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原文
Ancient wisdom helps in pandemic fight
By WANG QIAN in Beijing and XING YI in Shanghai | China Daily |
Traditional culture playing a vital role
The COVID-19 pandemic has largely been brought under control in China, with many scholars believing that traditional culture has played an important role in shaping people's response to it.
In February, after a field investigation to Wuhan, Hubei province, by the World Health Organization, assistant director-general Bruce Aylward said China had demonstrated phenomenal collective action and a cooperative spirit in fighting the virus.
"Behind every window in every skyscraper, there are people cooperating with this response," the Canadian epidemiologist said.
Speaking at a recent edition of Vision China organized by China Daily and Tsinghua University, Aylward said Chinese people's sense of social responsibility, which is embedded in the nation's culture, and their experiences in fighting the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak in 2003 are key elements of the country's efforts to tackle the virus.
David Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum, said "the cultural element is of the greatest importance" in such a unified and rapid response.
"In the Chinese context, it can be said that traditional values inspired by Confucianism... helped China in its battle against COVID-19," Gosset said.
"Culture has been underestimated by commentators, while it has arguably played the most important role in shaping global reactions to events.
"Less visible than economic dynamics or even political structures or processes, culture is nevertheless what determines the behavior of individuals."
Four factors in traditional philosophy－dayitong (great unification), jiaguo tonggou (family and state are the same), filial piety and tianxia (all under the heaven)－h(huán)ave influenced the country's response to the pandemic, according to scholars.
Mario Cavolo, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, said,"In a further examination of the values at the root of achievements (made in the fight against the pandemic), we find a historical source driving values, attitudes, and ultimately, our behavior.
"In Europe, for example, we find Judeo-Christian ethics and religions, while some countries prefer a more post-Modern Era neoliberal set of values," he said.
Gosset said,"As a major global crisis, this pandemic has revealed many aspects of our modernity, and certainly that the world is not culturally uniform. It has indeed to be understood as the juxtaposition of several different cultural contexts."
Great unification
The Confucian concept of dayitong means a common pursuit or respect for unity. Traceable to Confucius, Mencius and other philosophers, it was elaborated on by the philosopher Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BC).
From the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) onward, ancient China saw its most prosperous period, in which the benefits of Confucian civilization were spread to the rest of the world.
Yu Zhiping, philosophy professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said, "This influence can still be felt in China today, which is helping the Chinese people win the coronavirus war.
"The dayitong concept, which still influences Chinese political culture, has made such an unprecedented mobilization of nationwide resources possible."
Since a lockdown was enforced in Wuhan on Jan 23, unparalleled nationwide mobilization efforts have been made to combat the pandemic.
Two days later, under President Xi Jinping's command, a central leading group on epidemic response, headed by Premier Li Keqiang, was established. On Jan 27, a central working group led by Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan was sent to oversee work in Hubei.
On Feb 10, the National Health Commission launched an assistance plan, with 19 provinces providing support to cities in Hubei.
According to official data, some 43,000 medical workers risked their lives to help the province.
Two makeshift hospitals－Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, with a total capacity of 2,600 beds－were quickly built and started treating COVID-19 patients in early February.
Following the efforts made in Wuhan, most cities nationwide adopted strict measures to minimize the movement of people.
Canadian political science professor Daniel A. Bell said that with the experience gained in fighting SARS, Chinese people know that when social order faces a severe threat, a strong, collective and efficient government is needed to take decisive action.
Bell, dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University and professor at Tsinghua University, made the comments in a recent interview with the website of the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
A global crisis perception index released last month by social research agency Blackbox Research and consumer intelligence platform Toluna supports Bell's assessment. It found that China had the highest-rated leadership among 23 nations, with the country scoring 85 points out of 100.
Conducted over 16 days from April 3, respondents were asked to rate their countries through four key indicators: national political leadership, corporate leadership, community and media.
Families and nation
In addition to the whole-nation system, Bell highlighted the spirit of cooperation among Chinese people fighting the virus.
He said that in traditional Chinese culture, citizens feel obligated to serve their families and the nation.
Yu, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said this is the ideal of jiaguo tonggou, which means that family is a reduction of the state, and the state is an amplification of the family.
"In Chinese families, parents have the authority to make decisions and children should follow them," he said.
"In cultural terms, we take the country as our family, and when the government declared a war on the deadly pneumonia, millions of people from all walks of life, including civil servants, medics, community workers and volunteers, risked their lives to fight on the frontline."
By inheriting ancient wisdom, Chinese have a hardwired willingness to sacrifice individual freedom and undergo hardships for the sake of common well-being, Yu said.
"To lock down a huge city like Wuhan, with a population of over 11 million people, is unprecedented. With the support of the public and its willingness to comply with government orders, China succeeded."
Bell said that by sacrificing part of their freedom and privacy temporarily, people－with Confucian culture deep in their hearts－were willing to comply with the government's quarantine measures, because they trusted the authorities to make the best decisions.
When the Wuhan lockdown was imposed, all public transportation and business halted, with residents ordered to stay indoors to reduce transmission of the virus. The lockdown was lifted last month, with business in the city gradually returning to normal.
The concerted response to the measures taken in Wuhan bear testimony to a Chinese proverb that states, "When people are of one mind and heart, they can move Mount Tai." (The mountain is a landmark of cultural and historical significance north of Tai'an, Shandong province.)
Bell said that in times of crisis, "the collectivist orientation perspective has its benefits, compared with individual orientation".
As China fought the virus, non-governmental organizations and overseas Chinese donated urgently needed protective equipment, including face masks, surgical gowns and goggles, to support epidemic prevention and control measures.
Tens of thousands of manufacturers nationwide quickly reconfigured production lines to make medical masks to meet surging demand at home and overseas. The country's daily output of masks rose from 8 million on Jan 25 to 116 million on Feb 29.
Meanwhile, technology companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, have created apps to help the public cope with confinement.
Gosset, from the Europe-China Forum, said, "The effectiveness of Chinese governance, combined with a culture in which individuals put collective responsibility above all, can explain why China has been able to manage a highly dangerous situation."
Filial piety
As the outbreak in China developed into a global pandemic, many countries encouraged the elderly and those with severe medical conditions to stay at home, as they faced a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
With hospitals around the world unable to cope with a surge in the number of patients needing treatment for the disease, debate arose over whether medics should give priority to younger patients.
However, Bell said that in China－a country deeply influenced by Confucianism, with filial piety its core virtue－strong measures have been taken to protect seniors from the disease.
Filial piety, or xiao, means to respect, obey and care for the elderly, highlighted in ancient and authoritative classics such as The Analects of Confucius and The Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing), along with works by Mencius.
According to a frequently quoted saying by Mencius,"Treat all elders as you would respect your own; love all children as you would love your own."
Tang Bei, a professor specializing in global health governance at Shanghai International Studies University, said, "This virtue has been a constant theme in China's COVID-19 response, which includes all-out efforts to provide testing and treatment for all those in need, no matter whether they are young or old."
In the fight against the contagion, the Chinese leadership has continued to emphasize that people's lives, safety and health are the top priorities.
Tang said, "This is people-orientation, an important ethical requirement in the public health field, especially in making epidemic prevention and control policy."
China's response to the pandemic is largely shaped by its ancient philosophy of ethics, which has greatly increased people's trust in the government, the professor said.
Tang quoted from the Confucian classic The Book of Documents, or Shangshu, which states, "The people are the root of a country; when the root is firm, the country is tranquil."
As of April 6, the average total cost of treating a hospital patient with COVID-19 was 21,500 yuan ($3,038).
For severe cases, the average minimum cost was 150,000 yuan, with the overall charges for treating some critical cases reaching more than 1 million yuan, according to the National Health Commission. All such expenses are covered by the country's healthcare insurance system and government budget.
Official data show that as of last month, Wuhan had registered more than 50,000 patients with the virus－about 2,500 of them age 80 or older. The oldest patient who recovered is 108.
Global community
While taking good care of its citizens at home, China has offered help to nations severely affected by the pandemic.
The sudden emergence of the virus has served to remind the world that, in the era of globalization, all countries' interests are closely interconnected and society has a shared future.
The concept of a shared future is similar to the notion of tianxia (all under the heaven), which embodies a worldwide public perspective rooted in Confucian moral and political thinking.
In Liji (The Book of Rites), translated by the Scottish Sinologist James Legge, Confucius states, "When the grand course was pursued, a public common spirit ruled all under the heaven."
Cavolo, from the Center for China and Globalization, has lived in China for two decades and witnessed the country's fight against the pandemic in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.
The Italian-American, who remains deeply concerned for his family and relatives in the United States, said: "In essence, we are all connected. We are all part of the same glorious community, and each individually responsible for what we do to shape that community."
This community transcends ethnicity or sovereign borders, and in this sense, people are experiencing a unifying challenge as they face the pandemic," he said.
The Confucian vision of an ideal society envisioned a world characterized by harmony and cooperation, which President Xi has mentioned several times.
In 2015, Xi took the podium at the UN to speak of "a community with a shared future for mankind". He elaborated on this later, saying that an ideal world would be one that is safe, prosperous, open, orderly and inclusive.
On May 18, Xi announced at the virtual opening of the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly that China would provide $2 billion over two years to help with the COVID-19 response and with economic and social development in countries affected by the virus, especially developing nations.
Xi also said China is ready to work with the international community to bolster support for the hardest-hit countries.
Igor Shatrov, deputy director of Russia's National Institute for the Development of Modern Ideology, told Xinhua News Agency the pandemic is a serious test in which "humanity must realize that we live in a single world and have a common destiny, so it should unite in the face of a global threat".
SUCCESS BELONGS TO THE NIMBLE
By HU YUANYUAN
It will go down as the year of disruption and dislocation, one in which, because of the pandemic, planning ahead often seemed to be a pointless exercise.
For proof of that you need to go no further than small business owners, who this year have needed to abandon old ways and be innovative and nimble enough to adapt in a flash to changing conditions.
One of those owners is Zhou Yiyan, who at the start of the year ran a studio in Shanghai specializing in decluttering and better home organization, but which by November had gone through a couple of reorganizations and reincarnations of its own.
The first of those came in early March, a few weeks after the pandemic broke out and lockdowns and social distancing measures were imposed throughout China. At a time when other companies were still running on idle, the studio received a lucrative order from the property developer Vanke, which was looking to reorganize the allocation of apartment space to take account of customers' health-related concerns, including allowing more room for storing items related to epidemic prevention.
This kind of work looked like delivering Zhou a healthy profit stream as she secured contracts from other property developers.
However, that turned out to be illusory because some of these companies have been in tough financial straits themselves, and were extremely slow in paying money due to her. In addition, the number of those paying membership fees to the studio for online training courses slumped, and Zhou said that so far this year, the studio's profits had fallen 20 percent compared with the same period last year.
"When we tried to expand our better home organization services from property developers to more individuals, we found it difficult. Most people are more willing to pay for interior designers or interior decorators."
As November and Singles Day on the 11th loomed, Zhou had a flash of inspiration, thinking about the origins of what has become an occasion for hundreds of millions of people to go bargain-hunting on the internet.
In fact, well before the world of commercialism caught up with Nov 11 in a big way about 10 years ago, it used to be a kind of Valentine's Day, the date's digits representing those who are unattached and supposedly lonely－or possibly not.
Zhou's idea was essentially a marketing one, to tailor her online courses on decluttering to middle-aged single women and to do so through her WeChat Channels as Nov 11 loomed.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said that in 2018 there were 240 million Chinese of marriageable age who were either single or divorced. Considered as a market, that figure is all the more tantalizing when you consider it is greater than the combined population of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Zhou, 36, herself single, said those who belong to this group are strongly motivated to please themselves whether by making themselves look more beautiful, making themselves feel better－or possibly even relieving any anxiety some may have about being single.
"We used to help people better organize their homes, but we've been shifting our focus from decluttering the outside to decluttering the inside, the latter being something single women will increasingly want," Zhou said, "the inside "referring to matters psychological as much as physical.
"So we're trying once again to change our focus, and the emergence of WeChat Channels has provided us a good chance in doing that."
WeChat's owner Tencent launched the new video platform in March, looking to it as a powerful tool that could help the content publisher reach 1.2 billion WeChat users. And with WeChat's huge user base, its influence may eventually surpass that of Douyin, the original, domestic version of the video platform TikTok.
Another small business owner who has had to quickly adapt to changing conditions as he navigated the difficult shoals of the pandemic is Sun Mingzhe, 41, who worked in IT in Beijing for 20 years before opening, with several other investors, three medium-sized restaurants named Daddy Shrimp last year.
As the restaurant industry felt the full brunt of the pandemic in the first half of this year, the three restaurants were forced to close, and investment of more than 3 million yuan ($456,660) was washed down the drain.
In March Sun took a fresh look at his approach to business and set up a community catering service. This involved delivering popular fast foods such as spicy crayfish and lamb spine to neighbors, in tune with the lockdown zeitgeist of reducing personal contacts and dining at home rather than out. Sun later also set up a kitchen to offer family packages and healthy meals, in addition to the existing fast-food products.
"I rented a kiosk near my community for about 15,000 yuan a month," he said. "I've had gross profit of about 30,000 yuan a month, and if everything goes smoothly, I'll be breaking even in two to three months," Sun said in an interview in May.
However, again reflecting the unpredictable times, the pandemic in China ebbed just as Sun's business was about to break even, and demand for community catering services slumped.
"Nevertheless, I built up a customer base for the several months I ran the catering delivery services. I then switched from fast food to special local products, such as lamb slices from the Xiliin Gol grassland in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and potatoes from Zhangjiakou in Hebei province."
Sun has now taken on the mantle of "Delicious Food Mover for Communities", managing 16 WeChat groups that cover 11 communities in Wangjing area of Beijing, with an average of about 300 people in each group.
Therein lies the trick, for group purchasing power is not to be sniffed at, Sun said. For example, he sold his full inventory of more than 100 free-range chickens from Inner Mongolia within two weeks.
"The online group purchase mode gives small concerns from second－and third-tier cities a chance to enter big markets at low cost, and is also a win-win deal for group purchase managers, customers and local special producers," Sun said.
His WeChat groups helped farmers in Zhangjiakou sell more than 1,000 kilograms of potatoes in the first 10 days or so of November, and by the end of the month that figure is expected to be 3,000 kg.
"Local wholesalers usually pay farmers 0.4 yuan to 0.6 yuan for half a kilogram, and we pay them about 1.2 yuan," Sun said. "They retail at 3 yuan for half a kilogram, compared with the average market price of 7 yuan."
For WeChat group purchase managers, the most attractive thing about the business model is the very low cost, important especially in times such as these.
Sun said he usually opens the group purchase program on work days, with the program counting the number of people who have placed orders. Customers have enough trust in him to pay for goods in advance, and Sun buys the local specialties with those funds and delivers on weekends, meaning there is no capital outlay.
The biggest challenge, Sun said, is to find suppliers of local specialties of very good quality and that are strongly competitive.
In addition to expanding the quality products he offers to group customers, Sun is cultivating his personal account on Douyin, hoping to try livestreaming e-commerce, thus he can combine the offline mode with the online one.
"It's been extremely difficult for me this year, but you have to keep on trying and seizing every opportunity that comes along and go for it. Otherwise the chances for success will drift away."
In these straitened times, livestreaming is a marketing avenue small business owners have latched onto, a method that a recent report by Nielsen said is supported by innovative online channels and the accelerated shift toward online consumption.
The annual value of livestreaming e-commerce is likely to be 961 billion yuan this year, or about 10 percent of all e-commerce in China, the report said, with 265 million users, accounting for 47.3 percent of livestreaming users.
Zhang Chenggang, an associate professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, said that the number of people engaged in new occupations, such as online shop planner and digitization service provider, has rocketed. With a flexible mode, new professions are playing an increasingly important role in creating jobs.
From January to September, 8.98 million new urban jobs were created, almost reaching the annual target of 9 million in this year's Government Work Report. The surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.4 percent in September, compared with the year's target of about 6 percent, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.
Meng Qingwei, deputy director of China Talent Research, said market demand based on technological innovation and social changes are leading to new occupations. Sixteen new occupations have been identified by the China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center, part of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, this year.
Zeng Xiangquan, director of the China Institute for Employment Research at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, said flexible employment, in which employees are not bonded with a particular employer but are free to earn income from multiple employers as matched by a public platform, has great potential.
The internet company Alibaba, for instance, has 110,000 employees but has spawned more than 40 million jobs including online retail vendors and couriers, according to industry figures. The digital cultural platform China Literature has only 1,300 workers but has 8.9 million literature creators.
Economists expect GDP to return to growth in Q2
By LI XIANG | CHINA DAILY |
China's economy may return to the expansion mode from the second quarter after a sharp contraction in the first quarter, and the country's policies will remain supportive for the rest of the year to help the economy advance steadily out of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said.
The country is scheduled to release a set of key economic data this week on second-quarter GDP, trade, investment, industrial production and retail sales.
While the government has abandoned setting a specific growth target for this year, much attention remains focused on the second-quarter GDP growth rate as it will shed light on the outlook for the world's second-largest economy and Beijing's future policy direction.
Most economists expect the country's GDP growth rate to turn positive in the second quarter with some projecting growth as high as 3 percent, a sharp rebound from the 6.8 percent contraction in the previous quarter.
The optimistic views reinforced expectations that China's economic recovery will continue in the coming quarters, driven by further improvement of domestic demand and investment along with continuous policy support in key areas including employment and corporate operations.
Some economists forecast that China's GDP growth could rebound to around 6 percent in the second half of the year and the country may achieve full-year growth of around 2 to 3 percent.
The recent economic data continued to indicate that China's economy is recovering strongly as both the official and private purchasing managers indexes for the manufacturing and services sectors showed strong expansion in June compared with the previous month.
The country's industrial production is expected to continue to edge higher while the contraction in retail sales is expected to narrow to around zero in June from-2.8 percent in May. Growth in fixed-asset investment will remain robust with infrastructure investment expanding at a double-digit rate thanks to abundant government funding, economists said.
"Economic recovery should continue, following the recent rebound in the second quarter. Domestic consumption will likely improve further with continued policy support and the normalization of economic activity," said Wang Tao, chief China economist at Swiss bank UBS.
"We expect policies to remain supportive while the continued recovery lately has reduced incentives for greater stimulus in the short term," Wang said.
The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, said on Friday that it will withdraw its special-time monetary policy after fulfilling the objectives amid the COVID-19 outbreak, but this does not mean a shift in the overall direction of monetary policy or a weakening of support for the economy. The policy outlook will remain prudent and flexible by focusing on providing appropriate funding to support economic growth in the second half of the year, said the PBOC.
Economists warned that the better-than-expected rebound does not mean that China's economic recovery will be plain sailing as headwinds and uncertainties remain in the second half of the year.
Wang Jun, chief economist at Zhongyuan Bank, said that the difficulties facing the country's smaller businesses and low-income families may drag down the economic rebound in the second half of 2020.
Wang said that China's fiscal policy support needs to intensify in the second half of the year to ensure sufficient funding for major projects and the protection of people's basic livelihoods. Meanwhile, monetary policy will be more targeted to help lower funding costs for smaller businesses, as there have been signs of marginal policy fine-tuning by the central bank, he added.
The uncertainties resulting from China-US disputes in trade and the technology sector and the decline of the global economy may also pose risks for China as these factors could hit the country's exports. In addition, the possibility of a re-escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic as the weather cools down in the third and fourth quarters also means that policy easing may step up again, economists said.
"We should not underestimate the destruction caused by the pandemic on the global value chain, and China will need to continue its policy support to shore up demand, expand investment and adjust its export structure to ensure stable growth," said Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the China Association of Policy Sciences' economic policy committee.
US administration's smash and grab of TikTok will not be taken lying down
After vowing to ban the popular short-video sharing app TikTok in the United States on Friday, the White House is reportedly weighing the advantages of allowing Microsoft to purchase its US operations.
Such shilly-shallying is a tactic the US administration employed during the trade deal negotiations with China.
The tactic involves the White House promising punishment for some perceived wrongdoing, followed by indications from other administration officials that the punishment might not be forthcoming. This is followed soon after by some close to the president saying that he intends to make good on his threat, sparking a sharp rise in tensions again. All with the aim of getting what the US administration wants.
So it was par for the course that after the ban on TikTok was proposed and then left hanging, that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the media on Sunday morning that the president "will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party".
Although it is yet to be known how that will work, the message will certainly heighten the concerns of Chinese companies.
As TikTok's experience shows, no matter how unfounded the claims against them are, as long as they remain Chinese companies, they will be presented as being a "Red threat" by the administration. That being said, selling its US operations to Microsoft might be preferable for ByteDance, Tik-Tok's parent company in China, as it is working "for the best outcome". And that being the case, the top US diplomat's comments on Sunday were tantamount to inviting potential US purchasers to participate in an officially sanctioned "steal" of Chinese technology.
Washington is well aware that Beijing will be cautious about retaliating like-for-like as it values foreign investment in China, and the sizable US investment in China is of more importance to the Chinese economy than the much smaller and shrinking Chinese investment is to the US economy.
Also, there is the additional bonus that coercing Chinese companies to divest their US business to US enterprises will not incur job losses.
The US administration's bullying of Chinese tech companies stems from data being the new source of wealth and its zero-sum vision of "American first". With competitiveness now dependent on the ability to collect and use data, it offers an either-or choice of submission or mortal combat in the tech realm. There are no carrots to promote cooperation only sticks.
But China will by no means accept the "theft" of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab.
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Grassland aids nation's green development drive
By YANG WANLI in Beijing and YUAN HUI in Hohhot
Ting Baatar, a herdsman from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, had no reservations when it came to suggesting changes to traditional grazing practices that have helped restore and protect the grassland ecosystem.
Raising sheep used to be the lifeblood of tens of thousands of herdsmen in Saruultuya Gastaa, in Inner Mongolia's Xiliin Gol League, but the animals took a tremendous toll on the environment.
The solution Ting, 65, suggested was switching to raising beef cattle-an industry that now has bright prospects.
During the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, in March 2019, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, participated in a discussion held by deputies from Inner Mongolia.
Xi said the region's environment should be protected firmly and strictly, without any exceptions. He also called for stronger protection efforts in line with the principle of working out measures that suit local conditions.
"We should explore new ways for high-quality development, which prioritize ecological protection and the green economy," Xi said. "More efforts should also be made to protect the ecosystem and guard the beautiful scenery on China's northern border."
Rich resources
China is a country rich in grassland resources. Its natural grasslands, the world's biggest, cover an area of 3.92 million square kilometers-12 percent of the global total-according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
The country's grasslands occupy more than 40 percent of its total land area-even larger than the combined area of farmland and forests, said Liu Jiawen, deputy director of the administration's Grassland Surveillance Center.
However, the grasslands suffered from serious overgrazing, leading to degradation and desertification in the 1980s.
Overgrazing, drought and insufficient protection resulted in severe degradation and desertification in Xiliin Gol League. In Saruultuya Gastaa, 70 percent of the grassland suffered from degradation.
Grassland degradation is a biotic disturbance in which grass struggles to grow or can no longer exist due to factors such as overgrazing, the burrowing of small mammals and climate change, said Gao Wenyuan, a researcher at the Inner Mongolia Grassland Work Station.
"Initially, only patches of grass appear to die and turn brown," he said. "If the condition is not controlled from the beginning, the degradation will soon spread to more land. In some severe cases, the land will be laid bare."
He said a typical case was in neighboring Horqin, long famed for its beautiful grassland landscape but now the country's largest expanse of sandy land, which grew rapidly from 423,104 sq km in 1959 to 611,104 sq km in 1987. Thanks to recent rectification efforts, it now covers 408,000 sq km.
Grazing zone limited
To prevent grassland desertification, China's central government has prohibited grazing in some areas and placed limits on the practice in others.
Action taken by the Inner Mongolia Forestry Department in the early 1980s included limiting areas where grazing was allowed and encouraging the feeding of livestock with fodder.
Ting responded quickly, fencing off about 20 hectares of his grassland in 1986. The next year, the forage on this rested land had almost tripled, and many herding families decided to follow his lead.
But Ting soon realized that this was not a permanent solution.
"Feeding livestock with fodder is very demanding in terms of cost and the labor required," he said. "More importantly, meat from livestock raised on grassland has a reputation for tasting good and being nutritious due to the traditional way of grazing. We needed to figure out new ways that maintained the meat's high quality."
Through practice, Ting noticed that to reduce the pressure on the grassland, villagers first needed to reduce the number of livestock and then raise more beef cattle, whose grazing causes less damage than sheep because they do not crop the grass as closely.
"The profit from selling a steer was also almost five times higher than for a sheep," he said.
He sold all 400 of his sheep and switched to beef cattle. He also successfully developed tourism and the dairy and beef-processing industries to boost the local economy, which, in turn, encouraged more people to follow in his footsteps.
Nearly 80 percent of the herdsmen in Saruultuya Gastaa now raise beef cattle. When Ting retired as the village's Party secretary in 2015, its annual per capita income had risen to 18,000 yuan ($2,560)-up from barely 40 yuan two decades before.
In 2016, almost half the land in Xiliin Gol League was covered by vegetation, more than double the amount just 15 years earlier.
Concerted efforts
Action to protect grassland has spread nationwide. Since 2011, a total of 13 provinces and autonomous regions have implemented preferential policies to give subsidies to herdsmen who stop raising livestock on grassland and have placed limits on grazing areas.
Between 2013 and 2017, more than 82,000 cases of illegal use of grassland and illegal grazing were handled nationwide. The number of grassland rangers has also continued to rise, hitting 200,000 by the end of 2017, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Free training in various skills has been provided by governments to encourage herdsmen to make money by tapping the green economy, such as eco-friendly tourism or the planting of lucrative herbs.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, ecological civilization has been listed as one of China's five major goals in its drive to become a moderately well-off society by 2020.
At the National Conference on Environmental Protection in 2018, Xi emphasized that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
"China must pursue the vision of innovative, coordinated, green and open development that is for everyone, accelerate forming spatial patterns, industrial structures, production and living modes that are resource-saving and environmentally friendly, and provide time and space for the natural ecology to rehabilitate," he said.
At this year's third session of the 13th NPC, China's top legislature, Xi again took part in a meeting with fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia, and attached great importance to a strategic focus on ecological civilization and a green development road with ecological protection as the priority. He also called for resolve in the fight to protect blue skies, clear waters and pure land.
"President Xi's remarks this year guide us again as to our future development road," said Chen Liang, an NPC deputy from Inner Mongolia.
Chen, deputy head of the forestry department in Inner Mongolia's Hinggan League, said strict regulations have been implemented to prevent the improper use of local grassland.
Since July last year, he has been working in the league's village of Baiyin, encouraging farmers to grow oats and alfalfa, which he called an example of a green agricultural economy that brings both stable incomes and a better environment.
"Compared with traditional agricultural plants such as corn, which will cause environmental pollution, oats and alfalfa are much easier to grow," he said. "Moreover, oats and alfalfa can help to improve soil stability."
Bearing fruit
The environment of Inner Mongolia's grasslands has improved significantly in recent years, thanks to a number of ecological projects and measures including controlling grazing and returning farmland to grassland and forest.
Home to 880,000 sq km of grassland, nearly a quarter of the country's total, Inner Mongolia has stepped up efforts to enhance grassland protection, with the average vegetation coverage of its pastures rising to 44 percent in 2018 from 30 percent in 2000, according to a report by the regional government last year.
Grazing has been banned on 680,000 sq km of grassland, and the area of land planted with grass has risen to 20,000 sq km, up from 5,233 sq km in 1980, said Mu Yuan, head of the regional forestry and grassland administration.
The autonomous region's beautiful natural scenery and improvements to its environment are attracting an increasing number of tourists, making local people more enthusiastic about protecting its grassland.
Statistics from the region's tourism department show that more than 195 million tourists visited Inner Mongolia in 2019, bringing in a total income of 465 billion yuan, up 12 percent year-on-year.
"In past decades, Inner Mongolia has witnessed a green miracle," Mu said. "In the future, we will conduct strict surveillance of the grassland via satellite remote sensing technology."
He said the forestry department will also promote the use of technology in restoring grassland and help other regions-at home and abroad-fight desertification, making the world a greener place.
"More innovative ways will be encouraged to control the sands for a better ecological system," Mu said. "We will also support cooperation between organizations in Inner Mongolia and other regions."
代表作2：
原文：
Eco-reform aids green initiative
By LI LEI in Arxan, Inner Mongolia and ZHOU HUIYING in Harbin
After logging ban, workers become rangers tapping potential of forest resources
Six years ago, a door slammed shut for Sun Xueshui and tens of thousands of other loggers and timber mill workers in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province.
For generations, they and their ancestors had felled and processed trees for meager wages among the Greater Hinggan Mountains in the forest-rich province, a stronghold of China's sprawling network of State-owned forest farms.
However, the province banned commercial logging in natural forests in 2014 in an attempt to find a greener path for forest farms, which include both natural forests and plantations.
Shortly after the ban was introduced, the Qianshao Forest Farm, Sun's employer, opened another door for its workers.
It refrained from sacking them, despite the massive loss of timber revenue, and instead shifted Sun and his colleagues to new posts on lower salaries as forest rangers patrolling for forest fires and pests.
To make up for the shortfall, the farm allowed staff members to start businesses as a sideline, hoping they would receive a financial boost by tapping other forest resources in an environmentally friendly way.
For Sun, this was through collecting and processing wild mushrooms, which are abundant in the region, as he sought to profit from the nation's growing enthusiasm for organic food.
But as the supply of wild mushrooms was constrained by seasonal factors, Sun then saw a business opportunity in the mountain springs that flow freely in the forests. In 2018, he set up a distillery that makes baijiu－a Chinese liquor－at a small facility offered by the farm free of charge. Sun said that he uses spring water and rice, a local specialty, as raw materials, unlike local competitors who commonly use corn.
His brainchild is now a lucrative business and the expansion of the distillery last year lifted its annual production capacity to 10,000 liters.
"We're planning to hire more hands," said Sun, 46, who started working as a lumberjack in 1990."We'll first consider my fellow workers at the farm who have been in financial difficulties."
In addition to the distillery, the farm built 140 greenhouses for growing edible mushrooms, hiring about 150 former lumberjacks. Wei Ranbao, a farm official overseeing the project, said the greenhouses had raised farm employees' per capita income by some 3,400 yuan ($492) a year in 2014. They now earn about 50,000 yuan a year.
The successes at Qianshao have set an example for more than 4,800 State-owned forest farms scattered across China as they attempt to shift their focus from the exploitation of forests' timber resources to their preservation, in line with government policies.
They also showcase the potential for forest resources to be used in greener ways, in line with the maxim "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", which was put forward by President Xi Jinping in 2005, when he was Party secretary of Zhejiang province.
The forest farm reforms that started in Heilongjiang six years ago are part of a broader effort by the central authorities to revitalize the economies of former heavy industrial bases in northern and northeastern provinces that have lost steam due to the gradual depletion of oil deposits and other natural resources.
During a 2016 visit to Yichun, an area of dense forests in Heilongjiang, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed the significance of environmental protection and demanded concerted efforts to establish new industries other than logging.
In Beijing last year, he told legislators from northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region that strategic resolve was needed when it came to building an eco-friendly economy. He described the protection of the country's environment as being embedded in China's overall development strategy, and highlighted its particular relevance to the development of Inner Mongolia.
The forest farm reforms are also considered a crucial move in bolstering the ecological security of border regions as the country ramps up efforts to conserve its environment and build a "beautiful China", an idea first put forward in late 2012.
At a forest farm in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, last year, Xi said that building an ecological security barrier in northern China was a strategic task. While visiting an afforestation area in the northwestern province of Gansu last year, he called for a spirit of perseverance and sustained efforts in building a beautiful China.
Building an ecological civilization is a major task for China as it has grown prosperous and is becoming strong, Xi said, calling for a solid "Green Great Wall" to protect the environment.
Ecological barrier
To meet the demand for timber as the newly founded People's Republic of China embarked on an industrialization drive, the CPC looked to the lush Greater Hinggan Mountains for answers in the 1950s.
Armies of urban youth, soldiers, workers and officials were deployed to the region in the following decades to bolster the production of timber－crucial to the construction of railways and other infrastructure in the then largely rural country. Many settled down, forming new cities.
The massive project fueled China's rapid industrialization by providing more than 200 million cubic meters of timber and tens of billions of yuan in tax revenue by 2015, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing local authorities.
However, decades of unchecked human activity damaged vast swaths of formerly virgin forests and wetlands in the area, which serve as an ecological barrier against cold air sweeping down from Siberia and dry winds blowing from the Mongolian plateau. The region is also home to the headwaters of several important rivers, including the Heilong River, the country's third-longest, on the border with Russia.
The damage reached a crescendo in 1987, when a fire believed to have been caused by a careless worker destroyed more than 10,000 square kilometers of forest among the rolling mountains and killed hundreds of people. Direct economic losses were calculated at 500 million yuan.
The fire, and deadly floods that wreaked havoc in the Yangtze River and Songhua River basins in 1998, shone a spotlight on the ecological cost of China's decadeslong forest development plans and prompted the authorities to take action.
In 1998, China launched the Natural Forest Preservation Project in a dozen regions including Heilongjiang and neighboring Jilin province. It was later expanded nationwide, leading to a considerable reduction in logging in natural forest zones.
The following year, the central authorities introduced another multibillion-yuan program to return cropland to forest and grassland. Costing 500 billion yuan up to last year－two-and-a-half times as much as the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project－the ongoing program is the world's most expensive ecological project, the then head of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Zhang Jianlong, said last year at a news conference marking its 20th anniversary.
The push for greener development was reinforced in 2012, when the Party added environmental preservation to its blueprint for the overall construction of a socialist society. It had previously listed four sectors: the economy, politics, culture and civil society.
The programs will reap benefits in the decades to come, cementing the nation's ambition to raise forest coverage to 26 percent by 2035, and catch up with the global average of 31 percent by the middle of the century.
The total area of China's forests increased by almost 130,000 sq km between 2014 and 2018, according to the ninth survey of national forest resources published last year. That has boosted China's forest coverage rate to 22.96 percent, 1.33 percentage points higher than in 2014.
According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, China had the world's best average annual net gain in forest area in the past decade at 19,370 sq km.
In 2017, an afforestation project in Saihanba, Hebei province, won the UN Environment Program's Champions of the Earth award. The area used to be a lush imperial hunting ground, but turned into a sprawling desert due to decades of excessive logging, fueling sandstorms across North China. The restoration project, which started in the 1960s, eventually turned the desert into a national forest park.
Lumberjack homestays
Heilongjiang's timber output peaked at 15.7 million cubic meters in 1978, but plummeted to 894,000 cubic meters in 2013, before the ban on commercial logging in natural forests was introduced.
The ban was extended nationwide in 2015, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said the timber output from major forest farms across China dropped by an annual average of 3.73 million cubic meters in the three years to the end of 2017.
The extension of the ban saw more forest farms roll out aid to employees as they put down their chain saws and picked up other trades.
One such employee was Gu Changyun, from a picturesque logging town in Arxan, Inner Mongolia, which lies to the southwest of the Greater Hinggan Mountains.
Born into a lumberjack family, Gu joined the local forest farm in 1990. As the logging mainly took place in the coldest months－when the soil is frozen solid, making it easier to drag out felled trees－she has chronic rheumatism.
"We would depart in the early hours and return home in darkness," said Gu, 48, a widow whose 26-year-old son is a migrant worker in southwestern China's Sichuan province.
"We would take steamed buns for meals, and put them close to the skin to keep them warm."
In recent years, local authorities developed workshops that make tourism souvenirs using birch bark. Gu was among the 45 impoverished workers to benefit. She joined the project two years ago, and now earns 2,000 yuan a month.
Some of her neighbors became self-taught tour guides after the local government built lumberjack-themed homestays reminiscent of life in the area in the 1950s.
Han Zhongyong, who oversees the project, said it had boosted the construction of roads and water, heating and drainage infrastructure.
To make up for the shortfall in timber output, China launched an initiative in 2018 to increase the number of plantations to boost usable timber reserves.
Six regions have been designated for the development of timber reserve forests, including coastal regions in southeastern China, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said in a circular issued four years ago.
代表作3：
原文：
Vision turning lucid waters into reality
By LI HONGYANG in Dali, Yunnan, and LI YINGQING in Kunming
Environmental improvements at lakes demonstrate green path of development
The nine biggest lakes in Yunnan province sit like two strings of pearls on the red earth plateau of Southwest China.
The lakes, each with an area of more than 30 square kilometers, have a vital role to play in several respects, including preventing floods, providing drinking water and irrigation for farming, and attracting tourists.
However, in the 1980s, economic development started to pollute the lakes. That prompted local governments to switch from focusing on development at all costs to treatment at all costs.
Erhai Lake, the second-largest of the lakes and a popular scenic spot, has made progress in treating pollution and has become a role model for the others.
The lake remains a popular destination for city dwellers looking for a taste of the pastoral life. But while the surge in visitors and settlers brought prosperity to the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, which sits on its shores, the lake gradually lost its luster.
The large numbers of tourists and migrants who came to Erhai led to increased demand in many sectors, but the farms, property developments and hotels that catered to their needs discharged pollutants into the lake.
For the local government, cleaning up the water meant curtailing or suspending those industries and forgoing lucrative sources of tax revenue.
President Xi Jinping has always attached great importance to the protection and improvement of the country's water system, as well as the balance between economic development and environmental protection.
In 2015, during an inspection tour of Yunnan, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited Erhai and called on residents and the local government to protect it.
During his tour, Xi had a photo taken with local officials beside the lake and said he hoped its water quality would be improved when he made his next visit.
In 2017, Yunnan announced a series of measures, including bans on hotels and crops that used too much fertilizer, to protect Erhai from agricultural － and tourist-related runoff.
The policy led to a sudden deceleration of the fast-growing economy around the lake and caught many people unprepared.
But the improvement in the water quality two years later showed the people of Dali a greener path to development and their concerns eased.
Zhang Furong, a former innkeeper in Dali, was told in 2018 that his 1,300-square-meter hotel would have to be demolished because it was located within 100 meters of the lake's shore, in an area reserved for a protection zone.
The 45-year-old spent about 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) to build the hotel in 2014 and he received 6 million yuan in compensation from the government when it was demolished.
"At that time, we innkeepers didn't understand it and refused to sign the contracts agreeing to demolition," he said. "We were worried about our future. I was the first to accept it because I knew the government would protect Erhai Lake and there was no need to oppose it."
Ecological park
The ear-shaped lake lies parallel to Cangshan Mountain and 18 streams from the mountain flow into it. Due to the pleasant weather all year round, a constant stream of tourists visit Dali.
On the lake's eastern shoreline, people can view the beautiful scenery of both the lake and the mountain, with dramatic clouds reflected in the water.
From 2011 to 2016, the number of tourists visiting Dali annually increased from about 15 million to 39 million, making the area increasingly crowded and polluted.
The local government said the rapid but disorderly development of the booming tourism industry gave the lake no chance to rest or recover, and the infrastructure needed to protect it, such as sewage treatment facilities, was not in place.
In 2018, the government announced that 1,806 households or homestay hotels needed to be demolished to transform the lakeside into an ecological park.
Meanwhile, all the ongoing construction projects on Erhai Lake's eastern shore were ordered to stop.
The government's actions had an immediate effect on the number of tourists visiting Erhai and Cangshan Mountain, which fell to 19.8 million in 2018, down 3.6 percent from 2016, even though tourist visits to the prefecture rose by 20 percent to 47 million.
Zhang, the innkeeper, said he was positive about his future and Dali's.
"I have restarted my business outside the protection zone," he said. "Everything will be fine and back on track. The water quality of Erhai Lake is becoming better and tourists will be attracted back so that our business will boom again."
China has 2,865 lakes that cover at least 1 sq km, and Zheng Binghui, a water environmentalist at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, said about one-third of grain production took place in the country's lake basins, along with similar amounts of industrial and overall agricultural production.
"From the 1990s, lakes that had been severely polluted by discharges and disturbed by human activities lost their chemical balance and suffered from aquatic bloom outbreaks, which had a serious impact on drinking water safety and the lake ecosystems," Zheng wrote in Democracy and Science magazine in 2018.
Tech-focused response
Since 1998, the country's top environmental watchdog has been reporting annually on the water quality of China's three most polluted major lakes－Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu. For more than a decade they were rated below Grade V, the lowest level in the nation's five-tier water quality grading system.
In 2007, the central government launched a technology-focused response to water pollution in the three lakes, as well as Erhai and the Three Gorges Reservoir.
Production processes in key industries such as printing, dyeing and food manufacturing near Taihu Lake, in Jiangsu province, were reviewed to ensure that discharges and emissions met standards. About 405 kilometers of lake shoreline has also been restored as an ecological belt that serves as a buffer zone to protect Taihu from pollution.
In 2016, Taihu Lake became the first of the three major lakes to have no water rated below Grade V and last year more than 90 percent of its water reached Grade II or III, according to an annual report published by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
In Dali, government efforts to curb pollution have also paid off.
For seven months of last year, the water quality of Erhai Lake was Grade II－classified as high－a month longer than in 2017, the local government said.
In the Dianchi Lake Basin in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, industrial enterprises have retreated from the lake area to minimize pollution.
Last year, one-third of the water in Dianchi Lake was rated Grade II, whereas none met that quality standard in 2018.
During a visit to a wetland at the northern end of Dianchi Lake in January this year, President Xi reiterated the importance of ecological civilization and green development.
People's support
In 2018, China appointed 24,000 lake chiefs to help protect their ecosystems, in the same way that its river chiefs protect rivers.
Lake chiefs supervise aquatic resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and environmental restoration. Their performance is assessed and they are held accountable for environmental damage.
Chen Jian, Party secretary of the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, told China Daily in August that he attributed the effectiveness of pollution treatment at Erhai to the area's residents. He said that without their support, the government could not continue its work.
"At the beginning, most of them didn't support the bans," Chen said. "After we explained the importance and necessity of protecting Erhai Lake and talked with them about the pollution they generated, they changed their attitude from resistance to understanding."
Zhang Bo, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Department of Water Ecology and Environment, said at a news conference in February last year that despite recent progress, it still took longer to restore a lake than a river, where the flow of water was faster.
代表作1：
原文：
Poverty fight grounded in success
Renowned China expert lays out country's impressive efforts, grassroots focus in taking on monumental challenge
Editor's note:As China aims to eliminate extreme poverty and be a "moderately prosperous society" (xiaokang shehui) in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year, we talk to leading experts for their take on the country's commitment.
By Alexis Hooi
Located in some of the poorest areas across the country, the communities are the focus of targeted, antipoverty measures suited to their specific conditions.
For renowned China expert Robert Lawrence Kuhn, there is actually an invaluable element that is common among the impoverished beneficiaries of the national drive to improve their lives.
"Every single poor family has its own customized file. It is a notebook. And each one has a page with all the family members listed. It has the plan that they are trying to achieve, the plan how they will get out of poverty," Kuhn said.
"Every month there is an entry about how they are doing. What are their problems? Every poor family in the country has someone responsible for them. The information is all taken and digitized and sent to Beijing. A central office compiles all that data."
"At the grassroots level, each village has one individual responsible for knowing every single poor family in that village－normally it is a young Party secretary assigned there. Each family has its own targeted plan," he said.
"That's what targeted poverty alleviation means. I had understood that. But when I actually saw the piles of books representing every family, in several different villages, it made a strong impression on me."
For more than three decades, Kuhn has worked with China's leaders and advised the Chinese government on the country's development. In December 2018, he was awarded the "China Reform Friendship Medal" by President Xi Jinping and Chinese leaders, on the 40th anniversary of China's historic reform and opening-up.
Kuhn has written over 30 books and his expertise is also widely presented through international media organizations. Most recently, in his major work communicating the story of China, Kuhn has been asked to focus on China's poverty alleviation campaign. It has been a monumental challenge that China has risen up to, he said.
"China's poverty alleviation campaign is one of the most remarkable stories of modern times in the broadest sense, not just for poverty alleviation itself, but also in terms of the advancement of human civilization. The story really needs to be appreciated more, certainly in the West, but also in China," Kuhn said.
In one of his latest projects, Kuhn is the host and writer of Voices from the Frontline: China's War on Poverty, the first in-depth documentary of its kind about China's poverty alleviation drive to be broadcast abroad, showcasing the country's strategies and structures in eradicating extreme poverty. The film was directed by Peter Getzels and executive produced by Adam Zhu.
Production took two years and the film crew visited poor households in six areas－Guizhou, Gansu, Shanxi, Sichuan and Hainan provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Kuhn and his team interviewed government officials at the central, provincial, city, county, township and village levels, recording a large quantity of firsthand information.
Other than the targeted, customized plan of each family to lift them out of absolute poverty, Kuhn said another impressive aspect of the poverty alleviation effort was how the local officials are "dispatched to impoverished villages to manage poverty alleviation, often for two years. Moreover, Party officials at the front lines in fighting poverty cannot leave their current post and cannot be promoted unless and until they fulfill their specific, numeric, poverty-alleviation goals. We watched local officials being held accountable, their careers at stake".
"Those individuals were Party or government officials who were on their way up in their career. They were generally in their early 30s or late 20s even," he said.
"Some of these individuals had good, up-and-coming jobs in the provincial capital, or the major cities, working in government. And now they're working in the poorest areas.
"This was not like a career detour. They were on their optimum career path.
"Because in the Chinese system, that grassroots experience is exceedingly important. It will actually help their careers and help their promotion opportunities. When you build this type of motivational behavior into the system, the system itself sends the message to those people who want to advance their career that this is how you do it－this is the shortest path for your career advancement: work at the grassroots level, learn how poverty is being alleviated," Kuhn said.
"I met one official, for example; he had worked in a provincial capital, in water resources, as maybe a deputy division head. He went to this village where he focused on building a sewage and water system for that village of some 200 families or so, most of whom were poor. He took the task as a matter of not just a goal to achieve, but also as a matter of pride, that he was going to improve their lives and he was going to make this happen under his watch," he said.
"These assignments became a badge of honor and a mechanism for career advancement. As noted, these administrative behavioral structures motivate officials to work toward objectives set by the Chinese government. As such, to understand how it works in China may be helpful for other countries, other cultures, so they may discern how to adapt China's poverty alleviation system to their own conditions and cultures."
Kuhn said his experience on the ground "led to insights about how China's extraordinary poverty-alleviation program actually works".
"Although poverty is being fought the world over, there is nothing anywhere like China's relocation of whole villages on a massive, national scale－moving people from remote rural areas to cities and suburban areas, providing homes and jobs, giving them a real chance at a better life," he said.
Kuhn cited one trip to Huishui county in Guizhou province, where whole villages were being relocated from remote mountain hamlets to a new community 70 km away.
"I learned that housing is free for villagers who relocate here. A family of four receives up to 80 square meters of living space, 20 per person. The government also covers all basic amenities, including sofas, beds, kitchenware, and TVs," he said.
"But how can these rural men, who were farmers, learn new, non-farming jobs? I joined a cooking class and got to know one of the former farmers, who was learning to be a chef. I spent time with three generations of his family and several of his friends. Almost everyone was appreciative of their new lives," Kuhn said.
"But not everyone," Kuhn added; "that would be unrealistic. One recently relocated villager told me that the government misrepresented how much income he and his family would get, but it was too late to return to the village because their homes had been demolished as soon as they agreed to be relocated."
"Moreover, not everyone from the villages agrees to move to the new communities. After all, the farms have been their lives for generations. I traveled to Daijing village to meet the Party secretary. His job was to convince the few remaining villagers to relocate. It is policy that neither he nor the government can force people to relocate."
Kuhn stressed the importance of confronting corruption in poverty alleviation work.
"In such a massive country, with such large flows of funds, and with officials' careers on the line, there is risk of abuse and manipulation. While cheating and stealing in poverty alleviation are not unexpected, it is especially unseemly," he said.
"With career stakes high and funding vast, cheating and stealing are no surprise. Of the 122,100 cases of corruption in China in 2017, 48,700－more than one-third－related to poverty alleviation work," Kuhn said.
"I applaud the government in releasing these unflattering statistics! China will not allow falsifying data, or misappropriating funds, to undermine its poverty alleviation goals," he said.
Another impressive feature of poverty alleviation was the system put in place to stem fraud, called "third-party evaluation", Kuhn said.
"The governing idea is that since the independent evaluators would be coming from completely different regions, they would not likely know any of the officials whom they would be evaluating and thus not be swayed by personal relationships.
"The task is to evaluate both the successes and the challenges of the poverty alleviation process－and to assess how officials were doing their jobs," he said.
"To ensure that the local officials do not prepare for inspection visits, the evaluation team decides where they will go only at the last minute, often the same morning of the inspection.
"When officials are pressured to meet their firm objectives in a compressed period of time, some may cut corners or fudge numbers," Kuhn said.
"I commend the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development for its independent checking and inspecting, avowing that if there is any false reports or fraud, officials will be held accountable and dealt with seriously, so that the results of poverty alleviation can stand the test of history and the people. The greater the transparency of government, the greater the confidence in government," he said.
"Between 2015 and 2019, all across China, almost 3 million Party officials were working on the front lines of rural poverty alleviation (that's cumulative－some 750,000 at any given time). Officials know that their careers prosper or falter based on their poverty-alleviation results."
The feats achieved so far in China's fight against poverty are essential steps toward fulfilling the country's stated aim to be a "moderately prosperous society" in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year, Kuhn said.
"After all, how could China claim to be a moderately prosperous society if any of its citizens continued to live in absolute, extreme or abject poverty? No matter how large China's GDP, no matter how large China's income per capita, China could not claim to have achieved this goal unless and until every citizen was living above the line of absolute poverty," he said.
"Today, in the Western world, especially in the US, there is concern about China's actions and suspicion of China's motives. While all political systems have trade-offs, poverty alleviation, to me, is the best disrupter of such stereotypes," he said.
China was on track to meet its target of eradicating extreme poverty in rural areas and eliminating regional poverty by 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic struck and some may question whether it can still achieve its goal, Kuhn said.
"During an inspection tour in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, President Xi urged enhanced efforts to overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and ensure that the country does achieve its original poverty-alleviation goals in 2020," he said.
Again, Kuhn's latest work on the ground helped him to experience "firsthand the impact of President Xi's remarkable statement: 'I have spent more energy on poverty alleviation than on anything else.'"
Still, China's targeted poverty alleviation drive faced or faces at least four challenges, Kuhn said.
"First, is the data reliable? There is an obvious conflict if the same officials who do the poverty alleviation remediation work also do the poverty alleviation assessment work. As noted, I've seen independent auditors, often unannounced, checking and spot-checking－but I still hear talk that some data is suspect, because local officials are under such great pressure. That's why central authorities have become even more committed to independent checks, punishing officials convicted of fraud," he said.
"Second, there is natural conflict between officials who want to bring people out of poverty, in order to benefit their careers, and village people who want to remain classified as poor, in order to maximize their subsidies. These are normal human motivations and individual cases often test the wisdom of officials.
"Third, what's to prevent those who are pushed just over the line of extreme poverty, after the excitement dies down, after 2020, from falling back down below it? For China's poverty reduction to be counted a true success, it must be sustainable," Kuhn said.
"Fourth, living barely over the line of extreme poverty, far below standards of living enjoyed by China's urban middle class, hardly makes for a society of common prosperity, China's long-term goal. The fight against poverty cannot end in 2020," he said.
"To truly eliminate all poverty in China, and to do it sustainably, poverty alleviation programs must continue to be an ongoing process and an ongoing priority in China. It is, indeed, a Long March."
代表作2：
原文：
Dispatching problem of poverty has made world a much better placeSuccess of eradication drive lauded as an extraordinary achievement
Editor's note: As China aims to eliminate extreme poverty and be a "moderately prosperous society" (xiaokang shehui) in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year, we talk to leading experts for their take on the country's commitment.
By Andrew Moody
Ian Goldin insists that without China achieving a moderately prosperous society the world would be a lot poorer.
The professor of globalization and development at Oxford University said important targets such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals would be missed and people across the globe, not just in China, would be in a much worse place.
"When you look at the global statistics of poverty reduction, much of what has been achieved has been driven by China," he said.
Goldin, a former economic adviser to the late South African president Nelson Mandela, says the scale of China's achievement in delivering 850 million out of poverty in a little more than 40 years is not widely acknowledged in the West. The world's second-largest economy is set to achieve xiaokang and become a moderately prosperous society in time for the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China next year.
"It is the most rapid poverty reduction by far of any country ever in history," he said. "It is an extraordinary achievement. When you look at the global statistics of poverty, a large part of the progress globally is driven by China. If it had not been for China we'd be far off target in achieving all the UN goals."
Goldin, speaking from Oxford during the UK coronavirus lockdown, looks in his latest book Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years at the important role China has played in global efforts to reduce poverty.
China is right to give priority to eliminating extreme poverty in its own country by the end of this year, he said that poverty is still a massive problem worldwide.
The 65-year-old South African points to World Bank figures showing that 2 billion people live in poverty globally, and in 2015 about 736 million were in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 a day.
Massive issue
"It is a massive issue. Poverty is widespread and it is perhaps the most significant global issue of our age."
The coronavirus pandemic could result in many more people being pushed into poverty because many developing countries have weak health systems and nonexistent social safety nets, he said. A World Bank report in June forecast that up to 100 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty.
"The pandemic is going to greatly exacerbate an already bad situation. It is going to throw hundreds of millions of people back into poverty and many into extreme poverty and starvation."
For Goldin, this does not come as a surprise, given that he forecast a pandemic in his 2014 book The Butterfly Defect: How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, and What to Do about It.
"This has been a disaster waiting to happen for a long time. It was merely a question of where and when it would start."
Goldin, who is a frequent visitor to China and a regular speaker at the China Development Forum, an event held in Beijing each spring, and which attracts experts and thinkers from around the world, is impressed by President Xi Jinping's ideas on poverty.
Xi, in fact, has made poverty eradication a mission since he was Party chief of Ningde city in Fujian province in the late 1980s. In his book Up and Out of Poverty he sets out four important principles for tackling it: avoiding a poverty mentality (if you believe you are poor, you will be); adopting development measures appropriate to local conditions; strong leadership and coordination; and not wasting money on grandiose projects just because they may be popular.
"These are all very important but he is right to stress avoiding a poverty mentality," Goldin said.
"If you believe you are simply condemned to be poor by virtue of your birth and your circumstances, you will not strive to escape.
"Neither government nor society will feel it is their responsibility to act if they think that some people are just destined to be poor. They will not see it as their absolute responsibility to eliminate that."
Goldin also said Xi is right to emphasize that poverty alleviation strategies need to be aligned to local conditions, which Western policy makers have often disregarded at huge cost.
"There has been this cookie-cutter view of it in the West where a particular development model was dreamed up in Washington or by colonial rulers and it was to be applied everywhere. It proved a disaster.
"Africa is littered with the carcasses of development projects which at some point were regarded as a panacea."
Goldin said good governance and coordination as has been demonstrated by Xi and others in China is vital to alleviating poverty.
"Coordination is certainly vital. There is no point in building a school if you don't have teachers for it, or a hospital if you don't have nurses, doctors or equipment.
"You need coordination across the country too. You can't have provinces which are extremely wealthy because they are easy to access from the capital, and others which are more remote and find they are left behind because no one comes and opens projects there."
Goldin, who studied at the University of Cape Town and also has a degree from the London School of Economics and a doctorate from Oxford University, has had a high-profile career as a professional economist and academic. He has also served on the boards of a number of leading international companies, including Old Mutual, the Pan-African investment and banking institution.
Sustainable development
He came to prominence as principal economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and as program director at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he was engaged on sustainable development.
In 1996, he became chief executive and managing director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and it was in his five years there that he worked for Mandela. He was also director of development policy at the World Bank from 2001 to 2003 and then its vice president from 2003 to 2006.
He is best known at Oxford as founding director between 2006 and 2016 of the Oxford Martin School, which brought together the university's expertise in critical global challenges, including climate change and development issues.
Apart from The Butterfly Effect and his latest work, Goldin has written a number of influential books, including Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future and, with Chris Kutarna, Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance, which present an optimistic view of the world's development.
Goldin said the current pandemic has the potential to halt global progress and that there needs to be concerted action on the scale of a new Marshall Plan to ensure that developing nations, in particular, do not suffer too much from the crisis.
"What we need is a massive global response from the G20, the G7, the World Bank and other institutions.
"What we have is a very tepid and fragmented reaction, and that's partly, of course, because of the US not providing any leadership role. It is not only the US. Other countries have not stepped up to the scale of this challenge."
Positive outcomes
Goldin hopes one of the more positive outcomes of the pandemic will be the rejection of nationalism and protectionism and an acceptance that globalization is the only solution to the world's problems.
"Globalization is absolutely essential. Without it there will be no progress in the world, there will be no poverty reduction, there will be no vaccines to stop pandemics, there will be no coordination to stop climate change or antibiotic resistance or other threats we face.
"There will be no sharing of technologies, or investment of market opportunities to help people escape poverty."
Globalization has played a major part in China achieving xiaokang and eliminating extreme poverty, he said.
"China's progress has been absolutely associated with its opening up, and it has been a big beneficiary of globalization, but it's also been a contributor to it.
"China in many senses has sustained the global economy, and it's been the strongest locomotive by far to the global economy since the financial crisis, and probably will be after this one."
With his background in development issues in Africa, Goldin is aware of the extent to which African countries look to China as a role model in the way it has become a moderately prosperous society and tackled poverty.
China has forged strong links with Africa in recent years through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as well as major investment in and trade with the continent.
"What Africans see in China is a multidimensional strategy to reduce poverty which focuses on industrialization, urbanization, rural development and priority given to child development and education.
"It is this comprehensive strategy that they would like to emulate. The question though has to be whether they have the government capacity and financial capability to achieve what China has achieved."
While China has demonstrated not just to African but other developing countries is that the journey is possible, he said.
"China has shown that an extremely poor country can become an upper-middle income country over a relatively short period of time and with very little external assistance."
Goldin said that although China is about to eliminate extreme poverty, poverty levels are rising in a number of developed countries.
"You see the queues for food banks in the US, where there are now people in dire poverty. You have increased homelessness with people living on the streets.
"Rich countries too don't have adequate social safety nets, and people face extreme hardship. This is a world of rising inequality where a handful of billionaires have the same amount of wealth as half of the world's population."
Goldin rejects any notion that China has become rich on the back of countries such as the US, as some prominent politicians now argue.
"The reality is that the US economy is much stronger and has much higher levels of employment and growth because China is stronger and has higher growth.
"The US, in fact, would not be what it is today if China was still where it was in the late 1970s before it opened up. The idea that somehow China's success has been at the expense of the US is a complete misunderstanding as to how all this works. It is not a zero-sum game."
代表作3：
原文：
To improve lives, the details count
China's targeted anti-poverty strategy can help policymakers elsewhere, World Bank official says
Editor's note: As China aims to eliminate extreme poverty and be a "moderately prosperous society" (xiaokang shehui) in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China next year, we talk to experts for their take on the country's commitment.
By Zhao Huanxin in Washington
China's reform and opening-up and its targeted interventions in reducing poverty are among the lessons that can be learned and disseminated among developing countries, which would also benefit from Beijing's new growth pattern that centers on an increased domestic market, the World Bank's China chief, Martin Raiser, says.
"Many lessons can be learned from China's sustained gains in poverty-reduction over the past 40 years," said Raiser, country director for China and Mongolia for the bank, a 189-member lender that gives priority to ending extreme poverty and promoting common prosperity.
Among the high-level lessons, Raiser highlighted the country's starting of its reform and opening-up four decades ago, which enabled it to reap "huge gains" in efficiency that drove an increase in incomes for all Chinese.
"The second lesson is that while reforms and allowing market forces to play a growing role in the economy were a big part of China's success, more targeted interventions became necessary, focusing in particular on the concentration of poverty in rural areas," Raiser said.
Raiser joined the World Bank in 2003 and was posted to Beijing in March last year. He was well aware of how China's massive poverty-relief drive had proceeded before his posting.
One of the "big things" that happened in the early 2000s was that China started building up a database of up to 150,000 villages, determined to be poverty-stricken places, and then policy was directed to help those particular areas, he said.
"Over time it became increasingly clear that poverty is no longer a place-related affliction, but it has a lot to do with personal household characteristics, and so from monitoring places you have to move to monitoring households," he told China Central Television on Oct 27.
"I think China clearly demonstrates that economic growth, and in particular the kind of economic growth that China was able to generate, is the key contributor to poverty-reduction in the first three decades."
Then over the past decade and particularly after 2013, the targeted social policies covered "the last mile" of the poverty-alleviation course, he said.
Initial concept
Targeted poverty-alleviation, a concept first raised by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 during a visit to a village in Hunan province, was adopted as a strategy by the government in 2014 to "ensure that assistance reaches poverty-stricken villages and households".
The policy, which requires tailoring relief measures to different local conditions, was included in the first-ever resolution addressing poverty-eradication in rural areas, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018.
Between 2012 and 2019, China lifted at least 93 million rural residents out of poverty, or more than 10 million people annually, seven years in a row, according to official figures.
The proportion of poverty in rural regions had shrunk from 10.2 percent to 0.6 percent in the period.
But to better understand targeted interventions and assess the efficiency of the substantial rise in public spending in this area over the past decade, detailed microeconomic and fiscal data or case-study analysis is required, Raiser said.
"Clearly this will remain an issue of keen interest for development specialists, and we hope China will collaborate proactively with international researchers to ensure these lessons are learned and disseminated."
As China and the World Bank Group, or WBG, celebrate the 40th anniversary of their partnership this year, Raiser noted that exchanging knowledge rather than financing has become increasingly important to the relationship.
"In addition to us engaging with China's policymakers on critical policy choices, such as in the context of the upcoming 14th FYP(Five-Year Plan for 2021-25), this also includes the WBG learning from China's own development experiences and partnering with China to share this with other developing countries."
While in the past, many less-developed countries benefited from China's rapid, investment-driven growth as commodity exporters, such a growth model is running out of steam in China, which will need to rely more on domestic consumption to sustain growth, Raiser said.
"Such a shift could also create important opportunities for poor countries who could export labor-intensive goods and services to China, as China itself moves up the value chain."
For that to happen, China should combine macroeconomic policies to rebalance the economy with policies to further open up its domestic markets to competition, he said. "Whether it does matters for global poverty-reduction."
Zeng Peiyan, former vice-premier and chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said at the 6th Global Think Tank Summit in Beijing in September that China has worked out a new economic-growth model of "dual circulation" for the next five years, focusing on its huge domestic consumer market and promoting high-level opening-up.
New development pattern
The new development pattern will by no means be closed domestic circulation. Instead, it is open dual circulation involving both domestic and foreign markets, President Xi said in a speech expounding on the country's new national development plan, Xinhua reported on Nov 3.
Xi also said that this year China's gross domestic product is expected to exceed 100 trillion yuan ($14.9 trillion), people's living standards will significantly improve and all rural impoverished populations will be lifted out of poverty by current standards.
In addition, the goal to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects can be achieved on time, Xi said.
Raiser said that once extreme poverty has been eradicated, countries need to address social vulnerabilities.
Rebalancing toward consumption is one way for the government to help with the vulnerable population, he said.
During the COVID-19 crisis, for instance, some migrant workers and others informally employed in China's urban areas became vulnerable, as they had not been previously featured as target populations for the government's poverty-eradication programs.
"Social policies thus needed to be adjusted to cover these groups," he said.
Raiser, in an interview with China Daily, on Oct 12, said the government can help "the living standards of those at the bottom of the distribution" through better targeted assistance, a stronger social insurance system and a stronger social transfer system.
"China has the fiscal space to do that," he said, adding that it will require a little more government spending, but will have the benefit of supporting the rebalancing toward consumption.
One of the reasons people in China save a lot is because they feel if something happens to them they have to rely on themselves, Raiser said.
"If they knew that the government is going to provide a bit more assistance, they would probably feel that they can afford to spend a bit more. And that would be good for the Chinese economy, and for the rebalancing."
Another way to help the disadvantaged is to make sure that economic growth is inclusive, he said. "That means that jobs are created, and that the wages of people at the bottom of the distribution continue to increase."
Raiser has closely followed development for China's 14th Five-Year Plan, which is expected to be endorsed by the country's top legislature next year.
In a blog posted on the Brookings Institution website on Nov 10, Raiser and Marcin Piatkowski, a senior economist at the World Bank, said the plan is likely to emphasize investments in digitalization, which will have consequences for social and economic outcomes.
"There is emerging evidence that the development of e-commerce is associated with higher employment, faster growth in incomes, increased entrepreneurship, reduced migration outflows, higher gender equity and reduced poverty," they wrote in "China 4.0: Sharing the dividends of digitalization".
In fact, China has ramped up efforts to expand internet-based services to the vast rural market by improving infrastructure, especially in poverty-stricken areas.
Fiber-optic availability in the country's poor villages has reached a record 98 percent, and a rural e-commerce promotion project has covered all the 832 poor counties, Yang Xiaowei, deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said at a news conference on Nov 6.
As the world wrestles with a pandemic that has killed more than 1.53 million people, Raiser said how China recovers from the pandemic "matters significantly" for a lot of the country's trading partners.
China continues to be the only major economy to grow this year, when global contraction of 4.4 percent is expected, according to the World Economic Outlook that the International Monetary Fund issued in early October.
'A rapid return'
China's GDP grew 4.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, compared with growth of 3.2 percent between April and June, suggesting "a rapid return to the pre-COVID trend", according to US economist Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.
"In this sense, the fact that China seems on track to record positive growth this year is obviously welcome," Raiser said.
However, as the rest of the world recovers, one would expect China's trade surplus to shrink, he said.
World Bank President David Malpass warned recently that the coronavirus may have driven as many as 100 million people back into extreme poverty and that "that number could go higher" if the pandemic worsens or drags on.
The pandemic will reverse the progress made since the 1990s in reducing global poverty and will increase inequality, the IMF said in its outlook.
People who rely on daily wage labor and are outside the formal safety net faced sudden income losses when mobility restrictions were imposed. Among them, migrant workers who live far from home had even less recourse to traditional support networks, the outlook said.
The World Bank's chief economist Carmen Reinhart said the global economy may take up to five years to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic.
In April, the World Bank and the G20 finance ministers endorsed the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, or DSSI, in response to a call by the World Bank and the IMF to grant debt-service suspension to the poorest countries to help them manage the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"China is a member of the G20 and as such participates in the DSSI initiative," Raiser said. "This is very important, because China is an important creditor to many of the poorest countries."
The United States, China and other G20 countries on Nov 13 agreed for the first time on a common approach for restructuring government debt as the coronavirus crisis leaves some poorer countries at risk of default, Reuters reported.
In a video speech delivered at a UN General Assembly session in late September, President Xi said China will honor its commitment to provide $2 billion in international assistance over two years, further international collaboration in fields including agriculture, poverty-reduction and climate change, and support other countries in restoring economic and social development.
代表作1：
原文：
'Editing' in the time of coronavirus
By RAVI SHANKAR in Hyderabad, India
I have become a fact checker for messages asking my opinionmost of them fake news, and some so gruesome that they should have come with warnings.Editor's note: In this new column starting today, we'd like to share stories and experiences of expats on how they are dealing with the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.
In home quarantine now, having arrived in India just before Spring Festival and subject to the 28-day mandatory period, my job as a China Daily editor continues－albeit in ways I never envisaged before.
However, other messages include glowing tributes to the doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the front line in what has been described as a "war".
Ever since late January, Indians have watched in anguish and awe as China pulled out all stops to battle the deadly novel coronavirus pneumonia raging in Central China.
Anguish was about the fate of hundreds of students and corporate staff in Wuhan, Hubei province, as depressing news about NCP spread.
This was soon relieved as two Indian planes evacuated more than 600 people from the epicenter of the outbreak.
Indian officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been effusive in their praise for Chinese officials who helped facilitate the evacuation.
Modi expressed solidarity with President Xi Jinping and the people of China over the outbreak of NCP, and offered condolences at the loss of lives, Indian media reported on Sunday.
Awe was in the form of photographs being widely circulated of the two hospitals built in a matter of days in Wuhan. Many Indians, so used to hearing about "China speed "and admiring and envious of the country's infrastructure, could only mutter, "Only in China".
There is also great sympathy for people forced to stay home as videos of empty streets and public transport facilities do the rounds.
Along with commiseration, there was consternation and confusion, too, among Indian businesses with extensive links to China.
One friend, who visits Guangdong almost every month, recently started a home-automation business with equipment sourced from the province. He is not sure when his next shipment will come.
Another, who imports hundreds of thousands of TV set-top boxes, also from Guangdong, is worried about the supply chain.
More critically, supplies of drug ingredients for Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, mostly antibiotics and vitamin makers, are likely to be disrupted, Indian media reported.
Indian drug manufacturers are to a large extent dependent on China for sourcing their drug ingredients, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, mainly for antibiotics and vitamins. They are based on drug ingredients made using the fermentation-based process, an area where China has global dominance.
Amidst all this, was the uplifting story widely reported in Indian media of a wedding between Wang Jihao from Beijing and Satyarth Mishra in the central Indian town of Mandsaur, 4,500 km from her home, on Feb 2. They met in Beijing, where he was studying. The couple were in India before the virus outbreak.
Meanwhile, I continue my "editing" at home.
代表作2：
原文：
US writer's post backing China's efforts draws global attention
By XING YI
Author Mario Cavolo of the United States might be known for his books about China, but it is one of his LinkedIn posts that has gone viral on the internet.
Based in Shenyang, Liaoning province, the Italian American writer had on Feb 5 written a commentary on the social networking site about the global reactions to China during the ongoing novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.
The article, titled Something's Not Right Here Folks, delves into the overreaction of some Western governments, the discrimination against Chinese people and Western media coverage that discredits the Chinese government's efforts in controlling the epidemic. Cavolo also compares China's response to the novel coronavirus epidemic with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in the United States, and highlights the contrasting reactions to the two health crises.
An excerpt of his article, which has since been viewed more than a million times, reads, "During 2009 H1N1 outbreak, I don't recall xenophobic anti-America attacks across the globe, do you? Do you recall it took six months for the United States to declare a national emergency? Did any government from the onset in April 2009 through the end in April 2010, including the month of June, when H1N1 was declared an international emergency global pandemic, then send out a notice to its citizens that they should leave the US? Close their borders to American travelers? Nope, not a peep."
In an interview with China Daily on Wednesday, Cavolo explained what compelled him to write the post.
"Every country is great, and every country has problems, but when we read major headlines in the West, we find these negative slams, these negative biases. ... I felt tired of it, so I wrote the article, "he said. "Surely enough, I struck a nerve in the hearts of people."
Cavolo said that the majority of the comments on his post have been "super supportive", noting that many people agree with him.
Maria Vesterlund, a former General Electric senior supply chain manager who is based in Shanghai, is among those who share the sentiment.
"We moved to Shanghai last year in August and now sadly face the same media pollution of gossips and panic information spread. ... I hear friends telling me they don't go to the local Chinese restaurants in Munich or Frankfurt－afraid of the coronavirus," she wrote in her comment on Cavolo's post.
"We stay here and do not run away. ... We feel with the people here, locals and expats who suffer the consequences, closing their shops, missing their incomes for living, staying home for weeks, not meeting friends, missing all the joy of life－to support the stop of spread around."
Born in Yonkers, New York, Cavolo moved to China in 1999 and worked as a consultant for various companies before starting his own business in public relations. He has written two books on China's economic boom and lived in several cities across the country, including Chengdu in Sichuan province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Shanghai. He currently resides in Shenyang, his wife's hometown.
While Cavolo noted that China's management of the SARS epidemic in 2003 was not ideal, he pointed out that the authorities have learned from past experience and have responded better to the current crisis.
"Chinese media have been talking more and more about problems happening in the society, and problems of the government are discussed on the news," he added. "Such things are not being suppressed, which was what the West accuses China of. Such accusations are not sensible and have to stop."
Cavolo said that it is important for people to empathize with the Chinese at this point in time and to seek to uplift their spirits as they work to combat the virus. He also expressed confidence that the epidemic will pass by the time spring arrives.
"I think I will play the piano and do a victory concert in spring," he said. "There will be victory concerts all over the country, and we will have a great time and things will be even better than people expect. Wuhan, stay strong! China, stay strong!" he said.
代表作3：
原文：
Russian impressed by action on virus
By CANG WEI in Nanjing
Andrey Kravchenko, a Russian who has been living in China for nine years, said that the country impressed him greatly with the strong action taken to protect its people and help prevent the virus from spreading during the coronavirus outbreak.
Kravchenko, a former vice-mayor of the Russian city of Stavropol and former vice-president of Energomera Group, has been living in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, with his family since 2011. He said that the city is his second hometown.
Kravchenko now works as the general manager of Monocrystal, a photovoltaic technology company.
During the novel coronavirus outbreak, he offered advice on the resumption of production to the local government and donated 100,000 yuan ($14,270) to the Changzhou Red Cross.
To help employees during the COVID-19 outbreak, the company offered them interest-free loans of 200,000 yuan and paid their salaries in advance. An additional subsidy was also allocated to employees who were on duty during the outbreak.
Monocrystal resumed production on Feb 10, and it was among the first companies in the city to do so after the start of the outbreak. The company provided its employees a large amount of disinfectant, goggles and masks to help protect them during the outbreak.
It also maintained close contact with suppliers and ensured that sufficient materials could be transported in time to guarantee production.
"I believe that China contained the coronavirus in relatively a short time, which helped prevent the virus from spreading," said Kravchenko.
"I also believe that China frankly reported to the world the epidemic situation within the country and has shared its experience to help other countries fight the virus."
Kravchenko said that China's fight against the virus impressed him greatly and gave him a better understanding of the country and the Chinese people.
"China is not what it was 10 years ago," he said. "We had many difficulties in establishing the company in China, which has a different language and different laws. I've received help from many people before and during the outbreak of the coronavirus.
"Now our life has become normal after the coronavirus was contained effectively in the country, but the virus made me realize deeply that life is short and I should try my best to help others."
Kravchenko made a video to encourage the Chinese people when the coronavirus outbreak was at its peak in the nation, in which he said that the key to winning the battle was to maintain order, patience and personal hygiene.
"If we stand united we can overcome the difficulties," he added.
原文：
如何做好熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播
——以中國日報(bào)社關(guān)于新冠肺炎疫情的對外傳播實(shí)踐為例
新時(shí)代的中國日益走近世界舞臺(tái)中央，為人類作出了更大貢獻(xiàn)，受到國際社會(huì)越來越多關(guān)注。圍繞熱點(diǎn)話題，強(qiáng)化對外傳播，主動(dòng)回應(yīng)受眾關(guān)切，及時(shí)澄清謬誤，在加強(qiáng)“自塑”中減少“他塑”，在主動(dòng)減少“落差”中有力消除“反差”，對講好中國故事、傳播好中國聲音具有重要的現(xiàn)實(shí)意義。本文以中國日報(bào)社關(guān)于新冠肺炎疫情的對外傳播實(shí)踐為研究對象，探討如何做好熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播。
2020年初，新冠肺炎疫情暴發(fā)，這是新中國成立以來發(fā)生的傳播速度最快、感染范圍最廣、防控難度最大的重大突發(fā)公共衛(wèi)生事件。[①]海內(nèi)外高度關(guān)注，疫情輿情相互交織并隨著時(shí)間推移和形勢發(fā)展不斷演變。為增進(jìn)國際社會(huì)對中國疫情防控舉措與成效的認(rèn)知、認(rèn)可與認(rèn)同，中國日報(bào)社立足自身特色優(yōu)勢，積極向世界講好中國抗疫故事，助力全球攜手抗疫，推動(dòng)構(gòu)建人類衛(wèi)生健康共同體。
一、以核心報(bào)道為引領(lǐng)，及時(shí)報(bào)道疫情防控的中國舉措、中國擔(dān)當(dāng)
圍繞國際社會(huì)對中國疫情防控舉措的高度關(guān)注與持續(xù)關(guān)切，中國日報(bào)社以2017年建立并不斷完善的核心報(bào)道機(jī)制為抓手，統(tǒng)籌報(bào)網(wǎng)端微全平臺(tái)，加強(qiáng)策劃，深入報(bào)道在習(xí)近平總書記親自指揮、親自部署下，中國及時(shí)、有效打響疫情防控阻擊戰(zhàn)，有力維護(hù)人民生命安全和身體健康，為維護(hù)地區(qū)和世界公共衛(wèi)生安全作出的重要貢獻(xiàn)。
1.全面報(bào)道習(xí)近平總書記親自指揮、親自部署，帶領(lǐng)人民堅(jiān)決打贏疫情防控阻擊戰(zhàn)。報(bào)紙頭版、網(wǎng)站首頁、客戶端首屏、“學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)代”專欄等重要位置持續(xù)刊發(fā)《親自部署！習(xí)近平：堅(jiān)決打贏疫情防控阻擊戰(zhàn)》《習(xí)近平戰(zhàn)“疫”高頻詞》等融媒產(chǎn)品，解讀報(bào)道習(xí)近平總書記主持召開中央政治局常委會(huì)會(huì)議等系列會(huì)議、赴多地考察全面部署做好疫情防控工作情況。其中，社論《精準(zhǔn)施策，加快推動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)社會(huì)發(fā)展》，解讀習(xí)近平總書記赴湖北考察疫情防控工作時(shí)重要講話精神，被境外主要媒體轉(zhuǎn)引300余次。短視頻《美國小哥兩會(huì)觀察：中國經(jīng)濟(jì)如何兼顧防控疫情與經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展》，海外傳播量超150萬人次。九宮格產(chǎn)品《防控正處在最吃勁的關(guān)鍵階段，習(xí)近平提到了這些人》，全球傳播量超2700萬人次。
2.大力宣介習(xí)近平主席加強(qiáng)國際抗疫合作、積極推動(dòng)建設(shè)人類衛(wèi)生健康共同體。作為全球性大流行病，新冠肺炎疫情威脅著全人類的生命安全和健康，是一次嚴(yán)重危機(jī)和嚴(yán)峻考驗(yàn)，沒有任何國家或地區(qū)能獨(dú)善其身。為此，中國日報(bào)社持續(xù)、深入報(bào)道疫情發(fā)生以來，習(xí)近平主席同近50位外國領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和國際組織負(fù)責(zé)人通話或見面情況，[②]展現(xiàn)中國積極推動(dòng)國際抗疫合作負(fù)責(zé)任的大國擔(dān)當(dāng)。例如，圍繞習(xí)近平主席出席二十國集團(tuán)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人特別峰會(huì)并發(fā)表重要講話，刊發(fā)社論《中國與世界各國攜手抗疫 共渡難關(guān)》被境外主要媒體轉(zhuǎn)引266次。海報(bào)《全球攜手戰(zhàn)“疫”，習(xí)近平這樣說》在臉書、推特的海外傳播量均超100萬人次。
二、以增進(jìn)認(rèn)知為主線，多層次向世界講好中國抗疫故事
中國日報(bào)社注重加強(qiáng)議題設(shè)置，并結(jié)合疫情形勢在國內(nèi)及全球的發(fā)展演變，不斷調(diào)整報(bào)道重點(diǎn)，提升敘事能力，持續(xù)向世界講好中國抗疫故事。
1.生動(dòng)記述中國抗擊疫情的偉大實(shí)踐與感人故事。組織記者深入全國各地抗疫一線，特別是選派4批記者奔赴武漢，深入醫(yī)院重癥隔離區(qū)、火神山醫(yī)院和雷神山醫(yī)院建設(shè)現(xiàn)場、社區(qū)大街小巷等地，以一篇篇細(xì)膩報(bào)道，在抗疫一線向世界直接呈現(xiàn)中國人民眾志成城、同舟共濟(jì)的抗疫實(shí)踐。英文短視頻《她們的笑，最美的臉》通過展現(xiàn)一線醫(yī)護(hù)人員口罩下壓痕累累的面龐和美麗的笑容，體現(xiàn)了白衣戰(zhàn)士的樂觀、奉獻(xiàn)與堅(jiān)守。該視頻在抖音短視頻國際版（TikTok）24小時(shí)內(nèi)傳播量達(dá)500萬人次。14集系列微紀(jì)錄片《英雄新傳》講述武漢醫(yī)護(hù)人員、后勤保障人員等抗疫一線群體的故事，全球傳播量近3000萬人次。
2.多方展現(xiàn)海外人士對中國疫情防控工作的客觀評價(jià)。一方面，自2月11日起，中國日報(bào)社推出“經(jīng)歷抗疫的外國人”專欄，多方采訪疫情期間在中國內(nèi)地，特別是湖北的留學(xué)生、教師、企業(yè)家等近50名各界外籍人士，以其親身經(jīng)歷報(bào)道他們對中國抗疫舉措和成效的肯定。同時(shí)，持續(xù)刊發(fā)對各國政要、國際組織官員、外企負(fù)責(zé)人等海外知名人士的采訪報(bào)道，如《聯(lián)合國秘書長贊揚(yáng)中國為疫情防控所作出的努力》《法國前總理拉法蘭：疫情讓我們重新思考獨(dú)立自主與攜手合作的關(guān)系》等，借助“外嘴”，有效提高報(bào)道影響力。另一方面，加強(qiáng)融合傳播，精心策劃系列融媒體產(chǎn)品。在臉書和推特推出的9集系列短視頻《我在中國》，向海外受眾介紹在華外國友人參與抗疫的故事，傳播量超170萬人次。全平臺(tái)推出的6集系列短視頻《別叫我老外》，專訪國外意見領(lǐng)袖、網(wǎng)紅達(dá)人，在中外對比中介紹中國抗疫舉措與成就，傳播量超9000萬人次。
3.深入介紹疫情防控的中國經(jīng)驗(yàn)中國做法。在中國疫情防控形勢不斷向好并取得階段性勝利、全球其他國家疫情卻加速蔓延之時(shí)，為滿足海外對中國疫情防控經(jīng)驗(yàn)的信息需求，中國日報(bào)社及時(shí)調(diào)整報(bào)道方向，加強(qiáng)選題策劃。例如，自5月9日起，持續(xù)推出的6期系列短視頻《詞解中國：中國抗疫熱詞》，分別圍繞對口支援、舉國之力、聯(lián)防聯(lián)控、不惜一切代價(jià)、應(yīng)收盡收、人類衛(wèi)生健康共同體等6組熱詞，系統(tǒng)介紹中國疫情防控的機(jī)制化做法與經(jīng)驗(yàn)，充分展現(xiàn)中國的制度優(yōu)勢，全球總傳播量達(dá)7221萬人次，海外傳播量達(dá)4446萬人次。許多海外網(wǎng)友留言表示，“感謝中國的努力，你們在幫助世界人民避免感染新冠肺炎”“所有國家都應(yīng)該向中國學(xué)習(xí)”。
三、以澄清謬誤為要點(diǎn)，及時(shí)回應(yīng)國際社會(huì)不實(shí)信息
疫情暴發(fā)以來，特別是疫情在全球蔓延后，部分西方政客和媒體將病毒標(biāo)簽化、疫情政治化，不斷發(fā)表污名化中國的荒謬言論，企圖誤導(dǎo)國際輿論，達(dá)到其抹黑中國抗疫舉措和成就、唱衰中國經(jīng)濟(jì)等目的。對此，中國日報(bào)社針鋒相對予以批駁和澄清。
1.及時(shí)回應(yīng)西方部分媒體和政客的錯(cuò)誤言行。中國日報(bào)社注重以觀點(diǎn)影響輿論，針對西方的卑劣行徑，第一時(shí)間組織刊發(fā)系列社論和海內(nèi)外知名專家學(xué)者署名評論。同時(shí)，加強(qiáng)策劃，推出《起底外媒：“新冠”報(bào)道的偽善與雙標(biāo)》等2期“起底外媒”系列紀(jì)錄片，揭批西方部分媒體對華抗疫報(bào)道中的套路和雙標(biāo)，傳播量超1.65億人次。推出的融媒產(chǎn)品《中國抗疫努力被詆毀 美國作家：厭倦了西方媒體抹黑中國》，被境外主要媒體轉(zhuǎn)引160余次，傳播量達(dá)5000萬人次。
2.針對性強(qiáng)化報(bào)道中國經(jīng)濟(jì)良好運(yùn)行態(tài)勢。結(jié)合疫情發(fā)生以來各界對中國經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展前景的高度關(guān)注，一方面，加強(qiáng)言論報(bào)道，深入批駁所謂“外資撤離論”“中國經(jīng)濟(jì)崩潰論”等錯(cuò)誤論調(diào)，闡明疫情不會(huì)改變中國經(jīng)濟(jì)長期向好的發(fā)展趨勢。短視頻《疫情后制造業(yè)將大規(guī)模“逃離”中國？面對全球性危機(jī)你又能逃到哪里！》，全球傳播量超790萬人次。另一方面，強(qiáng)化形勢報(bào)道，加大力度介紹中國做好“六穩(wěn)”、落實(shí)“六?！钡呐e措與成效，傳遞中國經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展信心。例如，中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)“圖說中國經(jīng)濟(jì)”專欄采用圖表、海報(bào)等形式，刊發(fā)近80期可視化產(chǎn)品，持續(xù)傳遞中國經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢健康向好的積極信號(hào)，全球總傳播量達(dá)750萬人次。
四、以不斷創(chuàng)新為驅(qū)動(dòng)，多形式向世界傳播中國方案中國經(jīng)驗(yàn)
面對疫情對全球造成的空前影響及國際社會(huì)對中國疫情防控的極大關(guān)注，中國日報(bào)社積極創(chuàng)新傳播形式，多渠道、立體化傳播疫情防控的中國方案中國經(jīng)驗(yàn)，助力全球抗疫。
1.舉辦線上“新時(shí)代大講堂”。3月31日至6月12日，分別圍繞“抗擊新冠肺炎疫情，全球命運(yùn)與共”“人類命運(yùn)共同體：我·世界·未來”“抗擊新冠肺炎疫情：科技的力量”等4個(gè)主題，主辦4期線上“新時(shí)代大講堂”，邀請多位中外知名人士，結(jié)合自身經(jīng)歷，就凝聚共識(shí)、增強(qiáng)合力、打好疫情防控全球阻擊戰(zhàn)建言獻(xiàn)策。每期大講堂均獲近130家境外主要媒體報(bào)道，全球總傳播量超6.56億人次。世界衛(wèi)生組織總干事高級顧問布魯斯?艾爾沃德表示，對中國抗疫成果和中國人民抗疫努力印象深刻，贊賞中國為全球抗疫作出的積極貢獻(xiàn)。
2.推出抗疫“中國方案”主題網(wǎng)頁。面向國際社會(huì)和在華外籍人士，推出了“抗擊新冠病毒的中國方案”英文主題網(wǎng)頁，設(shè)置最新進(jìn)展、權(quán)威問答、科普知識(shí)、最新視頻等7個(gè)欄目，圍繞國際社會(huì)最關(guān)心的疫情防控話題和信息需求，第一時(shí)間發(fā)布中國在疫苗研發(fā)、藥物療效等方面的最新進(jìn)展，分享中國已實(shí)施并確認(rèn)有效的防控和治療方案。網(wǎng)頁推出后，相關(guān)報(bào)道受到全球194個(gè)國家和地區(qū)的網(wǎng)民關(guān)注。
3.向全球發(fā)布中英雙語《抗擊新冠肺炎疫情的中國實(shí)踐》專題調(diào)研報(bào)告。作為講好中國抗疫故事的創(chuàng)新嘗試，中國日報(bào)社主導(dǎo)撰寫并發(fā)布了全面總結(jié)中國抗疫實(shí)踐的調(diào)研報(bào)告《抗擊新冠肺炎疫情的中國實(shí)踐》，全面梳理中國抗擊疫情的具體實(shí)踐與有效舉措，以期為國際科學(xué)界和國際社會(huì)攜手抗疫提供參考借鑒。報(bào)告推出后，得到國內(nèi)外輿論的高度關(guān)注和各界的充分肯定，并被200多家海外主流媒體和國際組織全文轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)轉(zhuǎn)引，覆蓋受眾達(dá)2億多人。
五、思考與啟示
習(xí)近平總書記指出，落后就要挨打，貧窮就要挨餓，失語就要挨罵。[③]在新時(shí)代，提高中國國際話語權(quán)既要在基礎(chǔ)性、戰(zhàn)略性工作上下功夫，也要在關(guān)鍵處、要害處下力氣，還要在工作質(zhì)量和水平上做文章。熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播既是在關(guān)鍵處、要害處下功夫的有力抓手，也是國際輿論斗爭中無法回避的“遭遇戰(zhàn)”。因此，如何進(jìn)一步做好熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播，不斷推出高質(zhì)量、高水平的國際產(chǎn)品，提高中國引導(dǎo)國際輿論的能力，值得深入思考。
1.聚焦受眾類別，區(qū)分“對誰說”。既要“內(nèi)外有別”，更要“外外有別”，因國因地因人施策，落實(shí)好差異化傳播。受意識(shí)形態(tài)、政治派別、經(jīng)濟(jì)利益、客觀環(huán)境等因素制約，不同地區(qū)、不同受眾政治立場相左、情感傾向有別、信息需求不同的現(xiàn)象，遇到熱點(diǎn)話題往往會(huì)被進(jìn)一步凸顯或放大。為此，在熱點(diǎn)話題對外傳播中，對于頑固持錯(cuò)誤立場、肆意攻擊抹黑的言論，要敢做“戰(zhàn)士”，及時(shí)予以批駁、澄清事實(shí)；對于希望了解事實(shí)真相的需求，要會(huì)做“紳士”，柔聲細(xì)語、潛移默化中通過講故事的方式，說清事情的原委和本來面貌。
2.強(qiáng)化議題設(shè)置，明晰“說什么”。“中國故事”是對“中國事情”背后的“中國道理”的高度概括和生動(dòng)詮釋。[④]通過熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播講好中國故事，一方面，要在見人、見事、見數(shù)據(jù)中介紹好“是什么”，及時(shí)報(bào)道相關(guān)事件的進(jìn)展、措施與成效，呈現(xiàn)直觀形象，加深直接印象。另一方面，更要在見制度、見政策、見思想中說明白“為什么”，注重提高站位、提升深度，推動(dòng)海外受眾完成從感知到認(rèn)知、從認(rèn)知到認(rèn)同的升華。
3.創(chuàng)新傳播形式，完善“如何說”。移動(dòng)傳播時(shí)代，媒體圍繞熱點(diǎn)話題，統(tǒng)籌網(wǎng)上網(wǎng)下、國內(nèi)國外，綜合運(yùn)用文字、圖片、短視頻、直播等載體強(qiáng)化融合報(bào)道，已是應(yīng)有之義與應(yīng)盡之責(zé)。同時(shí)，還要堅(jiān)持守正創(chuàng)新，充分發(fā)揮媒體在促進(jìn)中外人文交流中的優(yōu)勢，探索綜合運(yùn)用新聞報(bào)道、舉辦論壇、推出專著報(bào)告等多種形式，實(shí)現(xiàn)傳播手段的全面創(chuàng)新，在多元化傳播實(shí)踐中做好熱點(diǎn)話題的對外傳播。
4.加強(qiáng)海外落地，解決“在哪說”。對外傳播能否取得實(shí)效，落地是關(guān)鍵環(huán)節(jié)。中國日報(bào)社堅(jiān)持“兩條腿”走路，一方面抓“造船出?！保洗饲霸趪庖殉霭姘l(fā)行的6個(gè)本土化海外版資源，于2019年1月正式創(chuàng)辦《中國日報(bào)國際版》，覆蓋63個(gè)國家和地區(qū)。同時(shí)，重點(diǎn)打造中國日報(bào)英文客戶端，實(shí)現(xiàn)全球下載量超3200萬人次，用戶涵蓋全球140余個(gè)國家和地區(qū)。另一方面抓“借船出?！保訌?qiáng)海外社交媒體建設(shè)與應(yīng)用，臉書賬號(hào)粉絲數(shù)突破9000萬人，推特賬號(hào)粉絲數(shù)超430萬人。同時(shí)，加強(qiáng)與海外主要媒體及其網(wǎng)站的交流互動(dòng)，開展供稿供版合作，不斷提升海外傳播的覆蓋面與影響力。
5.注重借嘴說話，統(tǒng)籌“誰來說”。做好熱點(diǎn)話題對外傳播，既要突出科學(xué)性、權(quán)威性，確保政策解讀全面準(zhǔn)確、事件分析科學(xué)辯證、形勢報(bào)道實(shí)事求是，又要提高可讀性、實(shí)效性，確保報(bào)道入眼入耳入腦入心。對此，借用“外嘴”往往能夠起到事半功倍的傳播效果。在此次新冠肺炎疫情的對外傳播中，中國日報(bào)社既充分發(fā)揮外籍記者的作用，推出系列融媒產(chǎn)品，又廣泛采訪在華及海外政商學(xué)各界知名外籍人士，強(qiáng)化“借嘴發(fā)聲”，多方位展現(xiàn)他們對中國抗疫工作的客觀評價(jià)與認(rèn)可，有力提升了報(bào)道的傳播力、引導(dǎo)力、影響力和公信力。
【注釋】
[①]中華人民共和國國務(wù)院新聞辦公室：《抗擊新冠肺炎疫情的中國行動(dòng)》，國新網(wǎng)，http://www.scio.gov.cn/zfbps/ndhf/42312/Document/1682143/1682143.htm，2020年6月7日。
[②]同上。
[③]習(xí)近平：《在全國黨校工作會(huì)議上的講話》，《求是》2016年第9期。
[④]周樹春：《以高質(zhì)量傳播提升中國話語力量》，《中國記者》2018年第10期。
原文：
抗疫主題的新聞插圖設(shè)計(jì)創(chuàng)作談
——以《中國日報(bào)》國際版為例
The Creation of the News Illustration Design on the Theme of the Anti-epidemic: The International Edition of China Daily
李旻 Li Min
內(nèi)容摘要：報(bào)刊等傳統(tǒng)媒體在視覺呈現(xiàn)方式、閱讀體驗(yàn)設(shè)計(jì)上的創(chuàng)新，是廣大新聞媒體工作者正在共同地、積極地探索方向。新聞插圖，作為一種傳統(tǒng)的新聞內(nèi)容載體，在新時(shí)代語境和新媒介環(huán)境下有了更多可能性，其傳播方式也愈發(fā)多元化、創(chuàng)意化，用其特有的方式為傳統(tǒng)媒介注入新活力。本文以筆者在疫情期間為《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊創(chuàng)作的新聞插圖為例，將抗疫主題的新聞插圖創(chuàng)作方法從準(zhǔn)確把握新聞插圖在價(jià)值取向和藝術(shù)風(fēng)格上的基調(diào)，以及從主題把握、物象組織到畫面表現(xiàn)的創(chuàng)作方法兩方面做總結(jié)。
關(guān)鍵詞：抗疫主題?新聞插圖設(shè)計(jì)?創(chuàng)作?《中國日報(bào)》國際版
“為傳統(tǒng)媒介注入新活力”是新聞工作者在新時(shí)代語境和新媒介環(huán)境下的共同目標(biāo)。“讀圖時(shí)代”的到來，引發(fā)了以“圖像轉(zhuǎn)向”為內(nèi)核的閱讀嬗變和傳統(tǒng)紙媒的轉(zhuǎn)型，多種信息載體的出現(xiàn)讓閱讀有了更多可能性，其傳播方式也愈發(fā)多元化、創(chuàng)意化。對新聞插圖的有效運(yùn)用不僅可以吸引更多的讀者、加速新聞傳播的效率、提高新聞傳播的效果，提升報(bào)刊的視覺沖擊力、識(shí)別性和審美特質(zhì)，還能在普及大眾審美、滿足大眾日益提高的審美需求方面發(fā)揮不容小覷的作用。
《中國日報(bào)》（China Daily）是“中國走向世界、世界了解中國的重要窗口，是國內(nèi)外高端人士首選的中國英文媒體”[1]，“對外傳播中國聲音”“講好中國故事”是其宗旨。自創(chuàng)刊以來，《中國日報(bào)》就因精美的頭版插圖廣受關(guān)注和熱議。這些新聞插圖技法精湛、形式創(chuàng)新，賦予了刊物較強(qiáng)的辨識(shí)度，飽含中國傳統(tǒng)藝術(shù)的韻味，又兼具現(xiàn)代插圖的表現(xiàn)手法、審美特征和色彩趨勢，與大幅的版面空間相結(jié)合，形成了強(qiáng)勁的視覺沖擊力。它們甚至可以作為獨(dú)立的藝術(shù)作品存在，可以說，在“為傳統(tǒng)媒介注入新活力” 方面做出了不斐的成績。
眾所周知，2020 年新冠肺炎疫情在世界范圍內(nèi)暴發(fā)。在這樣的關(guān)頭，新聞美術(shù)工作者需要拿出奮戰(zhàn)在一線的狀態(tài)，將真實(shí)準(zhǔn)確的新聞信息通過直觀易讀的新聞插圖呈現(xiàn)給讀者，用視覺化的方式消除群眾的疑慮，傳遞信任、信心和溫暖。以下，筆者以疫情期間為《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊創(chuàng)作的新聞插圖為例，將疫情防控常態(tài)化局面下新聞插圖創(chuàng)作的方法總結(jié)如下。
一、準(zhǔn)確把握新聞插圖在價(jià)值取向和藝術(shù)風(fēng)格上的基調(diào)
1.符合時(shí)代美學(xué)精神的價(jià)值取向
在新時(shí)代進(jìn)行藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作，尤其是新聞插圖創(chuàng)作，要緊扣時(shí)代的審美和精神，才能履行好時(shí)代所賦予新聞工作者的歷史使命。
以抗疫為主題進(jìn)行創(chuàng)作，如果沒有真實(shí)可靠的事實(shí)依據(jù)和真情實(shí)感，便容易陷于概念化和口號(hào)化的表達(dá)之中，從而使形象失去生命力，畫面失去感染力。藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作要避免人云亦云，更不應(yīng)為了蹭熱度而敷衍了事。創(chuàng)作者要緊扣時(shí)代的脈搏，發(fā)掘內(nèi)心的真情實(shí)感，并將其用易引起讀者共鳴的藝術(shù)形象、藝術(shù)元素和技術(shù)手法展現(xiàn)出來。新聞插圖注重沖擊力和感染力，這些都需要以具體且鮮活的形象為載體，正可謂“立象以盡意”。
2020 年 5 月 8 日，《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊的頭版文章報(bào)道的是，面對突如其來的疫情，一群可愛可敬的鄉(xiāng)村教師給孩子們帶去依靠與希望的故事。
畫面左邊是一位身著紅色衣衫的典型中國鄉(xiāng)村教師形象，她雙手捧書伸向畫面右側(cè)，“L”形的構(gòu)圖將整個(gè)畫面凝聚起來。她望向讀者，眼神清澈、執(zhí)著，這是作品的畫眼。分散在教師臂膀周圍的是四名鄉(xiāng)村里的孩子，他們懵懂、憧憬的神態(tài)見者心憐。畫面背景是綿延不盡的典型的中國風(fēng)格的鄉(xiāng)村房舍和田野，創(chuàng)作者拋棄了景物的客觀色彩，大膽運(yùn)用與整體畫面相協(xié)調(diào)的輔助色系，將畫面的氣氛烘托得扎實(shí)、濃厚。
頭版插圖《小村大愛》
2.以中國元素為基調(diào)的藝術(shù)風(fēng)格
“對外傳播中國聲音”“講好中國故事”依靠的不僅是新聞內(nèi)容的文字表述，還要依靠直觀作用于視覺的畫面元素來傳達(dá)中國的氣息和特質(zhì)，即用中國風(fēng)格的視覺元素來強(qiáng)化新聞文字的力量。
筆者畢業(yè)于清華大學(xué)美術(shù)學(xué)院視覺傳達(dá)設(shè)計(jì)系，該專業(yè)繼承了老一輩藝術(shù)家，如張仃、張光宇等先生的教育思想，十分強(qiáng)調(diào)對于圖案的訓(xùn)練，“一方面強(qiáng)調(diào)中國古代的傳統(tǒng)的視覺形式，另一方面又學(xué)習(xí)借鑒西方現(xiàn)代的表現(xiàn)手法”。因此，筆者在校學(xué)習(xí)期間接受過一定的圖案訓(xùn)練，也學(xué)習(xí)過傳統(tǒng)裝飾藝術(shù)課程，如臨摹敦煌壁畫等。現(xiàn)在想來，那時(shí)從基礎(chǔ)性訓(xùn)練到較為深入和專業(yè)的內(nèi)容學(xué)習(xí)是十分有必要的，這些掌握了的知識(shí)和技巧會(huì)融進(jìn)潛意識(shí)，進(jìn)而變成創(chuàng)作者提升畫面水平的能力。參加工作后，筆者還出于個(gè)人興趣在故宮博物院學(xué)習(xí)過一段時(shí)間的工筆畫，在之后的插圖創(chuàng)作中開始關(guān)注和利用線條來造型。
2020 年 4 月 10 日，《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊策劃了“中日韓三國攜手抗疫”的新聞?lì)^版內(nèi)容，頭版插圖《守護(hù)》是完全基于該主題創(chuàng)作的。
該作品工筆畫風(fēng)格濃厚，裝飾感強(qiáng)，畫面色調(diào)以橙和粉為主，搭配藍(lán)灰和紫色調(diào)的冷色系，清新治愈。位于畫面中心位置的是一位身著和服、編盤發(fā)髻的日本少女，她的身上、頭上櫻花錦簇，象征著美好與希望。日本少女身后左側(cè)是一位手捧一只相思鳥、眉目低垂、身著中式對襟衣衫的中國女性，溫婉中流露出人性的關(guān)懷。日本少女身后右側(cè)是一位身著韓式傳統(tǒng)服裝的翩翩少年，他的左手伸向畫面右下角，將讀者的目光引領(lǐng)至畫面的前景處，在這里，中、日、韓三國的醫(yī)護(hù)人員正攜手同行、奮戰(zhàn)在抗疫第一線。繁花環(huán)繞，醫(yī)護(hù)工作者的身影熠熠生輝。畫面中豐富的元素均直觀地傳達(dá)出這期主題需要傳達(dá)的信息。
頭版插圖《守護(hù)》
3.合理有效地發(fā)揮藝術(shù)想象力
新聞報(bào)道注重真實(shí)、客觀地反映事件本身。符合事態(tài)發(fā)展的真實(shí)狀態(tài)，表現(xiàn)客觀環(huán)境下的真情實(shí)感，是新聞插圖藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作的基本要求。不過，這并不意味著新聞插圖的創(chuàng)作就要完全再現(xiàn)或照搬場景，缺乏想象力和藝術(shù)創(chuàng)造力的作品很難使讀者產(chǎn)生共鳴，其傳播效果也會(huì)大打折扣。新聞插圖創(chuàng)作可以突破直白、寫實(shí)的場景描繪，在畫面中加入意象性視覺元素，賦予畫面裝飾性的美感。除了在物象的選擇上要符合新聞主題外，用藝術(shù)化且想象力豐富的元素符號(hào)烘托整體畫面效果，從細(xì)節(jié)中提升作品的藝術(shù)品質(zhì)。
2020 年 4 月 3 日，《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊頭版新聞主題是疫情時(shí)期人們用音樂傳遞愛與力量，用音樂撫慰心靈。畫面中，用音符組成的蒲公英形象漫天飛舞，預(yù)示著溫暖與希望會(huì)像蒲公英一樣，隨風(fēng)而動(dòng)，輕柔地圍繞在我們身邊，給人們以潤物無聲的安慰。男孩和女孩在各自的隔離空間中聆聽音樂，思緒仿佛乘著朵朵蒲公英遨游世界，整個(gè)畫面亦實(shí)亦虛，詩意盎然。
頭版插圖《音樂之聲》
二、從主題把握、物象組織到畫面表現(xiàn)的創(chuàng)作方法
1.與編輯思路相協(xié)調(diào)，把握主題兼顧創(chuàng)作自由
新聞內(nèi)容的有效傳播是文字和圖像合力作用的結(jié)果。新聞插圖最重要的目的就是輔助新聞內(nèi)容的傳播。而在現(xiàn)實(shí)工作中，插畫師與編輯往往會(huì)在主題視覺化上存在分歧。插畫師較為在意的是，對表現(xiàn)對象的生動(dòng)刻畫和畫面的美觀度，而編輯首要考慮的是依據(jù)文字內(nèi)容來限定畫面元素。思維方式和關(guān)注點(diǎn)會(huì)對插圖創(chuàng)作的最終效果產(chǎn)生關(guān)鍵影響。因此，插畫師與編輯的深度溝通就十分有必要了。如果插畫師與編輯能夠就視覺呈現(xiàn)方式達(dá)成默契，新聞插圖依托于文字內(nèi)容，又不局限于文字內(nèi)容，能夠擁有一定的創(chuàng)作獨(dú)立性，那么，新聞插圖的藝術(shù)價(jià)值就能得到很大的提升，甚至具有獨(dú)立的藝術(shù)價(jià)值，否則被文字限制起來，其藝術(shù)價(jià)值也會(huì)大打折扣。
自抗疫之初，《中國日報(bào)》便著重策劃、報(bào)道與疫情相關(guān)的新聞事件，全方位報(bào)道疫情發(fā)展態(tài)勢，宣揚(yáng)中國抗疫的決心。2020 年 3 月 20 日，《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊頭版主題是“人工智能助力抗疫”。在這場沒有硝煙的戰(zhàn)爭中，人工智能機(jī)器人陸續(xù)上崗，大顯身手。插圖《機(jī)器人護(hù)士》的視覺中心選取的是一位病患女孩形象，女孩背后的窗外春花爛漫，而病房里，人工智能機(jī)器人從各處伸出援助之手，有送藥的、送餐飲的、扎辮子的……她的右手比出代表勝利的“V”形手勢，展現(xiàn)出病患個(gè)體對于戰(zhàn)勝病魔的樂觀態(tài)度和堅(jiān)定信心。
頭版插圖《機(jī)器人護(hù)士》
2.物象組織：選擇、提煉和層次
主題突出、物象刻畫生動(dòng)、感情渲染到位的作品，才能真正打動(dòng)讀者，而想要做到這一點(diǎn)，對于物象的選擇與提煉、關(guān)系處理與排列就顯得十分重要了。新聞插圖中呈現(xiàn)的物象需要既豐富又概括，豐富的物象有利于新聞主題的詮釋和畫面的豐滿，單一的物象較難將復(fù)雜的情節(jié)和情緒表達(dá)得有層次。但簡單粗暴地、不加概括地堆疊所有物象易使畫面顯得混亂復(fù)雜，很難抓住讀者眼球，甚至令人生厭。
利用物像排列的形式形成視覺中心點(diǎn)，運(yùn)用藝術(shù)化的手法處理主次物象之間的空間、大小、虛實(shí)關(guān)系，并適當(dāng)夸大對比，強(qiáng)化畫面層次感和張力，增加作品的震撼力。尤其是在表現(xiàn)抗疫題材的作品時(shí)，這樣的藝術(shù)處理方式非常有利于傳達(dá)新聞主題所暗含的精神。
2020 年 6 月，《中國日報(bào)》國際周刊策劃了一期以中國助力非洲抗擊疫情的頭版內(nèi)容，在插圖表現(xiàn)上采用的是具有濃郁非洲風(fēng)情的元素進(jìn)行穿插和排列，并最終利用正負(fù)形的形式將插圖與版面文字編輯組合，畫面的主體——非洲女子的頭巾為非洲版圖形狀，它正好為新聞文字提供了位置空間。
頭版插圖《愛無國界》
3.畫面表現(xiàn)：形象塑造、藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)和版面協(xié)調(diào)
具備了成熟且理想的畫面組織方案，還需要將其通過具體且深入的畫面表現(xiàn)技法表現(xiàn)出來，并與報(bào)刊的整體版式設(shè)計(jì)相協(xié)調(diào)，才能說是一件完成、完整的新聞插圖作品。新聞插圖的藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)方式大致可分為形象塑造、藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)和版面協(xié)調(diào)三個(gè)方面。
讀者受眾為海外群體的《中國日報(bào)》是中國走向世界、世界了解中國的重要窗口，因此可以說，它要塑造的是面向世界的中國國家形象，其重要性不言而喻。而想要透過對個(gè)體形象的塑造來傳達(dá)國家的整體形象，就需要遵守“主題先行”的原則，按照新聞主題的需要約定個(gè)體特征、尋找典型形象。其實(shí)，通過觀察我們可以發(fā)現(xiàn)，同類新聞媒體上出現(xiàn)的典型人物具有很多共性。此外，從技術(shù)層面來講，真實(shí)生動(dòng)的形象塑造需要經(jīng)過長期的藝術(shù)實(shí)踐和生活沉淀才能做到筆到意達(dá)。因此，長期、勤奮的訓(xùn)練和實(shí)踐是作品成功的基石。
典型真實(shí)的形象塑造是一方面，有審美的藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)和版面設(shè)計(jì)也很關(guān)鍵。新聞插圖的藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)對象主要包括色彩、位置、比例等元素，對這些元素的經(jīng)營往往是與報(bào)刊的整體版面設(shè)計(jì)相同步的。色彩在承載情緒、烘托氛圍、引導(dǎo)體驗(yàn)等方面的能力自不必贅述，畫面元素的位置和比例也決定著讀者接收新聞信息的次序和強(qiáng)度。新聞插圖的載體是報(bào)刊，合理、協(xié)調(diào)的畫面表現(xiàn)和版面設(shè)計(jì)，能展現(xiàn)出報(bào)刊良好的藝術(shù)品位。因此，采用鮮活的畫面表現(xiàn)手法和層次分明的版面布局，有利于營造出美好的憧憬與閱讀氛圍，有利于提升報(bào)刊整體的視覺效果和藝術(shù)水平。
疫情主題海報(bào)設(shè)計(jì)《櫻花將燦，霧盡風(fēng)暖》就是利用人物形象塑造、有層次的畫面構(gòu)圖和唯美治愈的色彩搭配，表現(xiàn)了人們盼望疫情早日過去的美好愿景。
此外，在新媒體時(shí)代，數(shù)字技術(shù)改變了繪畫的創(chuàng)作方式。曾經(jīng)的報(bào)刊雜志插圖多為手繪，不易更改且難以再次利用，而現(xiàn)在的插圖創(chuàng)作或是手繪線稿、線稿上色等全部由電腦繪制完成，修改、調(diào)整靈活便捷，效率和效果均獲得了質(zhì)的提升。
疫情主題海報(bào)設(shè)計(jì)——《櫻花將燦，霧盡風(fēng)暖》
4.作品背后：精神和信念的物化
新聞功能，是指新聞傳播媒介對人類社會(huì)生活中所產(chǎn)生的有利作用，它會(huì)對社會(huì)道德產(chǎn)生重大影響。一般報(bào)道新聞致力于消除受眾的不確定性，反映和指導(dǎo)輿論。[2] 也就是說，新聞要求報(bào)道真實(shí)的事實(shí)。那么，新聞插圖就是要塑造生動(dòng)且深入人心的真實(shí)的典型形象，設(shè)計(jì)構(gòu)思具有審美層次且便于信息傳達(dá)的畫面，展現(xiàn)現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中的真善美，在實(shí)現(xiàn)新聞傳播的過程中實(shí)現(xiàn)引導(dǎo)大眾審美的功能。
其實(shí)，這與藝術(shù)的追求不謀而合，羅丹認(rèn)為，藝術(shù)的真諦不是悅目，而是追求真實(shí)。新聞插圖創(chuàng)作所講求的真實(shí)包含兩個(gè)方面，一是指作品要客觀呈現(xiàn)事件的真實(shí)面貌，二是新聞插圖創(chuàng)作者在創(chuàng)作時(shí)要做最真實(shí)的自己，表達(dá)最真實(shí)的情感。
此外，新聞插圖創(chuàng)作不只是對真實(shí)客觀物象的抽象和升華以及技巧的展現(xiàn)，還應(yīng)該是人的情感反映。新聞插圖應(yīng)將肉眼不可見的精神、信念等物質(zhì)化并加以表現(xiàn)，即用有形的物質(zhì)傳達(dá)無形的精神。
三、結(jié)語
面對形勢嚴(yán)峻的新冠肺炎疫情，新聞美術(shù)工作者雖不能奮戰(zhàn)在一線，但宣傳的力量不可小覷。新聞內(nèi)容可以傳播真實(shí)的事態(tài)和準(zhǔn)確的信息，進(jìn)而消除群眾的疑慮，反映和指導(dǎo)輿論；而新聞插圖可以讓新聞的功能得以更有效、更深入人心的達(dá)成，藝術(shù)化的新聞插圖能夠直接作用于人們的內(nèi)心，潛移默化地影響人們的心理，傳遞積極的信念并引導(dǎo)大眾審美。
插圖，尤其是新聞插圖，在不同的時(shí)代中、不同的主題下、不同的載體上，以及面對不同的讀者時(shí)，其功能性和傳播特點(diǎn)也有很大差異。在新時(shí)代語境和新媒介環(huán)境下，對于新聞插圖來說，應(yīng)順勢而為、應(yīng)時(shí)而變，有效發(fā)揮其特有的功能，吸引更多讀者關(guān)注、加速和提升新聞傳播的效率和效果，提升報(bào)刊的視覺沖擊力、識(shí)別性和審美特質(zhì)，并在普及大眾審美、滿足大眾日益提高的審美需求方面發(fā)揮應(yīng)有的作用。
（李旻/中國日報(bào)社）
注釋：
[1] 資料來源：中國日報(bào)中文網(wǎng)， http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/static_c/gyzgrbwz.html.
[2] 童兵 , 陳絢 . 新聞傳播學(xué)大辭典 [M].北京 : 中國大百科全書出版社 ,2014：5.
