The World Conference on Wudang Tai Chi has commenced on Saturday at Wudang Mountains in central China's Hubei Province, facilitating cultural exchange and martial arts training internationally.
As a comprehensive festival, the event integrates sports competitions, cultural tourism, theoretical research, and economic and trade activities.
The three-day conference has lured a diverse group of participants, including more than 1,400 athletes from 45 countries and regions, along with over 500 experts, scholars, and representatives from martial arts associations worldwide.
Activities including international Tai Chi competitions and Tai Chi cultural forums are especially organized to keep fueling the enthusiasm of both in-person and online audiences.
Wudang Mountain, a world-renowned Taoist sacred site and the birthplace of Tai Chi culture, has been attracting Taoist culture enthusiasts from around the globe for centuries. With the prosperity of the Internet, the influence of Wudang martial arts and culture has been further amplified in recent years.
According to statistics, there are currently over 100 million people practicing Tai Chi in more than 150 countries and regions, with Tai Chi organizations established in over 80 countries and regions.
Int'l Tai Chi conference in China's Wudang Mountains brings together global enthusiasts
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
