Four Cambodian snowboarders competed in this year's Asian Winter Games, marking the tropical country's first time participating in the international sporting event.
The 9th Asian Winter Games officially opened on Friday in Harbin City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and runs until Feb 14.
This year's Games have drawn more than 1,200 athletes from 34 countries and regions across Asia, making it the largest edition in terms of participation, according to organizers.
The team includes four snowboarders who made their debut at the Yabuli ski resort in Harbin.
Cambodian competitors, who made their debut at the Yabuli Ski Resort in Harbin, said that they value the chance to learn from athletes from around the continent.
"We'll just go there to share connections with other people from outside countries. I just feel happy that I have the opportunity to come here. I don't have much experience on snowboard, but I would love to try more and more if I have the opportunity to train," said Chantsovanratanak Doung, a Cambodian snowboarder.
He added that he is "really happy" to be in Harbin, despite being unaccustomed to the city's harsh cold temperatures.
Doung's teammate Mengchoing Phin said he is glad to have the opportunity to experience China during the event.
"I am so excited to be here. The winter sports are amazing. Snow, and China, Chinese people are so amazing. I love the culture. I love the food here. Everything is amazing," he said.
Cambodian snowboarders compete in Winter Asian Games for first time
Attempts to curb China's scientific and technological advancement are futile, a fact that has already been proven, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, in an interview aired Friday.
In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Mahbubani said he had stated this position in one of his articles published in the United States.
"Actually, I published an article, you know the two, I guess two leading journals in the United States on international relations. One is Foreign Affairs and the other is Foreign Policy. And last year I co-authored an article with two other co-authors, saying that all the efforts to stop China's scientific and technological development will fail. And it has failed always. You know, for example, the Soviet Union tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to China, China develops its own. The United States didn't want to share its technology on international space station with China. China develops its own space station. So clearly, efforts to stop China in the area of scientific innovation and technological development have failed. And so it'd be wiser for the West, including United States, to work with China other than to try and stop China seek development," he said.
Regarding China's progress on robots, Mahbubani said China is leading the world in the sector and hopes the country will share its expertise with the rest of the world.
"If there's one country that is preparing for the future well, it is China, because one in six human beings in the world is Chinese. But one in three robots in the world is Chinese, and one in two baby robots being born every day is Chinese. So China is producing far more robots than any other country is. So clearly it's preparing for the world of the future when we will have, for example, labor shortages, as you know, as you develop an aging society. So China is wisely investing in robots. But I hope that China will also share its learning and expertise with other countries. Also because the robots like that can also be helpful even to developing countries cause you can enhance the productivity of their populations, of their factories and so on so forth. So the world should be happy that China is leading the world in manufacturing, producing robots," he said.
Attempts to stop China's sci-tech development doomed to fail: former Singaporean diplomat
