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. 

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6 with the theme of "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future," the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday. 

Leaders of FOCAC's African members will attend the summit at the invitation of the forum. Representatives of relevant African regional organizations and international organizations will attend relevant forum events.

This is the first gathering of the China-Africa family in Beijing since the 2018 FOCAC summit, and the summit will start a new stage in the development of China-Africa relations and write a new chapter in the construction of the China-Africa community with a shared future, the ministry said. 

The focus of this cooperation forum is to further align development strategies with African countries and to address the collective demands of more than 50 African nations, experts said, noting that the significance lies in building consensus among the Global South. 

The forum's senior officials' meeting and ministerial conference will be held on September 2 and 3 to prepare for the summit. From September 4- 6, a series of events including the summit's opening ceremony, welcome banquet and performances, parallel high-level meetings, the China-Africa entrepreneur conference, and bilateral meetings will take place, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

Mutual respect, equality, and joint consultation are key features of FOCAC, Lin said, noting that both sides are maintaining close communication and coordination to prepare for summit activities, continuing to promote the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation. 

The summit is taking place against the backdrop of intense great power competition, so some Western countries such as the US will closely watch it, Shen Shiwei, non-resident research fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

For African countries, the summit is highly anticipated, as they look forward to what new blueprints for cooperation will emerge, the expert noted. 

Through the FOCAC summit, China and Africa will carry forward traditional friendship, deepen solidarity and cooperation and open up new space for accelerating the common development of China and Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in March. 

As African countries realize that they need to explore a development path that suits their national conditions and hold their future in their own hands, China will continue to stand firmly with Africa and support an Africa that is truly independent in thinking and ideas, Wang said.

Given the heightened challenges Africa faces in the post-COVID era, there may be even closer cooperation between China and Africa, Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"This may include financial support. Additionally, there may be cooperation in Africa's industrialization and modernization efforts, particularly in infrastructure development across regions," Song said.

In line with the demand for African integration, there will also be measures to support the construction of integrated infrastructure, the expert added. 

The summit will highlight areas of focus for China-Africa cooperation, especially in light of current power politics, and trends toward "deglobalization" and trade protectionism, some experts said. 

"The emphasis will be on investment in industries to promote modernization. Over the past few years, FOCAC has focused on small yet impactful projects that improve livelihoods, poverty alleviation, governance exchange and infrastructure development," Shen said, noting that these areas will be of particular interest and are key highlights of the summit.

The summit is expected to explore how China and Africa can participate more in international affairs, promote the development agenda of African countries, and the Global South, experts said. 

"Some African countries like South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia have joined the BRICS mechanism. The summit will emphasize how China and Africa can better defend justice and promote a fair and reasonable international order in current global affairs," Shen said. 

The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have enhanced their infringement in the islands and reefs they illegally occupied in the South China Sea, according to a report Chinese think tank Grandview Institution released on Tuesday. Experts from the institution also warned of increasing illegal resupply activities by the Philippines to the illegally grounded warship in the South China Sea in 2024.

In recent years, China’s land reclamation and deployment of defensive military facilities on the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, out of its concern for maintaining national sovereignty and security, have been hyped up by the Western media as a testimony of the alleged "China threat" theory. Thereafter, the US and other extra-regional countries have been intensifying their interference, especially military interference, in the South China Sea issue. Their intervention has further worsened the maritime security environment in China’s periphery. In sharp contrast, the Western media turns a blind eye to the fact that Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have occupied more than 40 islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands over the past four decades, and kept expanding land area, building facilities and deploying military capabilities on some of these islands, read the report.

In particular, Vietnam and the Philippines have further intensified their construction activities on occupied islands and reefs since 2022. Vietnam has carried out large-scale land reclamation on several islands and reefs, increasing the land area by three square kilometers, far exceeding the total construction scale of the past forty years. The Philippines has frequently attempted to reinforce its construction on the illegally grounded warship at the Ren'ai Jiao (Ren'ai Reef).

These actions have complicated and escalated the disputes, and have had an impact on peace and stability, the report said.

On May 9, 1999, the military vessel BRP Sierra Madre illegally intruded into China's Ren'ai Jiao, or what the Philippine side calls as the Second Thomas Shoal, running aground due to purported "technical difficulties."

According to the report, the vessel Sierra Madre has been grounded in the Ren'ai Jiao for a long time with over ten Filipino soldiers stationed and this has constituted actual encroachment of the Ren'ai Jiao. The Philippine military's Western Command is responsible for commanding the grounded troops and the Philippine Navy sends ships to resupply the grounded troop.

In 2022, the Philippine Navy conducted 11 illegal resupply activities to the Ren'ai Jiao, while in 2023, the number increased to 14 with more disguised approaches, according to the report.

Liu Xiaobo, director of the ocean research center of the Grandview Institution, told the Global Times that, before 2023, the Philippine Navy supplied the grounded military vessel once a month, but after that, the number of illegal resupply activities increased.

The current trend shows that the illegal supply actions in 2024 will continue to increase, according to Liu. "In order to reduce sensitivity, the Philippines has rented civilian ships - instead of sending military vessels - to supply the stranded ship under the escort of coast guard ships, but the Philippines has been reportedly taking advantage of the opportunity of resupplying troops to transport illegal construction materials to the grounded ship and China firmly opposed such attempt."

In addition, the Philippines currently invites international media to board transport ships and openly hype up China's so-called "interception actions" against them in order to gain sympathy and support from the international community. However, images accompanying the report show that compared to before, the main deck of the vessel Sierra Madre as been partially reinforced and renovated in 2023, indicating that the Philippines had secretly transported building materials long ago.

The report also points out that the Philippines has enhanced construction on the islands it occupied in the South China Sea. Apart from Ren'ai Jiao, the Philippines has illegally occupied eight islands and reefs in China's Nansha Islands, namely, Mahuan Dao, Feixin Dao, Zhongye Dao, Nanyao Dao, Beizi Dao, Xiyue Dao, Shuanghuang Shazhou, and Siling Jiao. In June 1978, it unilaterally went beyond its territorial scope to set up the so-called "Kalayaan Island Group," which violates China's territorial sovereignty.

Before 2022, the Philippines conducted less construction on the occupied islands and reefs. But in March 2022, the Philippines built a new helicopter landing pad on the Mahuan Dao; and in May of that year, the Philippine Coast Guard established command observation stations on the Mahuan Dao and others. These command observation stations monitor surrounding vessels and report information to the Philippine Coast Guard headquarters, according to the report.

In January 2024, Manila's military chief Romeo Brawner told media that the Philippines would develop islands in all the nine islands and reefs in the South China Sea that it considers part of its territory to make them more habitable for troops.

The Philippines Coast Guard recently claimed that China was attempting to build an "artificial island" in the Ren'ai Jiao. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Monday "the Philippines has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately vilified China and tried to mislead the international community. None of those attempts will succeed."

Wang also urged the Philippines to stop making irresponsible remarks, face up to the facts and return to the right track of properly handling maritime disputes through negotiation and consultation.

Liu believes the Philippines will continue to advance its confrontational South China Sea policy in 2024. He points out that main factors contributing to the escalation of the disputes between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea include the pro-US stance of the Marcos government, the increased assistance from the US and its allies to the Philippines, as well as the joint defense commitment of the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty that backs and encourages the Philippines' provocative actions of encroachment.

In addition, the Philippines has strengthened its maritime military capabilities in recent years, providing it with confidence, Liu said. But ASEAN countries will continue to be important forces in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea with China as resolving disputes through peaceful means and maintaining regional peace and stability remains a consensus between ASEAN countries and China despite the differences in their concerns and positions on the South China Sea issue, Liu noted.

International financial institutions are increasingly upbeat on Chinese stocks, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index surging by 14.86 percent in the 10 trading days ended on Friday, the highest growth rate for a two-week period since January 2023. 

According to international financial giants including Morgan Stanley and Bridgewater Associates, the China market is a good place to diversify their investment portfolios and explore value, as international investors' interest in yuan-denominated assets is on the rise.

On Thursday, the index jumped by 6.01 percent, the highest daily increase since the end of July last year, data showed. Analysts said that an opportunity is emerging for medium- and long-term capital to flow into yuan assets, especially China's stock market.

Given the rollout of targeted policies to boost the high-quality development of the A-share market and the sustained recovery of China's economy, now is a good opportunity to invest in China's stock market and Chinese companies, Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund, told the Global Times on Sunday.

He said the valuations of the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets are near record lows, and confidence and patience are needed to achieve long-term gains.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau meeting, held on April 30, vowed to front-load efforts to effectively put the established macro policies in place, and well implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy. 

Those policies will further promote an economic recovery and boost the development of China's stock markets, Yang said.

Since the beginning of 2024, global asset management companies have expanded their investment portfolios in China, boosted by their growing confidence in Chinese assets. 

"Global funds are returning to China stocks," Bloomberg reported in March, citing Morgan Stanley analysts.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio posted on social media platform LinkedIn on April 1 saying that "[T]here is no such thing as a bad market; there is only bad decision making. I find the markets in China good for my type of decision making."

Recently, stocks in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) staged a stunning rebound after the State Council, the country's cabinet, pledged measures to keep the stock market stable. 

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index regained the 3,100 level at the end of April after diving to a multi-year low.

In the first quarter of this year, net inflows of northbound capital - overseas money flowing into China's A-share market through the HKSAR - reached 68.22 billion yuan ($9.65 billion), exceeding the total in 2023, the China Securities Journal reported, citing data from information provider Choice.

In April, the State Council released guidelines on strengthening regulation, forestalling risks and promoting high-quality development of the capital market. This was the third guideline document on the capital market from the State Council in two decades.

By strengthening supervision, and effectively preventing and defusing risks, the new guideline has made arrangements in areas including listings, transactions and the entry of long-term capital. This is expected to enhance fairness and efficiency in the A-share market and stimulate market vitality, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

The challenges faced by the A-share market are temporary and a bull market will eventually come, Dong said, noting that targeted policies and sound macroeconomic operations will inject new impetus into the capital market.

He said that more efforts are needed to strengthen regulations involving the major shareholders of listed companies, agencies, local governments and stock exchanges. In addition, diversified delisting channels are needed to protect the rights and interests of common investors during the whole process of delisting.

China's imports and exports roared back to growth in April after a significant drop in the previous month, according to official data on Thursday, and the strong data add to growing signs that the world's second-largest economy remains on a steady recovery trend despite lingering challenges at home and abroad. 

The strong trade data underscored the resilience of China's trade sector, with growth in exports pointing to the country's unshakable role in global supply chains, while the expansion in imports highlighted strong domestic demand, experts said. With the country's laser-like focus on the economy through a slew of stimulus measures, China's economic recovery will continue to consolidate and is on track to meet annual growth targets, they noted. 

In April, in US dollar terms, total imports and exports surged 4.4 percent year-on-year, reversing a 5.1 percent drop in March, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Thursday. Notably, exports expanded by 1.5 percent year-on-year in April, compared to a 7.5 percent contraction in the previous month, while imports jumped by 8.4 percent year-on-year, reversing a 1.9 percent decline in March, the GAC data showed.

"First-quarter trade data were dragged down by the drop in March due to a high base in March 2023. And April's data more accurately reflected the development trade in China's import and export sectors," Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Zhou said that the trade data demonstrated the steady recovery trend of the Chinese economy supported by a strong rebound in the trade sector in the first four months of 2024. 

During that period, in Chinese yuan-denominated terms, China's total imports and exports expanded by 5.7 percent year-on-year, accelerating from a 5 percent growth in the first quarter of the year, according to the GAC.

In terms of top trading partners, China's imports and exports with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, better known as ASEAN, its largest trading partner, jumped by 8.5 percent year-on-year from January to April. Imports and exports with the EU, the second-largest trading partner, dropped by 1.8 percent year-on-year, while that with the US, the third-largest trading partner, grew by 1.1 percent year-on-year.

Moreover, among the highlights of Thursday's data are the robust growth in exports by private enterprises and exports of mechanical and electrical products - both major growth drivers. Private firms' total exports expanded by 9 percent year-on-year in the first four months in yuan terms, accounting for 64.7 percent of China's total export value. Exports of mechanical and electrical products grew by 6.9 percent, accounting for 59.2 percent of China's total export value, according to the GAC.

Momentum to last

The strong figures for the January-April period also reflected China's strong competitiveness and prominent role in the global industrial and supply chain, Zhou noted. "If there are no major 'black swan' events in the future, and there are no policies and actions that significantly interfere with trade activities, trade will still maintain a sustained recovery," he said.

While the growth in exports highlighted China's unshakable role in global trade, the expansion in imports accentuated the strong recovery in China's domestic demand, which is key to the overall economic recovery, according to experts. 

"In the previous two years, the growth rate of imports was relatively low, and the total import and export volume was mainly supported by exports, reflecting insufficient domestic demand, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"But vis-à-vis this year's data, the growth rate of imports is higher than that of exports, indicating that domestic demand is recovering and the overall internal circulation is becoming smoother," Hu noted.

Hu said that China has moved swiftly to tackle systemic risks, consumption has been recovering steadily and operations of various industries have been improving significantly. 

The impressive trade data on Thursday come on the heels of a slew of indicators that showed a strong recovery momentum in the Chinese economy. In the first quarter of 2024, China's GDP expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year, beating market expectations. Retail sales, a main gauge of consumption and the biggest economic growth driver, increased by 4.7 percent year-on-year.  

Such strong momentum in China's economic recovery is widely expected to further gather traction, as Chinese policymakers continue to step up policy support to boost the economy, experts said. 

The latest signal of strong policy support came from a meeting, held on April 30, of the Political Bureau of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee. Noting that the economy has secured a good start this year, the meeting called for various measures to further consolidate the recovery momentum, including front-loading efforts to effectively put the established macro policies in place and issuing ultra-long special treasury bonds at an early stage, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

In terms of trade, the meeting called for efforts to actively expand trade in intermediate goods, service trade, digital trade, and cross-border e-commerce exports, and support private enterprises in expanding overseas markets.

Apart from policy support, the strong recovery in domestic consumption will help stabilize trade throughout the year, according to Hu. "The full-year trade will maintain a generally positive growth rate that is higher than that of last year," he said. 

Beyond trade, China's two other main economic drivers - consumption and investment - are also expected to maintain a strong recovery momentum, thanks to intensifying policy support, which will ensure that the full-year economic development goals will be met, experts noted. 

In spite of challenges both at home and abroad, China has set a GDP growth target of around 5 percent this year. With the growing positive signs, many experts are increasingly confident that China will be able to meet its 2024 GDP growth target, and the country will remain the main driver for global growth.