After China announced its economy grew 5.2 percent in 2023, some overseas media outlets claimed that China's economic recovery was sluggish and largely disappointing. However, these pessimistic views, prevalent in the Western media, are biased and inaccurate.

Bearing the impact of the three-year COVID pandemic, the Chinese economy still faced lingering side-effects of it in 2023, with the pandemic's scarring effect severely weakened market confidence. During the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held in late July last year, the policymakers emphasized that the country's economic recovery was undergoing "wave-like" development.

Looking back, the market's expectations at the end of 2022 were overly optimistic. China set a GDP growth target of about 5 percent in early 2023, which was a more rational and reasonable approach. The Chinese economy successfully surpassed that target.

China's GDP growth rate has continued to increase despite the global economic downturn. While the global economy is expected to experience a slowdown last year to 3.0 growth, compared with 3.5 percent in 2022, China's growth rate increased from 3 percent in 2022 to 5.2 percent in 2023. This was a remarkable achievement that required overcoming external pressures and internal challenges.

China's economic growth rate remains relatively higher than other countries like the US. And, China is not the only country facing a slowdown in growth - lower than pre-pandemic levels. 

Despite the global economic slump, China is still able to achieve a moderate to high growth rate of about 5 percent, which plays an important role in stabilizing the global economy. China's contribution to global economic growth last year was still about 30 percent, demonstrating that China remains an important driving force of the global growth.

China has aimed to actively cultivate new growth drivers through technological innovation, green development and data-enabled transformation. Despite the overall decline in exports last year, exports of the "New Three Items" grew rapidly, exceeding the 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) mark.

China has achieved similar growth in other fields. From an industrial perspective, the value-added growth rate of high-tech industries is eye-catching. From an investment perspective, the investment growth rate in the high-tech manufacturing and services industries was higher than that in fixed-asset investment. Additionally, China has achieved international competitive advantages in many industrial fields, such as in green and renewable energies.

In 2024, the Chinese economy will benefit from several favorable conditions. First, with the further weakening of the pandemic impacts, China can expect economic and social activities to return to a normal level. This will stimulate continued growth in consumption and investment, and contribute to expanding the scale of the economy.

Second, the implementation of fiscal and monetary stimulus policies will continue to provide the necessary support for stabilizing economic growth and promoting the recovery. The Central Economic Work Conference made it clear that macroeconomic regulation will be intensified.

Third, China's plan to implement reform and opening-up measures in key areas will inject new vitality into economic growth. Technological innovation and the next industrial revolution will become new driving forces for economic development.

If China follows the deployment of decisions by the Central Economic Work Conference, promotes high-quality development and intensifies structural adjustments while maintaining necessary policy support, there will be positive momentum for the economic recovery.

However, China should also recognize that the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the external environment in 2024 still exist. From a positive perspective, the US Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes are nearing an end and there is the possibility of rate cuts, which will expand the space for China's macroeconomic policies and encourage European and US companies to replenish their inventories, improving overseas demand for Chinese goods.

In addition, ongoing high-level exchanges and dialogue between China and the US will help control their tensions.

However, China should be aware of the economic uncertainties, especially in the late stage of the US Federal Reserve's tightening cycle. Insufficient tightening may lead to the Fed reconsidering rate hikes, while excessive tightening may cause a hard landing for the US economy.

According to the World Trade Organization's forecast in October 2023, global merchandise trade growth may recover from 0.8 percent in 2023 to more than 3 percent in 2024. Therefore, China expects its foreign trade exports will likely recover and grow in 2024.

China experienced fluctuations in foreign enterprises' investment in 2023. However, fluctuations in foreign investment are normal, not only in China but also in other countries, including the US. 

Since total global foreign direct investment fell from 2020 to 2022, while China's attractiveness to foreign investment continued to steadily increase, it was not surprising to see some adjustments in scale in 2023. 

In addition, the impact of non-economic factors in reshaping global industrial and supply chains may have some influence on China's utilization of foreign investment.

China is still a growing economy with a colossal market, so it still has an appeal to foreign investment. With the normalization of communication and exchanges with the outside world, investors are paying more and more attention to China's market, and confidence in China's economic fundamentals keeps on recovering.

Profits of China's major industrial enterprises fell 2.3 percent in 2023, continuing a month-on-month narrowing that began in March, an ongoing recovery that underscores the resilience of the Chinese economy, experts said.

In 2023, the profits of industrial companies whose annual main business revenue exceeded 20 million yuan ($2.82 million) stood at 7.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 2.3 percent, narrowing by 2.1 percentage points from the first 11 months of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Saturday.

State-owned enterprises achieved total profits of 2.26 trillion yuan in 2023, down 3.4 percent year-on-year, while private enterprises had total profits of 2.34 trillion yuan, up 2 percent, NBS data showed.

With domestic demand improving gradually and industrial production picking up steadily, the profitability of large-scale industrial enterprises has continued to recover, further consolidating the foundation for high-quality development of the industrial economy, NBS statistician Yu Weining said in a statement on Saturday.

While the total profits of major industrial enterprises declined amid the multiple challenges at home and abroad, the narrowing trend has sent a positive signal that the Chinese economy is gradually overcoming various difficulties and stabilizing on an improving trend, Zhu Keli, executive director of China Institute of New Economy, told the Global Times on Saturday.

In terms of the moving trend of industrial profits throughout the year 2023, major industrial enterprises' profits saw a sharp narrowing of decline, given the year-on-year decrease of 22.9 percent in January-February, Yu said.

By quarter, the profit of industrial enterprises in the first quarter of 2023 fell by 21.4 percent year-on-year, with a 12.7 percent fall in the second quarter, before recording a 7.7 percent gain in the third quarter and a 16.2 percent increase in the fourth.

In December, profits of industrial enterprises rose by 16.8 percent year-on-year, growing for a fifth consecutive month, according to the NBS.

Overall, more than 60 percent of industries recorded profit gains in 2023. With the deepening industrial chain optimization and upgrading, the efficiency of the equipment manufacturing industry continues to improve, further strengthening its supporting role for the profit recovery of industrial enterprises, Yu said.

Specifically, due to the rapid rise in shipbuilding orders and the record high automobile production, the transport equipment industry saw profits jump by 22 percent year-on-year, while profits of the automobile industry increased 5.9 percent.

Against the backdrop of complex global economic changes, the recovering industrial profits reflected the tenacious resilience and innovation vitality of Chinese industries, Zhu noted.

Chinese industrial enterprises not only pay attention to short-term benefits, but also focus on the long-term development, constantly enhancing their core competitiveness and market adaptability by strengthening technological innovation and improving added value of products. Those efforts are gradually being translated into concrete economic benefits, offering a strong support for the recovery of industrial profits, according to Zhu.

"Industrial enterprises' performance has pointed to an overall trend that the Chinese economy is undergoing a continuous improvement," Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Saturday.

With the continued policy support, the improvement in the operating conditions across the industrial sector is expected to continue in 2024, Xi said.

Despite facing multiple challenges, China's manufacturing industry has shown strong resilience in recent years, according to a report released on Saturday by the China Finance 40 Forum -- a Chinese think tank specializes on issues of economic and financial policy.

The report said that the growth rate of China's manufacturing sector investment has continued to be higher than the growth rate of the total capital investment and the GDP growth rate since 2020.

Meanwhile, the proportion of investment by private enterprises has further increased, and the manufacturing investment has been concentrating in industries such as electrical equipment, telecommunication and computing information.

The upgrading trajectory of China's manufacturing industry is consistent with the experience of high-income countries, said Zhang Bin, a senior CF40 researcher and deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics.

A modern service industry is a necessary condition for the upgrade of the manufacturing industry as it is difficult to see the sustainability of manufacturing investment higher than a society's fixed asset investment, Zhang said.

China saw steady expansion of employment in 2023, with the emerging digital economy and technology sectors creating more opportunities for young job seekers, multiple industry insiders and enterprises have told the Global Times.

Despite the pessimistic picture painted by some foreign media reports, observers remained optimistic and confident in China’s employment situation, given the country’s efforts to stabilize the labor market as well as various favorable trends.

The emergence of cutting-edge technologies in the digital economy combined with new scenarios and sources of demand have brought more options and chances for young people, Li Qiang, vice-president of Zhaopin.com, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

Li noted that a diverse range of job opportunities have emerged with different entry levels, from the frontiers of digital technology to more basic jobs in expanding sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Mexin Group, a door company based in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, told the Global Times on Monday that it has opened new positions and expanded hiring of AI engineers amid the development of its intelligent production.

The company hopes its AI engineers can integrate the technology into different applications and platforms, while carrying out new practices complying with various corporate projects, Mexin said in a statement.

Digital transformation has not only advanced the production and development patterns for enterprises in the manufacturing sector, but also provided growing potential and space for young job applicants, particularly in rising sectors such as industrial automation and new energy.

The proportion of jobs classified under the category of production, processing and manufacturing on Zhaopin.com increased from 15.3 percent in 2022 to 16.8 percent in 2023, with the growth rate ranking first among all industries. Meanwhile, the talent gap related to the energy-saving industry and new-energy vehicles is expected to reach 1.03 million people in 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In addition, Li said the digital economy has created more flexible jobs with higher job autonomy and lower entry barriers.

The number of newly registered drivers for on-demand delivery service provider Lalamove, also known as Huolala, increased by more than 70 percent in 2023, while the active drivers born in and after 1990 accounted for 30 percent of the total number, a yearly increase of 45 percent, the company told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Huolala said that 60 percent of their surveyed drivers born in and after 2000 chose to be cargo drivers due to the job’s flexibility, as they can pursue different passions such as being e-sports players and technicians at the same time.

The urban unemployment rate in China stood at 5.2 percent on average in 2023, down 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed last week, amid an overall improvement in employment.

The NBS also resumed the release of data for youth unemployment after a four-month suspension. The surveyed unemployment rate of the population aged 16 to 24 (excluding students) was 14.9 percent in December.

However, pressure is still persisting in 2024 given the structural contradictions for employment of some groups and in certain industries, said Kang Yi, a spokesperson for the NBS at a press conference on January 17.

Kang added that the employment situation will remain stable in 2024 thanks to the economic recovery, accelerated industrial upgrading and other positive factors such as supportive policies.

Li said that market confidence, bolstered by policy support taking further effect, has been rebounding, adding that the recovering confidence among enterprises is another positive factor for 2024.

France-based airplane manufacturer Airbus started operations at the Airbus Lifecycle Services Center in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday, a latest example of aviation cooperation between China and France.

The center's opening came just days before Saturday, which will mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France.

This center is the first of its kind to cover, as a one-stop shop, the full range of activities from aircraft parking and storage to maintenance, upgrades, conversions, dismantling and recycling services for various aircraft types, as well as the controlled distribution of used parts from dismantling, Airbus said. 

It plans to obtain overhaul qualifications and aircraft dismantling qualifications for Airbus A320/A330 within the year, and Boeing 737 maintenance qualifications are also expected. 

Covering a space of 717,000 square meters with storage capacity for 125 aircraft, the site will ramp up operations between now and 2025, directly employing up to 150 people, the company said.

The center unites under one roof a joint venture among Airbus, Tarmac Aerosave and the city of Chengdu, along with the Airbus company Satair. 

Located in the same center, Satair will acquire aging aircraft and trade and distribute the used parts to complete the full scope of lifecycle services. 

After storage and upgrading, 75 percent of the aircraft stored in the center are expected to fly again. The remaining planes will be dismantled with the unique Tarmac Aerosave process, recovering about 90 percent of the aircraft weight, the company said. 

It echoes our purpose to pioneer sustainable aerospace and shows our approach to environmental responsibility across the entire aircraft lifecycle, and the center is a great example of Chinese-European cooperation in the development of the circular economy for the aviation industry, said Cristina Aguilar, Airbus' senior vice president customer services.

The project is of special significance, when China is entering a new cycle of mass withdrawal of aircraft, with a large number of aircraft to be involved, and the project will play an important role in the circular economy, Lin Zhijie, an independent market watcher, told the Global Times. 

Chinese experts attributed the robust growth of aviation to the huge Chinese aviation market. 

Airbus predicted in December 2023 that China will overtake Europe and North America to become the world's largest aviation services market by 2042, with its market value climbing to $54.1 billion.

Aviation cooperation between China and France has seen sound development in recent years.

In June last year, China Southern Airlines, the carrier offering the largest annual air passenger capacity in China, said it would equip its new fleet of 96 A320neo planes with Thales' market-leading avionics solutions. This new agreement is a fitting testament to the extensive cooperation in the field of civil aviation between France and China. In the helicopter domain, Thales also partnered with Simaero to deliver China's first H225 level D Full Flight Simulator to China Sky-Wings training center in Shanghai, for improving the overall safety of Chinese helicopter pilots.

Thales has been present in China for more than 40 years. It has three joint ventures and employs 1,800 people with offices located in seven cities in China. 

In April 2023, Airbus signed a purchase agreement for 160 commercial aircraft with a Chinese partner, and it will open a second assembly line in North China's Tianjin Municipality, further expanding its presence in one of the largest aviation markets in the world.

During the ninth China-France High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue held in July 2023 in Beijing, China vowed to strengthen policy communication with France, deepen practical cooperation, step up coordination on international and multilateral affairs, and push the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The year-on-year decline in China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) over recent months is caused by structural and cyclical factors, while core CPI remained stable excluding the impact of food and energy prices. It is anticipated that CPI will see a mild rise in 2024, a Chinese official said on Wednesday.

Prices have fallen in China lately, led by a retreat in the cost of food and energy. Excluding the impact of food and energy prices, core CPI has remained stable, suggesting that the decline in prices was not widespread or broad-based, but rather cyclical and structural, head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Kang Yi told a press conference in Beijing.

In 2023, China's overall prices remained on a moderate upward trend, with the annual CPI rising by 0.2 percent, and the core CPI increasing by 0.7 percent, Kang noted.

As for the structural factors, the decline in food and energy prices is not solely a result of changes in market supply and demand dynamics. In 2022 and 2023, their prices were primarily influenced by non-economic and unconventional factors, Kang said.

Energy prices, particularly those of petroleum, play a substantial role in the CPI basket in China. In December 2023, energy prices witnessed a 0.5 percent drop, in contrast to the 5.2 percent increase in December 2022. The significant rise in energy prices in 2022 followed by a decline in 2023, with one acting as a positive factor and the other as a negative factor, has exerted a considerable downward pull on the year-on-year CPI comparison, Kang explained.

As for food prices, there was a 3.7-percent drop in December 2023, contrasting with a 4.8-percent rise in December 2022. The increase in December 2022 was caused by pandemic-related measures, leading to logistical challenges and an across-the-board rise in food prices. As the economy returned to normal, accompanied by ample supply, food prices eased from the high baseline of the previous year, he said.

As the Chinese economy continues to recover on the back of steady growth in income levels and an expansion in domestic market demand, there is a foundation for upward movement of prices. As the Spring Festival holidays approach, demand for food spending is rising. Increased activity in service spending, such as dining out, visiting relatives and friends, and trave will further drive the seasonal rise in CPI, Kang said.

In the first 10 days of January 2024, monitored data indicates food prices have remained generally stable, experiencing mild increases in some regions, he said.

The low-level operation of prices also reflects, to some extent, issues such as insufficient market demand, Kang said, noting that it is a cyclical phenomenon in China as the economy returns to normalcy after three years of pandemic impact. "In the short term, inadequate demand can lead to downward pressure on prices."

China's CPI saw a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percent in October 2023, followed by declines of 0.5 percent in November and 0.3 percent in December, NBS data showed.

During the key annual Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing in December 2023, policymakers stressed the need to expand domestic demand, noting that "efforts should be made to stimulate consumption with potentials and expand productive investment to create a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion between consumption and investment."

"The development of digital consumption, green consumption and health consumption should be further promoted, and new growth areas such as consumption of smart home appliances, entertainment and tourism, sports events and trendy domestic brands should be fostered," the meeting noted.

With the introduction of relevant policies, the issue of insufficient market demand will ease. As a result, consumer prices will most likely stabilize and rebound. "We anticipate a mild increase in prices in 2024," Kang said.

US and UK fighter jets launched strikes against multiple targets in Yemen's capital Sanaa, the western Red Sea city of Al Hudaydah and the northern province of Saada on Friday local time. The situation in the Red Sea has seen a new round of increased tensions and faces the risk of further escalation.

The air strikes took place exactly one day after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution regarding the situation in the Red Sea, giving the impression that the UN resolution gave the green light for the US and UK actions. It must be pointed out that this is an illusion. The US and the UK may have deliberately created and strengthened this illusion, but it is far from the truth. The resolution was proposed by the US and Japan and passed with a vote of 11 in favor to none against, with four abstentions. It demanded "that the Houthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security." Russia, China, Algeria and Mozambique abstained from the vote.

The Red Sea is an important international trade channel for goods and energy, and its stability is related to the common interests of the international community. China emphasized that "No country should misinterpret or abuse relevant provisions in this resolution to create new tensions in the Red Sea." Unexpectedly, what China was worried about became a reality the next day. After the attack, some US allies in the Middle East, including Jordan and Oman, expressed concern that the situation might get out of control. Yemen's neighbor Saudi Arabia also called for avoiding escalation of the situation. There is also a lot of opposition in the US. Nabeel Khoury, former deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Yemen, said on X (formerly Twitter), "US/UK bombing campaign in Yemen is another failure of Biden diplomacy."

The current situation in the region is dire. A cease-fire between Palestine and Israel has not yet been achieved, and the spillover conflict in the Red Sea is further escalating and expanding. The Supreme Political Committee of the Houthi armed forces of Yemen claimed that all "interests" of the US and Britain are now "legitimate targets." Retaliation and harassment against the US and the UK will start another cycle of attacks, and multiple spillover conflicts are possible. In short, the possibility of the situation deteriorating has increased and deepened, and this outcome requires all parties to do their best to avoid it.

It needs to be said that the development of the situation to this point has been both accidental and inevitable. It is the US that has pushed the situation to the current stage step by step according to its own style and behavioral logic. The skewed stance of the US in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to the conflict becoming protracted and caused spillovers. When dealing with Middle East issues, which are intertwined with contradictions and have complex historical latitudes, the US' strategy is thoughtless, even crude.

Military means is still the most familiar, preferred and convenient method for the US. It has been used in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and now against the Houthi armed forces in Yemen. The US has become quite dependent on it. Many bloody lessons have taught us that force as the main means cannot solve the problem, but instead makes the situation worse and more complicated. Ultimately, we have to return to the path of political settlement. The same is true for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. China has repeatedly stressed the urgency of achieving an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, and it is the overriding prerequisite for everything else and a top priority for international diplomatic efforts.

Whether it is the current Red Sea crisis or the protracted conflict in Gaza, the real solution to the problem has always been clear, which is to immediately implement a cease-fire in Gaza. But for this core demand, the US currently does not have the courage to truly take supportive action. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made four trips to the Middle East in three months. He has made so many trips, but he can't even say the word "instant cease-fire." If Washington continues on its current path, it will not solve the Middle East problem, but will become an active promoter of risk proliferation.

US defense officials said the strike was intended to thread the needle - pressing the Houthis to quit their attacks without spurring more conflicts in the volatile region. Threading the needle can be regarded as progress in US thinking, but can it achieve this via force? Can this restore peace in the Red Sea? The answer is obviously no.

China strongly opposes the US' so-called bills supporting the Taiwan island as a member of the IMF and has lodged a solemn representation with the US, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The US House of Representatives advanced several bills concerning the island on Friday. One of them, the "Taiwan Non-Discrimination Act of 2023," sponsored by California Republican Young Kim, requires the US to advocate for Taiwan's membership at the IMF. 

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday that the so-called bill constitutes a gross interference in China's internal affairs, attempting to manipulate political issues under the guise of the Taiwan question and creating incidents that promoted "one China, one Taiwan" or "two Chinas" that violate the one-China principle.

China has expressed its strong dissatisfaction, firmly opposes the latest move by the US, and has lodged a solemn representation with the US, Mao said, emphasizing that Taiwan island has no legitimate reasons or rights to participate in international organizations such as the United Nations, which are reserved for sovereign states. 

Mao mentioned that on October 25, 1971, the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 by an overwhelming majority, explicitly recognizing  that the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate representative of China at the United Nations, and demanding the expulsion of the representatives of the Taiwan island from the UN.

For over half a century, the UN and other specialized agencies, including the IMF, have adhered to the provisions of this resolution, the spokesperson said.

"Any issue related to Taiwan's participation in international organizations must be resolved under the One-China principle. The US should recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, immediately cease interfering in China's internal affairs, stop sending wrong signals to pro-independence forces in the island, and refrain from harming China-US relations and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait," Mao said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday night local time arrived in Egypt, the first leg of his four-nation Africa tour this week. This is the 34th consecutive year when a Chinese foreign minister has visited Africa as their first overseas trip at the beginning of the year.

Coming shortly after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi's successful reelection in December 2023, and amid the already 100-day Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, Wang's visit is of great significance, Chinese analysts said. They predicted that further coordinating their positions concerning hot-spot issues, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, and its spillover in the region such as the Red Sea turmoil, will be high on the agenda during Wang's exchanges with Egyptian officials.

China and Egypt are to explore the potentials of their bilateral and multilateral cooperation in a variety of fields under multilateral frameworks that include the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS, analysts said on Sunday.

On Sunday, President Sisi met with Wang Yi in Cairo. The Egyptian president expressed gratitude for China's strong support for Egypt's social and economic development, noting significant achievements in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative.

He reaffirmed Egypt's commitment to the one-China principle and opposition to interference in China's internal affairs.

Wang Yi thanked Egypt for supporting China's rightful stance. China appreciates Egypt's active response to the Belt and Road Initiative and will remain to be a long-term, reliable strategic partner in Egypt's development and revitalization. China aims to strengthen the alignment of development strategies and practical cooperation for greater achievements, working together toward modernization, Wang said.

Both sides agreed to continue strengthening communication and collaboration within frameworks such as BRICS and the United Nations. Wang Yi stated that Egypt, as an Arab, African, Islamic, and developing major country, is congratulated on becoming a new member of BRICS.

They also exchanged views on the Palestinian-Israeli situation, agreeing on the need for an immediate cease-fire and preventing further conflict escalation. A joint statement regarding the situation was issued.

During the visit, Wang Yi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry also discussed and signed the second five-year plan for the China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership.

Wang Yi, in a joint press conference with Shoukry after their talks, expressed deep concern over the recent rapid escalation of the situation in the Red Sea, and called for an end to attacks on civilian ships.

At the same time, China believes that the UN Security Council has never authorized any country to use force against Yemen, and actions should be avoided that would add fuel to the tension in the Red Sea and increase the overall security risks in the region. It must be emphasized that the tension in the Red Sea is a prominent manifestation of the spillover of the Gaza conflict, Wang said.

The urgent task is to quickly quell the war in Gaza to prevent the conflict from further expanding or even getting out of control. All parties need to jointly maintain the safety of the Red Sea waterway in accordance with the law, while genuinely respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Red Sea coastal countries, including Yemen, he noted.

Egypt is the first African nation Wang would visit during his current Africa trip, which is of significance, coming so soon after President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi's successful reelection. The Egyptian government has launched development plans and targets, including attracting investment and boosting tourism, to tackle the country's economic challenges, He Wenping, a director with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Regarding bilateral and multilateral cooperation, Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times that the conversation will be carried out within the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, as well as under the BRICS framework.

BRICS inducted five new member countries - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia - into the bloc in early January 2024. The integration of new member states marked a major expansion for the bloc originally founded by Russia, Brazil, China, and India in 2006, and later joined by South Africa in 2011.

Wang's visit seeks to implement the outcomes of the China-Africa Leaders' Dialogue held in August, 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to Zhu.

China announced at the 2023 Leaders' Dialogue it would launch the Initiative on Supporting Africa's Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa's Agricultural Modernization and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development, as part of the efforts to chart the course for China-Africa practical cooperation in the next stage and help Africa bring its integration and modernization into a fast track, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China and Africa will host the ninth ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in China in 2024, which will likely take place in Beijing towards the end of the year.

FOCAC is hailed by the international community as an epitome of an efficient and effective platform for South-South cooperation and is a springboard for Africa and China to firmly support each other in strengthening development interests and collaboration in international affairs, as well as at multilateral occasions.

China-Egypt cooperation covers various fields, including infrastructure like development of the new Egyptian capital, railway projects and space collaboration with the launch of Egypt's second satellite. There is also cooperation in oil development, with new oil fields discovered in Egypt, as well as in aviation and technology, He Wenping said.

Wang's visit will further align the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative with Egypt's 2030 development vision. Egypt's new government has many plans in motion, including tourism cooperation and dealing with their foreign exchange shortage, which might involve trade and import of non-Egyptian agricultural products. All these areas are expected to feature in the bilateral discussions and potential cooperation agreements, He explained.

At the invitation of Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Viola Amherd, President of the Swiss Confederation, and Leo Varadkar, Irish Taoiseach, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council will attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 and pay an official visit to Switzerland and Ireland from January 14 to 17: Chinese Foreign Ministry

The Xihoumen Highway and Railway Bridge in East China's Zhejiang Province marked phased progress when 18 drill piles belonging to pier No 5 of the bridge, each with a diameter of 6.3 meters - the world's largest - were injected with cement on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The final cement injection was completed on Sunday, according to CCTV.

Since drilling work began in July last year, workers overcame technological challenges in the construction of the drill piles, which have the world's largest diameter, measuring 84 meters in length, of which a 37-meter-section is plunged firmly into bedrock beneath choppy water at a maximum depth of 60 meters in the area. 

The completion of the cement injection at pier No 5 was completed ahead of schedule, according to the report.

The Xihoumen Highway and Railway Bridge, dubbed the world's longest super sea-crossing bridge with a total length of 3,118 meters, and connecting Zhoushan's Jintang and Cezi islands, is among a total of 10 landmark projects Zhejiang Province is undertaking to boost regional connectivity. 

The bridge will allow trains travel at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour and will link up with Zhoushan, Zhejiang's last city not connected by rail.

The bridge has a main span of 1,488 meters. Its width, at 68 meters, is also the world's widest for a dual-purpose sea bridge. 

As China rings in 2024 with a bang, a number of Chinese localities including East China's Anhui and Central China's Hunan provinces have launched a new round of major projects, reflecting a robust start to the new year, which Chinese experts describes as an encouraging sign for economic growth.