China

I was looking through a stamp collection that I found in my Mom's home when I cane across this. As far as I can tell, it says something about the postal service of central China on the top and the bottom writing is just "5000 yuan". There is however no date on it at all. Since this is written in Traditional Chinese and talks about central China (not Taiwan or Guangdong where Traditional characters are still in use today afaik), I think it might be pre-revolutionary.

As for the guy, I can only really think of Sun Yat-sen, but it doesn't look quite right to me. Does anyone happen to know more? Does anyone recognize the guy?

Huge step for space travel 😍

It's at the end of the video (6m).

Tiktok is just the beginning.

Beijing, Mar 10 (Prensa Latina) The National People's Congress (Parliament) of China unanimously re-elected President Xi Jinping for another term and also appointed its new leaders and other senior State officials.

The almost three thousand deputies present at the annual session of the Congress ratified Xi Jinping at the head of the Central Military Commission.

Xi has served in those two posts for 10 years and has also been the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2012.

Han Zheng was elected Vice President, while Zhao Leji was appointed chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, along with another 14 vice presidents of the Committee.

After the voting, the President and the other officials swore loyalty to the Chinese constitution.

The new Prime Minister will also be appointed this weekend from among a number of members of CCP Politburo Standing Committee.

Since last weekend, the session in the National Assembly has been running parallel to that of the National People’s Congress to define China’s short- and mid-term socioeconomic course.

Both bodies are also examining initiatives to solve different problems, such as the challenges resulting from low birth rates and population aging.

Can anyone in Mainland China confirm if it's true that it's a half-day public holiday for women today?

Here in HKSAR it's just another day, except for some greeting card gifs over whatsapp

Thoughts?

An article explaining the composition and functions of a principle Chinese governmental organ, which has opened its national session today.

It shows there is still work to be done, but also that China does have a democratic model that is consultative and has mechanisms for dread back from the population.

say xi jinping's mental health begins to deteriorate because of his age. how would he be removed from office and replaced by a successor?

URUMQI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Per capita net income of populations lifted out of poverty in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region increased rapidly last year, up 12.1 percent to nearly 15,000 yuan (about 2,156 U.S. dollars), the information office of the regional government said.

The number of people lifted out of poverty with per capita net income of less than 10,000 yuan dropped by 72.9 percent from 950,000 at the end of 2021 to 257,100 at the end of 2022.

The region has been making efforts to increase income for those who have escaped poverty, such as promoting employment.

Last year, the region supported 35 counties, which have been lifted out of poverty, in fostering competitive industries in light of local conditions.

This year, Xinjiang will focus on building industrial clusters for grain, oil, cotton, textile and clothing, green organic fruits and vegetables, and high-quality livestock products; strengthen economic exchange and cooperation between areas that have escaped poverty in Xinjiang and other provincial-level regions; and foster new growth areas in rural areas.

LHASA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- More trees and expanding grasslands have covered southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region over the years, thanks to central and local government's afforestation efforts, official figures showed.

As a pilot zone for high-altitude tree planting projects, the regional capital Lhasa has carried out various scientific research efforts since 2012.

Over the past decade, more than 30 species suitable for planting on the plateau have been screened and planted, according to Hu Zhiguang, deputy director of the regional forestry and grassland bureau.

In 2021, the largest afforestation project in Tibet was launched. According to the plan, the project is expected to complete afforestation of about 2.07 million mu (137,800 hectares) by 2030.

After completion of the project, the annual increase of newly-added water storage will reach 49.8 million tonnes, carbon sequestration 229,100 tonnes, and oxygen release 193,000 tonnes, respectively, which will create an annual ecological value of over 1.48 billion yuan (about 215.4 million U.S. dollars).

With an average altitude of 4,500 meters, Nagqu on the northern Tibetan plateau was once the only city in China without trees. Following nearly 20 years of exploration, scattered trees have survived and are growing in the yards of some government departments and next to some roads.

The central government has since 2012 invested an accumulated 12.7 billion yuan in building an ecological security barrier in Tibet, according to Shui Yanping, deputy director of the regional department of ecology and environment, adding that the forest coverage rate increased to 12.31 percent, while the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland reached 47.14 percent.

Statistics show that in 2022, Tibet completed afforestation of some 1.18 million mu and restored over 4.37 million mu of degraded grassland, with 50 percent of its land area classified under ecological protection.

Beijing has expressed national-security concerns related to the SpaceX network

Chinese researchers are preparing to launch close to 13,000 satellites into a low-earth orbit, in a move which would dwarf – and potentially monitor – Elon Musk’s SpaceX ‘Starlink’ network, which first launched in 2019 and provides satellite internet access to 50 countries.

The project, which is codenamed ‘GW’ and is being led by associate professor Xu Can of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Space Engineering University in Beijing, will see 12,992 satellites operated by the China Satellite Network Group Co launched into orbit, and is designed to improve communications efficiency.

The launch schedule remains unknown but the team led by Xu said that they plan to deploy them “before the completion of Starlink.” They added that this would “ensure that our country has a place in low orbit and prevent the Starlink constellation from excessively pre-empting low-orbit resources.”

The projected number of ‘GW’ satellites would surpass Starlink’s current total of around 3,500. SpaceX plans to have 12,000 devices in its constellation of satellites by 2027, with that figure eventually rising to 42,000.

Xu’s team elaborated that they would place their satellites into “orbits where the Starlink constellation has not yet reached” and that they would “gain opportunities and advantages at other orbital altitudes, and even suppress Starlink.”

The ‘GW’ network could also be equipped with technology to provide “long-term surveillance of Starlink satellites,” the team of researchers added.

Xu and his team also suggested that the Chinese government could form an anti-Starlink coalition with various other governments which would “demand that SpaceX publish the precise orbiting data of Starlink satellites.”

Chinese military figures have previously expressed concern at the national security implications posed by SpaceX’s satellites, and called for the development of “hard kill” technology “to destroy the constellation’s operating system” should it be necessary.

China’s efforts to counter Starlink come amid growing concerns about the potential military applications of the global satellite network. The technology has been used to bolster communications by Ukrainian military forces throughout its conflict with Russia – though SpaceX took steps earlier this month to restrict its use in controlling military drones in the country.

Dear God why?!?!?!!

The country has substantially increased its renewable capacities

China has begun construction of a large-scale green hydrogen project that will use solar and wind power in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to Sinopec Group, the country’s biggest oil refiner.

The company expects the project, its second green hydrogen enterprise, to produce 30,000 tons of green hydrogen and 240,000 tons of green oxygen annually.

According to Xu Zhendong, executive director of the Inner Mongolia branch of Sinopec Star Petroleum, the green hydrogen and green oxygen produced there will be transported via pipelines to a pilot coal deep-processing project to replace part of what is produced using the existing coal-to-hydrogen method.

Inner Mongolia is currently one of China’s biggest coal-mining regions but is set to become a renewable energy hub. Although China still relies heavily on its large coal industry, it is hoping to make a gradual transition to renewable alternatives and achieve decarbonization over the coming decades. The country is planning to become carbon neutral by 2060 following a peak in carbon emissions in 2030.

Hydrogen is considered green since it is produced from renewables, such as solar and wind sources, and does not result in carbon dioxide emissions.

After becoming fully operational, the project is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by some 1.43 million tons. That is equivalent to planting around 825,000 trees, according to Xu.

China is the world’s largest producer of hydrogen, though most of it is currently produced from coal. The country’s annual output is expected to reach up to 200,000 tons of hydrogen – thanks to renewables – in order to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to two million tons by 2025.