XI COMMITS TO FURTHER EASE MARKET ACCESS

President Xi Jinping said on Friday that China will remain steadfast in opening wider to the world, further ease market access for the services sector and actively increase imports of quality services.

He made the commitments when delivering a speech via video to the Global Trade in Services Summit of this year's China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing.

CIFTIS, held as all countries face a battle to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, stabilize their economies and protect people's livelihood, shows China's willingness to work together with others to enable global trade in services to thrive and the world economy to recover at an early date, Xi said.

China will also continue to work on a negative list system for managing cross-border services trade and develop open platforms for the pilot program of innovative development of the sector, he said.

Xi said Beijing will be built into a national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the services sector as well as a pilot free-trade zone featuring scientific and technological innovation, opening-up of the services sector and the digital economy.

Considering that the services sector, more than other sectors, requires an open, transparent, inclusive and nondiscriminatory environment, Xi called for concerted efforts of all countries to reduce border and behind-the-border barriers constraining the flow of production factors and to promote cross-border connectivity.

China will promote greater harmonization of rules for services at the multilateral and regional levels, and work for continued improvement in global economic governance and more inclusive growth of the world economy, he said.

The president also underlined the importance of unleashing the power of innovation in driving cooperation forward.

"China will work with other countries to enhance macro policy coordination, accelerate international cooperation in the digital sector, step up intellectual property protection and facilitate the vibrant growth of the digital economy and sharing economy," he said, noting that such efforts will generate renewed dynamism for the world economy.

Xi said that treating each other with sincerity and pursuing shared benefits is the key to state-to-state relations in the age of economic globalization, when countries' interests are intertwined like never before.

WANG TELLS G20 BETTER DATA SECURITY CRUCIAL ISSUE

China may propose an initiative to safeguard data security in order to protect the supply chain of global information technology products and services, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

While highlighting the need for countries to unleash the potential of the digital economy by encouraging new business models in the post-pandemic era, Wang said data security remains a common concern of the international community. He made the remarks in a video conference speech to the Group of 20 foreign ministers on Thursday night.

China called on G20 members to develop constructive communication and coordination and attach importance to data security and cross-border data flows to jointly create an open, fair, impartial and nondiscriminatory business environment and share the development dividends of the digital economy, he said.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang has used a number of multilateral events to voice China's support for international cooperation in combating the disease and to propose the country's constructive initiatives to reduce the pandemic's impact on the global economy.

On Friday night, he also attended a meeting of the foreign ministers of BRICS countries−Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa−via video link. Wang has made clear the country's firm support for multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation in responding to the pandemic and promoting economic recovery.

While speaking to the G20 foreign ministers, Wang proposed an initiative on facilitating the cross-border movement of people and goods, and said China stands ready to work with other G20 countries to translate the initiative into action.

All parties should gradually expand personnel exchanges and upgrade established bilateral channels to multilateral networks using proper anti-epidemic measures, he said, adding that they should also strengthen mutual reporting on pandemic information, implement remote nucleic acid testing and mutually recognize test results and health codes.

Wang suggested that all parties build a "green channel" for goods, improve customs clearance efficiency, unclog supply chains and industrial chains and explore the feasibility of implementing zero tariffs on important medical materials and products. He underlined the need for G20 members to strengthen cooperation in vaccine development, promote vaccine accessibility and affordability and increase support for the least-developed countries that were severely hit by the pandemic.

GUIDELINE EYES IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS

China has released a guideline to improve the number and quality of rural teachers over the next three to five years.

Issued on Friday by the Ministry of Education and five other departments, the guideline asked local authorities to issue more favorable policies to improve the salaries, career prospects and job attractiveness for rural teachers.

The guideline reiterated that the salary for rural teachers should not be less than that of local government officials and asked local authorities to award more senior professional titles to rural teachers.

To attract more teachers to work in rural areas, extra subsidies will be given to them, with those working in more impoverished regions getting more subsidies, the guideline said.

Ren Youqun, director of the ministry's Department of Teacher Education, said more than half of the 2.9 million rural teachers in China have bachelor or higher degrees and 43.4 percent of them are less than 35 years old.

A total of 950,000 college graduates have been hired to work at more than 30,000 rural schools in central and western China since 2006, and different plans have been issued to attract more people to work part-time or full-time at rural schools, Ren said.

The central government has invested 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in training for more than 9.5 million rural teachers from 2015 to last year, and 20.6 billion yuan has been allocated by central authorities to provide subsidies for around 1.3 million rural teachers in the past five years, he said.

More than 4,500 teachers beyond retirement age have been recruited to teach in primary and junior high schools in rural areas from 2018 to 2019, and the ministry plans to hire another 4,800 retired teachers to teach at rural schools this year, he said.

Wang Haibo, deputy director of Shaanxi education department, said the guideline is another policy support for the country's rural teachers, as despite previous efforts, rural education remains one of the weakest links in the country's education system.

Being a rural teacher is not an attractive profession due to its low salary and the difficulty getting a promotion, and many rural teachers have changed to other jobs after working for several years, he said.

Fu Weidong, associate professor at East China Normal University, said improving the number and quality of rural teachers is crucial to making sure more rural students will receive quality education to move up the social ladder and have a better future than their parents.

SERVICE TRADE FAIR CAN HELP BOOST GLOBAL ECONOMY

That China has been making painstaking efforts to revitalize international trade and share with other countries its development dividends to help the global economy overcome the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic was again evidenced in the opening of the China International Fair for Trade in Services on Friday.

The trade fair in Beijing, the first major international trade event offline since the outbreak of the pandemic, has attracted thousands of companies from around the world reflecting China's success in containing the pandemic and its willingness to help other countries and regions surmount their economic woes through strengthening trade and economic exchanges.

The pandemic brought global trade and economic activities almost to a halt, with leading economists forecasting a sharp contraction in global trade and economic growth this year.

Yet China, having virtually contained the epidemic, has managed to resume production and other economic activities, and is focusing on a "dual circulation" development pattern, which is centered on the domestic economy ("internal circulation") and aims to integrate the domestic economy with the global economy ("external circulation").

The boosting of domestic demand to accelerate "internal circulation" will not only advance China's overall economic growth, but also create a bigger market for goods and services from other countries, which will help revive the world economy. In fact, to inject new vitality into the global economy, China has decided to hold three major international trade fairs−the others being the China Import and Export Fair and the China International Import Expo.

The three events will send a clear signal that China champions economic globalization and multilateralism despite some major economies resorting to trade protectionism and unilateralism. For only free and fair trade and economic exchanges can lead to common development, which in turn will reinforce the global will to fight protectionism.

The global economy may have been facing strong headwinds, but no country can achieve sustainable growth without engaging in trade and other exchanges with other countries.

As President Xi Jinping said in his speech to the Global Trade in Services Summit of CIFTIS via video on Friday, all countries have to "work together to overcome the difficulties the world is facing in order to propel the growth of global service trade and quick recovery of the world economy". He added that China supports the establishment of an alliance promoting global trade in services.

REUSABLE EXPERIMENTAL SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED

China launched a reusable experimental spacecraft with a Long March 2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Friday afternoon, according to a major space contractor.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the leading State-owned space conglomerate, said in a statement that the robotic vehicle will be in orbit for a period to verify reusable technologies that will serve as technological foundations for the peaceful use of space. Then the spacecraft will return to Earth and land at a preset site.

The company did not elaborate on details of the mission and the spacecraft, nor publish pictures of the liftoff or scenes inside the command and control hall.

An article published in March by the company's Xi'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute in Shaanxi province said on its WeChat account that "the next Long March 2F flight will be an important scientific experimental mission and will lay the foundation for future manned space programs".

The mission "will be crucial to next-generation aerospace technologies". Therefore the institute "must make sure it will succeed", said the article.

According to experts, reusable spacecrafts will have a wide range of applications such as carrying out space tours for civilians, transporting astronauts, resupplying space stations and placing satellites into orbit at lower cost.

China's space contractors have been studying and demonstrating reusable technologies for their space program for several years.

In June 2017, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp said its designers "are verifying two designs for reusable rockets"-one will use the vertical landing system to retrieve the main body of a carrier rocket and the other will use parachutes.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, another State-owned space contractor, announced at the same time that its researchers "are developing reusable spacecrafts capable of conducting takeoff and landing at airports".

The cutting-edge spacecraft's key technologies and major components such as its engine "have passed ground tests and the program is proceeding smoothly", company executives said at that time.

Friday's mission was the 344th launch of the Long March rocket fleet and the 14th of the Long March 2F, which is mainly tasked with serving China's manned space program.

Before this mission, all of Long March 2F's previous flights involved manned space missions. It sent six manned and five pilot-less spaceships as well as two space labs into low-Earth orbit.

TIBETANS MARK ANNIVERSARY, REFLECT ON BENEFICIAL CHANGES

This month's celebration of the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet autonomous region has a special meaning for Nyima Dondrub.

"Thanks to the official founding of the region in 1965, I had the opportunity to become a Party secretary, having been a herdsman," said the 60-year-old, who spoke at a Friday gathering of 180 people in the capital, Lhasa, from all walks of life to celebrate the anniversary.

Born into a family of serfs, the lowest class under the old social system, he still remembers a childhood that included a hard life with few ways to make a living and ramshackle housing.

Nyima Dondrub is now the Party secretary of Chamgug village in Gerze county's Oma township, which is in Ngari prefecture.

"I feel lucky that I live under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and I feel happy with my life," he said.

For centuries, Tibet was ruled by a feudal theocracy. Millions of serfs were subjected to cruel exploitation and oppression until democratic reform in 1959. In those days, many people led a miserable life that did not include basic human rights.

He said the region's residents have benefited from new policies implemented over the past 55 years, which have brought the chance for a better life.

Dramatic changes have come to living standards in his village over the past five decades, said Nyima Dondrub. "All the families in the village are connected by paved roads, have telecommunications and television services and are provided with better education, health services and running water."

Average life expectancy had risen to over 70 years by the end of 2019 from 35.5 years in the 1950s, the region's health authorities said.

The infant mortality rate declined from 430 per 1,000 in the 1950s to 10.38 per 1,000 by the end of 2017, with more than 90 percent of deliveries occurring at hospitals.

The region's GDP has soared from 174 million yuan in 1959 to more 160 billion yuan ($23.4 billion) in 2019. Annual disposable income per capita in Tibet reached 19,501 yuan in 2019.

Apart from improved overall health, residents have had increasing opportunities to earn higher incomes and enjoy a better life.

Tsering Yangzom, a Tibetan villager from Nyingchi also spoke highly of the sea change in people's quality of life.

Born into a poor family, she had to drop out of school after finishing junior middle school. Her home village is Tsojuk, near Baksum Tso Lake, now one of Tibet's most famous tourist sites.

In 2015, Tsering Yangzom began working as a tour guide, benefiting from the blooming tourist trade in her hometown. Her average monthly salary has grown to 20,000 yuan.

"My husband also quit herding animals and began working at the tourist site as a sanitation worker in 2015, and now we can better support our family by buying what we need," the 25-year-old said.

Other villagers are also now making a living from tourism. But such inspiring stories have not been unusual in the region over the past 55 years.

Since the founding of the region in September 1965, people in Tibet have benefited from solid progress in education and significant progress in balancing tourism development and the restoration of biodiversity.

"We had 49 people in 13 impoverished families in our village in 2017, and they have all escaped poverty now," Nyima Dondrub said.

He said that in 2019, the average annual per capita disposable income of 288 people in 71 households in the village reached 19,770 yuan. It is not unusual for his fellow villagers to own cars, motorcycles, TVs, phones, computers, refrigerators and other electronic home appliances.

"We enjoy living in a good society today. We know what we have today is not easily earned and therefore, we want to cherish happy times," he said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

He knows not his own strength that has not met adversity. - Ben Jonson