China's non-manufacturing sector expands in April

China's non-manufacturing sector continued to expand in April, with the Business Activity Index, reflecting the sector's overall performance, remaining above the 50-percent threshold that separates expansion from contraction.

Investment, consumption, and emerging industries all showed positive momentum despite a slight dip in growth indicators. The index stood at 50.1 percent in April, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.

Sectors related to tourism and leisure showed strong performance, while information services remained active.

"In terms of industry performance, sectors such as air transport, telecommunications, broadcasting and satellite transmission, internet software, IT services, and insurance all recorded business activity indices above 55 percent, indicating robust growth in business volume," said Huo Lihui, head of the business climate survey division under the NBS's Service Survey Center.

Meanwhile, the construction sector also remained in expansion territory, with its business activity index at 51.9 percent, though that marked a 1.5 percentage-point decline from March.

"With the arrival of peak construction season, civil engineering investment and construction activities are accelerating. This reflects the growing role of investment in driving economic growth," said He Hui, vice president of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).

China's non-manufacturing sector expands in April

China's non-manufacturing sector expands in April

China's non-manufacturing sector expands in April

China's non-manufacturing sector expands in April

A Mainland spokesman on Thursday lashed out at Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te's recent pro-Japanese colonialism remarks, describing Lai's obsequious flattery of Japan and his nostalgia for Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan as despicable.

Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, the spokesman, made the statement at a press conference in Beijing in response to a media inquiry about Lai's recent remarks on Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan, which ran 50 years from 1895 to 1945.

Lai recently advocated the notorious notion of the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," a concept advanced by militarist Japan during World War II to whitewash and justify its aggression and colonial crimes across Asia. Lai claimed that Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan was intended to promote the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," sparking discontent on the Taiwan island.

"Lai Ching-te's remarks, characterized by the absence of conscience and moral baseline, are truly shocking. His obsequious flattery of Japan, which once colonized Taiwan, and his nostalgia for Japan's colonial rule over Taiwan are both despicable," Jiang said.

"As is widely known, Japanese militarists, under the guise of 'Co-Prosperity', committed heinous crimes such as killing, arson attacks, looting and the enslavement of people during the colonial rule. Lai Ching-te ignores the Japanese aggressors' heinous crimes of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Taiwan compatriots and betrays history to justify colonialism. Such a scum to the Chinese nation will inevitably be nailed to the pillar of shame," he said.

Mainland spokesman raps Taiwan's Lai Ching-te's for making pro-Japanese colonialism remarks