Beijing Review

This year, Xizang Autonomous Region will strive to reach GDP growth of between 7 and 8 percent, higher than the 6.3-percent growth it achieved last year and much higher than the national target of around 5 percent set at this year’s Two Sessions in early March. The target reflects continued government confidence, at both the central and regional levels, in the improvement in Xizang’s social and economic development prospects. Like China’s other regions, Xizang has experienced rapid development of its economy, society and governance over the past seven decades, exchanging feudal serfdom for modern socialism and participating in the China Miracle brought about by the economic reforms since the late 1970s. Now, the region is moving forward in shared pursuit of China’s mid-century goals for continued modernization and national rejuvenation.…

Reduced Hospital Admissions A study by medical scientists from Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, has shown that China’s air pollution control measures may have averted more than 270,000 hospital admissions linked to heart and psychiatric diseases from 2013 to 2017, Xinhua News Agency reported on March 18. The research analyzed over 48 million hospitalization records across 292 Chinese cities between 2013 and 2017, offering a comprehensive quantification of health benefits from the country’s Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) launched in 2013. Fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or smaller (PM2.5) and black carbon have long been believed to be associated with infectious and chronic illnesses, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Compared with 2013, the annual average concentrations of PM2.5 and black…

Robust Growth In the first two months of 2025, China’s value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, increased 5.9 percent year on year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 17. In February, industrial output grew 0.51 percent from January. The country’s fixed assets investment totaled more than 5.26 trillion yuan ($734 billion) during the January-February period. It increased 4.1 percent year on year and was 0.9 percentage points higher than the full-year growth rate of 2024. Investment in infrastructure construction during the two months rose 5.6 percent from a year ago, with manufacturing investment increasing 9 percent. The services sector also registered accelerated growth in the period, with its official production index growing 5.6 percent year on year, a rate 0.4 percentage points…

PALESTINE A man inspects a building damaged by an Israeli airstrike in a residential area of Gaza City on March 18 REPUBLIC OF KOREA Protesters demanding the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol set up tents and stage a sit-in demonstration in Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, on March 18 GERMANY Visitors taste wines from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China, at the 2025 International Trade Fair for Wines and Spirits in Düsseldorf, on March 16 HONDURAS Rescue workers search near the site of a plane crash on Roatán Island on March 17. A small aircraft carrying at least 15 people crashed earlier that same day. The accident claimed six lives UNITED KINGDOM Shi Yuqi of China wins the men’s singles final at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on March…

NEW HEAD OF CHINA CDC Veteran virologist Wang Jianwei has been appointed director general and president of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). Wang specializes in the pathogenic mechanisms and prevention of respiratory viral infections. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang led a research team that elucidated the virus’s epidemiological characteristics, which laid the ground-work for effective pandemic decision making and the development of diagnostics, vaccines and treatments. Wang has received support from several prestigious talent programs, including the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund. He has published a number of academic papers in major international journals such as Cell and The Lancet, and his research findings were recognized as one of the Top 10 Advances in Life Sciences in China in 2020. Inheritors of…

Padma was 17 when the democratic reform was introduced in Xizang in 1959. Before the reform, the region had been ruled by feudal serfdom under a theocracy for centuries. Nearly 1 million serfs were subjected to estate-holders’ cruel exploitation and oppression. Padma was one of them. Born into a serf family in Xainza County, Nagqu, in north Xizang, Padma spent his adolescent years working as a houseboy for “Masters” in a local noble family. “I rarely got enough food to eat,” Padma told Beijing Review. In winter, he was not given warm shoes and the only way to keep his feet warm was to wrap them up in rags. He thought at the time he would serve the noble family for his whole life. A turning point The turning point…