The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) on Wednesday voiced its disappointment with the EU's mandate for customs registration of electric vehicle (EV) imports from China while an investigation remains ongoing, according to a statement that the chamber sent to the Global Times.

Both the chamber and its members expressed worries regarding potential retroactive measures in the future, the statement said.

The EU issued on Wednesday the Official Journal of the European Union regarding its commission's implementation regulation that makes imports of new battery electric vehicles designed for the transport of persons originating in China subject to registration.

This regulation enters into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, according to the Official Journal of the EU.

The CCCEU said that the chamber has observed that a new implementation regulation was issued on Wednesday, concerning the registration of electric vehicle imports from China by the EU. The purpose of the registration requirement is to address Chinese imports and potential retrospective measures, the chamber said.

According to European Commission data, between October 2023 and January 2024, the EU imported a total of 177,839 Chinese EVs. Compared with the coverage period of the "countervailing investigation" (October 2022 to September 2023), the average monthly import volume increased by 11 percent.

The chamber highlighted that the recent surge in Chinese EV imports mirrors the increasing demand for EVs in Europe and underscores Chinese car companies' commitment to fostering the European market.

"We earnestly hope that the European side will effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and establish a fair, impartial, and non-discriminatory business environment for them," the chamber said.

"This, in turn, will facilitate our joint contribution to the global low-carbon and green transformation," the chamber further noted.

In February, China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that China is highly concerned about the trade remedy investigation targeting Chinese EVs and other products, while also expressing strong dissatisfaction regarding the investigation, which lacks a factual basis.

The market watchdog in a county in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province sealed up joss paper shops and confiscated paper money in an effort to eliminate fire hazards, ahead of the traditional Chinese Winter Solstice, or Dongzhi, which falls on December 22 this year, when Chinese people burn ghost money to honor their deceased family members. 

Some joss paper merchants in Huanan county in Jiamusi city, Heilongjiang, told Chengdu-based Red Star News that their shops, warehouses and production workshops were closed down and their commodities were confiscated. 

Some photos provided by the sellers show that large quantities of confiscated ghost money were seen piled up in the courtyard of the local market supervision bureau. 

While the local market watchdog declined the interview request from media, the local government’s citizen service hotline told the media that it was a move to remove security hazards and advocated to discard outdated superstitions. 

A joss paper merchant surnamed Wang told the Red Star News that the shutting down of the paper money businesses in the county started in early December. Several major wholesalers’ shops and warehouses with particularly huge inventories have been closed down. The value of their goods amounts up to 1 million yuan ($139,237). 

According to Wang, the market supervision bureau employee told him that decision to suspend paper money shops came after a fire disaster happened to a ghost money warehouse in Zhaozhou county in Daqing city, Heilongjiang. The Huanan county market watchdog took the action in a bid to remove security risks. 

According to a news report by China Central Television (CCTV), a fire disaster causing seven deaths occurred in an aging wooden warehouse built illegally for storing ghost money in Zhaozhou county on November 20. 

The warehouse was built with poor quality and highly flammable material which was identified for the reason for multiple casualties, thepaper.cn reported on Wednesday. 

A joss paper warehouse operator surnamed Zhao from Huanan county said his processing equipment of joss paper used to produce ghost money provided to surrounding villages and towns. His warehouse was closed down around December 1 and his inventory was confiscated and that he would also be fined possibly. 

According to Wang, the local authorities in Jiamusi issued regulations on the civilized sacrifices and worshipping in 2020. According to the regulations enacted on January 1, 2021, those who produce or sell feudal superstitious sacrificial articles shall be punished with confiscation of their goods by the local market supervision and administration department together with the civil affairs department. They may also be imposed a fine of with the amount of higher than one time and lower than three times the value of the production and sales. 

According to a law enforcement notification issued by the Huanan county people’s government, the production and sales of ghost money, joss paper, and gold and silver ingots made of tin foil, paper figures, paper cows, paper horses and all kinds of houses, transportation tools, daily necessities, certificates made of paper and other feudal superstitious sacrificial articles, are prohibited in the administrative area of the county. Burning and using sacrificial articles are prohibited in the whole county under the regulation. 

According to Red Star News, the county has carried out multiple rectification campaigns over the past two years to prohibit business of feudal superstitious sacrificial articles. 

Chinese mainland has detected seven cases of contracting COVID-19 subvariant JN.1 in about one month. The possibility of the variant becoming a dominant strain in the country cannot be ruled out, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.

Experts suggested the public not to overact about the new variant as infectious diseases are inevitable for all mankind but warned health threats posed by overlapping of various pathogens, including the dominant influenza and mycoplasma pneumonia with COVID-19.

Outside of China, since November this year, the proportion of JN.1 variant as a share of circulating strains has increased rapidly, from about 4 percent in early November to about 30 percent in early December. As of December 10, the variant has been detected in at least 40 countries worldwide.

The proportion of JN.1 variant in Europe was the highest, and its proportion in the US and other continents also showed a rapid growth trend.

On the Chinese mainland, the main strains at this stage are still EG.5 and its subvariants. Since the local JN.1 variant was first discovered in November, as of December 10, a total of seven JN.1 variants have been detected in the country.

"Although the current prevalence level of the JN.1 variant in China is extremely low, due to the subsequent impact of international epidemic strains and imported cases, the possibility of the JN.1 variant becoming a dominant epidemic strain in the country cannot be ruled out," the administration noted.

A Beijing-based immunologist who preferred not to be named told the Global Times more cases of JN.1 variant are expected as virus has no boundary and infectious diseases are the common destiny of all mankind. But it is not a concern of the public because new variants of the novel coronavirus can appear in the future anytime.

Only by improving immunity system can the public manage various pathogens infection and improve overall resistance to respiratory infections, the immunologist said.

Lu Hongzhou, head of the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, pointed out that although the immune escape ability of JN.1 had increased, there was no evidence to show that the pathogenicity of JN.1 variant had increased. According to the ministry, the seven JN.1 infections are mild and asymptomatic cases.

Some Chinese experts said people who have had the flu are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19. After being infected with the flu, it takes several months for CD4+ T cells in the body to recover. During the recovery process, the body's immune system is weaker, making it more susceptible to infection with the COVID-19.

According to latest weekly report by China CDC, the positive rate of influenza virus in southern and northern provinces of China slowed down between December 4 and 10, and some provinces showed a downward trend. The subtype A(H3N2) was predominant, followed by B(Victoria).

A US government report on Monday found no evidence that foreign governments compromised the vote during the 2022 midterms, but experts said the investigation itself shows the intensifying political divisions in the US have led American politicians to eagerly promote the topic of foreign interference in elections to smear their competitors and win votes. 

"There is no evidence that this activity prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information or any ballots cast during the 2022 federal elections," the report issued by the US Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security concluded, Reuters reported.

The report represents a declassified overview of the US government's assessment of election security in 2023, according to the AP.

US politicians have a "habit" of describing its external environment as being threatened, so they can constantly create rumors in this regard, while also using these rumors to vilify their so-called competitors, experts pointed out. 

When they spread rumors about foreign interference in elections, they usually point fingers at China or Russia, depending on the preferences of different political parties. They completely fabricate a story based on their own competitive situation, and once it becomes a focal point of public opinion, relevant departments will claim to investigate, but the result is always without evidence, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

This kind of sensationalism is not uncommon, and in recent years, due to intensified partisan struggles, these American politicians are even more eager to tarnish each other by accusing their main rivals of receiving support from foreign governments, in order to gain votes from the electorate, experts said.

However, experts believe that the release of such reports still carry a strong partisan bias to some extent. 

"It is an attempt to shift the blame for their failure of governance onto China and Russia. In the 2024 US election, the narrative of foreign interference, especially Chinese and Russian interference, is unlikely to disappear. On the contrary, it will be hyped up by certain political factions or media outlets in the US because this topic can attract wide attention and increase viewership. Therefore, from the perspective of narrow political self-interest and expanding media influence, such a narrative will continue to proliferate in the US, which actually reflects the extremely unhealthy political and public opinion atmosphere in the US," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

The internationalization of Chinese football youth training is very important, said Chinese Football Association (CFA) President Song Kai at a launch ceremony for the Bundesliga Dream project in Shanghai on Wednesday. "We are working on it by both introducing international youth football coaches to China, and sending young athletes and coaches to learn and train abroad, including in Germany," Song told the Global Times.

Song noted the significance of strengthening youth training and overseas cooperation for the development of Chinese football. "Germany's youth football training system is probably the most advanced in the world, and it is worth learning from it," Song said in a speech at the ceremony.

Bundesliga Dream is a cooperative project between Bundesliga International and the CFA. Set to take place between February and March in 2024, a group of talented Chinese players from the U16 national team will train at the youth academies of several Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs, as well as playing against youth teams from around Germany, according to Bundesliga International.

Under the project, Chinese youth players will follow a structured training plan curated by the CFA in collaboration with the Bundesliga and participating clubs. This plan focuses on several key in-match scenarios, including the transition from defense to attack.

"We also encourage young football players from all cities, especially from our 16 key 'football cities,' to have the opportunity to get trained in countries like Germany," Song said, in response to a question raised by the Global Times at the Wednesday ceremony.

Song mentioned China's 3-0 home loss to South Korea in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournament second stage on the previous evening.

"That match made me feel deeply that if Chinese football wants to improve, first, we must do a good job in cultivating the young people; and second, we must examine the development of our youth football from a global perspective," he said.

"So I'm glad to sign a long-term cooperation agreement with the Bundesliga," Song said. "Last night, German Jurgen Klinsmann led the South Korean team to a 3-0 victory over the Chinese team. I hope that one day, there will be a German head coach who leads the Chinese football team to a 4-0 victory over South Korea," he joked, drawing laughter and applause.

Peer Naubert, head of marketing at Bundesliga International, said that the Bundesliga Dream is mostly committed to working with Chinese football in supporting its youth development system and projects on a long-term basis. "We aim to create a long-term pathway for talented Chinese players … hopefully following the path of former Chinese players such as Shao Jiayi, Yang Chen, and more recently Liu Shaoziyang, who signed for Bayern Munich in 2021," Naubert said in a speech at the ceremony.

Renowned Bundesliga stars Shao and Lothar Matthäus also attended the ceremony.

"I'm happy to have this Bundesliga Dream for the Chinese young generation," Matthäus said. When the young Chinese players go to Germany, they will have the opportunities of playing against stronger players, and the competition can make them better, he added.

The Hangzhou Asian Games were one of the coolest and most beautiful competitions he had ever participated in, Kuwaiti shooter Abdullah Alrashidi said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, the gold medalist in the men's skeet individual event praised the organization, beauty, and cleanliness of the entire city for the Games.

Alrashidi said he was very pleased that he had won the gold medal, which also matched the world record in the event.

He noted Asia's remarkable progress in the shooting discipline, highlighting its impressive track record of winning numerous world championships.

"Countries such as China, Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Kuwait have a rich history in this sport on both the continental and global levels," he said.

"China is one of the most important and largest countries represented in all sports," said the Kuwaiti shooter, noting that "China has made great progress and consistently won medals in the Olympics and other world competitions."

On Wednesday, Kuwait's Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Muhammad Al-Aiban, received Kuwaiti players who had won medals in shooting and athletics competitions at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In a statement, Al-Aiban expressed pride in the outstanding achievements of the Kuwaiti medalists at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where they won two gold, three silver, and one bronze medals.

The Inter-Civilizational Communication and Global Development Forumkicked offin Beijing on Tuesday, attractingaround 150 experts from more than 30 countries. 

The three-day event, hosted by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), takes"tradition of civilization and paths to modernization" as its theme.Politicians, entrepreneurs, think tank experts, scholars, culturalambassadorsand diplomatic envoysfrom China and abroad have gathered togetherto discuss issues concerning communication among civilizations and global development.

“The purpose of hosting this forum is to establish an international exchange platform for various parties to participate and converse with each other, contributing wisdom and strength to promote the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations among nations and to build a community with a shared future for humanity,” said Xie Chuntao,vice president of the Party School of the Central Committee of theCPC.

Dilma Rousseff, president of the New Development Bank and who gave a speech at the opening ceremony, noted that frank and respectful dialogue between different civilizations and countries will promote consensus and cooperation. She added that it is a guiding principle that the world needs to systematically follow.

“The rich diversity of human civilizations can no longer be dismissive. The different objectives and development models followed by different nations cannot be ignored.  It is not possible for a multicultural world to be forced to choose a single path. Often, they are looking with a single view of democracy, which actually leads to the weakening of democracies in many countries,” she said, commenting on the significance of the forum.

Herta Daubler-Gmelin, former German justice minister, pointed out that besides cooperation in the field of economics and politics, people-to-people cooperation in fields such as academia is very crucial.

“We can do more. We can do better. This means information, as well as transparency in communication. And the recognition that every civilization contains dynamic elements. It’s not frozen. It can open itself to converse with others,” she said.

China's State Council Information Office released a white paper titledA Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actionsin September. John L. Thornton, chair emeritus of The Brookings Institution and Co-Chair of the Asia Society, quoted the white paper, pointing out that the most pressing task is to find a guiding beacon for the sustainable development of human civilization.

“There is no more important topic than the one we will be discussing this morning. I think of it as discussing the world we wish to be in, the world we wish to create for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations,” said Thornton.

He also applauded for the Global Civilization Initiative and Global Initiative. “The aspiration China has is admirable. If it can be achieved, it will be a step forward for mankind, for the world,” Thornton told the Global Times.

Three sub-forums on civilizational communication between China and Europe, China-Central Asia modernization development and leadership building, and China-Arab civilization exchange and modernization development, as well as a round-table discussion, will be held during this forum.

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez visited the Memorial of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s First National Congress in downtown Shanghai, on October 15, before he attended the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

Staffers at the memorial shared stories of how the young CPC pioneers founded the Party a century ago with Fernandez during his visit. At the hall in the memorial, Fernandez took photos of the full-body bronze statues of the 13 delegates of the CPC's first National Congress.

According to the memorial's staffers, Fernandez carefully listened to the docent's introduction and periodically asked questions. He inquired about the statue of Li Hanjun, who was one of the 13 delegates and the site's owner at that time. The site of the CPC's first National Congress was originally a traditional Shanghai-style "shikumen" apartment. 

"The memorial's display and presentation are very well done," praised Fernandez.

Argentine Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja also accompanied the Argentine President on the Sunday visit. 

During the visit to the memorial, Narvaja shared that his Chinese name "Niu Wangdao" came from a renowned Chinese translator Chen Wangdao, who was the first person to translate The Communist Manifesto into Chinese in 1920. Shanghai was the first stop on Fernandez's China tour.

Pakistan is looking forward to taking the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into the next phase with greater vigor and hopes to see fruits of the CPEC benefit not only China and Pakistan, but the whole region, said Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives for Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal.

Iqbal was talking to the Global Times in an exclusive interview after a meeting of the 12th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC in Beijing on Tuesday.

Iqbal, who has extensive experience and long-standing involvement in the CPEC, said he was overwhelmed at how much has been accomplished by the CPEC in just 10 years.

The beauty of the CPEC is that it is a project between two countries that enjoy a very unique relationship, Iqbal said. "Normally, countries come close when they need to, and they get farther away when they don't need each other. But in the case of China and Pakistan, it has been always spring. There has never been autumn in this relationship."

This year marks a decade of the CPEC. The landmark project was formalized on July 5, 2013.

The CPEC has done a great service to Pakistan, helping it overcome the energy crisis, develop modern infrastructure and restore the country's image as an investment destination. Prior to the CPEC the world used to look at Pakistan as a very dangerous country, the Pakistani minister said.

Pakistan would be facing an extreme energy crisis today without the projects launched under the CPEC, Iqbal emphasized.

Everyone in Pakistan has benefited from the great contribution that has been made by the CPEC, he added. If there was a lack of electricity, factories would be closed and workers would be laid off; patients in hospitals and students in educational institutions would also be stranded.

He mentioned the Thar region of Pakistan, which was once a backward area, saying the CPEC has transformed the region into a source of energy for the country. Local education, employment, hospitals and schools have also flourished.

The projects also empower local women in the region, Iqbal noted. "You will be amazed to see that local women are driving the heavy trucks, which take coal out of the mines." In total, the CPEC projects have created about 200,000 job opportunities.

Iqbal said Pakistan now has a lot more vigor to move forward on the CPEC, adding that many projects that were delayed in previous years were completed in the last year.

He said that Pakistan is looking forward to taking the CPEC into the next phase with greater vigor. "I hope that the next phase will bring many dividends for the wider region beyond Pakistan and China. We hope one day the whole of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East will benefit from the CPEC."

When talking about the mega projects within the second phase of the CPEC, Iqbal expressed his hope to see the start of major upgrades to the Main Line 1 railway between Karachi and Peshawar with China's help as soon as possible in 2023. Modernization and upgrades are urgently needed for this aging railway line, especially as it was badly damaged by the floods last year.

This $10-billion project was supposed to be done in the first phase, but it got delayed in the last four years, Iqbal said.

Iqbal refuted claims in the Western media that the CPEC has not lived up to expectations and has become a "debt trap," saying that instead it has "outperformed the expectations. The propaganda [from the West] that the CPEC is a debt trap is all false. All the negative propaganda against the CPEC has a political element. It has no reality," he told the Global Times.

Infrastructure was the priority of the first-phase of the CPEC, and the second phase will focus on industrial cooperation and business linkage through increasing investment in sectors such as energy, agriculture, information technology and mining, according to Iqbal.

Pakistan is working on nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which will provide more opportunities for Chinese investment. Rashakai, one of the nine SEZs, will be inaugurated later this month, and other SEZs are also in advanced stages, Iqbal revealed to the Global Times.

In the energy sector, Pakistan is actively pursuing solar energy and is hoping to invite Chinese companies to set up solar power production plants, Iqbal noted.

Chinese officials are highly concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and hope that the Pakistani side will continue to take strong security measures.

On security in Pakistan, the minister said Pakistan is taking extra precautions for the security of Chinese people, and have provided four layers of security dedicated to CPEC projects including deploying a special army force with 10,000 personnel, which has been integrated with police, paramilitary forces and local security.

As the CPEC is a strategic project with big geopolitical implications, enemies are always looking for opportunities to disrupt it either through terrorist acts or creating miscommunication, the Pakistani minister emphasized.

Amid torrential rain, rivers surged, houses collapsed and communications were disrupted... Under the influence of Typhoon Doksuri, heavy rainfall has persisted in Northern China, impacting regions like Beijing, the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province and setting records that haven't been seen in a century. Rescuers are racing against time, fighting to establish a "lifeline" to save lives and property.

From 8 pm on July 29 to 7 am on August 2, extreme heavy rainfall has drenched China's capital city. The highest recorded rainfall was at the Wangjiayuan Reservoir in the Changping district, being a total of 744.8 millimeters over this period, the local meteorological department reported on Wednesday. 

This extreme rainfall has significantly exceeded historical records, ranking it as the highest recorded rainfall in the past 140 years.

In Beijing, multiple areas in Mentougou district in western Beijing faced dangerous situations, while communications were disrupted in 62 villages across seven townships in Fangshan district in southwestern Beijing. 

The water level of the Yongding River, the main waterway in Beijing, surged, while a bridge over the Xiaoqing River located west of Lugou Bridge collapsed. 

In response to the torrential rainstorms and floods that have wreaked havoc in Beijing and its surrounding regions, authorities are mobilizing an all-out effort to safeguard the people from the impact of disasters. Various rescue teams have been working tirelessly to provide assistance.

On Thursday, the Global Times reporters saw People's Armed Police soldiers assist in the relocation of disaster-affected residents in Liulihe township, Fangshan district. 

Fortunately, as water levels gradually recede, rescue operations in Fangshan are nearing completion.

Simultaneously, to alleviate flood control pressure on Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei has activated seven flood water detention areas and relocated 1.2 million residents, according to a report from the Hebei Daily on Wednesday.

Zhuozhou, a city in Hebei Province that neighbors the Fangshan district of Beijing, has seen over 130,000 people affected by the disaster and is still being heavily impacted by flooding. More than 150 civilian rescue teams arrived, and more have been summoned from across the country.

On Thursday, members of the volunteer rescue team, including the Blue Sky Rescue team, helped transfer flood-affected residents and supplies in Huangjiajie village and Mengjiajie village in Matou township, Zhuozhou. Meanwhile, more rescue supplies were arriving at the scene.

Before the arrival of the flood, residents living on low ground had been notified and relocated to safe places, the Global Times learned from local residents.

On Wednesday evening, the Global Times witnessed villagers from Mentougou district departing from Yanchi township and moving downhill along the railway to safer areas. 

Meanwhile, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army rescued villagers from remote mountainous villages, especially elderly people with mobility issues, using military trucks, transporting them to temporary shelters.

During the evacuation process, an interim command center was established in the Mentougou district to coordinate various rescue efforts. Simultaneously, emergency, firefighting, medical, and other rescue and support forces were deployed. 

Relief points were set up to provide drinking water, food, medicine, and other supplies to ensure the safety and basic needs of the evacuees.