China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, made its first visit to
Hong Kong on July 7 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the
city’s return to China.
During the Liaoning’s five-day stay, more than 40,000 people
visited the carrier. Media reports said that many people queued
for a ticket three days in advance.
As China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning was built on a half-
finished Russian carrier China bought following the collapse of
the Soviet Union. Many Hong Kong people were excited to see
the huge vessel, telling media that they are proud of the mother-
land’s development.
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Chinese Aircraft Carrier Opened to Public
Top Story President Xi Promotes Globalisation at G20 Summit
Chinese President Xi Jinping attended
the 2017 G20 summit held in Hamburg,
Germany, where he encouraged the at-
tending countries to make a joint effort
to strive for a more inclusive and open
world economy.
Xi’s address catered to the summit’s
theme of “shaping an interconnected
world,” which turned out to be especially
pertinent given the difficulties the 20
countries faced in reaching an agreement
with US President Donald Trump who
advocates “an America First policy” and
has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement.
Despite a more strained atmospherethan before, the attending countries
welcomed China’s Belt and Road Initia-
tive, thanks to Xi’s promotion – Xi talked
about the initiative during all his meet-
ings with the other countries’ leaders. For
example, he told the Japanese Premier
Shinzo Abe that the initiative serves as a
lubricant to Sino-Japanese relations, and
Russia agreed to promote China’s connec-
tion to the Eurasian economy, based on
both Sino-Russian cooperation and on
the Belt and Road Initiative.
“As a crucial international product
China has launched, the Belt and Road
Initiative has received widespread supportand participation,” Chinese foreign min-
ister Wang Yi told ChinaReport.
According to Javier Solana, former
secretary-general of NATO, the Belt
and Road Initiative embodies China’s
wish to tighten economic ties with other
parts of the world and enhance China’s
soft power. He told ChinaReport that Xi
made himself a defender of globalisation
as early as the Davos World Economic
Forum held this January. Xi claimed that
nobody could avoid the tide of a global
economy and it is neither possible nor in
line with historical trends to partition the
world into tiny, isolated economies.
Two months before the G20, China
held the first Belt and Road Forum for
International Cooperation which was
attended by around 1,500 delegates from
over 130 countries and 70 international
organisations. During the G20 summit,
Xi met with the other BRIC leaders and
his meeting with Trump went smoother
than media had predicted. Analysts said
that it proved that approval for the Belt
and Road Initiative had reached a con-
sensus around the globe and that China
has found a perfect point to connect its
development projects with those of the
rest of the world.