Editor's Note:

Since 2012, China has witnessed an extraordinary economic transition, with historic achievements in all aspects of the economy from its size to quality. Such an unparalleled feat does not just happen, especially during a tumultuous period in the global geo-economic landscape and a tough phase in China's economic transformation and upgrading process. It was Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era that guided the country in overcoming various risks and challenges, and in keeping the China economic miracle alive.

As China embarked on the quest to become a great modern socialist country amid global changes unseen in a century, Xi's economic thought has been and will continue to be the guiding principle for development in China for years to come, and have great significance for the world. What is Xi's economic thought? What does it mean for China and the world? To answer these questions, the Global Times has launched this special coverage on Xi's major economic speeches and policies, and how they are put into practice to boost development in China and around the world.

Inside a bright white building at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, the tidy, futuristic environment exudes a palpable sense of exquisite technology. On the walls of the lobby, the atrium as well as the research and development (R&D) workshop, inspirational slogans offer more clues about the significance of the place: "Innovation-driven, Self-reliance, and self-fortification" and "Climbing the peak of technology."

The building is home to the Suzhou HYC Technology Co, founded in 2005. The company prides itself as the world's leading manufacturer of flat panel display touch detection equipment and one of the most competitive semiconductor testing equipment providers in China, according to the China Media Group.

Success in R&D over the years has propelled the private company to be the first firm listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's new Science and Technology Innovation Board, or the STAR market, a NASDAQ-style board for tech firms. That has also positioned the company at the forefront of China's drive for tech self-reliance and self-fortification.

On July 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the company during an inspection tour of Jiangsu, where he visited Suzhou and Nanjing, the provincial capital, and toured other facilities including an industrial park, business enterprises, a historic and cultural block, and a science lab, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged Jiangsu to take the lead in advancing Chinese modernization, pointing out that the key to Chinese modernization lies in the modernization of science and technology.

The president's inspection tour not only reflected the high hopes for Jiangsu's bigger role in the pursuit of Chinese modernization but also further highlighted Chinese path to modernization, in which technological innovation and high-quality development are of paramount importance, business insiders and analysts said.

Such a personal focus is crucial in leading the country toward tackling major technological and development bottlenecks, amid an increasingly complex and severe international geopolitical environment, they noted.

Encouragement for breakthroughs

Xi's focus on breakthroughs in core technologies such as semiconductor testing was on vivid display during his visit to the Suzhou HYC.

"The president stopped at the semiconductor testing area for a relatively longer period, asking me about the performance of the equipment, the progress of research and development, including making detailed inquiries, and the yield rate of the chips was tested," Chen Wenyuan, chairman of the Suzhou HYC Technology Co, told the Global Times.

Chen said that he briefed him about some domestic high-end requirements. "Both the hardware and software systems are developed by us independently. At present, this can solve some domestic high-end requirements for digital chip testing," Chen said. "The president gave me the impression that he is very amiable and approachable. During the visit, he encouraged us to climb to peak of technology on numerous occasions."

Encouraging companies and researchers to develop technologies was a general theme of Xi's inspection tour in Jiangsu. At the Suzhou Industrial Park, Xi emphasized the crucial role of hi-tech parks in achieving self-reliance and self-strength in science and technology.

As the US and some of its allies continue to step up technological crackdowns on China, including restrictions on chip exports among other high-tech components to China, in an attempt to contain the world's second-largest economy, achieving self-reliance and self-fortification has become a top priority for China. This has also become a major focus in Xi's major speeches and inspection tours.

On Tuesday, a meeting of the central commission for deepening overall reform stressed the need to be prepared to deal with worst-case and extreme-case scenarios to promptly improve national security systems and mechanisms. While presiding over the meeting, Xi stressed that it is important to advance the reform of the remuneration system for university teachers and research personnel as a pivotal boost toward the development of education, science and technology, and talent.

At the meeting, various documents, including those establishing new systems for a higher-level open economy to build a new development paradigm and reform of the remuneration system in higher education institutions and research institutes, were examined and approved.

In Nanjing, Xi visited the Purple Mountain Laboratories, where he inspected a 6G comprehensive lab, among others, to learn about efforts being made toward major sci-tech breakthroughs. While inspecting the NARI Group Corporation, Xi learned about the enterprise's efforts in developing core technologies, ensuring grid security and power supply, and promoting energy transition.

"The goal of Xi's inspection tour in Jiangsu was to clearly emphasize innovation-driven development," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times, noting that the report to the 20th CPC National Congress underscored the importance of high-quality development.

"An important connotation of high-quality development is innovation. In the face of increasingly fierce international competition, it is very important for us to achieve innovation-driven development," Cong said, adding that Jiangsu offers a great example in pursuing innovation-driven, high-quality development.
High hopes for economic powerhouse

The president's trip to the economic and technological powerhouse came just four months after he participated in a deliberation with deputies from a Jiangsu Province delegation at the first session of the 14th National People's Congress during the two sessions in March, where he stressed that high-quality development is of top priority in building China into a modern socialist country in all respects.

This reflected the great importance attached to and high hopes for Jiangsu's bigger leading role in advancing Chinese modernization, thanks to its strength in various aspects, including innovation and manufacturing.

During the inspection tour, Xi lauded the strengths of Jiangsu's solid industrial foundation, rich scientific and educational resources, sound business environment, and huge market share. He urged the province to continue to play an exemplary role in promoting reform, innovation, and high-quality development, as well as in contributing to China's efforts in fostering a new pattern of development.

In 2022, Jiangsu's total R&D investment reached 370 billion yuan, up 60 percent from 2017, contributing more than 12 percent of China's total, according to local official data. Jiangsu's R&D spending accounted for more than 3 percent of its GDP for the first time, on par with that of innovative countries and regions. There are more than 37,000 high-tech firms in the province.

Located in the Yangtze River Delta region, Jiangsu is one of the most developed provinces in China in terms of manufacturing, and also a leader in the country's sci-tech innovation and industrial upgrading, and has seen fruitful outcomes in a variety of aspects, Tian Yun, a Beijing-based economist, told the Global Times.

The Suzhou Industrial Park is an embodiment of the province's strengths in the high-tech and manufacturing sectors. Established in 1994, the park, which covers an area of 278 square kilometers, is home to 2,489 nationally grown high-tech enterprises, according to official data.

The output value of high-tech industries at the park accounts for 74.8 percent of the total output value of industries above a designated size, and in comprehensives when evaluated among other national economic development zones, the park has ranked first for seven consecutive years.

"Our success so far would be impossible without the support of the complete supply chains of the Suzhou Industrial Park, the city of Suzhou, and the Yangtze River Delta," Chen said.
Local entrepreneurship, global cooperation

Such complete supply chains and overall economic and technological strength inspire great entrepreneurship among the locals, including those in completely different sectors apart from the high-tech industry. And such, entrepreneurship is vibrant in every corner of Suzhou.

Not far from the Suzhou Industrial Park sits the Pingjiang Historic and Cultural Block, known for its rich history spanning over 2,500 years. Different from the futuristic features at the industrial park, Pingjiang possesses an artistic and harmonious atmosphere paired with the ubiquitous sights of street art and residents tending to their plants and pets.

During his trip to Suzhou, Xi also visited the area, noting that the fine embodiment of traditional Chinese culture in qualities such as resilience, patience, and perseverance, have become an integral part of the Chinese national spirit.

Zhang Yingying, head of the Niujiaqiang Community in the Pingjiang sub-district, vividly recalls the scene of the president's visit. "He told us that this place is filled with historical sites, scenic spots, and culture, and living here is truly fortunate. The words resonated deeply with the crowd… and I, too, was among the crowd, and my eyes welled up with tears as I pondered the profound meaning behind the residents' overwhelming happiness," Zhang told the Global Times.

Having moved to this particular community in 2008, Zhang has since witnessed the implementation of various livelihood projects aimed at improving the quality of life for the residents, from the installation of modern toilets to solving the problem of clothes drying, and organizing once chaotic electrical wires.

Zhang said that in recent years, the community has experienced a surge in entrepreneurial spirit, with more and more individuals willing to start businesses, open guesthouses, and establish trendy cafes, breathing new life into its historic streets.

During the visit, Xi also said that Suzhou has excelled in blending tradition with modernity, simultaneously promoting historical and cultural inheritance and boosting high-tech innovation and high-quality development.

This also resonates deeply with Lu Jianying, an inheritor of the Suzhou embroidery tradition, a form of intangible cultural heritage. A third-generation inheritor from a family of embroiderers, Lu began practicing embroidery at a very young age and has been involved in the craft for decades. She owns an embroidery shop in the Pingjiang Historic and Cultural Block.

Xi visited the shop and showed interest in the traditional art, which dates back over 2,000 years, according to Xinhua.

Lu recalled that the president keenly examined the showcased works and listened intently to the introduction. "Upon hearing his words, I felt a warm feeling in my heart, a feeling of artistic recognition," Lu told the Global Times, noting that she plans to collaborate with her daughter to better promote Suzhou embroidery with the help of the internet and cultural and creative products.

Suzhou has another calling card - a major hub for international cooperation. The Suzhou Industrial Park, specifically, which is a major cooperation project between China and Singapore, is known as "a major window for China's reform and opening up" and "a successful example of international cooperation."

As of June 2023, the park had attracted 104 Fortune 500 companies carrying out 174 projects, with the total investment in foreign capital reaching $40 billion, according to official data. At the end of 2022, the park hosted more than 200 R&D facilities from multinational companies, according to official data.

During his visit to the park, Xi emphasized expanding international cooperation to build world-class hi-tech parks that are open and driven by innovation.

For many companies like the Suzhou HYC, even as they continue to pursue independent technological innovation, global cooperation is still an integral part.

It has been front-page news in the Solomon Islands these days that a Chinese naval hospital ship docked at the port of Honiara for the first time.

The ship, known as the Ark Peace, arrived at the Pacific Island country on August 19 to a huge warm welcome. Its mission is to offer free medical services to local people until August 27.

At the dock's waiting area, the Global Times reporters in Honiara saw people waiting in order to board the ship. After they boarded the ship, they would first register, undergo triage and examination, and then top medical experts from major naval hospitals in China would provide them with treatment plans. The patients would receive medication, medical equipment, and even undergo surgery on board.

On the first day alone, the hospital received nearly 1,000 patients.

Traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, which is unfamiliar to the islanders, was also popular. People gave thumbs-up when they experienced acupuncture and cupping treatment.

"It's just overwhelming to come on board, and to see our people receiving that kind of assistance is just moving," Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavare told the Global Times during his time aboard the Ark Peace on Sunday.

"From this visit, you can sense love and sympathy," Sogavare remarked, noting that the doctors and the ship have brought hope to many who might not have access to such services locally.

Living in one of the least developed countries in the region, the people suffer from a lack of medical care. The Ark Peace brought advanced medical services to the people of the country, which shows that China, as a great country, is committed to delivering peace and love to the international community, Sogavare said.
Setting sail in early July, the Ark Peace was on its humanitarian medical mission, Mission Harmony 2023, to Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and East Timor. This marks the first time a Chinese naval vessel has visited Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.

According to the original plan, the hospital ship docks at one port in each country, providing weeklong medical services free of charge to local people, personnel from Chinese institutions stationed in the country and other overseas Chinese.

The hospital ship has 126 medical staffers and boasts 26 clinical departments and seven auxiliary departments. It is capable of carrying out more than 40 kinds of examinations, treatments, and operations in general surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics, gynecology and other disciplines.

The ship is the first standard ocean-going maritime hospital independently designed and built by China. Since its entry into active service in 2008, the hospital ship has visited 43 countries and regions, providing medical services for more than 250,000 patients and performing more than 1,500 surgeries on voyages covering over 260,000 nautical miles.

Exchanges and professional seminars with relevant countries will also be conducted as part of this mission. On Tuesday, a small squad from the Ark Peace visited Honiara's Chung Wah School.

"Chung Wah" means "China" in Cantonese, one of the many dialects of the Chinese language, as the school was founded by the Chinese community about 80 years ago and is still under the support of local Chinese community.

The students, waving small national flags of China and the Solomon Islands, joyfully experienced traditional Chinese culture, such as martial arts, Chinese songs and cupping therapy from traditional Chinese medicine. "The girls from the Ark Peace are so pretty and the guys are handsome. The performance was so beautiful," Unity Arumae, a 6th-grade student, told the Global Times with excitement after the event, saying that she has learned about China more.

The Solomon Islands is located in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, with a land area of 28,400 square kilometers and a population of about 720,000. It was one of the main battlefields in the Pacific region of World War II. The famous Battle of Guadalcanal took place here.

In September 2019, China and the Solomon Islands officially established diplomatic relations. In just four years, the relationship between the two countries has brought profound benefits to the people of the Solomon Islands.

In addition to the medical services that the Ark Peace provided to the country, eight members of the Chinese medical team, selected from Guizhou Medical University and its affiliated hospitals by Southwest China's Guizhou Province, have also been stationed in the Solomon Islands for two years.

Editor's Note:

Chinese people believe that letters are as valuable as gold. For thousands of years, letters, across mountains and oceans, have been delivering writers' sentiments and conveyed friendship and expectations.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, has managed to find time to reply to some letters from different parts of society and the world despite his busy work schedule.

Through his letters, Xi has corresponded with international friends from all walks of life on numerous occasions, part of a series of excellent stories of China's international exchanges in the new era. The letters have also added vivid color to the diplomacy between China and other countries.

The Global Times traced and contacted some of the recipients of Xi's letters, to hear the inspiring stories behind the letters and their communication with the president.

In this installment, the Global Times spoke with Chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation and a Flying tiger veteran who is 102 years old. Through the interviews, they not only shared their excitement of receiving the letter from Xi, but also illustrated some stories between the Flying Tiger and China, as well as why it is necessary to pass the spirit behind these stories.

A recent letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping has once again emphasized the historical significance of the Flying Tigers and the enduring wartime friendship between the US and China. This historical perspective provides valuable insights into the lasting impact of this era on contemporary China-US relations.

Furthermore, the indomitable spirit of the Flying Tigers is poised to continue inspiring future generations. It serves as a testament to the unwavering determination of those who are committed to preserving and sharing these remarkable stories. They are resolute in their mission to ensure that the legacy of the Flying Tigers lives on, never to be forgotten.

Xi recently replied to a letter from Chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation Jeffrey Greene and Flying Tigers veterans Harry Moyer and Mel McMullen.

In his reply on September 12, Xi said he hopes that the spirit of Flying Tigers will be carried on from generation to generation between the Chinese and American peoples.

"I was heartened by the great enthusiasm of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation and the veterans of Flying Tigers in letting more Chinese and Americans learn about the stories of the Flying Tigers over the years. Inspired by this, a growing number of young Americans have joined the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools and Youth Leadership Program, and nearly 500 Flying Tigers veterans and several hundred of their family members have visited China. I wish to pay tribute to you for all this," Xi wrote.

Salute from China

In a thorough zoom interview with Global Times recently, Greene said that it was a "flabbergasted moment" when he heard back from Xi within only two weeks. "We are extraordinarily humbled that President Xi thought enough of the Flying Tigers. It shows his words, his belief that China never forgets its old friends."

"Having my name on a letter of the Chinese president is pretty impressive. It was very humbling to other two writers knowing that president of China is reaching out to them and also to their family members. They are so touched," Greene said.

In his letter, Xi said that "in the past, our two peoples fought the Japanese fascists together, and forged a deep friendship that withstood the test of blood and fire. In the future, the two major countries shoulder even more important responsibility for world peace, stability and development."

"We therefore should, and we must, respect each other, coexist in peace and pursue win-win cooperation," he said.

Noting that "in growing China-US relations, the hope lies in the people, the foundation lies among the people, and the future lies with the youth," Xi said that "a sound and steady development of the relationship in the new era requires the input and support of a new generation of Flying Tigers."

Recently, Greene, Moyer and McMullen jointly wrote a letter to Xi, in which they detailed the efforts of the foundation and Flying Tigers veterans in helping promote China-US friendly exchanges, and expressed their willingness to inherit and carry forward the precious spirit of China-US cooperation.

Following Greene's initial decision to write the letter, Harry Moyer joined in and was shocked as well when received Xi's reply in a quick manner. "To me, it was almost 'Earth Shattering' that he answered so quickly and so positively - his words clearly demonstrate that China indeed remembers its old friends," Moyer told the Global Times.

Never to be forgotten

The friendship between the Flying Tigers veterans and the Chinese people has been inherited by the Chinese government and public over the years.

The Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco held a celebration marking the 102nd birthday of Flying Tigers veteran Harry Moyer on October 30, 2022. Video shows that Consul General of China in San Francisco Zhang Jianmin was playing the harmonica with Moyer's friends and singing "Happy Birthday."

In China, the story of the Flying Tigers is widely known and has become a fundamental part of many Chinese people's understanding of the US.

In 1941, a group of volunteer US pilots, later known as the Flying Tigers, came to China, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese people to fight invading Japanese troops. They flew over the Himalayas, helping to ship strategic supplies to break through the Japanese blockade.

During their time in China, the Flying Tigers collectively achieved remarkable feats during their service, downing over 2,600 Japanese military aircraft, sinking or damaging 44 enemy ships, and contributing to the demise of more than 60,000 Japanese soldiers.

Moyer joined the US Army Air Force following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He is one of the few remaining WWII pilots and the only one believed to still be licensed to fly solo.

Moyer's squadron joined the 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th Air Force in China in 1944 and was primarily responsible for protecting Chinese airfields and the B-29 bombers tasked with counter-attacks on Japan.

"We, who were the pilots, the air crewmen who manned the bombers and transports, the ground crewmen who worked night and day to keep our aircraft flying and combat ready, were all young men, and the time we spent in helping the Chinese people defend their homeland and battling a tough and dangerous enemy was in many ways the biggest single experience of our lives," Moyer recalled.

"I was impressed with the remarkable determination of the Chinese people in their determination to resist the brutal military aggression of Imperial Japan. They suffered so much and they sacrificed so much in their resistance. Our memories of China and friendships made among her people has been in so many ways remained the defining experience of our lives," he said.

Founded in 1998, the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation is an American civil friendship group aimed at promoting the study and commemoration of China-US historical aviation events. It is a nongovernmental US organization aimed at rekindling the spirit of cooperation between the two peoples and enhancing their friendship and understanding.

According to Greene, the foundation has received more than 1,000 photos provided by Flying Tigers veterans, which have been exhibited in three naval museums around the US. It has also brought 500 veterans and their family members to 25 cities around China, receiving a warm welcome from local Chinese communities.

Meanwhile, Greene's organization has enlisted the participation of three schools in the US and three in China for the Flying Tigers Friendship School and Youth Leadership Program. This initiative facilitates student exchanges between both countries through online classes and summer camps that have covered about 15,000 students in the two countries in total, according to Greene.

Greene said that many Americans know a few about what happened in China during the World War II. "They watch Top Gun and Band of Brothers, knowing about the European theatre, the Normandy, the Pearl Harbor… but there is not much work about the stories in China, such as the Nanjing Massacre," Greene said.

"So that is the mission of my foundation, both in the US and in China is to get people to scratch their heads and say, 'tell me more,'" he said.

Passing on the spirit

The history is fading into the distance with aging veterans gradually diminishing in number, but the story of the Flying Tigers remains vividly alive. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of individuals and organizations, such as Greene and his organization, the spirit of the Flying Tigers is poised to be carried forward by the next generation of young people in both China and the US.

Soon, with Greene's foundation, Flying Tigers veterans Moyer, who will turn 103 and McMullen, who will turn 99, will embark on a journey to China during which they will help to pass on the spirit of these heroic flyers to the next generation.

"If the youth remember it, they can use that memory," Greene said. "With the shared American and Chinese legacy of the Flying Tigers, the next generation of young people can do so much. We can do so much for relations between our countries. So much."

"It is so important to China and the US to have common, strong, calm and interest, which is also important to the whole world, because the relationship between China and the US is the most important relationship on the planet. And when it works, it will work for people of the two countries, and for the rest of the world," Greene said.

Before this reply letter to the Flying Tigers, Xi also replied to a letter from the US-China Youth and Student Exchange Association and friends from all walks of life in the northwestern US state of Washington, as well as a letter from John Easterbrook, grandson of the late US General Joseph Stilwell.

In his replies, Xi expressed the hope that the peoples of both countries would strengthen communication, enhance understanding and expand cooperation, injecting new vitality into the development of bilateral relations.

Moyer said that because of the scope of our World War II cooperation and ultimate success as close allies, both countries can draw strength and inspiration by remembering what our cooperation and solidarity achieved during the darkest years of the war.

"We must keep the bond between the US and China alive, as it was forged in blood and honor," he said.

On the morning of September 7, while I was attending the 7th Meeting of the China-Australia High-level Dialogue in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in western Beijing, a young colleague of mine texted me a short message saying "Australian PM Anthony Albanese confirms visit to China 'later this year.'" 

Later that same day, in response to a question, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a routine press conference, "China welcomes Prime Minister Albanese to visit China at the invitation of Premier Li Qiang and stands ready to work with Australia to make sound preparations for the visit."

To people who have been keeping a watchful and hopeful eye on the development of the bilateral ties, this is really good news.

Back in December 2017, when I participated in, as a member of the Chinese delegation, the 4th Meeting of the China-Australia High-level Dialogue held in Melbourne, I also attended an event to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-Australia diplomatic relations. I still keep in my souvenir collection a pin that the Australian side made to mark the special occasion.

Then and there, it never occurred to me that bilateral ties would be put on a twisty and bumpy road in the next few years. Some overseas media outlets even said that bilateral ties had reached their lowest point since the establishment of the diplomatic relations in 1972. I don't think this is totally an exaggeration.

Until before May 2022, China-Australia relations were severely damaged due to the unwise and shortsighted China policies adopted by the previous Australian government. Bilateral trade suffered even more significantly. 

Fortunately, with the joint efforts the two sides made in the past year, bilateral ties began to be warming up by the end of 2022. The resumption of the 7th edition of the high-level dialogue after a three-year hiatus － being held in each country in turn since its initial launch in 2014 till 2019 － indicated that bilateral ties have bottomed out. The latest dialogue was held to put into concrete actions items mentioned in the China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue Joint Outcomes Statement that the two sides issued after Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese foreign minister, held the sixth round of China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on December 21, 2022 in Beijing. 

The highly anticipated announcement of Albanese's scheduled China visit is timely and far more significant. It is an explicit signal that China-Australia relations are on their way to get back on the right track.

As one of the participants, I was not supposed to write about, in whichever capacity, who said what during the one-day, close-door high-level dialogue, which was conducted by "36 representatives from various sectors of the two countries for in-depth and constructive discussions on a wide range of issues concerning China-Australia relations in a candid, friendly and warm atmosphere," as Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the routine press briefing. 

But as a longtime observer of China-Australia relations, I would very much like to contribute for the betterment of bilateral ties by putting down my suggestions for the people-to-people exchanges.

First of all, a sound bilateral relationship is the foundation and prerequisite to boost people-to-people exchanges. To further advance bilateral exchanges in education, culture, tourism, media and art, and to consolidate the popular support for the bilateral relations in the respective country, we have to further improve the current status of bilateral ties. The two sides need to have more communications to reduce biases, to look at each other's development in a more positive perspective, to understand each other's political intentions more actively and to keep discarding the Cold War mentality. They need to establish more mutual trusts, continuously increase reciprocal inclusiveness, decrease or even get rid of misunderstandings and build up more links between the two countries.

Above all, mutual respect is the key to the improvement of the China-Australia relations. 

Mutual respect, as I understand, is not just about respecting each other's economic power and the benefits that one side has brought to the other side. More importantly and significantly, it is about respecting each other's sovereignty, core interests and grave concerns, respecting different political systems, different histories and cultures, and managing properly the divergences.

China has always been showing its willingness to deepen bilateral ties with Australia in each and every sector. China's good will and the great efforts it has made in this regard should be cherished and respected, but should by no means be taken for granted.

Just as Mao Ning told the September 7 press briefing, "China always believes that a sound and stable China-Australia relationship is in the fundamental interests of the peoples of both countries, and conducive to peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the wider world."

Both sides should make greater efforts to maintain the encouraging development momentum of the bilateral ties and work harder to push forward the much expected people-to-people exchanges.

According to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the first round of dumping the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea has recently been completed. TEPCO said it had released 7,800 tons of "treated" water with 1.244 trillion becquerels of tritium as planned. 

Like before, all data available this time come from TEPCO's sole source with no reference to other radioactive particles apart from tritium, nor any endorsement from any independent third parties. This ongoing self-willed practice continues to raise more questions and concerns from people living in Pacific Rim countries, about the scientific rationality of the discharge as well as the credibility of TEPCO's operation.

The Japanese authority preferred to use the term "treated water" to create the impression that the heavily contaminated water with a huge amount of radioactive particles has been dealt with properly. The only figure of tritium concentration seems low and safe judging by certain "criteria." Yet, as already has been revealed by many reports, the contaminated water contains, even after being treated, various radioactive particles such as carbon-14, iodine-129, caesium-137, among others. Exposure to these particles will have a grave impact on the cells and organs in human bodies. Without data on all the nuclides released into the sea, the result of the detection from the Japanese side has too many defects and cannot be considered scientific.  

What is more worrisome is how the data are collected and processed. Ever since the day the Japanese government made the decision to discharge the contaminated water, all the data that should help the public to make the judgment come from one single provider, TEPCO. This is the very company that is liable for the whole mess and one that doesn't enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad due to its dishonorable history of concealing accidents, delaying response and violating its commitments. 

Even on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was said to participate in the monitoring of the discharge, the data published so far are all from TEPCO. There is no trace of any independent engagement from the international community at all. Due to the nature of the dumping, which definitely affects the whole globe, a multi-parties participation in the monitoring and supervision of this operation is imperative. Without this, the whole process could hardly be deemed as scientific.

Furthermore, the discharge of the nuclear-contaminated water is so far said to continue for at least 30 years. During such a long process, the potential risk of accidents will increase as the discharge facilities age with time. Neither TEPCO nor the Japanese government has provided any preparedness plan which should be a common practice in a long-term plan. Leaving it be and non-action is neither scientific nor responsible. In the case of this dumping operation, time won't heal but only aggravate the damage. Therefore, an independent and transparent mechanism must be established to monitor the marine ecosystem over a long period of time right from this moment.

Due to all these reasons, it is understandable and reasonable that people from neighboring countries have great concerns about the behavior that will affect the food they are eating, the environment they are living in and the way they are making a living. No one has offered them the full picture. No one has shown them the real undertone. Maybe no one dares to. So they have the right to question, to protest, and to take measures such as limiting the import of Fukushima seafood to counteract the severe impact. Even the US government, although praising Japan for its discharge by lip service, has banned the import of seafood from coastal regions in Japan that are most likely contaminated by the discharge since early this year.Using this kind of "praise" as a pretence of "support from the world" is cheating.

Disregarding the anger from those directly affected and blaming it as irrational to distort the narrative, as what the Japanese prime minister has done recently, is morally wrong. The best way to calm the wrath and concerns over the discharge is to immediately stop dumping contaminated water. As China and other stakeholders have pointed out, if the nuclear-contaminated water is truly safe, Japan wouldn't have to discharge it into the sea -  and certainly shouldn't if it's not.

Editor's Note:  

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Through the lens of foreign pundits, we take a look at 10 years of the BRI - how it achieves win-win cooperation between China and participating countries of the BRI and how it has given the people of these countries a sense of fulfillment.

Serbia, a country from Eastern and Central Europe, is one of the most positive examples of cooperation under the BRI framework. In an interview with Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen, Katarina Zakic (Zakic), head of the Regional Center "Belt and Road" in Belgrade, the Institute of International Politics and Economics, shared her views why Serbia is distinct. 

This is the 16th piece of the series.

GT: What do you think of the advancement and development of the BRI over the past 10 years?

Zakic: Since the beginning, it was very clear that this is something extraordinary that doesn't happen every day. We knew that it would be a huge project and huge undertaking by China, to develop it and to fund it.

We have approached the 10th anniversary. When we look at the results, they are really impressive. Regarding the investments, we are reaching the amount of $1 trillion. Who can say which other countries invested so much in one project throughout 10 years? Even many of those projects do not last 10 years. Around 40 million people worldwide do not have the burden of extreme poverty in which they were living before these projects. 

In general, China has achieved excellent results. We are impressed by the results in transportation infrastructure and especially the types of the countries in which they were conducted. Those were the countries that needed those infrastructure projects. One of the reasons that I highly appreciate throughout this project and the idea that China had behind it was that each country should nominate the project it wants to conduct. And we would very much appreciate China's assistance in those regards. We should also highly appreciate that China did not only invest in energy and transportation. It also invested a lot in health sector, in tourism, in culture, in buildings and real estate. 

GT: What makes Serbia the pillar of China-Central and Eastern Europe cooperation?

Zakic: Serbia is in Europe, but it's not an EU member. This is our strategic situation, because for many years, we are still trying to become an EU member. Our cooperation with China and the successful results are partially due to this fact that we are not an EU member, because otherwise the politics within the European Union will affect our relations with China. 

We have comprehensive cooperation with China. We have relations on very high political levels. We have signed with China the comprehensive strategic agreement. Then we have excellent cooperation on economic level, especially regarding the loans and the investments that we have, not only throughout the BRI, but also throughout the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) cooperation framework. 

Not only political and economic relations are on the high level, but also people-to-people and cultural relations are on a very high level. All these elements help Serbia become the pillar of China's projects and China's relations in the Western market. Serbia didn't have any kind of suspicions or negative reactions toward deepening our cooperation. Each government, starting from 2008, just built up that operation on even higher and higher level. We are in a way complementing each other. We respect each other's policies. Even in some cases when we have some kind of problem, for example, on economic level or regarding the investments, there was always an understanding that we should speak about that and resolve it. In this way we distinct, especially within Balkan countries.

GT: Does Serbia face any pressure from the West in its cooperation with China? What domestic factors in Serbia will promote its deep integration into the BRI?

Zakic: For 22 years, Serbia is trying to become an EU member. When you are trying to become an EU member, all your policies and strategic decisions, not only in economic sense, but also in political sense, have to be in reliance to the EU policies. Countries within the EU have very different kind of cooperation with China. Hungary and Greece have more friendly cooperation with China than Germany, even though Germany is the main partner of China within the EU.

There are concerns coming from the EU about Serbia's cooperation with China. But there are also concerns about some other parts of our journey to the EU. China is just one of the things that the EU wants in a way to change within Serbia.  

In recent years, people in our government really did have the opportunity to learn a lot about China and now they have a deeper understanding about China. Many of us nowadays do understand China in a completely different sense. It was not something that was in a way normal for them. In previous time, for example, when I went to the primary school and high school, usually the students within those levels of education learn about history coming from Europe. They do not learn so much about the Middle East or Asia. Thanks to the China-CEEC and the BRI, we have more opportunities to learn. 

Nowadays, there is a better sense of understanding between all levels of the people within Serbia to understand Chinese people and Chinese culture. For example, Chinese restaurants are very popular in Serbia and people very much like Chinese food and they use chopsticks. So this is something normal to you. But for us, it means that many things in Serbia are big change. And for example, there are more and more books about China in Serbia.

GT: A large number of Chinese companies view Serbia as a "bridgehead" to enter the European market. What do you think of this trend?

Zakic: I think that's a very wise decision. There are many advantages for the Chinese companies to be here. We are in Europe. Our geographical position is very good. But since we are not the EU member and our economy is still developing, there are many advantages for the Chinese companies to have industrial house here or service house here in Serbia. Then because we are very close to the most developed countries within the EU, it is a great opportunity for the Chinese companies to open their production companies or services here in Belgrade.

Also, Serbia is in a way bridge between the East and the West. There are many opportunities that the Serbia government is giving the foreign investors here who want to operate in our country. It's not only just for the Chinese companies. It's a general policy regarding direct investments in Serbia, but I think that many Chinese companies realized all of the benefits to come to Serbia. 

We have five Chinese companies that work in the automotive car industry. They use Serbia as a hub for production. They export all of those things to the EU market. For them, it's ideal. They are very nearby to Europe. So the transportation costs are not so high. All of these things helped those Chinese companies make a decision to come into Serbia. They have the friendly environment, good labor force, very secure political and economic environment. And they can export to the EU market. 

GT: During the G20 summit in September, the US and some other countries outlined plans for a rail and shipping corridor that would connect India with the Middle East and ultimately Europe, another counterweight of the BRI. What do you think of this plan?

Zakic: I see it in a way to counterbalance China's economic and political rise. This project is just one of the cases in which we can see that currently we have some kind of situation that we had during the Cold War, in which the former Soviet Union had very dynamic battle with the US regarding who will have more power and recognition and who will have a better economic success. Now we have that kind of thing going on between China, the US, the EU and of course India as the developing country and economy that wants to be part of this play. 

I do see this project as the competition toward the BRI. But we need to wait and see. This is just a preliminary thing. At this moment, we do not know the financial construction of the whole project. We do not know how much money it will take, who will fund it, and how it will develop. 

GT: Some European countries, following the US, have been calling to de-risk from China. What do you think of this move?

Zakic: The US had a specific situation for many years being one global superpower. And it lasted for long. They had a very clear situation that there was not a power that would become in some periods of time economically and militarily strong to question the US position in this world.

When China started to rise, they were very aware that the Chinese economic development is very strong and very fast. But they were not in a way aware that China would become such a global political and military power as well. When you are no longer No.1, or somebody is questioning your position as a No.1 power in the world, of course that power would always try to use all tools and means to question the other part.

I see this part of political narrative of de-risking as a part of the US trying to still be the No.1 power in the world. At this moment, de-risking is just a part of the narrative to in a way encourage other countries not to cooperate with China so much and to questions China's position in everyday world. Some countries in Europe do try to use it as a term to become not so dependent on China and change this situation to be more self-sufficient. I see it as really a political narrative to destabilize China's position, not only in international politics, but also international economics.

As the 8-day Golden Week holidays approach, tourists are swarming to China's famous landmarks and scenic spots like Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, the Bund in Shanghai, and West Lake in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. The vibrant atmosphere, buzzing with excitement and activities, serves as a vivid reflection of the unwavering confidence of the Chinese people in the country's economy and bright future.

An estimated around 800 million travel trips will be made during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays which will kick off on Friday. With record demand for travel and the sustained economic impact of the Asian Games, this year's Golden Week holidays are poised to become the most vibrant and prosperous in recent memory. 

As an important window to observe economic vitality, the upcoming Golden Week holidays will lead a significant consumption rebound in the fourth quarter, playing a crucial role in driving economic growth throughout the entire year, experts said.

Despite downward pressure due to multiple factors, China's consumer market is currently displaying signs of recovery and growth. The resilience, potential, and dynamism of consumption remain strong and unchanged, experts said, refuting Western media and politicians' bearish outlook on Chinese economy.

Hundreds of millions hitting the road

Latest data on holiday travel, accommodation, and tourism products all pointed to a stark rebound from the levels seen in 2019, indicating a remarkable resurgence in consumption activity.

Wednesday marks the first day of the Golden Week holidays travel rush. The railway network in the Yangtze River Delta region is expected to deliver more than 2.5 million passenger trips on Wednesday, 600,000 above the 2019 level, representing growth of over 30 percent, according to China Railway Shanghai Group Co.

According to the China Tourism Academy, over 100 million travel trips will be made per day during the Golden Week holidays, far surpassing the levels of last year and 2019. In terms of commercial aviation, more than 21 million travelers will take flights in the span of eight days and an average of 14,000 domestic flights will be operated per day, up 18 percent from the same period in 2019. China Railway Group forecast that 190 million railway trips will be made during the holidays, up from the 138 million trips seen in 2019.

Hotel bookings for popular destinations have also surged. Data from Qunar showed that domestic hotel bookings for the holidays have increased by 514 percent compared to 2019.

Outbound tourism is expected to see a 20-fold year-on-year increase, according to online traveling platform Trip.com. Travel agency U-tour predicted the number of outbound travelers would exceed this year's May Day holidays by five folds.

According to the National Immigration Administration, the average daily number of inbound and outbound passenger trips during the holidays are expected to reach 1.58 million, three times higher than the same period last year.

Additionally, traveling to Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province has become a spotlight and a unique spark for holidays spending as the eight-day holidays coincide with the main competition days of the Hangzhou Asian Games which last from September 23 to October 8.
Data from the online travel platform Fliggy shows that during the Asian Games, international flight bookings bound for Hangzhou have surged 20 times compared to the same period last year. Train ticket bookings have recorded a 4.7 times year-on-year growth, and hotel bookings near venues have increased by three times compared to last year. The other five cities in the province co-hosting the games also experienced a boom in tourist numbers.

With a substantial surge in bookings for flights, train tickets, accommodations, and tourism products, this holidays break is expected to unleash further consumption potential which vividly illustrates the positive trajectory of the Chinese economy, experts said.

In light of record booking and travel data, indicating a growing consumption enthusiasm, Tian Yun, a Beijing based economist attributed the growth to the lengthier holidays break and spill-out effect of events like the Asian Games, which have injected energy into the economy.
Accelerator of economic growth in Q4

Experts predict that thanks to effective macroeconomic stimulus policies and the boost from the Golden Week holidays, consumption will bounce back strongly in the fourth quarter, playing a crucial role in driving economic growth for the entire year. They have also dismissed smear and bearish outlook painted by some foreign media and Western politicians about the Chinese economy.

China's retail sales, a main gauge of consumption, beat expectations in August thanks to a bumper summer travel peak and consumption-boosting measures, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Driven by the accelerated sales of travel and a wider range of spending options, retail sales of consumer goods in August recorded a year-on-year growth of 4.6 percent to 3.79 trillion yuan ($521.13 billion), 2.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate in the previous month, according to the NBS.

Experts said that the Golden Week holidays and the Asian Games will further accelerate the consumption recovery and economic growth in the fourth quarter, expecting more policy tools to kick in. In addition, the Belt and Road Summit in October and the China International Import Expo in November will both provide a strong boost to China's economy and development.

The extended holiday period provides a significant opportunity for a retail spending peak and is expected to have a significant impact on the GDP growth in the fourth quarter, acting as "an accelerator," Cong Yi, a professor from the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The Asian Games in particular will be a major boost for consumption-related sectors from sports and culture to catering for the host city and nearby cities in East China's Zhejiang Province as well as the Yangtze River Delta region, Cong added.

According to media reports, citing official information from Zhejiang Province, the preparations for the Asian Games between 2016 and 2020 are estimated to have added about 414.1 billion yuan to Hangzhou's economy, accounting for 7.6 percent of the city's total economic output during that time. It also led to an increase of around 103.3 billion yuan in government revenue, which is about 8.2 percent of the total revenue collected. Additionally, the Games has created job opportunities for approximately 670,000 people, accounting for 2.4 percent of the total employment during that period.

The consumption vitality generated by the Hangzhou Asian Games extends far beyond Hangzhou, with the ripple effect gradually emerging in various parts of Zhejiang Province and even the entire Yangtze River Delta region.

During the Asian Games, hotel bookings in Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua cities have all increased by more than fivefold compared to 2019, with Shaoxing experiencing the highest growth rate of 720 percent in hotel bookings.
Beyond the tourism, the sports craze sparked by the Asian Games has ignited the sports economy, sports manufacturing and foreign trade. According to customs data, the export of sports goods from Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province reached 5.08 billion yuan in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 33 percent.

Tian said that the sustained success of the Asian Games and other major events this year will continue to further drive not only domestic consumption but also international consumption, presenting a window for China's opening-up.

Expert noted that China's consumption potential remains untapped and a massive household saving indicates a significant market for emerging consumer goods and upgraded consumption needs.

By the end of August, the balance of savings deposits for urban and rural residents in China exceeded 7 trillion yuan for the first time, standing at 7.06 trillion yuan.

More can be done to stimulate the consumer market, Tian said, pointing to upgraded consumption demand and new consumption drivers.

New-energy vehicles, domestically produced 5G smartphones, domestically produced large aircraft, and the cruise economy will all become new growth points for China's consumer economy, Tian said.

He is confident that with the government's efforts, the gradual recovery of individuals from the pandemic's impact, the retail sales growth could reach 6 percent in the fourth quarter.

"It is expected that macro policies will focus on creating more jobs and promoting economic growth in the fourth quarter. It will also address long-term issues like aged care to boost market confidence," Tian said.
Li Yong, president of Chongqing Frontier Regional Economic Research Institute, told the Global Times that stimulating consumer spending through the issuance of shopping vouchers is a good method, especially for the catering and tourism sectors, which will encourage people to visit malls and take trips.

Experts also defied attacks by some Western politicians and media outlets that paint the Chinese economy as being at the cusp of collapse.

Cong dismissed smear from foreign media, as the trend of consumption upgrading in China's massive market of 1.4 billion people remains unchanged. He also noted that the bearish view on the Chinese economy is a long-standing line of attack from sections of the Western media, yet it has never managed to drag down China's economy.

"China is well on track to achieve the GDP growth target of around 5 percent for the whole year, and the final quarter growth will solidify the target," Cong said.

Tian predicted China's economic growth to grow at around 5.2 percent for this year.

"Actions speak louder than words. As China remains focused on its economic work, progressing at its own pace and avoiding empty rhetoric, there is no need to pay attention to Western attempts to discredit it," Li said, predicting China's economic growth would finish in a range of 5 percent to 5.2 percent this year.

It was one of the biggest climate change questions of the early 2000s: Had the planet’s rising fever stalled, even as humans pumped more heat-trapping gases into Earth’s atmosphere?

By the turn of the century, the scientific understanding of climate change was on firm footing. Decades of research showed that carbon dioxide was accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere, thanks to human activities like burning fossil fuels and cutting down carbon-storing forests, and that global temperatures were rising as a result. Yet weather records seemed to show that global warming slowed between around 1998 and 2012. How could that be?
After careful study, scientists found the apparent pause to be a hiccup in the data. Earth had, in fact, continued to warm. This hiccup, though, prompted an outsize response from climate skeptics and scientists. It serves as a case study for how public perception shapes what science gets done, for better or worse.

The mystery of what came to be called the “global warming hiatus” arose as scientists built up, year after year, data on the planet’s average surface temperature. Several organizations maintain their own temperature datasets; each relies on observations gathered at weather stations and from ships and buoys around the globe. The actual amount of warming varies from year to year, but overall the trend is going up, and record-hot years are becoming more common. The 1995 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, for instance, noted that recent years had been among the warmest recorded since 1860.

And then came the powerful El Niño of 1997–1998, a weather pattern that transferred large amounts of heat from the ocean into the atmosphere. The planet’s temperature soared as a result — but then, according to the weather records, it appeared to slacken dramatically. Between 1998 and 2012, the global average surface temperature rose at less than half the rate it did between 1951 and 2012. That didn’t make sense. Global warming should be accelerating over time as people ramp up the rate at which they add heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere.
By the mid-2000s, climate skeptics had seized on the narrative that “global warming has stopped.” Most professional climate scientists were not studying the phenomenon, since most believed the apparent pause fell within the range of natural temperature variability. But public attention soon caught up to them, and researchers began investigating whether the pause was a real thing. It was a high-profile shift in scientific focus.

“In studying that anomalous period, we learned a lot of lessons about both the climate system and the scientific process,” says Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist now with the technology company Stripe.

By the early 2010s, scientists were busily working to explain why the global temperature records seemed to be flatlining. Ideas included the contribution of cooling sulfur particles emitted by coal-burning power plants and heat being taken up by the Atlantic and Southern oceans. Such studies were the most focused attempt ever to understand the factors that drive year-to-year temperature variability. They revealed how much natural variability can be expected when factors such as a powerful El Niño are superimposed onto a long-term warming trend.

Scientists spent years investigating the purported warming pause — devoting more time and resources than they otherwise might have. So many papers were published on the apparent pause that scientists began joking that the journal Nature Climate Change should change its name to Nature Hiatus.
Then in 2015, a team led by researchers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a jaw-dropping conclusion in the journal Science. The rise in global temperatures had not plateaued; rather, incomplete data had obscured ongoing global warming. When more Arctic temperature records were included and biases in ocean temperature data were corrected, the NOAA dataset showed the heat-up continuing. With the newly corrected data, the apparent pause in global warming vanished. A 2017 study led by Hausfather confirmed and extended these findings, as did other reports.

Even after these studies were published, the hiatus remained a favored topic among climate skeptics, who used it to argue that concern over global warming was overblown. Congressman Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas who chaired the House of Representatives’ science committee in the mid-2010s, was particularly incensed by the 2015 NOAA study. He demanded to see the underlying data while also accusing NOAA of altering it. (The agency denied fudging the data.)

“In retrospect, it is clear that we focused too much on the apparent hiatus,” Hausfather says. Figuring out why global temperature records seemed to plateau between 1998 and 2012 is important — but so is keeping a big-picture view of the broader understanding of climate change. The hiccup represented a short fluctuation in a much longer and much more important trend.
Science relies on testing hypotheses and questioning conclusions, but here’s a case where probing an anomaly was taken arguably too far. It caused researchers to doubt their conclusions and spend large amounts of time questioning their well-established methods, says Stephan Lewandowsky, a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol who has studied climate scientists’ response to the hiatus. Scientists studying the hiatus could have been working instead on providing clear information to policy makers about the reality of global warming and the urgency of addressing it.

The debates over whether the hiatus was real or not fed public confusion and undermined efforts to convince people to take aggressive action to reduce climate change’s impacts. That’s an important lesson going forward, Lewandowsky says.

“My sense is that the scientific community has moved on,” he says. “By contrast, the political operatives behind organized denial have learned a different lesson, which is that the ‘global warming has stopped’ meme is very effective in generating public complacency, and so they will use it at every opportunity.”

Already, some climate deniers are talking about a new “pause” in global warming because not every one of the past five years has set a new record, he notes. Yet the big-picture trend remains clear: Global temperatures have continued to rise in recent years. The warmest seven years on record have all occurred since 2015, and each decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the one before.

The windy and chaotic remains surrounding recently exploded stars may be launching the fastest particles in the universe.

Highly magnetic neutron stars known as pulsars whip up a fast and strong magnetic wind. When charged particles, specifically electrons, get caught in those turbulent conditions, they can be boosted to extreme energies, astrophysicists report April 28 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. What’s more, those zippy electrons can then go on to boost some ambient light to equally extreme energies, possibly creating the very high-energy gamma-ray photons that led astronomers to detect these particle launchers in the first place.

“This is the first step in exploring the connection between the pulsars and the ultrahigh-energy emissions,” says astrophysicist Ke Fang of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in this new work.

Last year, researchers with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, or LHAASO, in China announced the discovery of the highest-energy gamma rays ever detected, up to 1.4 quadrillion electron volts (SN: 2/2/21). That’s roughly 100 times as energetic as the highest energies achievable with the world’s premier particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. Identifying what’s causing these and other extremely high-energy gamma rays could point, literally, to the locations of cosmic rays — the zippy protons, heavier atomic nuclei and electrons that bombard Earth from locales beyond our solar system.
Some gamma rays are thought to originate in the same environs as cosmic rays. One way they’re produced is that cosmic rays, shortly after being launched, can slam into relatively low-energy ambient photons, boosting them to high-energy gamma rays. But the electrically charged cosmic rays are buffeted by galactic magnetic fields, which means they don’t travel in a straight line, thus complicating efforts to trace the zippy particles back to their source. Gamma rays, however, are impervious to magnetic fields, so astrophysicists can trace their unwavering paths back to their origins — and figure out where cosmic rays are created.

To that end, the LHAASO team traced the hundreds of gamma-ray photons that it detected to 12 spots on the sky. While the team identified one spot as the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova about 6,500 light-years from Earth, the researchers suggested that the rest could be associated with other sites of stellar explosions or even young massive star clusters (SN: 6/24/19).

In the new study, astrophysicist Emma de Oña Wilhelmi and colleagues zeroed in one of those possible points of origin: pulsar wind nebulas, the clouds of turbulence and charged particles surrounding a pulsar. The researchers weren’t convinced such locales could create such high-energy particles and light, so they set out to show through calculations that pulsar wind nebulas weren’t the sources of extreme gamma rays. “But to our surprise, we saw at the very extreme conditions, you can explain all the sources [that LHAASO saw],” says de Oña Wilhelmi, of the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg.

The young pulsars at the heart of these nebulas — no more than 200,000 years old — can provide all that oomph because of their ultrastrong magnetic fields, which create a turbulent magnetic bubble called a magnetosphere.

Any charged particles moving in an intense magnetic field get accelerated, says de Oña Wilhelmi. That’s how the Large Hadron Collider boosts particles to extreme energies (SN: 4/22/22). A pulsar-powered accelerator, though, can boost particles to even higher energies, the team calculates. That’s because the electrons escape the pulsar’s magnetosphere and meet up with the material and magnetic fields from the stellar explosion that created the pulsar. These magnetic fields can further accelerate the electrons to even higher energies, the team finds, and if those electrons slam into ambient photons, they can boost those particles of light to ultrahigh energies, turning them into gamma rays.

“Pulsars are definitely very powerful accelerators,” Fang says, with “several places where particle acceleration can happen.”

And that could lead to a bit of confusion. Gamma-ray telescopes have pretty fuzzy vision. For example, LHASSO can make out details only as small as about half the size of the full moon. So the gamma-ray sources that the telescope detected look like blobs or bubbles, says de Oña Wilhelmi. There could be multiple energetic sources within those blobs, unresolved to current observatories.

“With better angular resolution and better sensitivity, we should be able to identify what [and] where the accelerator is,” she says. A few future observatories — such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array and the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory — could help, but they’re several years out.