"After a phone call, someone came to help me survey the installation location of the charging station. They arrived in less than 10 minutes and provided professional guidance. I'm very satisfied with the service," said Chu Dingjuan a customer who had applied for an electric vehicle charging station in Xuchang City, Henan Province in Central China.
The "Electricity Butler" listing service is an innovative measure taken by State Grid Xuchang Power Supply Company to implement grid-based direct and precise services, ensuring convenient electricity consumption for its customers. In order to improve customer satisfaction with electricity usage, the company divides the power supply area into 72 power supply service grids based on factors such as load density, service radius, and equipment condition. The charging of fees, low-voltage business expansion, emergency repairs, and low-voltage electricity inspections are included in the grid service management.

An "Electricity Butler" is arranged for each grid to provide listing services, and actively enters into the community's WeChat group to fully understand the customers' needs. Information on power outage, proxy purchase, and new energy services is promptly released by the company, actively creating a "1+1+1" grid service model where an "Electricity Butler" is responsible for one grid and serves a group of users, catering to the diversified electricity needs of customers.

In order to enhance the awareness of grid customers towards the grid "Electricity Butler", the State Grid Xuchang Power Supply Company has created a grid "Electricity Butler" information board, which includes their personal basic information, power supply service scope, service hotline, and a complaint hotline. These information boards are posted in prominent positions on the electric meter boxes to ensure that customer service demands can be contacted promptly, quickly, and will be effectively addressed by service managers. This has achieved the goal of "full-coverage, zero-distance service", effectively enhancing the public's sense of electricity access reliability.

Since the implementation of the "Electricity Butler" listing service by State Grid Xuchang Power Supply Company, the grid members have joined a total of 4129 WeChat power supply service groups, serving a total of 627,900 customers. While quickly solving customer electricity issues, they have also narrowed distances, built a "heart to heart bridge" to communicate with their customers, and effectively improved customer satisfaction by providing reliable electricity supply.

China Southern Airlines has ordered 100 home-made C919 aircraft from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the carrier said in a filing on Monday.

It is the third large-scale order for the C919 following the previous orders made by Air China and China Eastern Airlines.

According to data provided by COMAC, the catalog price of a C919 series aircraft is $99 million, or a total of approximately $9.9 billion for the 100 aircraft. The catalog price includes the airframe price and engine price.

Air China on Friday announced the purchase of 100 C919 jets in a deal worth $10.8 billion, with the aircraft to be delivered in batches from 2024 to 2031.

China Eastern Airlines, the first global buyer of the C919, inked a deal with COMAC in late September for an additional 100 C919 aircraft.

In 2021, China Eastern purchased five such jetliners, and it received all the five planes in early March.

The C919 aircraft is the first jet type trunk plane independently developed by China in accordance with international airworthiness standards, COMAC said on its official website.

Currently, more than 200 Chinese enterprises have been involved in research and development for the C919 and corresponding products, with multiple firms directly participating in the manufacturing for component products, according to domestic media outlet jrj.com.

Chinese experts said that the aircraft shows China's enhanced self-sufficiency in advanced science and technology, amid the increasingly complex global environment and the West's so-called decoupling moves.

The C919 aircraft had its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing on May 28, 2023, marking its official entry into the civil aviation market.

Currently, the total orders for the C919 have exceeded 1,200 aircraft, including overseas orders from leading aircraft leasing companies such as AerCap and Brunei Qiji Airlines, Xinhua reported on February 23.

A new sea route from North China's Tianjin Municipality to the east coast of South America became operational on Monday, to facilitate trade between China and countries of the region with upgraded transport capacity.

China and South America have the longest sea route crossing the Pacific Ocean, and the new service will promote business and trade cooperation, experts noted.

The route will be operated by China COSCO Shipping Co (COSCO Shipping), connecting Tianjin port to various ports in South America including Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Itapoa and Navegantes in Brazil. It's the first sea route from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region launched in recent years, the China News Service reported on Monday.

COSCO Shipping will deploy12 vessels with capacity of 14,000 standard containers each to the route, with weekly departures. It will shorten the delivery time between Tianjin and Brazil from the previous 54 days to 40 days, and will also increase the loading capacity of cold chain containers.

The ships will carry soybeans, iron ore, coffee beans, cocoa, sugar and beef to China, and export daily necessities, chemicals, vehicles and parts, steel and furniture to South America.

Jiang Shixue, a professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Shanghai University, told the Global Times on Monday that China has close business ties with multiple South American countries but the growth may be capped by delivery times, and the new route will upgrade the transport capacity.

China has been Brazil's largest trade partner for 15 consecutive years, and Brazil is also China's largest trade partner in Latin America and direct investment destination.

In the first quarter of 2024, bilateral trade hit $45.34 billion, up by 24.3 percent year-on-year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

On January 4, Dalian port in Northeast China's Liaoning Province launched the port's first routes to South America, which shortened the transport time of 32 days between Dalian and Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador to 25 days.

South Africa's Absa Group, a leading pan-African bank, announced on Wednesday the official launch of its new non-banking subsidiary in Beijing. The ambitious move aims to unlock more trade and investment opportunities between China and Africa.

The new office will enable the Johannesburg-based company to offer local support to Chinese clients and stakeholders to conclude transactions across the African continent, helping to support clients' needs, according to a statement issued by the Absa Group in January.

This business expansion demonstrates Absa's emphasis on and robust confidence in China's market. It also reflects China's persistent endeavors to foster growing economic ties with the rising Global South, experts said.

Amid the evolving global economic landscape, cooperation between the two sides has progressed from basic energy and infrastructure projects to financial collaboration, which are more pivotal and forward-looking areas, and this is likely to deepen bilateral ties in the real economy sector, Yang Baorong, director of African Studies of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The new office in Beijing will allow Absa to provide general advisory services to clients based in China, according to a statement. The lender will also be able to distribute some research about the macroeconomic environment and securities reports to some institutional clients in China, Bloomberg reported.

The move will help the bank become a "facilitator of trade flows into Africa", Absa said in its latest financial report, published in early March, according to media reports. 

"Our expansion into this dynamic market represents an exciting opportunity to unlock new avenues of growth and prosperity for Africa and China," said Arrie Rautenbach, the CEO of Absa Group, at a ceremony earlier this year, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In recent years, investment cooperation between the two sides has steadily grown, with annual manufacturing direct investment exceeding $400 million and infrastructure construction cooperation exceeding $37 billion, supporting Africa's industrialization and economic diversification, said He Yadong, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce, at a regular press conference on April 11.

The cooperation has boosted China-South Africa ties under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, this initiative has significantly improved economic development and livelihoods in Africa. 

"Removing constraints on financial flows is crucial for deepening the bilateral ties," Song Wei, a professor with the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The launch of the subsidiary signifies Africa's financial institutions' participation in China-African financial cooperation, which is expected to bolster mutual benefits in settlement and investment, Song added.

The world's first 300MW/1800MWh advanced compressed air energy storage (CAES) national demonstration power station in Feicheng, Shandong Province has been successfully completed and connected to the electricity grid.

At 11:18 am, on April 30, the world's first 300MW/1800MWh advanced CAES national demonstration power station with complete independent intellectual property rights in Feicheng, successfully achieved its first grid connection and power generation. The power station utilizes advanced CAES technology independently developed by the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhongchu Guoneng (Beijing) Technology Co, Ltd invested in the project and led its construction. Power China Nuclear Engineering Company Limited is the construction party. It is currently a new type of CAES power station with advantages in scale, efficiency, and cost.

The R&D team made breakthroughs in key technologies for the 300MW CAES system, overcoming technical challenges such as a multistage wide-load compressor, a multistage high-load expander, a high-efficiency supercritical heat storage and heat exchange unit, an optimized design at full operation condition, and the integration of the whole system.

Compared to the 100MW CAES system, the unit cost of the 300 MW CAES system has decreased by more than 30 percent, and the system has 100 percent independent intellectual property rights. All core technologies are also independent and controllable.

The power station has a capacity of 300MW/1800MWh, with a total investment of 1.496 billion yuan ($207 million). Its rated design efficiency is 72.1 percent. It can achieve continuous discharge for six hours, generating approximately 600 million kWh per year.

This provides power support for about 200,000 to 300,000 households during peak electricity demand, saves about 189,000 tons of standard coal annually, and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by about 490,000 tons.

The recent closure of several government bodies' new media accounts has ignited a lively social discussion. Analysts noted that this move highlights a reflection on pointless formalities on digital platforms, which is also an effort to alleviate the workload of grassroots workers, as well as providing more efficient services for the people by integrating resources.

According to media reports, a large number of grassroots government bodies in cities such as Kunming, Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao, Zhangjiagang and Nanjing recently announced that their official WeChat and Weibo accounts would stop updating and they would start the cancelation process, and relevant information will be released on their respective local government websites.

In those announcements, the reasons for closing the new media accounts include avoiding waste of resources caused by duplicate operations, promoting centralized management and unified release channels, thereby promoting the healthy and orderly development of new media under local governments.

The closure of the public-service accounts came after some shortcomings were exposed by many new media platforms under grassroots governments. According to Capital News, certain information is outdated and inflexible, leading to low readership and minimal user engagement. Additionally, some apps are redundant, providing services that duplicate existing government software, leading to poor operational efficiency.

The recent wave of concentrated closures has ignited a lively debate among netizens regarding the future development of new media platforms for local governments. Some argue that it is crucial to utilize social platforms but the corresponding departments should prioritize addressing the needs of the people. Additionally, there are suggestions from netizens to promote a single platform that can efficiently handle multiple tasks in order to streamline processes and minimize complications.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor of cultural studies at Peking University, told the Global Times on Thursday that one contributing factor to the closure of numerous accounts is that certain departments have discovered that the reach and impact of their new media platforms have not met expectations despite prolonged operation.

"Some departments are not aware of the distinct characteristics of different new media platforms, including appropriate style and language, which makes it challenging for them to understand and create content that aligns with these differences," he said.

An official in East China's Jiangxi Province, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times on Thursday that operating a WeChat or Weibo account requires professional individuals, but due to time constraints and the lack of personnel with new media capabilities, many accounts perform poorly. Moreover, some departments do not update information on their platforms in a timely manner, sometimes only releasing new post every few days or even once a week, leading to many government accounts being discontinued or shut down, according to the official.

The closures of multiple public-service accounts with limited reach highlight the local governments' reflection on formalities, showing that they are looking into how to eliminate the useless and convoluted information, and instead delivering more valuable and accessible information and services to the people by consolidating resources effectively, analysts said.

These initiatives are also aimed at alleviating the workload of local grassroots officials, enabling them to concentrate on ensuring information is readily available to the public, rather than solely managing specific social media platforms, they said.

Certainly, the closure of accounts does not signify that new media is irrelevant in grassroots efforts. In fact, it serves a crucial function in delivering services to the public and promoting policy information, Zhang noted.

"It is imperative for staff members to deepen their understanding of new media's unique features, tailor their efforts accordingly and leverage its strengths to effectively communicate in specific areas. By doing so, they can maximize the impact of new media in their work and achieve success in targeted initiatives," he said.

The official from Jiangxi told the Global Times that simply reporting on meetings or research in a rigid manner is unlikely to capture the interest of readers. Instead, government official accounts should offer a diverse range of content and utilize various forms to attract and engage audiences, the official said.

In December 2023, China's Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission issued a set of opinions on strengthening the management of applications and accounts of government bodies and public institutions to prevent and control pointless formalities on digital platforms.

The opinions stressed the principles of overall planning, high efficiency, safety and reliability in the construction, operation and management of such applications and accounts, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

As a result of the Cuban government's Saturday announcement of a visa-free policy starting this month for Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports, searches for related tourism products on Chinese travel platforms surged 40 percent, and direct flights between China and Cuba are set to resume soon. 

The announcement was made by Cuban Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia during the 42nd Cuban International Tourism Fair (FITCuba 2024), which was held at the seaside resort of Cayo Coco in Cuba's province of Ciego de Avila. 

Garcia also said that China will be the guest of honor of the Cuban Tourism Festival 2025 and that direct flights between China and Cuba will resume on May 17.

Half an hour after the visa-free policy was announced, searches for keywords such as Cuban hotels and flights increased by more than 40 percent on travel platform Ctrip compared with the previous day, the leading domestic online travel agency told the Global Times on Sunday. Residents from Beijing, Shanghai, and provinces including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian showed a very high level of enthusiasm regarding information about Cuba, according to Ctrip. 

Currently, there are no direct flights between China and Cuba, but Air China has scheduled to resume the Beijing-Havana direct flight, the only direct route between China and Cuba, on May 17. 

According to data from Chinese travel platform Qunar, the current price for a one-way Beijing-Havana ticket is around 8,200 yuan ($1,132), with two flights per week, while the return trip costs about 5,700 yuan. 

At a business forum held in Beijing in November 2023, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz called to establish direct flights between Beijing and Havana as soon as possible to facilitate trade and business. He said that both sides had agreed to push forward bilateral cooperation deals in a comprehensive way. 

The resumption of the flight between China and Cuba is of great significance in promoting South-South cooperation and advancing cooperation between China and Cuba, Song Wei, a professor with the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Sunday. She noted that since Cuba is facing greater fragility due to its size and its status as a developing island country, enhancing connectivity and strengthening its integration into global value chains are particularly crucial for its development. 

The resumption of the flight route will facilitate stronger connections between Cuba and the outside world, enhance its trade relations, and contribute to consolidating its development basis, Song said. It also helps mitigate the impact of the decades-long US embargo and enhances its economic ties with the rest of the world as an opposition against hegemony and unilateral sanctions.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decades-long US embargo, geopolitical uncertainties and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Cuba's situation is complex, and it has been facing many difficulties. Marrero said during his visit to China in November that the primary task for the Cuban government is to set economic and development goals, and the tourism sector will be a major source of growth. Marrero expressed his anticipation for the resumption of direct flights in 2024. He also said he hoped to see a record-breaking number of Chinese tourists visiting Cuba after the resuming flights.

As of April 26, Cuba has received more than 1 million international tourists in 2024, according to data from the Cuban Ministry of Tourism. The Cuban government expects to receive 3.5 million international tourists by the end of the year.

Due to factors such as distance and cost, Cuba is not a traditionally popular outbound destination for Chinese tourists. However, Cuba, as well as countries like Mexico and Brazil in Latin America, boasts unique cultural and natural landscapes, which are highly attractive to Chinese tourists, Qin Jing, general manager of Public Affairs at Ctrip Group, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

According to Song, for countries like Cuba, which are developing small island countries in the Caribbean, the tourism industry is a crucial economic pillar. Strengthening flight connections between China and Cuba can allow Chinese consumers to reach Cuba more conveniently, thereby greatly promoting its economic development. 

The visa-free policy for China starting in May can better assist Chinese travelers in expanding consumption in Cuba, thus boosting the Cuban economy, Pan Deng, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Region Law Center of the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Pan said that China aims to help Cuba in the services industry and trading activities through civilian initiatives, and the positive impact of visa-free entry lies in facilitating easier economic and trade cooperation in the tourism and services industries with Cuba.

Moreover, the upcoming flight from China to Cuba is truly visa-free, as a transit visa is not required on this route, Pan said.

Apart from the Beijing-Madrid-Havana route, Air China also resumed its Beijing-Madrid-Sao Paulo route on April 28. This route, known as the longest in the world, covers approximately 17,500 kilometers in total, with a total travel time of 23 hours and 20 minutes including the stopover. Meanwhile, China Southern Airlines recently launched a new route from Shenzhen direct to Mexico City. Covering a total length of 14,147 kilometers and with a flight time of approximately 16 hours, it is one of the longest routes in the world. 

According to Song, the resumption and launch of air routes between China, Cuba, and other Latin American countries also reflect the strengthening of ties between China and Latin America. 

Traditionally, Latin America has always been considered the "backyard" of the US, which sees the region as being within its own sphere of influence, leading to economic difficulties in the development of Latin American economies, Song said. 

How to free themselves from the economic hegemony of the US and seek more development partnerships for their own economic development, and thereby solidifying their independent political and economic development, are particularly important for Latin America countries, which is also the reason why Latin America attaches great importance to developing relations with China, Song remarked. 

Since the beginning of 2024, several countries have implemented visa-free entry policies for Chinese travelers, which have significantly boosted outbound tourists from China. During this year's May Day holidays, the numbers of flight bookings to visa-free destinations exceeded those in 2019. 

According to Qin, with this visa exemption policy and the immediate opening and resumption of direct flights from China to destinations in Latin America such as Mexico, Brazil, and Cuba, the time and cost for Chinese tourists to travel to these destinations are expected to be significantly reduced. It is anticipated that more Chinese tourists will embark on trips to Latin America. 

The third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will be held in Beijing in July, according to a decision made at a CPC Central Committee Political Bureau meeting on Tuesday.

According to the main agenda of the session, the Political Bureau will report its work to the Central Committee, and the session will primarily study issues concerning further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization.

The Political Bureau meeting also analyzed the current economic situation and economic work, and deliberated a document on policies and measures for continuously advancing the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting. 

On Saturday afternoon, a powerful tornado struck a district in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, resulting in five deaths and 33 injuries. The local meteorological bureau announced on Saturday night that strong convective weather is expected to continue occurring frequently in the city in the coming days.

Around 3 pm on Saturday, the tornado hit Zhongluotan town in Guangzhou's Baiyun district, impacting an area approximately one kilometer wide and affecting four villages.

By 10 pm on Saturday, on-site search and rescue operations had been largely completed. The disaster resulted in 5 deaths and 33 injuries, with the injured promptly transported to hospitals for treatment. 141 factories sustained damage, but there were no reports of collapsed residential buildings.

Following the disaster, the city swiftly organized six working groups, including those for rescue, repair, post-disaster support, and order maintenance, and initiated emergency response procedures. Medical, public security, traffic police, fire, and housing construction departments, along with personnel from the town and villages, were mobilized to conduct comprehensive search and rescue efforts.

The local meteorological bureau reported that since noon on Saturday, hail and tornadoes occurred in Guangzhou, accompanied by widespread moderate to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain, along with short-lived strong winds and intense lightning.

In the Saturday afternoon, a strong convective cloud system entered Guangzhou, later moving into Renhe town and Zhongluotan town in Baiyun District, lasting approximately 40 minutes.

During this time, a tornado occurred near Liangtian village in Zhongluotan town of Baiyun District. The local meteorological station recorded a maximum gust of 20.6 meters per second (Beaufort scale force 8) approximately 2.8 kilometers from the tornado's point of occurrence.

A preliminary survey has been conducted on the tornado's impact path, covering approximately 1.7 kilometers. The maximum width of the impact is about 280 meters. Based on preliminary assessment, the tornado is judged to be of strong intensity, equivalent to an EF2 tornado on the Fujita scale.

The local authority explained the reason for the occurrence of the tornado in Guangzhou.

Over a period of time, warm and humid air currents from the southwest of the South China Sea continuously strengthened, delivering a large amount of moisture and energy to Guangzhou. This led to a prolonged period of high temperature and humidity, resulting in atmospheric instability near the surface with the accumulation of significant unstable energy.

Furthermore, on Saturday morning, warm and humid air currents near the surface continued to intensify, with several observation stations recording unusually high absolute humidity levels.

Additionally, during the daytime on Saturday, the low-level jet stream intensified, exacerbating the unstable layering of "warm below, cold above," thereby creating favorable conditions for the formation of tornadoes and hail as the 0-6km wind shear, conducive to create tornadoes and hail, exceeded 25m/s.

Lastly, the convergence of mesoscale convergence lines on the ground and the passage of high-altitude fluctuations acted as triggering conditions, initiating strong updrafts, which led to the intense development of the parent storm for the tornado.

Implanted in the brain is a small, soft film connected by delicate threads. Through this, a monkey with its hands tied up can control a robotic arm with "just its thoughts" and grasp a strawberry.

This high performance of the brain-computer interfaces (BCI) technology revealed at the Zhongguancun (ZGC) Forum on Thursday is backed by a core brain chip, called "Neucyber," independently developed by Chinese scientists. Previously, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that his brain-chip startup Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a sick man.

The high performance is attributed to the three core components in Neucyber independently developed in China — high-throughput flexible microelectrodes, two high-speed neural signal acquisition devices and a generative neural decoding algorithm.

"The BCI involves capturing subtle changes in brain electrical signals, decoding brain intentions, and achieving 'thought' control of 'actions,' allowing the control of machines without physical contact," said Luo Minmin from the Chinese Institute for Brain Research.

The performance of BCI lies in the clarity of capturing brain electrical signals and the precision of their conversion, which rely on electrodes and algorithms, respectively.

The electrode acts as a "sensor," implanted in the brain to "read" brain electrical signals, with its performance determining the quantity and quality of captured brain signals.

Brain tissue is very soft and moves rhythmically with a person's heartbeat and breathing. In the past, the implantation of electrodes made of hard materials such as steel needles caused damage to brain tissue, triggering inflammatory reactions and leading to the encapsulation of the electrodes, which over time weakened the signals, says Li Yuan, Business Development Director of Beijing Xinzhida Neurotechnology, the company that developed this BCI brain chip system.

Implantable electrodes use flexible materials, greatly reducing damage to the brain and ensuring long-term stable signal acquisition. The flexible electrode has been stably implanted in the monkey's skull for nearly a year, and is still able to collect high-quality signals, according to Li.

The Neucyber is the first system in the world to realize the brain control interception of two-dimensional moving objects by rhesus monkeys through mind control. In the future, this could offer new hope for paralyzed people to be able to touch and grasp things in the physical world, Li noted.

Industry observers said the BCI technology is a systematic project that has higher requirement for stability and involving electrodes, chips, algorithms, software and materials. Key technologies are still needed to be further broken through.

Previously, China's prestigious Tsinghua University announced that Chinese scientists had made a breakthrough in the world's first patient BCI rehabilitation trial.

A team, led by principal Biomedical Engineering researcher Hong Bo from the School of Medicine with Tsinghua University, designed and developed the wireless minimally invasive implanted BCI technology device NEO (Neural Electronic Opportunity). The NEO was successfully implanted into a patient's brain for the BCI-assisted treatment trial at the Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing, on October 24, 2023.