Grammy Award-winning rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, performed a sold-out show for his album series "Vultures" in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province, on Sunday night, marking the start of the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays of the tropical island.

The “Vultures Listening Experience World Tour Listening Party - Haikou” marked Ye’s first performance in the Chinese mainland since 2008, aligning with Hainan’s efforts to position itself as a hub for world-class music events.

Sporting a T-shirt that featured Chinese characters "告诉过你" (I told you so), Ye brought out all his family members, including his four children, to the stage at the packed Wuyuan River Sports Stadium, where all 42,000 tickets, ranging from 680 yuan ($96) – 2,000 yuan, sold out in minutes as 96.5 percent of the tickets were purchased by people living outside the island. The cities with the highest number of buyers were Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu, according to Hainan Daily.
"Ye performed many of his classic songs, singing along with the audience. At one point of the party, he said, 'I love you, Haikou.' The live atmosphere was absolutely electrifying, especially since the show lasted for three hours. At one point, he even sang along with the crowd,” a 20-year-old fan surnamed Li, who flew from Beijing to attend the show, told the Global Times on Monday.

Prior to the show, Ye shared on his social media account a childhood photo of himself in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, with the caption: "BACK."

Ye lived in China for a year when he was about 10 years old. His mother was an English professor and worked as a visiting scholar at the Nanjing University in 1987.

As one of China’s top tourist destinations, Hainan has been committed to boosting its tourism sector by promoting cultural events. Local authorities even offer financial incentives to attract international performers.

Since 2023, local authorities have been promoting large-scale concerts and music festivals in Hainan as part of a new "performance tourism" model, aimed at revitalizing the tourism industry, according to a statement released by the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television, and Sports in February.

Introducing internationally renowned concerts or music festivals can enhance Hainan’s image and international influence as a tourist destination while driving the “cultural and entertainment” transformation of the local tourism industry. This approach is expected to attract younger consumers, shifting Hainan’s tourism focus from primarily older visitors to a more youthful demographic, Sun Xiaorong, a member of the national tourism reform and development advisory committee, told the China News Weekly.

In May, Hainan released several measures to further promote the integration of culture, sports, tourism, and exhibitions to expand consumption. The policy offers a one-time reward of 3 million yuan for events that meet specific criteria: featuring international or top-tier domestic acts, selling at least 100,000 tickets, generating over 50 million yuan in ticket revenue, and attracting more than 50 percent of the audience from outside the island.

Since July 30, overseas travelers with regular passports from countries that have diplomatic relations with China can enjoy visa-free entry to Hainan for up to 144 hours. This is applicable after they have visited Hong Kong or Macao special administrative regions and joined a tour group of at least two people arranged by a legally registered travel agency in those regions.

The move is part of broader efforts to make Hainan a global tourism hub and increase its openness to international visitors.

Editor's Note:

"Cognitive Warfare" has become a new form of confrontation between states, and a new security threat. With new technological means, it sets agendas and spreads disinformation, to change people's perceptions and thus alter their self-identity. Launching cognitive warfare against China is an important means for Western anti-China forces to attack and discredit the country.

Some politicians and media outlets have publicly smeared China's image by propagating false narratives in an attempt to incite and provoke dissatisfaction with China among people in certain countries. These means all serve the US strategy to contain China's rise and maintain its hegemony. The Global Times is publishing a series of articles to reveal the intrigues of the US and its allies' China-targeted cognitive warfare and expose its lies and vicious intentions.

In the 16th installment of the series, the Global Times examines a new angle in the West's smear campaign against China: Archaeology. Through analysis of recent stories by Western media outlets that defame China's archaeological field and the viewpoints of front-line Chinese archaeologists in Central Asia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this installment aims to expose the absurd narrative that politicizes and stigmatizes China's archaeological efforts in Silk Road-related areas, as well as the long-standing Western biases against Chinese archaeology.

For decades, some people in the West have been slandering against China under guises like "trade" "security" and "human rights," regardless of how baseless and false their claims may be.

And now, these malicious storytellers have stretched their evil hands to a new field - archeology.

In recent months, articles from mainstream Western media outlets were discovered to be sensationalizing the "politicization" and "weaponization" of Chinese archaeology, viciously depicting China's archaeological work in its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region or overseas as part of efforts to serve the country's political propaganda, aid in sovereignty claims, or intensify international political competition.

Such move aim to taint pure academic field through disinformation against China. This is a new form of cognitive warfare campaign targeting China, warned Jia Chunyang, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Security Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

"By challenging China's historical academic research on Silk Roads, they (some Western media outlets) are attempting to deny China's history and current policy propositions in this area," Jia told the Global Times. "This intention is extremely malicious."

'No moral bottom line'

One of the latest stories to anger the Chinese archaeological community was a bilingual piece by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published in late July.

"The country's archaeologists are striking out along the Silk Road(s) to trace the reach of ancient Chinese civilization, disputing long-held beliefs," the story wrote in its deck. It mainly introduced one of China's major overseas Silk Road archaeological works in Uzbekistan, the discovery of the ruins of Greater Yuezhi (an ancient nomadic kingdom) led by archaeologist Wang Jianxin, a leading figure in China's research on ancient civilizations in Central Asia.

However, the story gave a strange interpretation of the work conducted by Wang's team, stating that China's overseas archaeological efforts are probably in aid of its geopolitics claims or for the sake of "disputed" territories.

Although in this article, Wang refuted the question of "whether Beijing could use the Yuezhi to make territorial claims" and dismissed the notion as "absurd." Nonetheless, the author still insidiously hinted at a nonexistent connection between Wang's Yuezhi archaeological work in Uzbekistan, and China's influence in the country through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects there. "…there are concerns that China will simply be the newest great power to impose itself on the region," it wrote.

In interviews with Chinese scholars, a few Western media personnel attempt to dig "traps" and later deliberately distort and misinterpret the interviewees' views in their stories, as proof of the "fact," Jia pointed out.

"This shows that some people in the West have spared no effort in order to discredit China," Jia told the Global Times. "They have no moral bottom line."

Lothar von Falkenhausen, a professor at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted in the story as well. "He looked at things differently and is now helping others see things differently and make new discoveries," Falkenhausen told the WSJ.

Falkenhausen later wrote to the Global Times, noting that the journalists writing for the WSJ might have misrepresented the importance of the archaeological dimension of the subject.

But the academic expert, who specializes in archaeology, said on WeChat that he does not blame the journalists for potentially misunderstanding the depth of the archaeological subject matter. "They are experts in something else - politics," he remarked, emphasizing his own focus on the academic and collaborative aspects of the research.
Who weaponizes archaeology?

In recent years, China has stepped up its archaeological efforts along the overland and maritime Silk Roads both at home and abroad.

In its Northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it discovered excavation sites reflecting ancient political power and a rare offshoot of a Christian sect, and that was among the top six new archaeological discoveries in China in 2023. Chinese archaeologists have also been to regions including the South China Sea, Central Asia, and Africa, to explore the ties between the Chinese civilization and crucial moments in world history. China has also enhanced international cooperation in this field.

However, some Western media outlets continue to depict China's Silk Roads archaeological work as a BRI "accessory," or a tool to serve its "political and governing purposes."

In a bombastic article titled "China is using archaeology as a weapon" on July 11, The Economist accused China of "unearthing ancient justifications for its rule over Xinjiang." Without rhyme or reason, the story claimed that Chinese archaeologists' discovery of Mo'er Temple ruins in Kashi, Xinjiang - the earliest large-scale, earthen-structured, ground-level Buddhist temple site in the westernmost part of China - was being used by the Chinese government "to justify its brutal rule over Xinjiang."

This story was replete with offensive lies. It tenuously linked an archaeological achievement in Xinjiang to the West's favorite groundless accusations of "brutal rule" or "cultural genocide," and tried to mislead its readers by claiming that solid historical evidence "hardly means Xinjiang was culturally or politically part of China" by citing one-sided views of a Georgetown University scholar.

It was an incredibly far-fetched, amateurish, and biased article, archaeology insiders said. Chen Ling, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology, at Peking University, emphasizes that Xinjiang has been an integral part of China since ancient times.

Chen points out that the cultural orientation of this area has always been toward the East due to geographical conditions, even before the establishment of modern states and civilizations, which can be proven by recent archaeological discoveries.

It is these Western media outlets that are "using academia as a political tool," Chen told the Global Times.

Similarly, when China announced a deep-sea excavation plan in June 2023, which involved more than 900 pieces of cultural relics being retrieved from two ancient shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea, The Economist claimed in a subsequent article that China's underwater archaeology "has military and strategic uses," and it serves the country's maritime territorial claims.

It is clearly to see that it is not China, but entities in the West, that is trying to "weaponize" archaeology.

"Their goal is to give the international community the false impression that the Xinjiang region, Central Asia, and some areas along the Silk Roads have little historical connection to China, so as to slander China for 'falsifying' history," said Jia.

"By denying China's history, they deny China's current policies based on said history," Jia noted.

Two-way interaction

The fact is that China is making significant achievements in archaeology along the Silk Roads, with increasingly close connections and collaborations with relevant countries and regions.

In April 2023, the Collaborative Research Center for Archaeology of the Silk Roads was established in Xi'an, Southwest China's Shaanxi Province, an outcome of the second China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers' meeting in May 2021.

Wang, chief scientist at the center, has repeatedly stressed the importance of including an "Eastern perspective" in Silk Road archaeological work. "The concept [of the Silk Road] was initiated by Western academia, so a majority of research focuses on how the West influenced others," Wang told the Global Times in a previous interview in October 2022. "We do overseas research like this to change these centralized interpretations and contribute to the comprehensive study of the Silk Road."

Chen criticizes the West's tendency to promote a monolithic viewpoint, stating that the world is moving toward diversity, not away from it.

"Now the West does not want to allow the East to propose a global perspective, and such move is an attempt to rule the world with a single narrative, replacing the diversity of the world with a single value system," he said.

As one of the Chinese archaeologists participating in the earlier joint archaeology project between China and Uzbekistan, Chen believes that understanding human civilization requires the accumulation of knowledge from various points, and only when these points converge can we accurately present the tapestry of world history.

He told the Global Times that this ancient network of trade routes, stretching from China to the Mediterranean, is not merely a historical artifact, but a living testament to the fluid exchange of cultures, goods, and ideas that have shaped our world.

"Cultural exchange is no longer a one-way street, but a two-way interaction," noted Chen. "China respects the political systems and religious beliefs that align with the unique cultural characteristics of each country, promoting mutual learning and breaking the old world cultural order dominated by the so-called 'universal values' that Western countries force other countries to follow."

CIFTIS a vital platform to promote global services development, share opportunities GraphicAnalysis: GT

The Embassy of Switzerland in China held an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions at the Embassy of Switzerland residence in Beijing on August 12.
In his address, Swiss Ambassador to China Jürg Burri said, "If we look around the world today, 75 years later, we note that we are still far from achieving the goal of ending the pains of armed conflict. However, this should not lead us to accept war as inevitable. We should still condemn war as a means prohibited by the UN Charter. And even more importantly, it should not make us give up on the commitment to 'humanize war' and lessen the misery it causes."

Over the decades, the Geneva Conventions have provided a vital bulwark against the atrocities of war, saving millions of lives.

At the event, Balthasar Staehelin, Personal Envoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President to China and Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia, delivered a speech.

Wang Ping, Vice-President of the Red Cross Society of China, also delivered an opening speech.

China was one of the first countries to accede to the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, and attaches great importance to compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL). The China National Committee on IHL was established in 2007 to promote the dissemination and implementation of the IHL, with the Red Cross Society of China as its secretariat.

"The ever more complex global development and security situation has resulted in an upsurge of humanitarian needs. Dissemination and compliance with the IHL are more relevant than ever before," said Wang.

The Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1949 and are now universally ratified, representing a universal acknowledgment that war needs rules to limit its devastating impact on humanity.

Showcasing the creations of over 100 artists from across the country, an exhibition titled Origin and Innovation - (China) Western Art Biennale kicked off on Friday in North China's Tianjin Municipality.

Hosted by the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, the exhibition is being held at three major venues: the Tianjin Art Museum, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, and Tianmei Art District. It brings together works by more than 100 artists from cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Xi'an, Hohhot and Shenzhen, covering a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, installation art, technological art, and animation.

According to the organizers, the exhibition closely connects the rich cultural heritage of China's western regions with the artistic ecosystems of eastern and coastal areas. During the exhibition, a series of academic forums are also being held. Experts and scholars will discuss topics such as urban cultural development, the current state of contemporary art and social aesthetic education.

"Read ten thousand books, and your pen will be guided as if by the gods" is an ancient Chinese idiom that can be seen in students' textbooks. China's Ministry of Education has published an action plan to further promote reading among students across the nation. With new and diverse book recommendations, the reading scene is expected to be revived not only at schools, but also across society. To contribute to this endeavor, the Global Times launched "My Reading Life" essay contest for middle school students.

Please pick up a pen and share your stories with us at reading@globaltimes.com.cn

Participants will be rewarded once the article has been selected.

Throughout my life, reading has been an integral part of my personal and intellectual development. It has bestowed upon me infinite pleasure while expanding my horizons and amplifying my lexical resources. In this essay, I aim to discuss the impact of reading on my life, the multiple forms of literature I enjoy, and the reasons why I firmly believe that reading is an indispensable component of everyone's life.

First and foremost, reading has brought me much happiness. I have always loved delving into the magical realms that exist between a book's pages. I feel proud and fulfilled after finishing a book and understanding it completely.

When I was younger, I enjoyed reading comics, adventure novels, and fairy tales. These stories captivated my attention and gave me an opportunity to temporarily escape the strain of everyday life, which are too great for a child to handle. I developed an appreciation for more complex literature as I got older, including novels, poems, and essays. I tried to feel what the characters are feeling and to sympathize with them. These pieces continue to intellectually and emotionally challenge me even now.

Reading has made it possible for me to understand and sympathize with the hardships and victories of people from a variety of backgrounds. For example, I was able to understand the inequality that prevailed in the US in the 1930s after reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Through the character development in this novel, I gained a deep understanding of the discrimination and oppression faced by African Americans in the society during that time. This work made me aware of the importance of racial equality and justice, and sparked my reflection on social fairness and equality.

Reading has enhanced my vocabulary repository and linguistic competencies, which enables me to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of various contexts, fostering my analytical abilities.

As I encountered new words and phrases in my reading materials, I learned their meanings and applications in my writing and conversations which has yielded a tremendously advantageous impact, particularly in relation to my academic endeavors and the preparation for various kinds of English exams.

By incorporating those newly learned vocabulary and phrases into my writing and oral communication, the quality of my expression had been elevated, and the recognition from my mentor was gained. Additionally, reading has opened up numerous personal and academic opportunities for me by improving my language skills.

Moreover, reading has shaped my values and worldview. Through the wisdom and insights of prominent thinkers, I have gained a deeper understanding of ethics, philosophy, and social issues. Reading has equipped me with encyclopedic knowledge and unwavering motivation that aren't accessible through other means, endowing me with the competence and fortitude to navigate social life and contribute meaningfully to the world.

In conclusion, reading has had a transformative force in my life. It has brought me joy, expanded my vocabulary, enhanced my global outlook.

I firmly believe that reading is essential for everyone, as it has the power to offer individuals inspiration and a pleasurable psychological experience. In today's fast-paced world, where technology and social media dominate our lives, reading remains a timeless and invaluable pursuit. It is my will that more people will embrace the joys of reading and discover the immense benefits it offers.

The author is a student at the Experimental High School attached to Beijing Normal University

The launch ceremony for the nationwide tour of the original Broadway musical Chicago was held on Friday at the Century Theater in Beijing. The two female leads, dressed in iconic black outfits, performed two of the most representative songs and dances from the show, instantly immersing the audience in the rich jazz flavor of Broadway.    

At the event, the actors first performed the song "My Own Best Friend." Afterward, they showcased Chicago's most famous duet, "Hot Honey Rag."

Starting in October, the musical will tour at least 11 cities across China, and bring 74 performances to audiences. From November 14 to 24, the show will come to Beijing's Century Theater for a 14-performance run. 

Since its Broadway debut in 1975, Chicago has enjoyed nearly 50 years of continuous performances. The musical has won six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and one Grammy Award.

China's National Medical Products Administration has given market entry approval to a monkeypox virus nucleic acid test kit developed by a medical diagnostics company in South China's Guangdong Province, marking the first approval of its kind in China, according to a statement published by medical products administration in Guangdong on Thursday.

The approved monkeypox test kit, developed by Daan Gene, will be mainly used in vitro qualitative detection of the monkeypox F3L gene in suspected cases, skin lesion samples of other individuals requiring monkeypox virus infection diagnosis or differential diagnosis, and throat swab samples, said the statement.

According to the statement, many listed companies are actively preparing for monkeypox test kits and other related products. To respond to the needs of overseas markets, many products developed by these companies have received the European Union's certification, exported to a number of overseas countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on August 14 declared the monkeypox surge a public health emergency of international concern -its highest alert level and urged manufacturers to ramp up vaccine production to rein in the spread of a more dangerous strain of the virus.

China's General Administration of Customs also announced that it would begin screening people and goods entering the country for monkeypox over the next six months. People arriving from countries where outbreaks have occurred, who have been in contact with monkeypox cases, or display symptoms will be required to declare this information to customs authorities when entering the country, adding that vehicles, containers, and items from areas with monkeypox cases should be sanitized.

As of July, a total of 99,176 laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox, including 208 deaths, have been reported to the United Nations health agency from 116 countries in all WHO regions, according to the UN News.

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris urged manufacturers to scale up monkeypox vaccine production, according to a report from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on August 17. 

The WHO also called for countries with monkeypox vaccine stockpiles to donate them to countries with ongoing outbreaks, according to the AFP.

Meanwhile, the replication-deficient monkeypox vaccine developed by the China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention passed the clinical trial application phase in July of 2023, making it the earliest domestically developed monkeypox vaccine to enter the clinical research stage in China.

China's Pang Runzhi, 17, won the Singapore Ladies Masters by a single shot over compatriot Cai Danlin, becoming the first Chinese female golfer to win in Singapore. This was also the only tournament in China's premier women's golf circuit held outside the country in the 2024 season.

The Singapore Ladies Masters, supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, is a significant event on the China Ladies Professional Golfers' Association (CLPGA) calendar. The tournament was held outside China to provide a platform for top female golfers from the region  to compete.

Pang's victory came after weather disruptions forced her to play 33 holes on the final day. She made four consecutive birdies in the morning and held steady in the final round to clinch the title. 

"I played 33 holes today and it was mentally and physically exhausting. But I took it all in stride and I'm really happy I managed to get my breakthrough in just my fourth start in the CLPGA," said the 17-year-old.

Cai Danlin finished second. Leading in the first and second rounds, Cai lost a chance to force overtime after missing an 8-foot birdie putt.

"I could not hit my shots as far as I wanted to toward the end of the round as it was a very long and tiring day. But congratulations to Pang for being a worthy champion," said Cai.

 India's Hitaashee Bakshi secured third place. Other notable performances included those from Malaysia's Jocelyn Chee and Thai golfers Chonlada Chayanun, Patcharajutar Kongkraphan, and Kultida Pramphun, who tied for fourth.

On Saturday, the Philippines sent a civilian ship to deliver daily necessities to its warship grounded at Ren'ai Jiao in accordance with a temporary arrangement reached with China. The China Coast Guard (CCG) supervised the operation throughout, said Gan Yu, a spokesperson for the CCG.

China had been notified of the resupply before it was carried out, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Saturday. After confirming on-the-scene that the Philippine vessel carried only humanitarian living necessities, the Chinese side let the Philippine vessel through, said the spokesperson.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the arrangement was reached based on the three-point principled position of China on managing the situation at Ren’ai Jiao. China’s position on the Ren’ai Jiao issue has not changed. China has sovereignty over Ren’ai Jiao, the rest of Nansha Qundao (Nansha Islands) and their adjacent waters. China will continue to properly deal with relevant territorial issues and disputes over maritime rights with the Philippines through dialogue and consultation.

It is hoped that the Philippines will keep their promise, work together with China, and jointly manage the situation at sea, Gan said, noting that the CCG will continue to carry out law enforcement activities to safeguard rights in the South China Sea, including Ren'ai Jiao, also known as Ren'ai Reef.

China and the Philippines reached an understanding on managing the situation at Ren’ai Jiao, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on July 22.

This is mainly related to the principles and practices which the Philippines needs to abide by when providing essential supplies to the personnel on the warship illegally grounded at Ren'ai Jiao of China's Nansha Qundao for an extended period . It demonstrated that Beijing's comprehensive countermeasures against Manila's provocations in the region for more than a year are working in a sustained manner, resulting in the Philippines returning to direct negotiations and consultations, observers noted.

The signing of the new agreement can be seen as a litmus test, and so far it appears to be effective, Ding Duo, a deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Law and Policy at the China Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo in Vientiane, Laos on Friday and reaffirmed China’s position over Ren’ai Jiao, which is being viewed as playing a positive role in ensuring the successful implementation of the bilateral deal on Ren’ai Jiao.

When meeting with Manalo, Wang called on the Philippines to fulfill its commitments and refrain from changing its position as China has recently reached a temporary arrangement with the Southeast Asian country on the transportation and replenishment of humanitarian supplies to Ren'ai Jiao.

Commenting on the Philippines’ resupply mission to Ren’ai Jiao on Saturday, Ding said that moving forward, it will be important to see if the Philippines' willingness to manage differences can continue to translate into concrete actions.

Also, we should wait and see if external factors such as the US will influence the Philippines to deviate from their commitments, and if the Marcos administration can navigate domestic interference and distractions on this issue, according to Ding.

China's stance remains unchanged, and the country have a range of measures to address any negative actions by the Philippines, the expert noted.

Ding called on the Philippines to focus on managing differences, maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea, and strengthening positive aspects of the China-Philippines relationship while minimizing negative factors.