A new digital platform that merges technology with cultural heritage was unveiled on Monday in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province. The Shanhai App brings tens of thousands of artifacts from across the globe into a unified digital space, overcoming the physical limitations of traditional museum collections.
The launch of the Shanhai App comes at a time when interest in museums and cultural preservation is at an all-time high.
The platform breaks down the barriers between museums, regions, and even countries, creating an open, digital environment where cultural treasures can be accessed, shared, and appreciated by a global audience.
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is one of the museums that has joined the platform.
"If this platform can succeed, it will not only be beneficial for domestic audiences but also help global audiences gain a better understanding of China's cultural treasures," said Jay Xu, director of the museum.
The "Museum Digital Intelligence Alliance" was formed, comprising 14 museums that joined the app. The alliance represents a commitment to building bridges between institutions and advancing the future of digital cultural preservation.
"I believe the most important role of a platform like Shanhai is to enable more people to participate in the creation of museum content," said Hou Ningbin, director of the Shaanxi History Museum.
"It connects the platform with museum professionals and links professionals or creators in society who have an interest in museum culture. For museums, this significantly strengthens our ability to promote China's rich cultural heritage."
The efficiency of digital artifact collection on the Shanhai App was the highlight of this launch event. During the event, a digital artifact collection process was live-streamed. The team conducted the digitization of an artifact in Shanghai, transmitted the data back to the lab in Changsha, and then sent the results in real-time to the launch event venue.
Looking ahead, the Shanhai App aims to digitize hundreds of thousands of cultural artifacts from museums nationwide.
In addition to artifacts, the platform will integrate related historical documents, archaeological records, and academic research, constructing a structured data system for cultural heritage.
The data will be applied to research, education, entertainment, and the creative industries. For example, in educational settings, teachers and students can easily use the app to find historical figures, stories, and related concepts associated with a particular artifact.
Eight attractions, 30,000 steps, 300 photos, dozens of iPhone video clips…traveler Qin concluded her 12-hour trip in Qingzhou county, East China's Shandong Province.
"It was a perfect journey," Qin shared on social media from a railway station in Qingzhou. Minutes later, she jumped onto a train leaving this time-honored small county.
Qin is among the growing Chinese tourists who are keen on being "special forces travelers." "Special forces travel" has grown into a new trend in China's tourism market over the past two years. The trend describes a travel style characterized by racing against the clock to hop from one destination to another, trying best to visit as many places as possible within an extremely limited time (and budget).
Why did this seemingly rushed, exhausting, military-training-like travel trend become popular? What will the trend bring to the Chinese tourism market? The Global Times spoke with some tourism experts and individual entrepreneurs engaged in related industries, who shared their personal experiences and thoughts on this booming craze.
Tiring but enjoyable
Qin calls herself a big fan of "special forces travel." Busy work and family chores have increasingly limited personal space of this seasoned traveler, so she decided to take full advantage of her weekends.
Including Qingzhou, this Shanghai resident has taken full advantage of her weekends and traveled to cities as far as 1,000 kilometers away, including the Tianjin Municipality, Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei Province, and Changchun in Northeast China's Jilin Province. Excluding time spent sleeping and on the road, she typically only has about 10 hours to spend in the destination city.
In order to cover as many places as possible within an extremely limited time frame, each time, Qin meticulously plans her itinerary. This includes her arrival time, distances between attractions, and the estimated time she can stay at each attraction. Qin doesn't find her itineraries tedious. "I enjoy the sense of accomplishment deriving from completing the 'tasks' one by one," she told the Global Times.
Different from Qin's solo weekend escapes, tourist Betty (pseudonym) enjoys embarking on road trips with her family, relishing in the precious moments of togetherness during their travels, however hectic and fast-paced they may be.
Betty travels on statutory holidays, when every member in her family is available. During the Chinese New Year holidays this year, Betty and her family drove to some 10 cities in southern China, including Nanning, Beihai and Zhuhai. To save time and money during the trip, they hit the road before 6 am, limited themselves to only one meal a day, and nibbled bread while on the road. "Like field training," she joked.
Betty explained that her family members are often busy and rarely get the chance to travel. "So each time we plan our family trip, we include as many destinations as we can," she told the Global Times. "It's tiring, but I really enjoy the time on the road with my loved ones." Youth-friendly
The rise of "special forces travel" spurred the growth in related tourism services such as local guides and snacks trending on social media are blooming as well.
In Jieyang city of South China's Guangdong Province, a Gen-Z local guide nicknamed "Unicorn" uses her scooter and camera to show tourists around the city's key attractions.
"Unicorn" said many of her customers are "special forces travelers" particularly young females, who want to cover as many must-visit spots as possible in their short trips. "For them, I'm a good choice because I grew up here, and I'm very familiar with this city," she told the Global Times. "Also, I have a camera and can take photos for them."
"Unicorn" charges her customers 50 yuan ($7) per hour, which is affordable even for students, as it only takes one or two hour(s) to visit the city downtown, she said.
More than 85 percent of the "special forces travelers" are college students, said a report released by China Tourism Academy in December 2023.
It's not surprising that "special forces travel" is gaining momentum especially among young people, said tourism industry expert Yang Yong, who is a professor of the Faculty of Economics and Management at East China Normal University.
"This travel style allows tourists to visit many attractions in a short time, catering to the modern need of taking photos at the destinations and sharing them on social media, which has become a way people socialize nowadays," Yang told the Global Times. "Let alone the relatively lower cost of the 'special forces travel' is very friendly to young people."
Double-edged sword
The booming "special forces travel" has brought prosperity to some lesser-known destinations in China. For example, Zibo and Tianshui cities, which experienced a sudden surge in popularity overnight respectively due to their signature barbecue and malatang (a street hotpot), used to attract a large number of "special forces travelers" to visit; nonetheless, when these temporary local food crazes later cooled, travelers left, and once some snack shops had to close their doors, people started to realize that "special forces travel" is a double-edge sword bringing both opportunities and challenges.
Today many people travel according to the latest trends, but trends tend to change quickly. "Tourism practitioners must improve service quality to attract and retain visitors," Yang said, adding that "The industry needs to innovate and improve to better serve "special forces travelers and sustain the local tourism economy."
After ending his four-year ban in May due to an anti-doping rule violation, China's three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang returned to competition with an emotional victory at the national summer swimming championships.
Representing his hometown Zhejiang Province, Sun won the second-tier race with a time of 3:49.58, after clocking a 3:54.98 in the heat earlier on Sunday. Sun burst into tears twice after finishing each of the races while passing the media zone for an interview.
Fans were thrilled to see Sun's return as the topic "Sun Yang wins 400m free" quickly dominated Chinese social media on Sunday evening.
Looking at the times of athletes at the national championships held in early 2024, Sun's result in the final made him the fifth fastest in the discipline.
In June 2021, a panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced that Sun committed an anti-doping rule violation "when an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect blood and urine samples from him at his residence on September 4-5, 2018."
The CAS Panel banned Sun from competition on February 28, 2020 for four years and three months.
Born in December 1991 in Zhejiang's capital Hangzhou, Sun became China's first-ever men's swimming Olympic champion at London 2012, where he won both the 400m and 1,500m freestyle events. Sun remains the Olympic record holder in the men's 400 meters freestyle.
At Rio 2016 Olympics, Sun won the men's 200m freestyle and became the first-ever male swimmer to win Olympic gold medals in the 200m, 400m and 1,500m freestyle.
Several elite Chinese swimmers, including Fei Liwei and Zhang Zhanshuo who represented China at the Paris Olympics in men's 400 meters freestyle, skipped the national summer swimming championships for vacations after Olympics.
According to the national anti-doping management regulations enforced in 2021, Sun is unlikely to be included in future Chinese swimming squads at international competitions as any athletes who have been banned for more than one year due to a doping violation are not eligible to be selected for the national team.
Chen Xinyi, a female swimmer who was able to achieve a top-five performance in national swimming events, has not participated in any international competitions since serving a two-year ban after testing positive for banned substances at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The national summer swimming championships, running from Sunday to Wednesday, has attracted 499 athletes from 24 teams nationwide.
Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded the "outstanding contributions" of late leader Deng Xiaoping and urged advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics initiated by Deng, as the country marked Deng's 120th birth anniversary on Thursday.
Addressing a meeting held to mark the anniversary, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the country must continue to thoroughly study and apply Deng Xiaoping Theory.
"Deng made outstanding contributions to the Party, the people, the country, the nation and the world," Xi said, adding that Deng's achievements have been immortalized in history and will always inspire future generations.
Deng was the core of the second generation of the Party's central collective leadership, the chief architect of China's socialist reform, opening up and modernization, and the trailblazer of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi said, adding that Deng was also a great internationalist who made major contributions to world peace and development.
"Comrade Deng Xiaoping had lived a glorious, fighting and extraordinary life," he said.
Xi noted that, after the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long turmoil that ended in 1976, Deng had led the Party and the people in achieving China's historic transformation.
Deng pushed China to achieve a new breakthrough in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, break new ground in socialist modernization, and set a correct path for the country's complete reunification, Xi said.
Deng's historical achievements are comprehensive and groundbreaking, with profound and lasting impacts on both China and the world, Xi said.
"We will forever remember his great historical achievements and forever revere his noble revolutionary conduct," Xi said.
The most important intellectual legacy left by Deng is Deng Xiaoping Theory, Xi said, calling for thoroughly studying and applying the theory to address real-world problems.
"The best way to honor Deng is to continue advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics that he initiated," Xi said.
Xi called for further comprehensively deepening reform to continuously provide strong momentum and institutional safeguards for Chinese modernization.
He urged moving faster to build a modernized economy, working toward greater self-reliance in the science and technology sector, and developing advanced socialist culture.
Xi also urged efforts to achieve more notable and substantive progress in promoting common prosperity for all.
Realizing China's complete reunification has long been the aspiration of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other members of the older generation of revolutionaries, Xi said.
He urged resolute efforts to promote the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, and demanded firm opposition to "Taiwan independence" to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On Friday afternoon, China's men's national 3x3 basketball team conducted its first open media session of the year during their training camp for the Paris Olympic Games. Head coach Wang Zhanyu underscored the urgency of preparing effectively for the upcoming games in Paris.
Zhang Ning, who resumed training on Thursday after completing his university studies during his vacation, will join Zhao Jiaren and Lu Wenbo next weekend at the Chengdu Basketball Masters Tournament.
"The primary challenge for the team right now is time," emphasized Wang. "Some players have just rejoined the team, so we need to capitalize on every moment to refine our tactics and strengthen team chemistry."
The 3x3 basketball competition at the Paris Olympic Games is scheduled from July 30 to August 5 at Place de la Concorde. With slightly over a month left, the training squad plans to participate in three tournaments to simulate competitive conditions.
"We will compete in Chengdu next weekend, Canada in early July, and Langfang in mid-July. Following these tournaments, we intend to proceed to a training camp in France for our final preparations before the Olympics," Wang added.
Last year, under the national team's strategy, Zhang Ning and his teammates played with various teams, partnering with international players and achieving significant success in top-tier FIBA events.
"Our players have gained invaluable experience from their international counterparts. We aim to showcase our distinctive style of play during our preparations," said Zhang Ning.
Yan Peng, participating in his second Olympic preparation cycle, observed that the team's competition has grown stronger since the last Olympics. However, he noted that the team's preparation this time is more comprehensive.
"Zhang Ning's skills in driving and shooting are exceptional, and he remains the core of our team," Yan emphasized.
The coaching staff will thoroughly assess the players' performance in both games and training sessions to determine the final roster for the Paris Olympic Games, considering their on-court combinations and effectiveness.
Chinese fans expressed mixed reactions to the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Saturday. The celebrations of French culture and history was warmly cheered but also criticized in some parts.
The Chinese delegation, led by flagbearers Ma Long, a five-time Olympic gold medalist in table tennis, and eight-time artistic swimming world champion Feng Yu, joined the athletes' fleet of barges on a six-kilometer ride on the River Seine before arriving at Trocadero square.
"Considering the pouring rain, what if our athletes catch a cold during this four-hour opening ceremony?" a Chinese fan Li Jianqiu posted on Weibo. "The Olympics is supposed to showcase the athletes' best performance, but the opening ceremony is risking their health."
As the fleet passed through Paris landmarks, the fire-damaged Notre Dame caught attention. A large troupe of dancers, accompanied by music composed using sounds from the cathedral's reconstruction, received wide praise as a salute to firefighters and construction workers who saved the iconic building.
One of the most debated parts of the ceremony was the appearance of headless Marie Antoinette. Some argued it demonstrated the revolutionary history of France, while others felt showing beheaded figures to young audiences was "extremely dreadful."
The 10 new statues of historic French women lining the river were well-received by Chinese fans, providing a fresh angle on the country's rich history.
The ceremony concluded at Trocadero, where the Eiffel Tower lit up. The flame, which had been on an elaborate journey with a masked torchbearer and a mechanical horse, was passed on to French football legend Zinedine Zidane. Assassin's Creed video game enthusiasts widely celebrated the torchbearer's masked appearance.
Though some fans noted the Olympic flag was upside down at the ceremony, they saw it as a "mistake" rather than a sign of the organizers' relaxed attitude.
France's three-time Olympic gold medalist Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner then lit the Olympic cauldron, a seven-meter diameter ring suspended on a 30-meter hot-air balloon. Canada's Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf's "Hymn to Love" in her first public performance in years, drawing huge cheers from the crowd and fans from afar.
As Pan Zhanle miraculously, yet unsurprisingly, surpassed the French swimmer alongside him in the final 50 meters and touched the wall first, China's swim team secured the gold medal in the men's 4x100m medley relay.
The achievement upended the US's streak of winning gold in the event for 10 consecutive Olympics.
Twenty-two minutes later, the Chinese women's team clinched the bronze in the same event.
During the subsequent award ceremony, the swimmers from different countries gathered on the podium to celebrate and take selfies, marking the end of the swimming competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Despite the smiles and flashing cameras, the recent controversies surrounding this swimming pool were hard to overlook.
Doping became a hot topic during the swimming events at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Some, including media sources from the US and the Western countries, seemed eager to seize on any opportunity to disparage Chinese swimmers by linking them to doping.
The issue appears to go beyond sports, raising suspicions about the underlying motives. At what should be a venue for peace and friendship, this has almost become a new weapon to attack China.
US media and institutions have incessantly hyped the issue of doping at the Olympics, using it as a pretext to attack the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and criticize the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
However, on the contrary, doping issues involving athletes from the US often seem to be handled with much more leniency. In 2020, the US even passed the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, positioning itself as an international enforcer to intervene in doping cases worldwide, particularly targeting other nations.
Behind the US and Western "anti-doping" narrative lies a complex power dynamic that manipulates the sports field for political gain. The Paris Olympics once again highlighted how doping tests have been weaponized, severely disrupting the normal conduct of the Games. The abuse of anti-doping measures to create chaos in the Olympics is a prime example of the US-led "liberal international order" based on selective rule enforcement.
Paris farce
In the just-concluded drama that seems more fitting for a political stage than a sporting arena, the US and its allies have once again turned their attention to doping allegations, this time targeting the Chinese swimming team at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
"I've lost count of how many tests I've done. I often get called for tests at 6 am," Qin Haiyang, a Chinese swimmer, candidly admitted during the press conference following the Paris Olympics' 4x100m mixed medley relay final on Saturday, where the Chinese team won silver, breaking the Asian record. "It really does impact our entire preparation rhythm," he added.
Earlier, Chinese swimmer Pan's victory in the men's 100m freestyle final at the Paris 2024 Olympics, with a time of 46.40 seconds, a fresh world record, drew suspicion from foreign media. On Friday, Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei countered at an after-match press conference, asserting that Pan's performance was legitimate, questioning why no one scrutinized American swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky.
Pau Gasol, former NBA player and a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission, expressed "regret" over the frequent doping tests faced by Chinese swimmers at a press conference during the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday, calling for respect for WADA's authority and testing system.
According to the Chinese swim team, from May 5, when the team began training for the Paris 2024 Olympics, to July 22, the athletes underwent extensive international and domestic anti-doping tests, including both urine and blood tests, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Zhang, Qin and several competitive swimmers were tested over 25 times each, while most other athletes underwent more than 20 tests.
An insider told the Global Times that China has maintained a strict stance against doping violations, with an enforcement rigor that is arguably the highest in the world and recognized internationally as a high standard. China's punitive measures are also unique, involving severe administrative penalties for those who violate doping regulations. It can be said that China has been genuinely committed to anti-doping efforts over the years. Compared to the frequent therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) applications by American athletes, China's requests for TUEs are notably few. This is also largely because doping has long been a zero-tolerance issue in China, the insider noted.
World Aquatics noted that since January, each Chinese swimmer has been tested an average of 21 times by various anti-doping organizations. In contrast, Australian swimmers were tested an average of four times, and American swimmers six times.
Moreover, on Saturday, IOC President Thomas Bach emphasized that WADA and other authoritative bodies have the authority to decide the number of doping tests to ensure the fairness of Olympic competitions.
Smear campaign
As the proverb goes, you can never wake someone who pretends to be asleep. In the face of truth, some Western media remains willfully blind.
One of the US' favored strategies in recent years has been to incessantly hype suspicions of doping among Chinese athletes. This tactic, shrouded in a veneer of concern for fair play, often seems more like a calculated move to cast a shadow over China's sporting achievements.
The tactic is both incredibly disgusting and offensive, as no matter the frequency with which the international and Chinese official institutions have refuted and clarified the accusations, the US government, media, and opinion leaders just turn a blind eye and continue to maliciously smear China's credibility. With false accusations, they jointly conspire to draw the targeted Chinese athletes into an incredibly time-consuming and energy-draining self-justification trap, observers noted.
Several major mainstream media outlets have played an essential role in the US' chain of fabricating and spreading the "doping" accusation. The latest round of hype started from a July 30 article by The New York Times (NYT), which quoted two anonymous sources "with direct knowledge of the matter," as saying that two Chinese swimmers "tested positive in 2022 for a banned steroid," including one who was named to be in the Olympic team in Paris. It viciously hinted that the swimmer used drugs and was unqualified for the ongoing Olympics.
Regardless of WADA's responding statement on the same day, which dismissed the NYT's accusations, mainstream US media like The Associated Press soon joined in spreading the slander, by citing one-sided sources from among US swimmers who expressed "disappointment" in their Chinese competitors.
It's infuriating that self-claimed professional US news agencies play up anti-China sentiment in the Olympic arena while setting facts aside. "The politicization of anti-doping continues with this latest attempt by the media in the US to imply wrongdoing on the part of WADA and the broader anti-doping community," WADA said at the end of the statement, noting that it has been "unfairly caught in the middle of geopolitical tensions."
Similarly, before the Paris 2024 Olympics took place, the US had launched a round of misinformation campaign against Chinese swimmers, so as to exert public pressure on China and its athletes on the eve of this global sporting pageant.
In early July, some mainstream US media including the NYT, NBC, and CNN intensively reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation, into "how anti-doping authorities and sports officials allowed elite Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a banned substance," to "escape punishment and win a slew of medals."
The case they mentioned was about United States Anti-Doping Agency claiming that 23 Chinese swimmers were suspected of using a banned drug in 2021. It's worth noting that, WADA and FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation Association) had determined it was an accidental food contamination incident and absolved the involved swimmers after conducting an investigation, but the US government departments and media still hyped the case with misleading, suggestive language, which was "extremely rude and evil-minded," said observers in media and sports reached by the Global Times. Worse still, US media publicly disclosed the complete name list of the 23 swimmers involved after they had been proven innocent. WADA prohibits making public the names of the innocent athletes who have been cleared of wrongdoing, Shang Ximeng, a research fellow at the Center for International Sport Communication and Diplomacy Studies at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times. She added that US media had seldom exposed the names of US athletes involved in similar cases.
"But this time, the media deliberately made the names of Chinese swimmers public and put them in the spotlight, so as to harm their reputation and bring disruption to their matches," she told the Global Times. "That was immoral and against the rules."
Weaponizing sports
American sports history is riddled with instances in which athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs were shielded from consequences.
For example, at the 1996 Olympic trials, Mary Slaney tested positive for steroids but claimed her positive result was due to birth control pills. US authorities later believed her and reinstated her eligibility. Similarly, in 1998, Dennis Mitchell's positive drug test was absurdly attributed to excessive sex and beer, a flimsy excuse that was accepted.
The intersection of politics and sports has been a longstanding tool for the US to exert influence. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, garnering support from 65 countries.
David Niven, a political science professor from University of Cincinnati, asserts that understanding American life requires understanding its politics and sports, noting a resurgence of political activism in sports.
Shang noted that funding is an another tool the US uses to exert its jurisdiction in sports. Contributing about $3 million annually to WADA, the US leverages this to attempt to place more Americans as decision-making roles in WADA, threatening to cut funding otherwise. The Rodchenkov Act allows the US to conduct independent investigations and levy penalties, causing unease for WADA and the IOC. This act places US legal standards above global anti-doping efforts.
However, the global anti-doping field continues to harbor persistent malice toward China. As China's strength has become increasingly apparent, it has faced baseless accusations for a long time. Today, China has earned the respect and recognition of WADA through its own integrity and rigorous anti-doping efforts, analysts said.
All necessary measures will be taken to ensure the safety and fairness of the 2028 Olympic Games, said the organizing committee for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics (LA 2028) at a press conference on Saturday. The press conference addressed potential security concerns, and the long-arm jurisdiction granted to the US by the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committees are working diligently to ensure fairness for all participants at the Los Angeles Games, said Casey Wasserman, the LA 2028 organizing committee's chairperson, when responding to Chinese media's query.
The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which was passed by the US Senate on November 16, 2020, grants the US the power to criminally prosecute and judge those involved in doping among American athletes, and even sue the International Olympic Committee.
Many view this act as an example of the US prioritizing domestic law over international law, substituting US rules for international ones, and showcasing a "long-arm jurisdiction" approach.
Eliyan Knighton, who competed for the US in the men's 200 meters at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, had previously tested positive for the steroid (trenbolone) in an out-of-competition doping test, but before the Paris Olympic trials began the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) unexpectedly decided that the positive result was due to contaminated meat.
In Knighton's case, USADA issued a public statement before the World Anti-Doping Agency had reviewed the case or the appeal period had expired.
China's Anti-Doping Center called on international testing agencies to increase the frequency of anti-doping checks on US track athletes during the Paris Games on Thursday and recommended that the Athletics Integrity Unit intensify anti-doping oversight of US track and field to prevent potential doping issues.
The US has ignored its long-standing doping problems while focusing on "extraterritorial jurisdiction" and imposing sanctions on other countries. This has severely impacted the performance of Chinese swimmers.
Prior to the Paris Olympics, some US institutions and media stirred controversy over alleged doping issues with Chinese swimmers. According to the World Aquatics, since January 2024, Chinese swimmers have undergone an average of 21 drug tests per athlete, compared with four for Australian swimmers and six for US swimmers.
When Los Angeles successfully bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics, it promised that the games would be the most environmentally friendly in history, a goal that will be largely achieved through a "no-car" policy, a fact that was reiterated by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass during a recent press conference.
At the same time, the rise in homelessness in the area has turned some subway trains and buses into de facto shelters, making many passengers feel unsafe, with notable violent incidents exacerbating these concerns.
"The Los Angeles Olympics received a special security waiver from the US government in January, three years earlier than any previous Olympics. This means the federal government has already begun efforts to ensure the safety of the games," Wasserman said.
"Our top priority is to prepare thoroughly to address all possible challenges - whether related to security, operations, or other aspects and to deliver an incredible Olympic Games for the world," he added.
China’s Ministry of Commerce and six other government departments released an announcement on Friday about upgrading the national car renewal process, vowing to provide higher subsidies and a simpler application process, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The subsidy for consumers who scrap old cars and buy new ones will be increased to 20,000 yuan for purchasing a new-energy vehicle (NEV) and 15,000 yuan for a fuel vehicle, according to the announcement. The previous subsidy levels were 10,000 yuan for NEVs and 7,000 yuan for fuel vehicles.
The review and subsidy allocation process for scrapping cars and renewal will also be optimized, and local governments will be asked to issue detailed action plans.
China launched the car trade-in and renewal process on April 24 this year, in a bid to boost domestic consumption.
Xu Xingfeng, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, said that as of June 25, the ministry has received about 113,000 applications for car trade-in and renewal subsidies and the application volume has seen an accelerating growth trend.
Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that in July, NEV production stood at 984,000 units, up 22.3 percent year-on-year, while sales of NEVs totaled 991,000 units, up 27 percent on a yearly basis.
The domestic monthly retail penetration rate of NEVs reached 51.1 percent in July, which means that in China, the majority of consumers opted for NEVs when purchasing passenger cars, according to statistics released by the China Passenger Car Association on August 8, 2024.
Citing three senior Iranian officials, Reuters reported on Tuesday that only a cease-fire deal in Gaza stemming from hoped-for talks this week would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil.
Analysts said if the Reuters report is accurate, Iran, by linking the potential retaliation against Israel and the Gaza cease-fire negotiations, is keeping its options open.
When asked whether China was in direct or indirect contact with Iran regarding its retaliatory actions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday that China has been calling for international efforts to bring an early end to the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible and prevent further spillover. China plays an active role in easing regional tensions.
"We support all efforts that contribute to permanent and comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, and will work with the international community to deescalate the situation and avoid further escalation of the conflict and confrontation," Lin said.
Iran has been preparing for potential retaliation against Israel, but it is also waiting for the right timing and assessing the optimal method of the attack, Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"If Iran were to retaliate against Israel at this moment, it would bear a heavy diplomatic burden, as the retaliation could undermine the ongoing cease-fire negotiations in Gaza," Sun said.
"Under this circumstance, if the cease-fire negotiations do not yield results, or if Israel makes further military strikes against Hezbollah or Hamas, Iran's retaliation against Israel would be seen as more justified," he said.
According to Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, by linking the potential retaliation against Israel and the Gaza cease-fire negotiations, Iran is keeping its options open.
Reaching an agreement on Thursday is extremely challenging due to the substantial disparities in the basic understandings of the negotiations between Hamas and Israel, Liu told the Global Times on Wednesday, as Hamas is eager to move forward with the implementation of the existing agreement, whereas Israel is adamant about reopening negotiations.
In comments published on Tuesday, US Ambassador to Turkey Jeff Flake confirmed that Washington is asking allies to "help convince Iran to de-escalate tensions," Reuters said. However, on the same day, the US State Department approved potential weapons sales to Israel totaling roughly $20 billion, including an anticipated sale of up to 50 F-15 fighter jets valued at more than $18 billion, according to CNN.
The US is sending a clear message to Israel that it is a steadfast protector, while at the same time, the US is working to deter Iran from initiating any significant retaliation on Israel that could potentially draw the US directly into the conflict, experts said.
Sun said. "It is precisely the US' indulgence that has led to the tragedy in Gaza today. The US is the true instigator behind this crisis," he said.
