Beijing urumqi

Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- At the Xiaohaituo Mountain, in the Yanqing district in northwest Beijing, seven snow tracks are taking shape along the peaks and valleys of the hillside. On a track with a drop of more than 800 meters, athletes from the Chinese Paralympic alpine skiing team are training for Super-G, and the high-speed gliding sends the powdery snow flying. On the precipice beside the track, Italian Capelli Dario watches every athlete descend from the starting point at high speed. When he catches a para-skier passing by with non-standard movement, he leans forward and yells "down, down, down!" About a week ago the test run for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games was completed. "I'm very satisfied with their performance because they were really good. There weren't steep slopes like this in China. I'm happy to see that they perform well on them," Dario said. The 50-year-old is now the head coach of the Chinese Paralympic alpine skiing team. In … [Read more...] about Countdown to Beijing 2022 | Italian coach witnesses China’s winter sports growth

Just weeks into its tenure, the Biden administration is already executing a profound pivot in the Middle East. Its new approach—diplomatic overtures toward Iran, a harsher line toward the Gulf Arab monarchies and a more distant relationship with Israel—represents a marked shift away from the priorities of the Trump era, which emphasized cooperation with Jerusalem and Riyadh, and the containment of Tehran. As policy scholar Michael Doran has noted , this is deeply abnormal. For one thing, it elevates the region's Shi'a minority over its Sunni majority—precisely the same dynamic that contributed to a sidelining of the U.S. in regional affairs during the Obama years. But it is worrisome for another reason as well: it unwittingly confers a major strategic advantage to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Over the last half decade, China has become the single largest investor in the Middle East, sinking upward of $120 billion into infrastructure-related projects there. China's … [Read more...] about Biden’s Mideast Policy Could Become A Victim Of Beijing’s Success | Opinion

Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Yang Yang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), who is attending the "two sessions" in Beijing, said on Thursday that preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics are progressing steadily. Some overseas politicians' politicization of sports, however, will undoubtedly hurt athletes who have worked for their dreams for years and those who love sports, she said. As chairman of the athletes' committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Yang has been keeping an eye on the preparations for the Games. "The preparations for the Winter Olympics have gone smoothly," she said. "My colleagues from BOCOG have also worked very hard during the Spring Festival. We have conducted a testing program for snow events. Test program for ice events will take place in April. The whole process is moving forward steadily." After some … [Read more...] about Countdown to Beijing 2022 | Yang Yang: Boycotting the Olympics is pointless & will hurt athletes

The world's hopes for curbing climate change hinge on action by two giant nations whose relations are deteriorating: China and the United States. The two countries both say they are intent on retooling their economies to burn less climate-wrecking coal, oil and gas. But tensions between them threaten their ultimate success. China and the United States are the world's No. 1 and No. 2 carbon polluters , respectively, pumping out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet's atmosphere. The fast cuts in carbon needed to stave off the worst of climate change are all but impossible unless these countries work together and basically trust each other's pledges. During the Trump administration, the U.S. used China's emissions as an excuse not to act, and in the past China pointed to U.S. historical emissions as a reason to resist action. New details of how quickly China plans to reduce carbon emissions will be revealed Friday when Beijing releases its next … [Read more...] about US-China tensions threaten global climate change efforts

Video Player Close BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China's annual "two sessions," a major political event, opened here Thursday, with experts around the world expecting positive signals from China's development blueprint and its benefits for global development. The sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference take place at a time when China marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), embarking on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist country. George Tzogopoulos, director of EU-China programs and senior research fellow at the International Center for European Studies, a think tank based in Nice, France, said this year witnessed China's victory against absolute poverty. The Greek expert expressed his belief that the "two sessions" will further demonstrate China's determination and measures … [Read more...] about World Insights: Experts expect more positive signals from “two sessions” as China reaches major milestone in development