Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who is here for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged beefed-up disaster relief efforts after Super Typhoon Yagi struck the country's southern region.

Two Chinese airlines, Air China - the country's flag carrier  - and China Southern Airlines, welcomed their first China-built large passenger aircraft C919 in Shanghai on Wednesday, marking a new phase of multi-user operation for the C919 jet.

The deliveries came after more than one year's operation by China Eastern Airlines, the first global customer for the aircraft. 

Chinese experts said that the mass deliveries on Wednesday represented a milestone for the large-scale market operation of China's self-developed large passenger aircraft C919, and it will also help the aircraft win more market share in the Chinese aviation sector.

The hangar in Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the manufacturer of C919, in Shanghai was filled with joyful atmosphere on Wednesday night, with people from across the country attending the event. A red screen was set in front of the hall, with the two airlines' logos on either side of the screen.

As the hangar door slowly opened, the first Air China C919 aircraft painted with the Five-Star Red Flag, China's national flag, and the first C919 aircraft of China Southern Airlines painted with red kapok appeared on the same stage. The deliveries mean that the C919 has entered a new stage of multi-carriers' operation. The C919 will operate more routes and cover more areas, and will bring more vitality to China's civil aviation and even global civil aviation, He Dongfeng, chairman and Party chief of COMAC, said at the ceremony.

Up to now, a total of 9 C919 aircraft have been delivered to customers. Among them, the C919 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, the first user, has been operating smoothly for 15 consecutive months since its first commercial flight, flying five scheduled routes, and has carried out more than 3,600 commercial flights and 10,000 flight hours.

If the past year of China Eastern's C919 flights was considered an initial trial operation, the latest deliveries indicated that the C919 is now ready for full-scale commercial operations and will soon be fully integrated into the domestic civil aviation market, Lin Zhijie, an independent market watcher, said on Wednesday. 

Following the twin deliveries of the C919, Darren Hulst, Boeing vice president of commercial marketing, said that it is a good thing to have market competition, adding that the big market has room for multiple players. 

The C919 is a large civilian aircraft developed in accordance with international civilian aviation regulations and with independent intellectual property rights, and it is regarded as a model to grab a share of the global civilian aviation market dominated by Boeing and Airbus. Over the past year, the aircraft began flying routes such as the one between Shanghai and Beijing, operating across the Chinese Lunar New Year travel rush, and also debuted at the Singapore Airshow. 

As the first global customer of C919, China Eastern received its seventh C919 plane in July. Currently, China Eastern's C919 fleet has completed more than 3,000 flights, facilitating more than 400,000 passenger trips, according to data China Eastern shared with the Global Times. 

It is only a matter of time before giants like Air China and China Southern Airlines choose the C919 aircraft, and personally, I think that time is coming very quickly, said Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine. 

Wang noted that the recent operations by China Eastern have demonstrated the market potential to these major airlines, and further deliveries will help the C919 secure a larger market share.

China Eastern took the lead in signing an agreement with COMAC to order an additional 100 C919 aircraft, beyond an initial five. Air China announced in April that it had ordered 100 C919s, to be delivered from 2024 to 2031. In addition, 100 C919s have been ordered by China Southern Airlines.  

Earlier, there was positive news for the C919's potential entry into the European market. The South China Morning Post reported that China's civil aviation authorities have grown more optimistic about receiving EU certification in 2025, following an on-the-ground inspection of the C919 by EU regulators in July in Shanghai.

Regarding the expansion into foreign markets, Li Yuan, an independent market observer, emphasized that more efforts are needed to promote the C919 internationally. He noted that the aircraft manufacturer is not just selling a product but offering a full life cycle guarantee, meaning that subsequent services must be robust and responsive.

China has made notable progress in energy transition over the past decade, with "historical breakthroughs" achieved in green and low-carbon energy development as the country is moving toward building a clean, diversified, secure and resilient energy supply system, according to a white paper titled "China's Energy Transition" released by the State Council Information Office on Thursday.

The white paper listed an array of impressive figures that document milestones in China's energy transition in the past decade and highlight the country's outstanding contribution to the global green agenda. For example, last year, electricity generated by clean energy accounted for nearly 40 percent of China's total electricity generation. Also, the country's exports of wind and photovoltaic (PV) products helped other countries reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 810 million tons in 2023. 

Observers said that China's energy transition will play an exemplary role, illustrating a path that is cost-effective, economically feasible and brings far-reaching effect to the global energy industry. It also proves that China's overwhelming edges in renewable energy is stemming from continuous innovation and a complete industrial chain, rather than certain Western fallacy of subsidies-driven growth.

The white paper also offers a detailed elaboration on China's commitment to fulfilling its responsibility as a major developing country as well as its willingness to work with other countries to keep global energy industrial and supply chains stable and maintaining energy security in an open environment. 

Historic achievements 

According to the white paper, China has been fast tracking clean energy development and there's a growing share of green energy in China's energy mix.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that over the past decade, "China has led the global energy transition, not only in the speed of its transformation but also in the expansion of new-energy production capacity and output." 

Building on the momentum, Chinese officials and industry insiders have expressed confidence that China, the world's largest energy producer and consumer, has the capacity and is steadily marching toward its "dual carbon" goal of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and attaining carbon neutrality by 2060. 

Industry insiders stressed that China's successful energy transition course plays an exemplary role for developing countries and sets a global model. It is also a lesson to other developed countries, which - amid global energy shortage in the last few years— have shown certain level of retreatment from their climate goals, Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

An engine for global energy transition

China's green energy development has become an engine for global energy transition, and the country's new energy industry has also "added to the global energy supply and eased global inflation pressures," it noted. 

The white paper cited data from the International Energy Agency as saying that from 2014 to 2023, the global share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption rose from 13.6 percent to 18.5 percent, with China contributing 45.2 percent to this increase. Over the past decade, the average cost per kilowatt-hour of global wind power projects has decreased by more than 60 percent, and PV power projects by more than 80 percent. The reductions are largely attributable to China's efforts.

Analysts said that the white paper provides a fresh rebuttal to Western smearing campaign on China's new-energy industry, which it claimed was stimulated by subsidies. "It laid bare that the West-concocted 'overcapacity' tag on Chinese industries does not stand a ground and is motivated by hegemonic mindset," Cao said. 

Lin noted that it also sounds the alarm to Western countries which plan to slap tariffs on China's new-energy exports in the name of "industrial overcapacity." It warns them that this politicization of economic issues will "heavily hinder the global green transition, hinder energy structure optimization, and delay climate change efforts," Lin said.

The white paper stressed that China opposes all forms of unilateralism or protectionism, and rejects all forms of "decoupling" and the "small yard and high fence" approach. It calls for major countries to "focus more on the future of the earth and humanity and act in a responsible manner by ensuring global energy security, promoting green development and maintaining market order."

Chinese airlines continue to show strong interest in expanding their global market presence, with some carriers doubling their overseas traffic volumes, and market watchers said that the airlines will maintain a fast recovery pace for flying international routes. 

Data released by the information provider VariFlight on Sunday showed that the actual number of passenger flights on overseas routes carried by Chinese airlines was 130,000 in the just concluded two-months' summer travel rush ended on Saturday, an increase of 59 percent year-on-year in 2023, recovering to more than 70 percent of the corresponding period in 2019. 

The data could be lifted further given the concrete measures taken by the airlines, and rising overseas travel demand, Gong Yiting, head of branding department of VariFlight told the Global Times. 

The remarks came after Chinese airlines reported narrowed losses in the released fiscal reports of the first half of this year brought by the rising demand, highlighting a stable recovery of the aviation industry. 

In detail, the revenues of the three major airlines - Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines - reached 228.509 billion yuan ($32.22 billion) in the first half of this year, led by China Southern, which loss was narrowed by more than half. 

Air China and China Eastern Airlines reported revenues of 79.52 billion yuan and 64.199 billion yuan, respectively, with year-on-year increases of over 30 percent and nearly 30 percent. Each airline's net losses narrowed by nearly 20 percent and over 50 percent year-on-year than the same period of last year, per fiscal reports. 

In addition, the total revenue of four private carriers of Hainan Airlines, Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and China Express in the first half of the year exceeded 50 billion yuan, and net profit totaled 1.24 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the international air passenger transport market saw continued rapid recovery in the first half of the year. 

Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China showed that the recovery level for five consecutive months since February this year has exceeded 80 percent of the same period in 2019.

Airlines have also continued to make efforts to grow international routes, such as China Southern said on Friday that its overseas flights have recovered to about 80 percent of the same period in 2019, and it will strive to fully resume routes from Guangzhou to Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

Spring Airlines reported that the recovery rate for its Japanese routes is nearly 100 percent. The airline currently flies to eight destinations in Japan, surpassing the peak levels of 2019.

Airlines are also actively planning their expansion plans for the whole year. Hainan Airlines said it will strive to restore the weekly flight volume of international routes to 100 percent of the average weekly flight volume of international routes in 2019.

Juneyao Airlines said it achieved a growth rate of more than 20 percent compared with the same period in 2019 in terms of the overseas traffic, and it will continue to expand its operations in the Southeast Asian and European markets.

China and India held their 31st meeting of the working mechanism for consultations and coordination on border affairs, the second within a month and with the shortest interval in the series of meetings, except for 2020 when six rounds of talks were held after the Galwan skirmish. Analysts said the recent frequent interactions between China and India signal that both sides are actively seeking to accelerate a resolution to the border standoff and to get bilateral relations back on track.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Hong Liang and Joint Secretary of the East Asia Division of Ministry of External Affairs of India Gourangalal Das co-chaired the 31st Meeting of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on China-India Border Affairs in Beijing on Thursday.

The release noted that the meeting was held in a "positive, friendly and frank atmosphere" and the two sides agreed to work together to turn over a new leaf in the border situation at an early date.

Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, said that recently, communication and negotiations between China and India on border issues have shown positive progress.

The Thursday meeting was the second within a month. The foreign ministers from China and India had also met twice in July, which indicates that both sides are actively seeking to accelerate a resolution to border standoff issues, Qian said.

China and India held six rounds of WMCC meetings on border affairs in 2020 following the Galwan Valley border skirmish on June 15, 2020. Except for that year, since the first WMCC meeting on border affairs started in 2012, the two sides have held WMCC meetings on border affairs one to three times a year, analysts said.

Qian said the recent interactions between China and India are positive signals as China-India relations are emerging from a low point and stabilizing. Both countries are looking for a common solution to put bilateral relations back onto a healthy development track.

This Thursday meeting is not intended to solve the border problem once and for all but provides a new perspective on resolving the standoff in the western sector that has lasted over four years. Overall, despite current uncertainties, the positive attitude and efforts of both sides have been commendable, Qian said.

French President Emmanuel Macron officially opened the Paris Olympic Games on Friday.

The 2024 Olympics marks the third time that Paris has hosted the Summer Games. The first was in 1900 and the last was a century ago in 1924.

China's Zou Jingyuan wins men's gymnastics parallel bars title at Paris Olympics

China's Fan Zhendong defeated Swedish athlete Truls Moregardh to secure the gold medal for China in the men's team table tennis final on Friday. Following the final, Fan took to social media to share a heartfelt message of gratitude and wishes, quoting lyrics from American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

The lyrics came from Swift's albums Folklore and Speak Now, "From Paris to Paris, 11 years of international competition, just like 11 points in a match, with a beginning and an end," with which Fan poetically summarized his career journey and expressed his hopes for the future.

"Music is universal," Fan wrote on social media. "Great musicians like Taylor Swift bring us healing power and confidence. I hope everyone can feel the charm she offers."

Fan mimicked the iconic "crossed arms" goal celebration pose associated with French football star Kylian Mbappé, following his victory over Tomokazu Harimoto on Friday. 

During his journey at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Fan also performed Jude Bellingham's classic arms-open, eyes-closed celebration; in the semifinals against Felix Lebrun, he emulated Cristiano Ronaldo's hand-down gesture.

"They inspire me to give my all on the court, never give up, always strive to win, and dare to achieve victory," Fan explained.

Fan's connection with renowned football club Real Madrid has also attracted attention. He has frequently shared photos of himself in Real Madrid jerseys on social media and has watched matches at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to support the team.

Fan posted a photo of himself in a Real Madrid jersey on social media after winning, including a caption with the club's slogan: "Because no one can resist your desire to win."

Real Madrid also extended their congratulations through their official Weibo account, praising Fan for winning the men's singles table tennis gold medal and his spirit of perseverance.

 "Congratulations to Fan Zhendong for winning the men's singles table tennis title at the Paris 2024 Olympics and achieving a Grand Slam. We are proud of his fighting spirit," Real Madrid posted.

Sport transcends nationalities, cultures, and languages. This blend of personal interests and professional achievements makes Fan's success story even more remarkable.

"On the court, I am a dedicated athlete representing my country, having fought for national honor for over a decade. Off the court, I am just an ordinary young man with personal interests and connections, striving to be true to myself," Fan noted.