Editor's Note:

"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.

China’s Olympic delegation for Paris 2024 has not only achieved the goal of “zero occurrence” of doping issues, but also marked a phased victory against the US over its anti-doping practices, Liu Guoyong, deputy head of the delegation, told a press conference on Sunday.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games concluded on Sunday with Team China winning 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze medals, with the result marking the best performance for Team China at an Olympic Games held overseas.

As of August 10, the delegation athletes have undergone a total of 214 doping tests during the Olympic Games, a decrease from the 230 tests conducted during the Tokyo Olympics. The decrease reflects the international anti-doping organization’s recognition of clean Chinese athletes and the effectiveness of China’s anti-doping efforts, Liu said.

Liu emphasized China’s comprehensive efforts in establishing a “clean national team anti-doping ecosystem.” China focuses on building cleanliness in various aspects such as the national teams, training facilities, support teams, food, drugs and nutrition, external support, social environment, competition processes and ethical standards.

Liu noted that the self-awareness among Chinese athletes has increased, and the national teams have strengthened their anti-doping management to reduce doping risks.

The delegation has implemented measures to protect athletes’ rights and interests, ensuring the athletes to participate in the Olympic Games without unfair interference. The delegation has also united with global organizations to oppose politicization of sports and “long-arm jurisdiction” by the US, safeguarding the unity of the international Olympic family, according to Liu.

Chinese swimming athletes have always followed international rules and cooperated with high-frequency pre-competition doping tests, with no positive results, demonstrating their good personal qualities and spirit, earning them widespread respect and recognition, said Liu.

The China Anti-Doping Center remains independent, fair, professional, and authoritative in its work, passing the World Anti-Doping Agency’s on-site compliance review.

The China Anti-Doping Center conducted over 33,000 doping tests in 2023, representing in excess of 10 percent of the global total. The number of doping violations decreased from 92 cases in 2017 to 30 cases in 2023, with the violation rate dropping from 0.53 percent to 0.09 percent, according to Liu.

China’s anti-doping efforts have formed a unique anti-doping governance system with Chinese characteristics, said Liu.

Chinese researchers have recently discovered that the composition of land snail shells can be used to reconstruct precipitation levels during extreme rain events, the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) told the Global Times on Thursday. This discovery suggests that the future application of this method on fossils could provide new geological evidence for predicting extreme precipitation events in the context of global warming.

The research team collected four land snail shells from Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province in 2021, a city that suffered severe waterlogging due to torrential rainstorms in the same year, and found a relationship between the measurement of shell's oxygen isotope composition and precipitation, which was then compared and confirmed with theoretical data, indicating land snail shells could be a record for extreme rain events.

The rainstorm in Zhengzhou, considered a "once-in-a-millennium" event in meteorological statistics, was characterized based on the instrumental data of the past hundred years. Therefore, whether it is a "once-in-a-millennium" disaster or a new more regular event in a warmer world is a pressing question requiring clarification, according to the IEECAS.

The study, for the first time, shows that terrestrial synoptic scale extreme rainstorm events can be reconstructed using land snail shells, with further applications on fossils could potentially reveal the frequency and intensity of extreme rainstorms under different climate background, IEECAS told the Global Times.

Reconstructing such information from fossil shells in the geological past will offer a historical reference for forecasting future extreme precipitation scenarios amid a rapid warming trend. This data can also be utilized to evaluate the precision of current climate models in reacting to external changes and in simulating extreme weather occurrences.

Extreme weather events, such as rainstorms and typhoons, which happen within a short timeframe and pose significant risks, are crucial and challenging aspects of climate change research. However, the time span covered by instrumental data is usually less than 200 years, which restricts people's understanding of these extreme weather events.

Paleoclimate data serves as a crucial complement to modern instrumental data, but the traditional terrestrial paleoclimate studies often have low temporal resolution, only capable of reconstructing average climate changes over seasons or years. This limitation makes it challenging to study extreme weather events occurring at the day-hour scale.

The study, however, suggests that land snail shell fossils can serve as a new high-resolution proxy indicator for reconstructing the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events during different warm and cold historical periods. It opens up the possibility of bridging geological records with instrumental data at the weather scale, paving the way for a shift from paleoclimate research to studies of paleoweather.

IEECAS told the Global Times that well-preserved snail shells are widely found in the stratigraphy of the Loess Plateau in China, and the establishment of this method lays the foundation for the reconstruction of the state and variability of ancient extreme precipitation events in the Yellow River basin using snail shells.

The research team has been conducting related studies since 2019 and carried out an in-depth investigation on land snails in Zhengzhou in 2021, with the related work has been published in the Science Bulletin journal.

The team has also collected a large number of land snail shells from different Quaternary climatic backgrounds and is currently conducting further reconstruction work for paleoweather.

The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, published on July 21, emphasizes the commitment to advancing high-standard opening-up. The resolution proposed to improve the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The resolution stressed that China will remain committed to the basic state policy of opening to the outside world, and continue to promote reform through opening-up. Leveraging the strengths of its enormous market, China will enhance its capacity for opening-up while expanding international cooperation and developing new institutions for a higher-standard open economy.

The resolution puts forth a series of measures to steadily expand institutional opening-up. The resolution proposed to continue to implement the Belt and Road Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan.

In the current international situation, China's high-standard opening-up to the outside world can lead China to assume the responsibility of a major country in the reform of the global governance system. 

With economic globalization encountering challenges, protectionism is gaining momentum. Some developed countries are turning to unilateralism and protectionist policies in global governance, causing disruption and disintegration in the global supply chain.

In contrast to the anti-globalization practices of other countries, China is actively promoting high-standard opening-up. It is leading high-quality cooperation in the BRI and maintaining a diverse and stable global trade pattern through institutional opening-up. China is also working toward promoting the global economy in a more open, inclusive, balanced, and win-win way.

The China-Europe Railway Express is the main bridge and link for economic and trade exchanges between China and countries participating in the BRI. The comprehensive and rapid development of the China-Europe Railway Express has made trade and cooperation between Europe and Asia closer, creating a new international transportation pattern. 

The rapid growth of the China-Europe Railway Express has effectively reduced the trade costs between China and Europe, especially the export costs of the western regions of China, significantly promoting multilateral cooperation and common development, and promoting regional economic integration.

Those involved in the joint construction of the BRI are committed to building a shared, cooperative and inclusive international community. It has become the largest and most extensive international cooperation platform in the world today. It is of importance for China to promote the reform of the global governance system. 

The "hard" infrastructure connectivity enabled by projects like the China-Europe Railway is an important progress for the joint construction of the BRI, while the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards is an important source of support. 

Institutional openness promotes China's participation and leadership in the reform of the global governance system. In the process of expanding institutional opening-up, China can improve and help revamp unreasonable international economic and trade rules in the process of coordinating with its trade partners and existing institutions. 

Most of the international economic and trade rules are based on the domestic laws of developed countries, depriving developing countries of the right to participate in rule-making. 

By increasing the level of institutional opening-up, China, as a global leader in trade, can effectively prevent the squeeze of hegemonic countries in global trade. This will safeguard China's legitimate rights in participating in global governance. China can more actively participate in establishing a fairer global economic order and leading the reform and construction of the global governance system.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Wednesday that the world's first ultra-deep water and ultra-shallow large gas field has been discovered near South China's Hainan Province and approved by national authorities.

The Lingshui 36-1 gas field, located in the South China Sea, has proven geological reserves of over 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The average water depth of the gas field is about 1,500 meters, and the average buried depth of the gas layer is 210 meters.

"The proven reserves indicate abundant future clean energy resources, which are crucial for China given its high demand for natural gas and petroleum. With import dependency at around 40 percent and natural gas being cleaner than coal, this discovery is vital for meeting demand, transforming the energy structure, and ensuring energy security," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"To ensure offshore drilling safety, the industry usually avoids shallow gas zones in well design. This time, we took on the challenge directly," said a representative from a branch of CNOOC.

The discovery of Lingshui 36-1 offers valuable insights for similar offshore exploration globally. It also enhances China's deep-water exploration technology and completes the final piece of a plan to establish a 1 trillion cubic meter gas zone in the South China Sea, a deputy chief exploration engineer at CNOOC was quoted as saying in a Xinhua report on Wednesday.

In 2018, CNOOC initiated a plan to establish the "South China Sea Trillion Cubic Meter Gas Zone" by 2025. So far, it has confirmed over 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in the Yinggehai, Qiongdongnan, and Pearl River Mouth basins, making the plan a reality.

In the first half of the year, China's natural gas production rose 4.4 percent to 123.5 billion cubic meters, while imports increased 14.8 percent to 90.2 billion cubic meters. For 2024, consumption is projected at 420-425 billion cubic meters, up 6.5-7.7 percent. Production is expected to reach 246 billion cubic meters, with a steady increase of over 10 billion cubic meters annually. Imports from the China-Russia East-Route are also set to grow, according to a report released by the National Energy Administration on July 23.

The global interest rate cutting cycle seems to be picking up steam. Despite rising uncertainties in global financial markets, the yuan's exchange rate is expected to remain stable, with fluctuations within a reasonable range.

The yuan has strengthened against the US dollar in both the onshore and offshore markets in recent weeks, aided by the greenback's broad weakness. The offshore yuan has reportedly gained 1.65 percent against the US dollar since July 22. 

On Monday, the yuan's central parity exchange rate against the US dollar stood at 7.1345, or 31 pips stronger than the previous trading day, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

Recent changes in the yuan's exchange rate have attracted widespread attention both at home and abroad. Its appreciation has sparked discussion, including how the exchange rate will change in the future, amid increasing volatility in global financial markets as well as changes in interest rates and asset prices.

With inflation now falling in some of the world's developed economies, attention has turned to when they should start cutting rates to stimulate economic growth, and how fast they will ease their monetary policies. Central banks in some developed countries face the monetary policy challenge of determining the right level of short-term interest rates. There is great uncertainty about their monetary policies.

If inflation keeps cooling and if the economy stays strong, then there's a good chance of a rate cut, but things don't always go smoothly. Interest rate uncertainty is expected to fuel the volatility of all financial asset prices and hence has significant implications.

The external environment is becoming more complex. As global financial markets have entered a period of uncertainty and volatility, China has the ability and conditions to keep the yuan exchange rate basically stable. China's cross-border capital flows have remained steady overall, and the foreign exchange market has shown a basic balance in supply and demand.

The Communist Party of China leadership held a meeting on July 30 to analyze the economic situation and set out priorities for the second half of this year. The meeting stressed that China should maintain the basic stability of the yuan's exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.

Compared with other major world currencies, the yuan has been stable against the US dollar, thanks to the country's timely and appropriate macroeconomic policies, sound economic growth and long-term development potential. 

It is normal that we have seen an appreciation of the yuan against the US dollar in recent weeks. The appreciation is the result of multiple factors, including market confidence in the Chinese economy and a weakening US dollar. The US economy suffered an unexpected setback in July. Nonfarm payrolls grew by just 114,000 in the month, below the downwardly revised 179,000 recorded in June. As a result, the US dollar has shown a weakening trend.

A quick appreciation of the yuan may deal a blow to China's exports, as such a move will put additional cost pressures on Chinese exporters and weaken their competitiveness against exporters from other economies. But it's too soon to worry about that. Currently, fluctuations in the yuan's value are small, and they won't affect the stability of the foreign exchange market or have an impact on the real economy.

There's no need to read too much into or make a big fuss about some short-term volatility of the yuan. The resilience of the Chinese economy and investor confidence in China's economic prospects will offer a solid foundation for the yuan's exchange rate in the medium and long term.

A series of bilateral and multilateral meetings were held in Tokyo, including the meeting of US-Japan Security Consultative Committee, known as the "2+2" security talks, the US-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Ministerial Meeting and the Quad Ministerial Meeting that was held from Sunday to Monday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gathered in Tokyo to accelerate the Asia-Pacific alliance's integration, signaling the Joe Biden administration's continued push for "NATO-ization" of the Asia-Pacific region.

During Blinken's trip to East Asia, his visit to Tokyo might appear to be a brief stop, but it is actually the main focus of the trip. The meetings of Blinken and Austin in Tokyo led to a series of military security cooperation among the US, Japan, South Korea, and other countries, reflecting four major upgrades in the US and Northeast Asia alliance system.

First, the US and Japan are accelerating military integration. Through the "2+2" talks, the US and Japan confirmed that the Japan Self-Defense Forces will establish a "Joint Operations Command," and the US Forces Japan will establish a "joint force headquarters." This will achieve full integration of the US-Japan command and operational system.

Second, the US and Japan held their ministerial-level meeting on the Extended Deterrence Dialogue, where they confirmed that, with Japan's defense support, the US will strengthen cooperation on extended deterrence and escalation management primarily to deter potential nuclear strikes against Japan.

Third, the US, Japan and South Korea seek to "institutionalize" trilateral defense ties. The three countries agreed to strengthen institutionalized cooperation in areas such as information sharing and trilateral exercises, and expressed intent to host their trilateral ministerial meeting on a rotational basis.

Fourth, Japan and South Korea are restarting their defense cooperation. South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited Japan on Sunday, marking the first visit by a South Korean defense chief to Japan's defense ministry in 15 years. Prior to this, the two countries made a significant step last month in forging resilient security ties, agreeing to resume defense exchanges. 

According to a press release from the US State Department, this was Blinken's "18th trip to the Indo-Pacific region since becoming Secretary." The US claims that it will uphold its "commitment to deepening and expanding ties to unprecedented levels and creating mutually reinforcing relationships to tackle today's greatest challenges." Austin noted in a joint press conference before the trip, "The US has nearly doubled its military construction investments in the Indo-Pacific over the last fiscal year and has continued to make significant improvements to its force posture in the region."

It is clear that the Democratic Party is eager to solidify its "diplomatic legacy" during Biden's remaining time in office. It aims to show the outside world that although it is deeply troubled by the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, the focus of US foreign policy remains on the Asia-Pacific region. The US' actions are also affected by domestic political factors. The Biden administration hopes to demonstrate "global leadership" of the US.

The US' intensifying plans for great power competition and geopolitical confrontation bring the risk of division and instability for regional countries. At the recently concluded East Asia Summit Foreign Minister's Meeting in Laos, although ASEAN strived to maintain regional unity and cooperation, there were obvious differences in the positions of countries surrounding the Ukraine crisis, the conflict in Gaza, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea affairs. 

After Blinken's speech, which emphasized "cooperation" at the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference on July 27, he quickly shifted to camp confrontation in Tokyo, stirring up geopolitical conflicts and reinforcing military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region. This, without doubt, undermined ASEAN's efforts. 

Faced with unprecedented risks of confrontation and division since the Cold War, countries in the Asia-Pacific region need to enhance their crisis awareness and jointly resist the trend of "NATO-ization" of the Asia-Pacific region. Countries in East Asia must adhere to the vision of peace, take into account the demands of all parties, and pursue a path of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security.  

As of 2:30 pm on Sunday, a mountain torrent and subsequent mudslide that hit Kangding, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, has killed eight people with 19 people still missing in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

At the same time, 939 local people have been evacuated and resettled. The water supply, power supply, accommodation, meals and other essential services across the four resettlement sites have been put in place, according to a press conference held on Sunday morning by the local rescue headquarters.

Sixteen individuals were hospitalized, with four having been discharged and 12 remaining in hospital without any life-threatening injuries, said the press conference.

At about 3:30 am on Saturday, a huge mountain torrent and mudslide disaster struck Ridi village in Kangding city, Garze, toppling a tunnel bridge and destroying homes in Ridi village. Many vehicles fell along with the loss of contact with people.

A local official told Xinhua that villagers were notified to evacuate 10 minutes before the mudslide struck the village after a local emergency services official found the river water had become muddy amid heavy rain.

According to Xinhua, the slope where the mountain torrent and mudslide occurred was steep, with the height difference of the Ridi ditch reaching more than 4,000 meters. The village is located in a valley at an altitude of 1,300 meters above sea level, while the mountains nearby are over 5,000 meters above sea level.

Experts analyzed that the recent high temperature accelerated the melting of ice and snow, coupled with the recent continuous rainfall, resulting in flash floods and mudslides.

The collapse of the bridge between tunnels resulted in the plummeting of four vehicles into the water, with one individual rescued and hospitalized, while 10 others were among the missing, emergency response headquarters said.

Following the disaster, local government made every effort to organize search and rescue. A total of 1,448 personnel have been deployed. Additionally, 215 vehicles and engineering equipment units, 45 sets of communication equipment units, more than 1,500 pieces of rescue equipment, three search and rescue dogs, and one light helicopter and one large drone have been deployed.

At the same time, in order to ensure the safety of rescue, the rescue command has arranged 15 safety officers and 17 observation posts in each rescue team, and dispatched drones to ensure that no casualties are caused by secondary disasters.

During the peak period of summer tourism, two main channels of National Highway 318 and Yakang Expressway have been closed due to the disaster. Only the provincial highway 434 Yumo Road can pass through Hailuogou to Luding county. Local authorities said that a special team has been set up to assist tourists and truck drivers, and volunteers have been sent to do their best to provide service.

Western Sichuan is popular among many tourists but during the rainy season many visitors are hesitant to travel due to the current weather conditions.

A tourist surnamed Hong, who recently travelled to the area, told the Global Times on Sunday that, this year, there has been a lot of heavy rain in Western Sichuan, causing rivers to swell and loosening the soil and rocks along the roads, resulting in frequent road closures.

"We also have encountered rockfalls and landslides along the way. It was easy to lose signal and got stuck in traffic in such mountainous terrain," Hong said. 

Over the past few days, his fellow travelers wanted to go to Kangding, but they were forced to change their plans. "I suggest not going during the rainy season, it's not worth the risk," Hong noted.

China has released 19 fresh professions to keep pace with demand of new quality productive forces, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) on Wednesday. Observers said that the new professions hint that job seekers should be more open to adjust to the changing environment. Also, young elderly (generally referring to age between 65 and 74) who are well educated can explore the possibility of transitioning into a career in digital and intelligent technologies as a way to adapt to the ageing society.

The 19 new professions include cloud-based intelligent operations and maintenance personnel, generative artificial intelligence system application staff, and user growth operation specialists, as well as 28 new job categories such as live recruitment specialists. These new jobs have been included in the National Occupational Classification (NOC). 

The emergence of new professions reflects the new changes and trends in China's economic and social development, meeting the new needs of production and life, and providing laborers with more employment choices.

Over half of the 19 new professions released are closely related to new quality productive forces. Among them are generative artificial intelligence system application staff, intelligent connected vehicle testers, intelligent manufacturing system maintenance personnel, and industrial internet operations and maintenance personnel.

Other new positions nurtured by the digital economy are online anchors and user growth operation specialists. 

The release of the new occupations came at a moment when the governments and social forces are pouring in policies to stabilize employment, and rolling out more targeted policies to boost employment. 

In June, the country's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent, with the employment situation remaining generally stable, according to the MHRSS.

China has set an annual target of creating more than 12 million new urban jobs this year. It also aimed to keep the surveyed urban jobless rate at around 5.5 percent this year.

Observers said that with the upgrading of digital technology and the continuous development of society in recent years, a number of new occupations have been approved by the state and are appearing more and more around us. These new occupations offer job seekers direction and more options.

The ministry said China will continue efforts to foster new employment growth in areas such as advanced manufacturing and the digital economy, and provide more assistance to key groups, including college graduates and migrant workers.

The increasing of new professions has also provided clues on how to live better in the ageing society, especially for the young elderly.

"Digital and intelligent technologies have reduced the labor intensity of positions, thereby increasing the possibility of employment for the elderly," Yuan Xin, deputy head of the China Population Association and a demographer from Nankai University, told the Global Time on Wednesday. 

People need to actively adapt and realize that we are already in a moderately ageing society. Currently, the average life expectancy of Chinese people has reached over 78 years. For the younger elderly who are in good health and well-educated, they are able to adapt to new job opportunities if they voluntarily embrace delaying their retirement so that they have longer period of time to create wealth, the demographer said.

The new occupations included within the NOC are not newly created jobs but those occupations that are not included in the classification, but already have a certain scale of practitioners and require relatively independent and mature professional skills.

According to the MHRSS, "green" is another major label for these new professions. There are already 134 green professions marked in the NOC, accounting for 8 percent of the total number of professions. 

Many of these newly included professions stem from the new needs of economic transformation and green low-carbon development, such as hydrogen-based direct reduction ironworkers originating from traditional industries, energy storage station maintenance administrators and power quality administrators to meet the development of emerging industries.