacity cooperation with other countries for a positive interplay among industries and shared benefits, Han said, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
At the opening ceremony on Tuesday, a Beijing initiative for stable and smooth global industrial and supply chains was unveiled.
On Monday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, while attending a symposium with representatives of enterprises and organizations participating in the second CISCE, said China will continue to take concrete action to ensure stable and unimpeded global industrial and supply chains.
Join hands, no arm wrestling
Government officials and representatives from the global business community and institutions from more than 100 countries and regions attending the second CISCE opening ceremony on Tuesday took to the stage to express their support for globalization, and voiced their concerns about decoupling and attempts to undermine global industrial and supply chain cooperation.
Observers noted that the global economic stage should be one where partners seek common growth and a shared future by joining hands, rather than by engaging in arm wrestling. They urged governments around the world to work toward ensuring the smooth flow of the global industrial and supply chain.
Chinese analysts said that in face of the sluggish global economic recovery, collaboration and seeking win-win benefits is the only path to ensure the prosperity of global trade, which is the foundation of well-being for the peoples of the world.
Anti-globalization and the fragmentation of the global supply chain will only add costs and incur losses, they noted.
"In Europe, a great meeting of the Eastern and Western economies has been created in Hungary. If you want to see big German factories and big Chinese factories built on neighboring plots next door to each other, please come to Hungary. Our strategy of economic neutrality will make 2025 a fantastic year for the Hungarian economy through the enhanced cooperation between China and Hungary," Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in his speech at the opening ceremony of the second CISCE.
"Hungary is honored to be the country of honor here," Szijjarto said. "We will take the best profit out of our presence here."
In face of an increasingly complex global economic landscape and rising protectionist headwinds, guests including global business leaders and top executives expounded the benefit of connectivity, as well as the cost of fragmentation.
"A single tree does not make a forest, and a single string does not make music. We can achieve more when we work together, and the bigger the challenge, the more essential cooperation becomes," Dominic Barton, chair of Rio Tinto, said during his speech at the opening ceremony.
"It is important that we speak up and come out of the shadows to defend and promote supply chain coordination and free trade. It is essential for all of our prosperity," Barton said.
As the World Bank estimates, a 1 percent increase in participation in the international supply chain is associated with a more than 1 percent increase in per capita income to see the direct link between trade and prosperity, the chair of the mining giant said.
Another example, according to Barton, is that in a scenario where countries block made-in-China products in clean energy, such as solar panels, wind turbines and lithium batteries, Wood Mackenzie estimated that global energy transition costs would rise by 20 percent, or at least the equivalent of $6 trillion.
Confidence booster
Bolstered by the country's recent slew of incremental policies aimed at injecting vitality into growth momentum, there is rising confidence from the global business community.
On Monday, Premier Li Qiang said that China has achieved generally steady economic growth and made further progress this year, saying that more efforts will be made to step up counter-cyclical adjustment and promote sound economic development.
"At CP Group, we are very confident in the Chinese economy. The package [of incremental policies] is thorough and considerate. As entrepreneurs, we are heartened. The overseas Chinese business community is also heartened," Dhanin Chearavanont, senior chairman of Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group and dubbed the "001 foreign investor to China (among the first foreign investors when China launched the reform and opening-up)," told the Global Times on the sidelines of the event.
Compared with the first edition of the expo held in 2023, this year's event has seen a growing attendance from global and domestic companies, many of them giants in their sector.
China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Chairman Ren Hongbin said the world is seeing the CISCE, the world's first and only one of its kind devoted to supply chain cooperation, with growing recognition both in China and globally.
"A platform to foster unity and enhance collaboration is what the world sorely needs at this moment of rising anti-globalization, unilateralism and protectionism," Ren said.
Huo Jianguo, a vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the world's second-largest economy is consolidating its growth momentum with improved quality and constant efforts to optimize its business environment. The attractiveness of the China market and Chinese supply chain will grow stronger and more multinational companies will place their bets on China, Huo noted.
In response to the US State Department relaxing its travel advisory for China and removing the notation that indicates a risk of wrongful detention, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China has taken note of the US adjustment and believes that this move is beneficial for normal exchanges between the two countries.
China has always opposed artificially creating a "chilling effect" and hopes that the US will continue to create more conveniences to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, said Mao.
The State Department downgraded its travel advisory for China from level three "reconsider travel" to a level two "exercise increased caution" on Wednesday, according to a Politico report.
An organ transplantation research team from Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan has achieved a major breakthrough, with a gene-edited pig kidney surviving in a macaque for an unprecedented 184 days. This marks the first step toward successful xenotransplantation in China, according to a release sent to the Global Times by the hospital on Friday.
This success was realized in November, bringing China's xenograft pig kidney transplantation research closer to the international advanced level, and laying a strong foundation for future clinical research, the release said.
Gene-editing pigs to provide organs to humans for performing xenotransplantation remains a key focus area in advanced biotechnology.
China's clinical application technology for organ transplantation is on par with global standards, and the research and development capabilities for gene-edited pigs are steadily aligning with international benchmarks, according to the hospital.
In the trials involving gene-edited pigs and non-human primates, however, the transplantation of pig kidneys into macaques has faced challenges in achieving long-term survival, which has become a major barrier to advancing xenogeneic kidney transplantation to clinical trials in China, the release noted.
Chen Gang, the team's leading researcher, explained that in xenograft animal testing, 180 days of survival is regarded as the benchmark for achieving long-term survival.
Long-term survival after transplantation of gene-edited pig kidneys in macaques has been reported internationally in nearly 20 cases, and the US has pioneered clinical trials involving pig kidney transplants for patients with uremia, Chen said.
For China to initiate similar clinical case studies, achieving long-term survival in animal experiments remains a prerequisite, Chen added.
Chen and his team have dedicated nearly two decades to xenotransplantation research, focusing specifically on over 20 animal experiments involving kidney transplants from novel gene-edited pigs to macaques in the past five years.
Following continuous refinement and improvements, on May 10, after obtaining ethical approval for animal experiments, they used pCMV-negative four-gene edited pigs (GTKO/β4GalNT2KO/hCD55/hTBM) as donors to transplant a single pig kidney into a macaque, while concurrently removing the macaque's own bilateral kidneys.
By improving the immunosuppressive regimen, the transplanted kidney achieved a survival period of 184 days, the release noted.
Within five months after the transplantation, the transplanted pig kidney in the macaque functioned entirely normally, and various physiological indicators were largely within normal ranges, according to the release.
Although the transplanted macaque later developed worsening proteinuria over time and experienced chronic rejection mediated by newly formed xenogeneic antibodies, Chen said that they will strengthen measures to suppress antibody production and further improve survival outcomes, laying the groundwork for clinical research.
