The first plenary meeting of the 19th Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) was held on Monday in the port city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, following an opening ceremony of the event.
At the plenary meeting, participants deliberated and voted on the charter of the symposium, the "Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea" and the "Applications of Unmanned Systems" among other agenda items.
The Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, endorsed during the 14th WPNS hosted by the Chinese Navy in Qingdao in April 2014, provides safety procedures and maneuvering instructions for naval ships and naval aircraft in unplanned encounters at sea. It aims to mitigate maritime risks and minimize the occurrence of maritime incidents.
A seminar for high-level naval officials of participating countries will be held on Tuesday.
Prior to the official inauguration of the meeting, Chinese naval officials held a series of bilateral talks with their foreign counterparts on Sunday afternoon.
Themed "Oceans with a Shared Future," the four-day meeting attracted over 180 navy representatives from 29 countries. Some delegations said they started relevant preparations upon arrival in the early morning, as everyone hopes to make full use of this platform to carry out cooperation and exchanges.
First plenary meeting of 19th Western Pacific Naval Symposium held in Qingdao
Customers in Shanghai are flooding back to brick and mortar stores to upgrade their home appliances thanks to advances in energy efficiency and the availability of subsidies offered by local government, home appliance brands and retailers.
A store in Shanghai's downtown Changning District has welcomed an average of 2,800 customers on a daily basis in recent days.
Labels on some home appliances show that customers have access to a 10 percent subsidy as long as the products they buy are energy efficient.
"With this 10-percent subsidy, I decided to make offline purchase at this store. It's cheaper after all," said one customer.
This 10 percent subsidy is offered by the Shanghai government to boost consumption.
Retailers are also offering subsidies, further driving up consumption.
"If a customer is buying a product with grade one energy label, while at the same time has an old machine for replacement, the customer can enjoy a 10 percent subsidy from the government. And our platform and the manufacturer together offer a 10 percent subsidy for trade-in goods. And we are also offering an additional seven to eight percent subsidy for sets, and a five percent subsidy for single items. So the customer can generally get a 35 to 40 percent subsidy," said Yang Xu, procurement and sales manager with a Shanghai branch of China's e-commerce giant JD.com.
Noticeably, people are willing to buy more products, especially more high-end models.
"Things are now cheaper. So I have money left for high-end products. I've spent 20,000 yuan (about 2,764 U.S. dollars) here. In the past, I would not choose a refrigerator of more than 13,000 yuan (about 1796 U.S. dollars). I would only buy one with half its price. And I was not planning to buy a TV. But now, I've decided to buy one," said one customer.
Boosting consumption is just one upside of such trade-in programs. Replacing old machines with more energy efficient models also aligns with the country's carbon reduction goals.
China has pledged to achieve peak carbon emissions by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Home appliances trade-in programs boost consumption, protect environment
