On the plane ride from Urumqi to Beijing, I was recalling what I knew about this city in the embrace of the Communist Party, the most populous national capital in the world, the “kingdom of bicycles” available on the side of the road, and browsing through a translated foreign study about the Chinese obsession with culture and the Chinese with thinness.
People at Daxing International Airport are kinder and slimmer than the study claims, and smiles are on the lips of all employees throughout the airport, with the exception of security employees who adopt a “strict appearance” system instead of a “broad smile” while performing their duties, while displaying more seriousness than friendliness. Perhaps for fear that the distribution of smiles would suggest that there are “holes” in the second largest airport in China.
After quick routine procedures at the airport, which included standing in front of the manual inspection device, the last employee waved me a welcome sign, and I smiled at him with a bow of thanks and an expression of the absence of any prior hostile intentions towards China.
The sound of rain was gently knocking on the windows of the bus that took us to the Radigast Hotel in the crowded commercial district east of the city, as if it were playing another welcome song for the media delegation consisting of 20 journalists, which created a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere to overcome the “travelling” of travel.
Wooded capital
The next morning, I see people flowing regularly through the capital’s wooded streets, which are mostly divided into three different paths: the path for small cars and buses, the path for bicycles, and the pedestrian path. Any crossing between these paths constitutes a flagrant violation of the law, resulting in a black spot on your “good citizenship” records, which means, in practice, a reduction in your citizenship privileges, including the “possibility” of being prevented from boarding flights and public transportation, due to “lack of… Trustworthiness.
While we were traveling by bus through the city streets, my attention was caught by the quantity and quality of green cover on both sides of the roads and residential areas, which reflects the Beijing government’s keenness to enhance its natural environment by planting many green species, including the “Queen of Shading Trees,” known as “Sophora,” which is a tree. Evergreen plants add an aesthetic touch to streets, neighborhoods and parks.
Although China was not on my travel priority list, for good logistical and geographical reasons, and no less good linguistic reasons, I was very willing and enthusiastic to break the barriers and get to know closely this people who were “living in austerity, but were preparing to leap to the top of the pyramid.” International economic.
Giant dragon
And whoever wants to be sure – when this giant Asian dragon has begun to awaken from its long civilizational slumber, please… “China welcomes everyone.”
This is with the knowledge that quick visits are not appropriate for a country of one and a half billion people, a fifth of humanity, and it occupies 50% of the skyscrapers under construction in the entire world “with plans for more high-rise buildings.”
A country that lifts 850 million citizens out of poverty during a national campaign, and continues to cover major cities and the capital in green, so that more than 90% of its population has access to parks and green spaces within 500 meters.
A country that is moving from “copying” to creativity and from imitation to innovation, and is moving to pull the rug from Europe and America in trade, industry, technology, science, artificial intelligence, scientific research, and so on.
As I write this, the famous, underlined, prophetic phrase rings in my ears:
“When China wakes up, the world will tremble.”
China in numbers in 2024
= China continued to occupy second place in the global economy, with a gross national product exceeding $19.370 billion.
= Since 1980, China has doubled its raw output from $40 billion to $12.725 billion. That is, a growth of more than 11 percent. It is currently continuing its annual growth of about 5%.
= China’s economic weight has moved from 1.7 percent of the total global economy 38 years ago, to 15 percent today, meaning that it has grown approximately 15 times.
= China is the first in the world among exporting countries, with a volume exceeding 491 billion dollars, meaning that since 1980, it has doubled its exports 119 times.
= In the first half of last year 2023, China’s total exports reached about 6 trillion US dollars, recording an annual increase of 3.7%
Among these exports, electronic products accounted for 58.2% of total exports, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over the same period last year. Total electronics exports reached about US$927.56 billion, an increase of 6.3% from 2022.
= Car exports witnessed a significant increase of 104.4% annually.
= There were no foreign investments in China 40 years ago, while today there are more than $200 billion in foreign investments.
= The unemployment rate has fallen to less than 4.1%, which is the lowest since the Corona pandemic, while in some Western countries it has risen to more than 12%.
= Household consumption in China has increased 90 times what it was in 1980.
= Improved living conditions in China. Average lifespan has increased from what it was 40 years ago, so that hope of life has increased by an additional ten years and has become nearly eighty years, while in 1979 it was limited to 66 years.
= The illiteracy rate declined from 22% to less than 4% throughout China.
= In 2023, China greatly developed 5G communications technologies, reaching 560 million subscribers at the end of the year.
= China has built about 916,000 5G base stations, accounting for 70% of the world’s total 5G base stations. It is expected to deploy 2.9 million 5G base stations by the end of the year.
= The main Chinese companies in the field of communications have invested about 181.7 billion US dollars, including 2 billion US dollars in the fifth generation.
= The Communist Party consists of approximately 92 million members, and is organized hierarchically, with President Xi Jinping at its top, and at the base the Politburo. He led the longest and largest political movement the world has ever seen.
= The People’s Liberation Army now includes two million and 35 thousand men and women in its ranks, according to the British research center the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
= China has about 350 nuclear warheads, according to figures dating back to 2022 reported by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
= China tops the list of countries with the largest number of skyscrapers in the world with 2,946, followed by the United States with 857, then South Korea in fourth place with 276. India came in fifth place, with 273, Japan is sixth with 271, and Malaysia is seventh with 266. Australia is eighth with 140, Indonesia is ninth with 130, and Thailand is tenth with 124.
= In 2015, China launched the “Made in China 2025” plan, a strategy that aims to achieve control over 10 vital sectors of the global economy.