Xi attends series of activities on second day of state visit to France

China

Xi attends series of activities on second day of state visit to France

2024-05-08 12:14 Last Updated At：16:07

Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a series of activities in Paris on Monday, the second day of his state visit to France, yielding fruitful results in enhancing bilateral ties.

Xi arrived in Paris on Sunday for the state visit to France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, receiving a warm welcome by French officials and local people.

The visit is the second of its kind by China's head of state to France in five years and coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

Xi on Monday attended a welcome ceremony held by Macron at Les Invalides in Paris.

Following the welcome ceremony, Xi held talks with Macron on relations between the two countries and major international issues of common concern.

At the talks held in the Elysee Palace, Xi expressed his delight in making his third state visit to France on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.

After the talks, Xi and Macron held a joint meeting with the press at the Elysee Palace.

"China-French relations have precious history, unique value and important mission. Both sides should pass on the baton of history, carry forward the spirit of establishing diplomatic relations between China and France, and grant it new dimensions," Xi said at the press conference.

Xi, together with Macron, also attended the closing ceremony of the sixth meeting of the China-France Business Council at the Marigny Theater in Paris on Monday evening.

Xi also attended a China-France-EU trilateral meeting with Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Elysee Palace earlier in the day.

Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron held a welcoming banquet for Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Elysee Palace.

Following the visit to France, Xi proceeded to Serbia on Tuesday on the second leg of his current three-nation Europe tour.

He will also pay a state visit to Hungary.

China's cement industry accelerates digital, green transformation

2024-05-19 15:42 Last Updated At：16:07

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.