The development environment for China's small and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) posted continuous improvements in 2024, according to an assessment report released by the China Center for Promotion of SME Development (CCPSD) on Monday.
The report selected 50 representative cities as subjects and assessed indicators including market environment, legal environment, financing environment, innovation environment, and policy environment.
The findings indicate that the development environment for China's SMEs has been continuously improving, barriers to market access have been reduced, and visible progress has been made in building a unified national market.
"The survey data showed that over 90 percent of the surveyed enterprises expressed satisfaction regarding market access, supply of factors, and government services, and 44 surveyed cities had a higher comprehensive credit index compared with 2023. In general, as continuous efforts are made further to promote the construction of a unified national market, noticeable results were yielded in improving the market environment for SMEs," said Jin Tieying, director of the policy research division of CCPSD.
The assessment report showed that the operating revenues of the SMEs in the surveyed cities remained stable, and 60 percent of them posted increases in operating revenue or reported the same operating revenue compared with 2023.
"The cities participating in the survey host nearly 60 percent of China's SMEs, demonstrating that the survey has wide coverage and its results have strong representativeness. The data showed that China's SMEs have been increasing investment in scientific and technological innovation and achieved growing efficiency in applying their research and development results," said Jin.
Currently, all the surveyed cities have established work coordination mechanisms for the development of SMEs and set up special funds to help promote their development.
In addition, over 80 percent of the surveyed cities have established and operated public service platforms for SMEs.
"These services not only help the enterprises overcome bottlenecks in their development more effectively but also help them develop their unique advantages and achieve steady growth. In the next step, we will provide more characteristic functions on the website for serving China's SMEs and make efforts to promote data connectivity and service sharing," said Lai Xiao, an associate researcher at CCPSD.
Development environment for China's SMEs experiences continuous improvements: report
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
