Weekly News Collection

ECONOMY
China’s macro economy running smoothly
On Dec. 16, Fan Zhiyong, a research fellow from the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China released a monthly report on macroeconomic indicators at a meeting in Beijing. According to the report, in November, China’s economy entered a stage of steady growth. Increasing private investment is the prerequisite for maintaining steady growth. Cutting capacity and other measures of supply-side structural reform raised the price of up-stream products to some extent, which is conducive to increasing profits of up-stream enterprises and accelerating deleveraging. In November, the producer price index remained high, and its rise will slow down in a short period. It is unlikely that the consumer price index will go up. The RMB exchange rate and cross-border capital flows were also running smoothly. The influence of the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates and reduce the size of its balance sheet on the Chinese economy was controllable in general.

EDUCATION
Promoting education of Chinese in Southeast Asia
More than 100 scholars and experts from China and 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations attended an international symposium on training talent with Mandarin proficiency in Southeast Asia within the Belt and Road framework held by South China Normal University. Wu Jian, vice-president of the university, proposed several suggestions. The first one is to innovate language schools at home and abroad. The second suggestion is to strengthen scientific research on the Chinese language by building alliances among countries and regions. For example, mechanisms should be built for academic exchanges around the theme of Belt and Road construction. Lastly, we should make Chinese culture play a role in improving the quality of language education in Southeast Asia.

HISTORY
Study of historic image materials should be strengthened
The fourth academic symposium on Chinese historiophoty was held from Dec. 16 to 17 in Beijing. Zhou Yong, a professor from Southwest University in Chongqing Mulicipality, said that historiophoty is still in its infancy in China. In particular, there has been no systemic compilation and study of basic historical image materials. Li Xuetong, a research fellow from the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, talked about the earliest images of China seen by the Western world. They are the 150 copperplate illustrations in Johan Nieuhof’s The First Visit to China by the Dutch. Nieuhof followed the Dutch East India Company to China during the reign of Emperor Shunzhi in the early Qing Dynasty. These illustrations provide a panoramic portrait of China at the time and are valuable materials with great historical significance.

CULTURE
Scholars discuss ethnic cultural recognition
The seventh annual meeting of Social Sciences of Jilin Province took place on Dec. 15 at Jilin Normal University. Participating scholars carried out in-depth discussions on enhancing soft power, cultural recognition of ethnic groups and other topics. Zhao Yongchun from the College of the Humanities at Jilin Normal University said boosting regional culture and enhancing the soft power of Jilin Province requires more research on cultural awareness and recognition among ethnic groups. Cultural awareness in a region should take place on three levels. The first is cultural recognition within an ethnic group, the second is among ethnic groups in a region, and the third is within the whole country. Zhao held that the three levels should be integrated so boosting regional culture improves cultural awareness across the country.