BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- It is estimated that China's foreign trade will basically maintain the upward momentum in the first half of 2024, Yu Jianhua, head of the General Administration of Customs (GAC), said Monday. According to the latest customs statistics, since the beginning of this year, China's imports and exports have continued to improve, Yu said on the sidelines of the annual session of the national legislature which concluded on Monday.
Shen Changyu, head of the National Intellectual Property Administration of China, gives an interview after the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 11, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Xu) Chinese officials on Monday vowed to make concrete efforts to mitigate financial and other risks and boost high-quality development following the two sessions, which concluded on the day in Beijing, where a slew of social and economic development targets were determined for the year.
More pragmatic measures need to be taken to attract foreign students to China, such as simplifying their internship application procedures, allowing qualified foreign students to work at certain "non-sensitive" enterprises and public institutions, and lowering the work visa thresholds for foreign college graduate applicants, a political advisor told the Global Times, amid a deep decline in the number of foreign students in recent years, especially from developed countries. Jia Qingguo, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a professor with the School of International Studies at Peking University, highlighted the dive in the number of foreign students by pointing out that the number of US students in China was only 350 in 2023, declining over 90 percent from the peak of 15,000 students a decade ago.
Journalists from around the world take photos during the closing meeting of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY As the two sessions drew to a close, foreign reporters agreed that covering the annual gatherings of China's top legislative and political advisory bodies has allowed them to observe Chinese democracy up close, without the biased outlook of certain Western media outlets coloring their judgment.
