China has 128.61 million hectares of arable land, well above the country's farmland red line of 1.8 billion mu (about 120 million hectares), according to a bulletin released by the Ministry of Natural Resources on Friday.
The ministry released a 2024 natural resources bulletin in China, detailing the country's overall natural resources.
The national land survey conducted in 2023 reveals that China has 19.61 million hectares of orchards, 283.70 million hectares of forests, 263.22 million hectares of grasslands, and 23.52 million hectares of wetlands.
The country also discovered 173 types of mineral resources by the end of 2023, the bulletin said.
Five key forest zones, including the national park for Serbian tigers and leopards and the Genhe River, have completed natural resource rights registration.
In 2024, China issued 71.53 million property ownership certificates nationwide, marking a 3.2-percent year-on-year increase.
China had 12,646 exploration rights licenses over 2.66 million square kilometers of mines, and 30,391 mining rights licenses over 351,800 square kilometers by the end of 2024.
In addition, the country has yielded significant results in the new round of mineral exploration.
Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021 -2025), China has put in 400 billion yuan (about 55.27 billion U.S. dollars) for mineral exploration, leading to major breakthroughs in copper, aluminum, iron, lithium, zirconium, and rare earth.
Minerals such as tungsten, molybdenum, and graphite have also seen substantial growth, further consolidating China's resource advantages.
China has 128.61 million hectares of arable land with improved ecosystem: survey
Two U.S. F-18 fighter jets entered Venezuelan airspace on Tuesday, circling for about 40 minutes.
The jets flew within 100 miles (about 161 km) of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city which is home to Rafael Urdaneta Air Base, one of the main military air bases in western Venezuela, according to a report from the Miami Herald.
Data from Sweden's FlightRadar24 showed the jets flying over the northern tip of Lake Maracaibo, above the waters of the Gulf of Venezuela, and between the cities of La Guajira, in Zulia state, and Coro, the capital of Falcon state. Zulia state is a key oil and gas producing region in Venezuela, while Falcon state has some of the country’s biggest refineries.
FlightRadar24 data also showed a U.S. MQ-4C Triton drone flying close to Venezuela’s coast on Tuesday, although it did not appear to enter Venezuelan airspace.
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil warned on Tuesday that the U.S. actions pose an extremely serious challenge to regional security and peace.
The president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez Gomez, said that the U.S. military activities around the country were not intended to "combat drug trafficking", as the U.S, claims, but to attack and destroy Venezuela.
Iran warned that the recent situation poses a threat to peace in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by telephone on Tuesday and reiterated his country's "willingness to stand by Venezuela", the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reported.
Pezeshkian also said that U.S. provocations of Venezuela "violate the principles of international law and constitute a dangerous precedent for the peoples of the world."
U.S. fighter jets enter Venezuelan airspace as tensions escalate
