China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China and France should uphold independence and jointly fend off a "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday in Paris.

During his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, Xi expressed his pleasure at being invited to pay his third state visit to France on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.

Xi hoped that through this visit, he can work with President Macron to pass the baton of history and embark on a new journey for the next 60 years of bilateral ties, so as to make new contributions to world peace and stability as well as human development and progress.

To that end, Xi said: "both countries should adhere to the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic relations featuring independence, mutual understanding, foresight, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and work to add new dimensions to it."

"In today's world which is undergoing global changes and turbulence unseen in a century, both sides should uphold independence and jointly fend off a 'new Cold War' or bloc confrontation, adhere to mutual understanding and jointly promote a harmonious and colorful world where all countries can coexist, remain forward-looking and jointly push for an equal, orderly multi-polar world, and pursue mutual benefit and win-win cooperation and jointly oppose decoupling, disruption of industrial and supply chains, and the erection of 'fences and barriers'," he said.

Xi is on a state visit to France at the invitation of Macron. He will also pay state visits to Serbia and Hungary.

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China, France should uphold independence, jointly fend off "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation: Xi

China's cement industry is accelerating its transformation to digitalization and green manufacturing, keeping pace with the country's drive to achieve carbon reduction goals.

China released a plan on ultra-low emissions in cement production to reduce pollutant emissions in January this year. The plan requires half of cement clinker production capacity in the country's key regions for air pollution control to complete ultra-low emission transformation by the end of 2025, and 80 percent of China's overall cement clinker production capacity to finish the transformation the end of 2028.

It marks the ultra-low emission transformation in another traditional industry after coal-fired power plants and the steel industry in China.

"As of 2023, 274 cement factories and 125 cement mines had been listed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as green manufacturers. In the future, cement enterprises will build more green factories and apply more green mining approaches to contribute to the green and low-carbon development of the cement industry." said Kong Xiangzhong, executive president of the China Cement Association.

China's cement production totalled 2.023 billion tons in 2023, ranking first in the world for 38 consecutive years, according to insiders at the World Cement Association Annual Conference 2024 that opened in Nanjing of east China on Saturday.

China's cement output accounted for more than 50 percent of global cement production and the cement sector discharged over 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2023.

China's cement industry accelerates digital, green transformation