NATION REMAINS COMMITTED TO REFORM, OPENING-UP

Forty years ago, China created four special economic zones in the southeastern coastal cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong province and Xiamen in Fujian province as part of the country's opening-up drive to encourage foreign investment and boost economic growth.

Ever since then, by adhering to its fundamental State policy of opening-up, China has aligned itself with the economic globalization process, and emerged to be the world's second-largest economy.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world economy into recession, China remains committed to expanding opening-up to bolster its high-quality growth and to promoting globalization and inclusive development.

Speaking at a symposium on economic and social work on Monday, President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of higher-level opening-up in international cooperation and competition and reiterated that opening-up remains China's fundamental policy.

He underlined the need to actively develop cooperation with countries, regions and enterprises that are willing to partner with China, including individual states, local partners and companies from the United States, in order to form an all-around, multifaceted opening-up structure.

While adhering to opening-up, Xi said the country should also coordinate security with development, make efforts to enhance competitiveness and improve its risk oversight, prevention and control capabilities.

Observers said that, against the backdrop that the US keeps raising its rhetoric against Beijing and escalating confrontation with the "new Cold War", China's consistent policy of opening-up holds the key to its post-pandemic development and will also inject greater confidence and momentum into the world economy.

Zhou Fangyin, president of the School of International Relations at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said that in the current situation, China's wider opening to the world will help frustrate US attempts to contain it on the international stage, although the policy cannot result in changes to Washington's anti-China strategy.

40 YEARS ON: SHENZHEN SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE

Shenzhen is known for its business environment and robust private sector, and the city government has always attached great importance to realizing sustainable growth and improving the local business environment.

In this exclusive video, three entrepreneurs -- one from the United States, one from France and one from China's Hong Kong-- shared inspiring moments from their entrepreneurial journey in Shenzhen, their views of this friendly city, their perspective on the convenience of the Great Bay Area, and their expectations for the city's future.

Let's take a look at this video and experience the charm, impetus, energy and innovation of Shenzhen after 40 years of development.

CHINA, US TO PUSH FORWARD PHASE-ONE DEAL

Vice-Premier Liu He and senior US officials held talks by telephone on Tuesday, with both sides agreeing to continue pushing forward the implementation of the phase-one trade deal the two nations signed in January.

Experts and business leaders said the talks came as the world's two largest economies seek a solution to trade tensions amid the sluggish world economy and the globally spreading COVID-19 pandemic. In the next step, they said the two sides are likely to discuss specific issues in fields such as protection of intellectual property rights and financial trade and expect to see an improvement in economic and trade ties that benefits companies on both sides.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday, Liu had a phone call with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. This came after reports that planned high-level talks on implementing the phase-one trade deal had been postponed.

The two sides had constructive talks on cementing macroeconomic cooperation and agreed to strive to create favorable conditions for implementing the deal, the statement said.

In another statement released after the meeting, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said the parties addressed steps that China has taken to effect structural changes called for by the agreement that will ensure greater protection for intellectual property rights and issues regarding financial services, agriculture and technology transfer.

"The parties also discussed the significant increases in purchases of US products by China as well as future actions needed to implement the agreement," the office added. "Both sides see progress and are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the success of the agreement."

The phone conversation was held at a time of mounting uncertainties as new problems appeared from the coronavirus impact, such as rising protectionism, global economic downturn and shrinking international markets, said Pang Chaoran, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce.

According to Pang, the trade deal is in line with China's ongoing efforts to deepen reform and opening-up as well as its need to promote high-quality economic development.

CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE INDICATES DECOUPLING REPORTS WIDE OF THE MARK

US President Donald Trump's remark in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that the United States would completely decouple from China has been overblown and taken out of context by some Western media outlets, which have reported what was essentially a restatement of his June 19 tweet that "the US certainly does maintain a policy option, under various conditions, of a complete decoupling from China", as though such a scenario is imminent.

But contrary to the media reports sensationalizing his remarks, the reality is the decoupling of the world's two largest economies is neither reasonable nor feasible. The reality is that while the US is trying to decouple to some extent in areas such as science and technology, coupling is intensifying in other areas, such as the financial and agricultural sectors.

As shown by the telephone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday morning, the two countries may be willing to carry on from where they left off.

This was their first official dialogue since early May and came amid growing concerns the so-called phase one deal could be on shaky ground because of the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the increasingly confrontational approach the US administration has publicly taken toward China ahead of the upcoming presidential election in the US.

But the heads of the two sides' respective trade negotiation teams, agreed to continue to promote the implementation of the deal signed in January.

And the US Trade Representative's office said in a statement afterward that "both sides see progress and are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the success of the agreement".

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce, on its part, said that the two sides had "a constructive dialogue" not only on implementation of the deal but also on strengthening the coordination of their macroeconomic policies.

Such positive assessments belie the notion that a complete decoupling between the two economies is in the cards, particularly since it is the sensitive areas of technology, data security and market access, all pain spots in the current Sino-US relationship, that the two sides have agreed to discuss in following talks.

As Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed on Monday, the more than 40 years of interaction between China and the US indicates that the two countries should further tap their complementarity and strengthen their cooperation to improve their peoples' well-being, rather than severing their already entrenched connections.

POMPEO'S REMARKS BASELESS, DISTORT FACTS, XINHUA SAYS

Xinhua News Agency has published a 20,000-word article rebuking US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech delivered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California a month ago, saying it negated every aspect of China-US relations and misrepresented history and reality.

Refuting Pompeo's remark that US "blind engagement" with China has failed, Xinhua said "US engagement with China is deliberate rather than blind and serves the national interests of the United States".

Pompeo's assertion that the policy has failed is a rehash of the Cold War mentality, and the "distrust and verify" approach he advocated abounds with a Cold War mentality, ideological bias, condescending and bullying attitudes, and ignorance toward China, the article said.

The root cause of the trust deficit between China and the US is the Cold War mentality, ideological bias, and zero-sum game mindset of certain US politicians, who have misread, misjudged or deliberately distorted China's strategic intention and its internal and external policies, the Xinhua article said.

China's policy toward the US has been highly stable and consistent, and it stands ready to develop bilateral relations featuring no conflict and confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, it said, adding that China has every right to reject any bullying and injustice imposed on it.

"While the United States unscrupulously contains and smears China around the world, and meddles in China's domestic affairs, it should not demand unrealistically that China show understanding and support to the United States in bilateral and global affairs," it added.

Dismissing Pompeo's playing up of the two countries' differences, Xinhua said China never intends to challenge, replace or have a full confrontation with the US, nor does it seek to change the US system.

The most fundamental reason for the normalization of bilateral ties in 1972 was that both sides upheld the principle of mutual respect and seeking common ground while shelving differences, it said.

"The ups and downs in China-US relations provide ample evidence that confrontation and conflict are not in the fundamental interests of both sides, and dialogue and cooperation are the only way to go," it said.

Xinhua also rebutted Pompeo's accusation that China seeks "global hegemony".

The People's Republic of China, which has never started any war or occupied an inch of the land of others since its founding over 70 years ago, follows a path of peaceful development and will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion, it said.

AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP FINISHES SEA TRIAL

China's first amphibious assault ship has finished an 18-day maiden sea trial and returned to its shipyard in Shanghai on Sunday, according to footage and photos published on Chinese websites.

Video clips and pictures posted on Chinese news portals and military-themed websites showed the colossal vessel sailing back on Sunday afternoon to a berth at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a major shipbuilder under State-owned defense conglomerate China State Shipbuilding Corp.

The top of its superstructure was blackened by smoke from the chimney, according to the posted materials.

The ship, the first in the Type 075 class, started its first sea trial from the shipyard on Aug 5.

The People's Liberation Army Navy and China State Shipbuilding Corp have yet to publish information about the sea trial.

The move indicated that construction of the amphibious vessel has basically finished. Next, engineers will fix problems exposed during the trial and prepare for further trials.

Wu Peixin, a military observer in Beijing who closely follows the PLA's hardware developments, said the fact that the maiden sea trial took as long as 18 days indicated that the first Type 075 ship must have carried out many tests and performed well in this voyage. Otherwise the trial would have ended much earlier.

Another good sign was that the vessel is able to conduct long-duration missions and can sustain itself in such operations, Wu said.

He speculated that it will not take long for the vessel to be delivered to the Navy.

The first Type 075 vessel was unveiled in September at Hudong-Zhonghua, followed by the second such ship in April.

Science and Technology Daily previously reported that the Type 075 is about 250 meters long, around 30 meters wide and will displace nearly 40,000 metric tons.

The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and South Korea have also developed and built modern amphibious assault ships.

Cao Weidong, a retired researcher at the PLA Naval Research Academy, said the Type 075 will mainly be tasked with transporting and landing troops and weapons in hostile territory via landing craft or helicopters as well as providing air fire support.

Such ships can play a leading role in anti-ship, ground target strike and landing operations, strongly boosting the Navy's long-range amphibious capability, according to him.

Furthermore, military observers are speculating about the research and development of the Type 076, which they expect to be the PLA Navy's next-generation amphibious platform that will be equipped with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system and stealth drones.

CHINESE ELECTED TO LAW OF SEA TRIBUNAL

The election of a Chinese diplomat as a member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea once again shows that certain countries' attempts to contain and suppress the Chinese contender in the election were unpopular and futile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

Duan Jielong, China's ambassador to Hungary, was among the six people elected on Monday at the New York headquarters of the United Nations by the States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The other five were David J.Attard, of Malta; Ida Caracciolo, of Italy; Maria Teresa Infante Caffi, of Chile; Maurice Kengne Kamga, of Cameroon; and Markiyan Kulyk, of Ukraine.

"The Chinese contender was elected with 149 votes in the first round of voting and will start a nine-year term on Oct 1 to Sept 30,2029. I'd like to take this opportunity to extend sincere thanks for the States Parties' support for the Chinese contender," Zhao told reporters at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

He also expressed congratulations to the other five elected members.

Zhao said that the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an important international judicial body set up according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and China always highly values and supports its work.

The wide majority support for Duan shows the international community's recognition of the Chinese contender and affirmation of China's contribution to the work of the tribunal over more than 20 years, the spokesman said. It also shows global society's determination to uphold multilateralism and the international rule of law.

"We believe that the elected judges will fairly perform their duties and make due contributions to the (the tribunal) and for peaceful settlement of disputes on the sea," Zhao said.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has 21 judges with nine-year terms. A third of the members are replaced every three years.

Since it was established in 1996, three Chinese have served as judges: Zhao Lihai (1996-2000), Xu Guangjian (2001-07) and Gao Zhiguo (2008-20).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change. - Thomas Hardy