A take from China: technology good for human advancement
• By Uaueza Kanguatjivi
CHINA has a rich cultural history, cutting-edge technology, creativity, and innovation, which have helped define its civilisation as distinctive, cohesive, innovative, uniform, and, most importantly, peaceful.
This was the main feature of a week-long fact-finding journey to China by a delegation of 13 media figures.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping stated a week ago and as the trip demonstrated, Beijing has supported world peace and international order and will continue to do so. China does not advocate hegemony or impose its ideals or systems on other nations.
The idea is that China is a cohesive nation that takes pride in unity as its primary objective and as a country. China is not frightened of facing challenges, which is evident for all to see with the naked eye, despite the West’s attempts to portray China as a nation under strict government control.
China continues calling on its cultural specialists to relentlessly maintain and reinvent the wealth of the nation’s civilisation as it enters a critical period in its history.
As the visiting delegation witnessed firsthand the outstanding technical, artificial intelligence, digital media solutions, and agricultural innovations altering China’s economy, the seven-day tour increased their understanding of China’s economic development.
The Namibian delegation gained priceless knowledge from their study to help Namibia determine its future.
Here are some of the most important things they learned from the situation:
Cultural perseverance
The 486 Intangible Cultural Heritage Cluster Area is an important historical site that protects and promotes China’s distinctive cultural identities.
The 486 Intangible Cultural Heritage Cluster Area is home to around 202 enthralling intangible cultural riches, according to Li Jingbing, vice-president of Yangzhou Yuhne Cultural Investment Group.
China gives firsthand information on how it preserves its rich cultural heritage for future generations through block printing, fine art, Chinese calligraphy, classical instruments, gold and silver handcraft, jade carving, silk paintings, the Yangzhou bird cage, Chinese paper cut, artificial flower handicraft, and the mesmerising, random stitch embroidery.
China is sure to maintain its past so that future generations can learn from it, while many other nations are steadily losing their identity to Western ideology.
Agriculture
The team visited the Huasi Vegetable Base, which promotes environmentally friendly farming methods and the value of locally grown food.
China thrives on supporting local businesses, and as a result, it produces more than enough to sell to other nations.
The Huasi Vegetable Base is a Jiangsu government initiative where the government found a need to produce fresh produce for community members while safeguarding unique species and natural veggies that are produced to be more organic and nourishing.
Xue Feng, Member of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Jiangsu Lixiahe Agriculture Institute said a professor from Jiangsu University and students from the university are currently experimenting with a cucumber exhibition project.
Feng said cherry tomatoes are predominantly grown with coconut fibre on forty organic bases in Huasi.
Furthermore, more than ten varieties of broccoli, lettuce, pumpkin, tomatoes, and onions are planted and grown as natural pesticides.
Feng stated, “The five diverse colour variations of cherry tomatoes, which include red, purple, yellow, and green, are explained by the fact that they are developed via a hybrid strategy.”
In an interview with Confidente, the deputy director general of Jiangsu Foreign Affairs Office, Yang Jing, said Jiangsu and Namibia share a unique friendship, making them sister provinces.
“Agriculture and vocational training should be the main areas of cooperation between the two nations,” she said.
Jing added that the relationship between Namibia and China had provided a great platform for the two nations to exchange communication across sectors, including education, health, sport, and economic trade collaboration.
Jing said China has learnt from experience that talent is key to developing a certain area.
“We have already built an exchange centre for vocational education in Namibia, and we hope to upgrade it to a workshop to help train more technical talent for Namibia to promote the country’s development,” she said.
Innovation and modern technologies
The delegation also visited Yangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Yangzhou Innovation Center, and ECOVACS Robotics, a high-tech company specialising in commercial and household robotics listed publicly on the stock exchange and is a world-leading robot company.
Yangzhou Innovation Centre General Manager Dean Zhu stated that the facility serves newly established small and medium enterprises (SMEs), focusing on new energy and new material while nurturing a centre system that offers services such as hospitality properties, policy, financial support, and marketing services.
According to Zhu, the centre concentrates on content creation and collaborates closely with those with TikTok accounts.
Executive director of ECOVACS Zhang Bo said the Tineco subsidiary of the ECOVACS Group focuses on smart household equipment for cooking and cleaning, while some subsidiary firms concentrate more on basic components like electric motors, batteries, and electronics.
“ECOVACS has been in business for 30 years and was the first company to create the OZMO robot, which can mop and vacuum in one motion,” Bo said
According to Bo, the business was the first to create a voice-activated AI assistant to instruct and command a robot.
“Robots like the wind-bot, dee-bot, air-bot, and intelligent cook, eliminate the need for human control since they do duties well on their own,” he said.
Industrial parks
The team also visited the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), symbolising China and Singapore’s first governmental cooperation project.
Here the team gained valuable insight into how SIP has helped boast a network of expressways, railways, watercourses, and air routes that links it with major global cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing.
SIP has leading industries such as new-generation information technology and high-end equipment manufacturing technologies such as Biomedicine, nanotech applications, and artificial intelligence.
A guide told the delegation that the biomedical industry focuses on three areas, namely, new drug discovery, high-end medical devices such as CT scans, biotechnology, and new therapies,
“While focusing on the four subdivisions of GaN-based third-generation semi-conductors, MEMS-based micro, and nano-manufacturing, new nano-materials such as GaN-On-Si Power Electronic Device and the InGaAs 25G High-speed detector clip.”
The guide also explained that SIP was the first to deploy the new AI-led generation, which speeds up the expansion of intelligent manufacturing, driving, finance, and health care.
Media houses
The Chinese media sector is run by cutting-edge news production techniques, digital journalism practices, and innovative approaches that augment reality in journalism and media consumption.
Suzhou Deputy Editor-in-Chief Zhang Bo said by using mobile applications such as Yinilibo, Weibo, and WeChat, China has developed from a traditional paper to a very modern paper with all types of media branches.
“As the internet age is at a critical phase in China, we are looking at ways of integrated development of our media groups and now focus more on our online media businesses and produce more video than news content for our online website,” Bo said.
While many in Africa are still debating using artificial intelligence (AI), China has taken advantage of this technology and is using it to better mankind.
China’s promise to be a great superpower is achieved through technology to benefit its citizens.
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