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25 panda cubs make adorable debut via video in Sichuan ahead of Spring Festival

China

China

China

25 panda cubs make adorable debut via video in Sichuan ahead of Spring Festival

2025-01-23 16:21 Last Updated At:16:37

In a delightful celebration of the upcoming Spring Festival, 25 newborn panda cubs from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province made their first public appearance together through a video link on Thursday.

The event, themed "Lucky Wishes and Adorable Newcomers," featured two groups of panda cubs born in 2024 sending Chinese Lunar New Year greetings to people worldwide in festive settings. The show highlighted the integration of Chinese Spring Festival traditions, intangible cultural heritage and panda conservation.

At the Shenshuping Base of the CCRCGP in Wolong National Nature Reserve located in Wenchuan County, 13 panda babies explored an area adorned with traditional Chinese snacks like sugarcoated haws, sticky rice balls and sugar paintings, as well as lanterns and snake-shaped toys.

Meanwhile, another 12 panda cubs at the Chengdu Research Base enjoyed a lively atmosphere with paper-cuttings, folding fans, and red lanterns -- symbols of good fortune and part of China's intangible cultural heritage.

These bears, making their collective debut, showcased a variety of personalities -- some were playful and curious, while others were more reserved. This charming display combined with traditional Chinese elements not only delighted the audience but also conveyed a profound message of harmony between humans and nature.

Since its establishment in November 2023, the CCRCGP has focused on building a world-class platform for panda protection and research.

The center and the Chengdu Research Base have worked together closely, promoting genetic diversity in the captive panda population and conducting over 10 academic exchanges.

They have made significant progress in key research areas, such as the protection of wild panda populations and their habitats, and the genetic diversity of captive pandas.

The collaboration also includes providing scientific guidance in five key areas of the Giant Panda National Park, including Wolong National Nature Reserve and Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve.

The center has established a global platform for promoting international cooperation and exchanges involving 18 zoos from 16 countries and regions, as well as 39 domestic animal breeding institutions and more than 10 scientific research institutes.

25 panda cubs make adorable debut via video in Sichuan ahead of Spring Festival

25 panda cubs make adorable debut via video in Sichuan ahead of Spring Festival

Chinese enterprises have made prominent contributions to the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in terms of AI applications across various sectors, Xue Lan, dean of the Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University, told China Central Television (CCTV) at the AI Action Summit in Paris, France on Monday.

The AI Action Summit opened on Monday at the Grand Palais in Paris, gathering world leaders and executives of leading AI companies to assess the challenges and opportunities posed by the rapidly evolving technology, including discussions of global governance of the technology.

With different topics under the spotlight at the summit, comprehensive discussions of the impact of AI on all aspects of social development were a key part of the event, said Xue, who is also head of the Institute for AI International Governance at Tsinghua University.

China has played a big part in driving the development and security governance of global AI, Xue stressed.

"Many of China's enterprises have made great contributions to the global AI ecosystem in its applications. So from the latest example, we can see that the emergence of DeepSeek indeed provides people with a new, different, and alternative path on the entire development of AI," said Xue.

The two-day summit has drawn representatives from nearly 100 countries and more than 1,000 stakeholders from the private sector and civil society.

The event discussed three main objectives; providing independent, safe and reliable AI services to users, developing more environmentally friendly AI, and ensuring effective and inclusive global governance of AI.

Europe will cut back on regulation to make it easier for AI to flourish in the region, French President Emmanuel Macron said at the summit on Monday.

Anne Bouverot, France's special envoy for AI, noted at the opening ceremony that the summit would emphasize "action" and discuss the sustainable development of AI, especially the important role that AI will play in various fields such as coping with climate change, environmental crisis, and digital transformation.

The AI Action Summit follows the AI Safety Summit in the UK in 2023 and the AI Seoul Summit in South Korea in 2024. As the host country, France hopes to see France and Europe take the initiative in the AI sector through the summit, said the French media.

Macron also told delegates to the AI summit that France "has to resynchronize with the rest of the world" to simplify the process of developing AI.

With U.S. President Donald Trump tearing up his predecessor's AI guardrails to boost U.S. competitiveness, pressure has been building on the EU to pursue a lighter-touch approach to AI regulation to help keep European companies in the tech race, said Reuters.

Chinese companies contribute greatly to advancement of global AI ecosystem: Chinese expert

Chinese companies contribute greatly to advancement of global AI ecosystem: Chinese expert

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