News

Beijing， Hanoi Reinforce Ties

January 12， Beijing： Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcoming ceremony for Nguyen Phu Trong， general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee. Likening the two countries as “comrades and brothers，” Xi said China views relations with Vietnam strategically and from a long-term perspective. “We should strengthen strategic cooperation and keep boosting mutual trust， so as to lay a more solid political foundation for the settlement of maritime issues，” Xi said at the meeting. “At the same time， we should push forward joint exploration and cooperation in the sea.”

Nguyen said Hanoi will “expand maritime cooperation” with Beijing and seek results in areas like security， trade and youth communication. He affirmed that Hanoi sees relations with Beijing as “the top priority of long-term foreign policy.”

This is Nguyen’s first visit to China since his re-election in January 2016. The two leaders witnessed the signing of 15 cooperation documents， covering areas including national defense， financing， railways and Party cadre training.

Let’s Make a Deal： Trump， Ma Talk Jobs

January 9， New York： Jack Ma， billionaire founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group， met then U.S. president-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower.

The two met briefly with reporters after the morning meeting. Trump said that it was a “great meeting” and Ma called it “very productive.” They announced plans to create a million U.S. jobs by allowing small and medium-sized U.S. businesses to sell to China through Alibaba’s platforms.

Ma also told reporters that the two discussed selling U.S. commodities including apparel， wine and fruit on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms. Ma added that both also agreed on the need for improvement of the overall China-U.S. relationship.

Alibaba， which focuses mostly on facilitating third-party sales， employed 36，446 full-time workers as of March 31， 2016， according to SEC filings.

Winter Heat in Xinjiang

December 24， Hami， Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region： Dancers wait to perform at the 12th Barkol Ice， Snow， Cultural and Tourism Festival. Winter is becoming a popular time to visit Xinjiang， a region of China that borders Russia， Kazakhstan， Afghanistan and other countries. Drawn to its snow-capped mountains and diverse cultural attractions， more than 30 million tourists are expected to visit Xinjiang from November to April.

China’s 13th National Winter Games， held in Urumqi from January 20 to 30， provided a further boost to winter tourism.

Decorating the New Year

January 10， Zibo， Shandong Province： Workers make door decorations at a factory. Lunar New Year’s Day falls on January 28 this year， the dawn of the Year of the Rooster. Although holiday decorations are dramatically diversified these days， some traditional Spring Festival decorations， such as door decorations， door-god pictures， paper-cuts， and red lanterns still sell well both in China and Chinese communities abroad. Since some production processes cannot be fully mechanized and require manual work， the manufacturers must step up production to keep up with orders.