A summer camp was held at the Tianjin University in Tianjin from August 11 to August 24, with the aim to strengthen higher education cooperation and exchanges between the ASEAN and China, and improve student enthusiasm for learning marine science and technology. The Education Counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in China Muhammad Sallehuddin delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the Blue Ocean Summer Camp on August 11.
Sallehuddin shared with the students the benefits of participating in the student exchange programs, which are strengthening self-improvement and developing leadership skills to become future leaders.
The summer camp promotes comprehensive cooperation and exchanges between universities in ASEAN member countries and Chinese universities in the fields of talent training, scientific research, and cultural exchanges. A total of 19 ASEAN students participated in the summer camp, including five from Malaysia.
Featuring about 70 sessions, the education cooperation week has developed into a high-end platform and bridge making positive contributions to China-ASEAN relations.
Magdalena Czechonska, director of the Culture Office at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in China visited the "Instant and Eternity," a Polish Amber Culture and Art Exhibition at the Tianjin Museum on August 20.
This is the first international exhibition introduced by the Tianjin Museum in recent years. It is also an important cultural exchange project between Poland and China.
The exhibition features at least 600 artworks made of amber. Artifacts featured in the exhibition include a Fairy Tale Chess set made of silver and amber, a set of art jewelry by Iwona Tamborska, a dress decorated with amber, as well as an amber seal selected from the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220). Many visitors may not know that three-quarters of global sales of amber come from Poland. Czechonska also met Yao Yang, director of the Tianjin Museum.
The exhibition is open until August 25.
China and Poland boast a long history and profound cultural traditions, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides have become increasingly active in recent years.
The People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, has conducted three major monetary policy adjustments to precisely support economic growth this year, and it will continue to strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments to consolidate the economic recovery, said PBC Governor Pan Gongsheng.
China's financial system is stable overall, with risks in key sectors being resolved in an orderly fashion, Pan said in an interview with state broadcaster China Central Television on Saturday.
The central bank will make significant efforts in the areas of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance and digital finance, Pan said, and it will continue to promote financial opening-up by increasing the transparency, stability and predictability of relevant policies.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed to efforts to deepen reform of the financial system. It said that the country will move faster to improve the central bank system and the monetary policy transmission mechanism.
Reforms outlined in the resolution adopted by the third plenum chart the direction of monetary and fiscal policies as well as industrial development policies so as to enhance social expectations, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Amid the trend of interest rate cuts in major economies, it is expected that the PBC may announce cuts to interest rates or the reserve requirement ratio by the end of 2024, Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, told the Global Times.
Thanks to favorable factors including a low interest rate environment, stable real estate market and policies to boost consumption, consumers' willingness to spend and borrow will gradually recover, he said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday concluded his visit to Belarus, during which Beijing and Minsk pledged to further promote practical cooperation in various fields ranging from trade, finance, security and agriculture to science and technology, and education, according to a joint communique released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday.
Analysts said Premier Li's visit to Belarus demonstrates a high-level political mutual trust and the momentum of close cooperation between the two countries. The expanding China-Belarus cooperation will also inject impetus into the steady development of bilateral relations and also play an exemplary role in the region.
Li arrived in Minsk on Thursday after co-chairing the 29th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government in Moscow and a visit to Russia.
During a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday local time, Premier Li said that China stands ready to work with the Belarusian side to push for the high-level development of their all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership to better benefit the two peoples.
Li said that China-Belarus relations, regardless of how the international situation changes, have always shown vigor and vitality since the establishment of diplomatic ties 32 years ago.
Noting that China will continue to firmly support Belarus in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, Li said that China stands ready to further synergize development strategies with Belarus, solidly advance cooperation in various fields, steadily expand trade scale.
Lukashenko hailed that Belarus-China relations are enjoying a strong momentum of development and are at an all-time high. He said that Belarus stands ready to maintain close high-level exchanges with China, and to deepen practical cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, agriculture, science and technology.
In meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, Li said China stands ready to work with Belarus to firmly support each other in defending core interests and remain each other's true friend and good partner.
In the joint communique, the two sides also expressed that they will firmly oppose external forces' interference in other countries' internal affairs under any pretext.
The communique said that Belarus reiterates its firm commitment to the one-China principle, firmly opposes any form of "Taiwan independence" and firmly supports the Chinese government in achieving national reunification.
On regional hotspot issues, the two sides expressed support for peaceful resolution of conflicts and constructive bilateral dialogue between countries.
Yang Jin, an associate research fellow with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Premier Li's visit to Minsk highlights a high-level political mutual trust and the momentum of close cooperation between China and Belarus, which will continue in the future.
Premier Li's visit is also part of frequent political interactions between the two countries in recent years. President Lukashenko visited China twice in 2023. He also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, in July 2024.
Zhao Huirong, an Eastern European studies expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that exchanges at the government level will effectively implement the strategic plans of the two heads of state, consolidate political trust and provide new impetus for the steady development of bilateral relations.
"China-Belarus relations are a role model of a new type of international relations," Zhao said, "The two countries uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit, and share the same views on the international order and affairs, which is why they have achieved fruitful results in both bilateral and multilateral cooperation."
Expanding scope
In terms of practical cooperation, the China-Belarus joint communique said the two countries will enhance cooperation in industrial supply chains, and cooperation in service trade and e-commerce.
The communique said the two sides will jointly promote the high-quality development of the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and agreed to strengthen cooperation on China-Europe freight trains by promoting infrastructure connectivity, and jointly ensuring the safety of the China-Europe freight train transport corridor.
The two sides have also expressed willingness to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and welcome each other's high-quality agricultural products to enter their markets.
In addition to the traditional cooperative sectors, the communiques said the two countries will carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in the fields of information and communication technology.
The two sides said they will deepen cooperation in biomedicine, culture and tourism, sports, news and communication.
The communique said that the two sides will support practical cooperation between scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises, and encourage the establishment of joint laboratories, joint applied research centers, joint ventures, high-tech parks and other scientific research institutions.
The document said the two countries will expand interbank credit and financial cooperation and expand channels for bilateral financial cooperation. The two sides hope to increase the proportion of local currency used in bilateral trade, investment, credit and other economic transactions and establish an effective local currency settlement system.
According to Yang, the communiques demonstrate three characteristics of China-Belarus cooperation: "rich in content, pragmatic, and high in quality."
China-Belarus cooperation also reflects the concrete measures taken by China to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which includes further expanding high-standard opening-up and expanding high-quality international cooperation.
"Belarus appreciates the development experience of Chinese modernization and hopes to learn from China's experience in governance," Zhao said, adding that cooperation with China in various fields can also help Belarus effectively maintain national stability and economic development.
On Thursday, the two countries also inked an agreement on trade in services and investments, which will further tap the potential of trade in services and investment cooperation and promote the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Cui Hongjian, a professor from the Academy of Regional and Global Governance with Beijing Foreign Studies University said that China-Belarus cooperation will play an exemplary role in the region, as Belarus is not only an important partner but also a crucial hub for BRI and China-Europe freight trains.
Through some institutionalized, long-term frameworks, the two sides can further activate the potential for sustainable development in the areas of trade in services and also some emerging industries such as new energy and digital economy, Cui said.
According to data from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China is the second-largest trading partner of Belarus and its largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade exceeding $8.4 billion in 2023.
The Chinese swim team has faced unprecedented levels of anti-doping scrutiny, undergoing nearly 200 tests administered by the International Testing Agency (ITA) since arriving in France, according to Yu Liang, the national swim team nutritionist.
This intensive testing regime has sparked concerns about the impact on athletes' rest and preparation for the upcoming Paris Olympics. Yu highlighted the disruption caused by the frequent tests.
"We've been in France for 10 days now, and during these 10 days, our 31 athletes have not only been training and adjusting to the time difference but have also been subjected to nearly 200 doping tests by the ITA, averaging almost 20 tests per day," Yu said in a social media post on Sina Weibo.
The Chinese national swim team is now training in Deauville before moving to Paris.
"Each athlete has been tested 5-7 times on average. The tests come early in the morning before we're even awake, during midday rest periods, forcing us to rest on hotel lobby sofas, and even late at night, keeping us up past midnight."
Yu's Sina Weibo post was later deleted for unspecified reasons, but it has already been widely circulated on social media.
An unnamed official within the ITA acknowledged the high frequency of testing but insisted it was part of the mandated plan.
"The number of tests is indeed excessive, but we can't do anything about it - it's all part of the plan given to us from above," the unnamed official said as quoted by Yu.
"I can't imagine the cooperation level you and the Chinese athletes have shown. If it were another team, they would have been complaining loudly and filing complaints all over the place by now."
The increased scrutiny of Chinese swimmers is set against a backdrop of ongoing tensions between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US.
Former senior International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound warned that the US' legal overreach, specifically through the Rodchenkov Act, could jeopardize the US' status as a future Olympic host. This Act, which extends US jurisdiction over international sporting events, is seen as non-compliant with WADA's anti-doping code.
Pound suggested that WADA might review US compliance, potentially affecting Los Angeles' hosting of the 2028 Summer Olympics and Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
"The Rodchenkov Act is problematic," Pound said in an interview with the Reuters news agency published on Wednesday.
"It's out of step with the international anti-doping code and could lead to the US being declared non-compliant."
Chinese swimmers have been subjected to far more tests than their US counterparts. Data from the Aquatics Integrity Unit shows that top Chinese swimmers like Zhang Yufei, Qin Haiyang, and Li Bingjie each underwent over 40 anti-doping tests in 2023. In contrast, leading US swimmers such as Lilly King, Caeleb Dressel, and Katie Ledecky were tested around 10 times.
The scrutiny intensified following positive tests for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) by 23 Chinese swimmers during a 2021 domestic competition. Subsequent investigations attributed the results to contaminated food, a conclusion accepted by both WADA and World Aquatics.
Despite this, the ITA has mandated that Chinese athletes be tested at least eight times from January 1, 2024, to the start of the Paris Olympics, double the frequency of athletes from other countries.
Additionally, these tests are to be conducted by non-Chinese authorities, and samples analyzed outside of China to ensure impartiality, according to swimming's governing body World Aquatics.
The swimming events at the Paris Olympics are set to begin on July 27, a day after the opening ceremony.
Chinese divers Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan won the women's synchronized 10m platform final at the Paris Olympics with an overwhelming lead on Wednesday. This victory marks the seventh gold for the Chinese sports delegation at the Games.
It is the third gold medal for the Chinese diving team in this Olympics, following the wins in the women's synchronized 3m springboard and the men's synchronized 10m platform.
In the first two rounds, the Chinese pair led their competitors by over 13 points with high-caliber dives. Starting from the third round, they executed more difficult dives, quickly widening their lead with stable and high-level performances. By the start of the final round, the Chinese team had secured the gold medal with a massive 43.20 point lead over the second-placed team.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chen and her former dive partner Zhang Jiaqi won the gold medal in the women's synchronized 10m platform event for China.
In early 2022, Quan began competing in synchronized events with Chen, and the pair has gone on to win gold medals in the women's synchronized 10m platform at major events including the World Championships, the World Cup and the Asian Games.
Quan made her debut at the synchronized event after winning the individual 10m platform gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
"My goal is definitely to stand on the highest podium and show my best performance. It feels like I'm always far from the best," Quan said in a previous interview.
German table tennis legend Timo Boll took his final bow on the international stage at the Paris Olympic Games on Tuesday evening.
In the men's team table tennis competition, Germany faced Sweden for a spot in the semifinals. Boll, 43, competing in both doubles and singles, lost both matches, leading to Germany's elimination while marking the end of Boll's seventh Olympic journey.
After the match, the audience gave a standing ovation, with a tribute video for Boll playing on the large screen. The applause was endless, and coaches and teammates from the German team, along with Sweden's head coach Jorgen Persson, came over to hug Boll. Boll, with red eyes and nose, wiped his face with a towel and tossed two jerseys into the stands as a thank you to the crowd.
"It's been tough, both during and after the match," Boll said after the match, as reported by the Xinhua News Agency. "Losing makes you feel disappointed, but the overwhelming support from the audience leaves you feeling also bewildered."
Speaking of his "last dance," Boll also mentioned the Chinese team, admitting, "I couldn't expect to leave the Olympic stage with a victory, given that China is the strongest in table tennis."
It's worth noting that Boll has always formed an unbreakable bond with China. On June 2, 2024, Boll wrote on Sina Weibo, China's X-like platform: "Throughout my career, I have thoroughly enjoyed every match I've played in China. I have learned a lot from table tennis, and even more from you and your culture. Thank you very much for your support over the years. China will always be my second home."
On August 3, Boll posted a photo on Weibo of himself and Chinese player Ma Long in Paris, captioning it with the word "Legend."
Boll's deep connection with the Chinese team began with his competition against Kong Linghui and continued through several generations of Chinese table tennis masters. During his career he has competed against and defeated many key Chinese players, from Liu Guoliang to Ma Long to more recently - Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong.
The day after Boll bade farewell to the international stage, the Chinese men's team defeated South Korea to advance to the semifinals. In the mixed interview zone after the match, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong expressed their respect for Boll.
"Boll is someone all table tennis players deeply respect, not just for his skill but also for his character," Ma said. Recalling their partnership in doubles named "Marco Polo" at both the 2015 and 2017 World Championships, Ma said that the chance to pair with him left both of them with beautiful memories, adding that Boll feels like an old friend, warm and approachable.
Fan also revealed that he and Boll have had many fun exchanges off the court, including shared hobbies. Last November, while participating in a table tennis competition in Frankfurt, Germany, Fan was invited by Boll to watch Der Klassiker, the soccer match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, two renowned Germany football teams. Boll drove three hours to take Fan from Frankfurt to Dortmund and shared German rice cakes made by his mother with Fan along the way.
"He has had a perfect career, both in terms of length and height, which is rare," Fan said, "He overcame many difficulties and his strict discipline led him to many achievements. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors."
Reflecting on his career, which included seven Olympics, four Olympic medals, and a world No. 1 ranking, Boll said: "I might have been in the top five, top 10 for 25 years, which is my greatest achievement, enough to withstand anything."
"But ultimately, I realize my body moved too slow, and maintaining the highest competitive level became increasingly difficult," Boll said.
Since the start of this year's flood season, China's major rivers have experienced 25 significant flood events, the highest number recorded since data collection began in 1998. The period has been marked by frequent extreme weather events, with heavy rainfall and severe floods occurring across both northern and southern regions, officials with the Ministry of Water Resources said at a press conference on Monday detailing the grave challenges that China is facing.
Despite the end of the most critical period, Wang Bao'en, Vice Minister of Water Resources, warned that China remains in its primary flood season, with significant challenges ahead.
Wang detailed that this year's flood season has been marked by higher-than-usual cumulative rainfall influenced by Typhoon Gaemi. The country saw a cumulative average rainfall of 183 millimeters, 10 percent higher than the annual average. Typhoon Gaemi dumped a total of 216.7 billion cubic meters of rainfall across the southern regions of the country, which is a significant 43 percent more than the 151.8 billion cubic meters brought by Typhoon Doksuri last year.
Large-scale flooding occurred more frequently than annual average, with some 30 rivers across the country exceeding historical flood levels. Major floods were recorded 13 times in river basins including tributaries of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, and Pearl River.
Overall, rivers exceeding warning levels were up 120 percent over the same period in previous years, with some exceeding flood control guarantee levels by nearly 60 percent, Wang told media.
This year's flood season has seen an increase in the frequency of disasters, including the breaching of embankments in Yueyang, Central China's Hunan Province, the collapse of highway bridge in Shangluo, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and multiple flash floods and mudslides in various localities. These events highlighted the extreme complexity and severity of the flood control situation, Wang said.
Currently, the Wusuli River located in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province bordering Russia is having severe flooding, and risk of secondary disasters from heavy rainfall persists, and the potential for additional typhoon impacts could further complicate the flood control situation, according to the minister.
"Cognitive Warfare" has become a new form of confrontation between states, and a new security threat. With new technological means, it sets agendas and spreads disinformation, to change people's perceptions and thus alter their self-identity. Launching cognitive warfare against China is an important means for Western anti-China forces to attack and discredit the country.
Some politicians and media outlets have publicly smeared China's image by propagating false narratives in an attempt to incite and provoke dissatisfaction with China among people in certain countries. These means all serve the US strategy to contain China's rise and maintain its hegemony. The Global Times is publishing a series of articles to reveal the intrigues of the US and its allies' China-targeted cognitive warfare and expose its lies and vicious intentions.
In the 16th installment of the series, the Global Times examines a new angle in the West's smear campaign against China: Archaeology. Through analysis of recent stories by Western media outlets that defame China's archaeological field and the viewpoints of front-line Chinese archaeologists in Central Asia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this installment aims to expose the absurd narrative that politicizes and stigmatizes China's archaeological efforts in Silk Road-related areas, as well as the long-standing Western biases against Chinese archaeology. For decades, some people in the West have been slandering against China under guises like "trade" "security" and "human rights," regardless of how baseless and false their claims may be.
And now, these malicious storytellers have stretched their evil hands to a new field - archeology.
In recent months, articles from mainstream Western media outlets were discovered to be sensationalizing the "politicization" and "weaponization" of Chinese archaeology, viciously depicting China's archaeological work in its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region or overseas as part of efforts to serve the country's political propaganda, aid in sovereignty claims, or intensify international political competition.
Such move aim to taint pure academic field through disinformation against China. This is a new form of cognitive warfare campaign targeting China, warned Jia Chunyang, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Security Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
"By challenging China's historical academic research on Silk Roads, they (some Western media outlets) are attempting to deny China's history and current policy propositions in this area," Jia told the Global Times. "This intention is extremely malicious."
'No moral bottom line'
One of the latest stories to anger the Chinese archaeological community was a bilingual piece by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published in late July.
"The country's archaeologists are striking out along the Silk Road(s) to trace the reach of ancient Chinese civilization, disputing long-held beliefs," the story wrote in its deck. It mainly introduced one of China's major overseas Silk Road archaeological works in Uzbekistan, the discovery of the ruins of Greater Yuezhi (an ancient nomadic kingdom) led by archaeologist Wang Jianxin, a leading figure in China's research on ancient civilizations in Central Asia.
However, the story gave a strange interpretation of the work conducted by Wang's team, stating that China's overseas archaeological efforts are probably in aid of its geopolitics claims or for the sake of "disputed" territories.
Although in this article, Wang refuted the question of "whether Beijing could use the Yuezhi to make territorial claims" and dismissed the notion as "absurd." Nonetheless, the author still insidiously hinted at a nonexistent connection between Wang's Yuezhi archaeological work in Uzbekistan, and China's influence in the country through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects there. "…there are concerns that China will simply be the newest great power to impose itself on the region," it wrote.
In interviews with Chinese scholars, a few Western media personnel attempt to dig "traps" and later deliberately distort and misinterpret the interviewees' views in their stories, as proof of the "fact," Jia pointed out.
"This shows that some people in the West have spared no effort in order to discredit China," Jia told the Global Times. "They have no moral bottom line."
Lothar von Falkenhausen, a professor at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted in the story as well. "He looked at things differently and is now helping others see things differently and make new discoveries," Falkenhausen told the WSJ.
Falkenhausen later wrote to the Global Times, noting that the journalists writing for the WSJ might have misrepresented the importance of the archaeological dimension of the subject.
But the academic expert, who specializes in archaeology, said on WeChat that he does not blame the journalists for potentially misunderstanding the depth of the archaeological subject matter. "They are experts in something else - politics," he remarked, emphasizing his own focus on the academic and collaborative aspects of the research. Who weaponizes archaeology?
In recent years, China has stepped up its archaeological efforts along the overland and maritime Silk Roads both at home and abroad.
In its Northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it discovered excavation sites reflecting ancient political power and a rare offshoot of a Christian sect, and that was among the top six new archaeological discoveries in China in 2023. Chinese archaeologists have also been to regions including the South China Sea, Central Asia, and Africa, to explore the ties between the Chinese civilization and crucial moments in world history. China has also enhanced international cooperation in this field.
However, some Western media outlets continue to depict China's Silk Roads archaeological work as a BRI "accessory," or a tool to serve its "political and governing purposes."
In a bombastic article titled "China is using archaeology as a weapon" on July 11, The Economist accused China of "unearthing ancient justifications for its rule over Xinjiang." Without rhyme or reason, the story claimed that Chinese archaeologists' discovery of Mo'er Temple ruins in Kashi, Xinjiang - the earliest large-scale, earthen-structured, ground-level Buddhist temple site in the westernmost part of China - was being used by the Chinese government "to justify its brutal rule over Xinjiang."
This story was replete with offensive lies. It tenuously linked an archaeological achievement in Xinjiang to the West's favorite groundless accusations of "brutal rule" or "cultural genocide," and tried to mislead its readers by claiming that solid historical evidence "hardly means Xinjiang was culturally or politically part of China" by citing one-sided views of a Georgetown University scholar.
It was an incredibly far-fetched, amateurish, and biased article, archaeology insiders said. Chen Ling, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology, at Peking University, emphasizes that Xinjiang has been an integral part of China since ancient times.
Chen points out that the cultural orientation of this area has always been toward the East due to geographical conditions, even before the establishment of modern states and civilizations, which can be proven by recent archaeological discoveries.
It is these Western media outlets that are "using academia as a political tool," Chen told the Global Times.
Similarly, when China announced a deep-sea excavation plan in June 2023, which involved more than 900 pieces of cultural relics being retrieved from two ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea, The Economist claimed in a subsequent article that China's underwater archaeology "has military and strategic uses," and it serves the country's maritime territorial claims.
It is clearly to see that it is not China, but entities in the West, that is trying to "weaponize" archaeology.
"Their goal is to give the international community the false impression that the Xinjiang region, Central Asia, and some areas along the Silk Roads have little historical connection to China, so as to slander China for 'falsifying' history," said Jia.
"By denying China's history, they deny China's current policies based on said history," Jia noted.
Two-way interaction
The fact is that China is making significant achievements in archaeology along the Silk Roads, with increasingly close connections and collaborations with relevant countries and regions.
In April 2023, the Collaborative Research Center for Archaeology of the Silk Roads was established in Xi'an, Southwest China's Shaanxi Province, an outcome of the second China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers' meeting in May 2021.
Wang, chief scientist at the center, has repeatedly stressed the importance of including an "Eastern perspective" in Silk Road archaeological work. "The concept [of the Silk Road] was initiated by Western academia, so a majority of research focuses on how the West influenced others," Wang told the Global Times in a previous interview in October 2022. "We do overseas research like this to change these centralized interpretations and contribute to the comprehensive study of the Silk Road."
Chen criticizes the West's tendency to promote a monolithic viewpoint, stating that the world is moving toward diversity, not away from it.
"Now the West does not want to allow the East to propose a global perspective, and such move is an attempt to rule the world with a single narrative, replacing the diversity of the world with a single value system," he said.
As one of the Chinese archaeologists participating in the earlier joint archaeology project between China and Uzbekistan, Chen believes that understanding human civilization requires the accumulation of knowledge from various points, and only when these points converge can we accurately present the tapestry of world history.
He told the Global Times that this ancient network of trade routes, stretching from China to the Mediterranean, is not merely a historical artifact, but a living testament to the fluid exchange of cultures, goods, and ideas that have shaped our world.
"Cultural exchange is no longer a one-way street, but a two-way interaction," noted Chen. "China respects the political systems and religious beliefs that align with the unique cultural characteristics of each country, promoting mutual learning and breaking the old world cultural order dominated by the so-called 'universal values' that Western countries force other countries to follow."
Customs officers at the Huanggang Customs in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, discovered 12 live lizards strapped to a traveler's body as she attempted to enter the country, according to the General Administration of Customs on Tuesday.
A woman was seen pushing a baby stroller into the country in the inspection hall of Futian Port. Customs officers noticed that the traveler was avoiding eye contact and had an unusual gait, prompting them to intercept the individual and conduct an inspection.
Upon investigation, the woman was found to have 12 small white cloth bags strapped around her waist, with moving objects wriggling inside, and 12 suspected lizards were seized after untying the bags. After identification by specialists, it was confirmed that the suspected lizards belong to the soft-scaled lizard genus.
Customs reminded the public that items prohibited by regulations should not be carried or mailed into the country.
