Xi declares 9th Asian Winter Games open in Harbin

China

Xi declares 9th Asian Winter Games open in Harbin

2025-02-07 21:12 Last Updated At：22:37

Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the 9th Asian Winter Games officially open in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on Friday evening.

Xi made the declaration at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center, where the opening ceremony of the Games began at 20:00 local time.

Also attending the ceremony were the Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, and Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia Timothy Fok Tsun-ting.

Running from Feb 7-14 and held under the theme "Dream of Winter, Love among Asia", this marks Harbin's second time as host of the regional games after the city previously staged the event back in 1996.

It is the first major international ice and snow event to be held in China since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and is the third time the country has hosted the Asian Winter Games.

A total of 1,275 competitors from 34 countries and regions will compete in 64 events across 11 winter sports disciplines, making this the largest ever edition of the Asian Winter Games in terms of overall participation.

France's GDP stalls in Q1 2026 as foreign trade drags

France's gross domestic product (GDP) stalled in the first quarter of 2026, recording zero growth from the previous quarter, according to preliminary data released on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

The stagnation came as final domestic demand excluding inventories remained sluggish. Household consumption edged down 0.1 percent in the first three months of the year, a reversal from the 0.4 percent growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, gross fixed capital formation also fell back by 0.4 percent.

Foreign trade exerted a strong negative contribution to GDP growth in the first quarter, subtracting 0.7 percentage point after adding 0.6 point in the previous quarter. This downturn was driven by a sharp 3.8 percent drop in exports, while imports also continued to decline, falling 1.7 percent.

In contrast, changes in inventories provided a strong positive contribution of 0.8 percentage point, rebounding from a negative 0.7 percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2025. The INSEE said the inventory build was driven mainly by aerospace products.

Total production of goods and services remained sluggish in the first quarter, rising by 0.1 percent after a 0.2 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2025.