Day: December 26, 2022

BEIJING, Dec. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hailed the role of major-country diplomacy in promoting global peace and prosperity as he summarized the country’s diplomatic performance during the year on Sunday.

“We have conducted major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in an all-round way, making new contribution to upholding world peace and promoting common development,” said Wang in a speech at the Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations.

Lauding head-of-state diplomacy as having set the pace for China’s overall diplomatic work, Wang singled out the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, bilateral meetings held between Chinese President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders of more than 40 countries, and three overseas trips made by Xi before and after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October.

Wang praised the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, witnessed by 31 heads of state, government and international organizations, as having let the international community experience “a more confident, striving, open and inclusive” China.

“The Beijing rendezvous on ice and snow marked a new milestone in the endeavor of the peoples across the world to embrace new hopes and pursue a shared future together,” Wang said.

As for the dozens of bilateral meetings between Xi and leaders from foreign countries, including Vietnam, Pakistan and Germany, after the 20th CPC National Congress, Wang said they not only created peaks for head-of-state diplomacy this year, but also made “a good start to the work of the CPC’s new collective central leadership in China’s foreign affairs.”

The foreign minister also mentioned the international support for the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in the speech.

The GSI and GDI were respectively proposed by Xi at the Boao Forum for Asia in April 2022 and at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021.

To date, more than 70 countries have expressed support for the GSI, and more than 100 countries and a number of international organizations, including the UN, have committed support to the GDI and nearly 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, Wang said.

Relations with major countries and regions were also highlighted in Wang’s speech.

From two phone calls to a face-to-face meeting in Bali between Xi and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, Wang said the candid and in-depth communication between the two presidents was constructive and strategic.

“Playing up competition does all harm and no good, and seeking cooperation is a necessity not a choice,” said Wang, adding that China calls on the U.S. to work together to put in place the pillars and a solid foundation for the healthy and stable growth of China-U.S. relations.

Noting Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s two personal meetings respectively in Beijing in February and in Samarkand in September, Wang said both provided strategic guidance for China-Russia relations to move ahead under new circumstances.

Mentioning the ongoing Ukraine crisis, Wang said China has kept to the right direction of promoting peace talks, searched for a solution that addresses root causes of the issue, and stood firm as an anchor of peace instead of fanning the flame of the conflict.

While staying committed to enhancing the friendship and cooperation with both developed and developing countries, Wang noted Xi’s attendance at the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council had made the China-Arab relations take historic strides forward.

“As two significant forces and major civilizations, China and the Arab world have joined hands and supported each other in advancing our respective national rejuvenation endeavors and promoting regional peace and development,” Wang said.

Looking ahead to 2023, Wang said that China will keep on promoting major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics as the world’s largest developing country embarks on the new journey to build it into a modern socialist country in all respects.

“We will maintain a global vision, forge ahead with greater resolve, and write a new chapter and secure new successes in major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics from a broader perspective and through stronger actions,” Wang said.

Link: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-12-25/Wang-Yi-China-demonstrates-responsibility-via-major-country-diplomacy-1g2Z46xcK3u/index.html

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkK-kelCZWg

BEIJING, Dec. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — As multiple regions in China have seen surging COVID-19 infections, local governments are taking swift and precise measures to prevent severe cases, protect people’s health, and build a barrier against the epidemic.

These measures include providing timely medical treatment, meeting medicine needs, improving health services for the elderly and other key groups, promoting COVID-19 vaccination, and strengthening epidemic prevention and control in rural areas.

Fever clinics in full swing

In recent days, multiple Chinese cities have opened fever clinics in gymnasiums or turned nucleic acid testing booths into temporary fever clinics to relieve the pressure of medical treatment and some of them operate 24 hours a day.

Besides, medical institutions at all levels are optimizing procedures, expanding resources, and increasing medical staff on duty to make every effort to address the urgent and anxious needs of the patients.

Such as Shanghai, fever clinics in 145 secondary and higher-level hospitals have been asked to be fully open to meet the needs of people for medical services.

Internet hospitals are also opened in many cities to ensure that residents can seek medical treatment without leaving their homes.

The Beijing municipal health commission said on Wednesday that 65,000 fever patients were treated in the city’s fever clinics, a decrease of 11 percent from the recent peak of 73,000. The demand for fever clinics has generally eased, it said.

Medical services prioritized in key groups

The National Health Commission has asked grassroots medical institutions to set up ledgers for special groups such as the elderly living alone, pregnant women and patients with underlying health conditions, to ensure necessary medical services.

It ordered local civil affairs departments to carry out thorough investigations in high-risk locations, including the assessment of drug reserves, medical treatment, health services, vaccination services and emergency response capabilities.

At a community health service center in Shanghai, family doctors were seen carefully assessing the health status of residents, paying special attention to the elderly over 80 years old, patients with chronic diseases, hemodialysis patients, cancer patients and pregnant women.

Epidemic prevention and control strengthened in rural areas

In response to the relative shortage of health service resources in rural areas and increased population flows during the New Year and Spring Festival holidays, when people working in cities often return to their hometowns, local governments are strengthening epidemic prevention and control and health services in rural areas.

The construction of fever clinics in township hospitals is an important part of epidemic prevention in rural areas.

Take the city of Jiaozhou in east China’s Shandong Province as an example. The Jiaozhou municipal health commission has set up 536 community medical points and organized 446 medical personnel and volunteers to provide medical services to villages.

There are at least two medical personnel in each village clinic and medical point, offering 24-hour medical services such as consultation, medicine dispense, and patient transfer for key groups.

Ramping up vaccination

In China, over 90 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Almost 87 percent of people over the age of 60 have been fully vaccinated, but only 66.4 percent of the people over 80 have completed a full course of vaccination.

With a population of 267 million aged above 60, China is accelerating vaccination among this group. In late November, the country released a work plan to improve the vaccination rate among the elderly.

Measures such as the “green channels” for the elderly are also adopted in different places to boost the vaccination rate.

With the optimization of epidemic control measures, the focus of China’s epidemic response strategy was shifted from infection control to case treatment with the objective of preventing severe cases.

China’s average life expectancy, a basic measure of national well-being, increased from 77.3 years in 2019 to 78.2 years in 2021, despite the gap in per capita medical resources and medical technology between the world’s most populous country and developed ones.

Upholding the people-centered philosophy, China managed to contain rounds of outbreaks. Facts and figures show some laudable “grade marks” of China’s epidemic response over the past three years and offer a glimpse into certain outlooks on endeavors toward the upcoming normal life.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-12-24/China-actively-optimizes-COVID-19-response-measures–1g1VSDwwxdS/index.html