China's national development zones drive balanced regional development, cross-regional cooperation: official

China's national-level economic and technological development zones are playing a vital role in promoting balanced regional development and boosting cross-regional cooperation, officials said at a State Council press conference on Tuesday in Beijing.

Zhu Bing, director of the Department of Foreign Investment Administration under the Ministry of Commerce, highlighted the strategic importance of these zones in spurring local economies and narrowing regional development gaps.

"Over the years, national-level economic development zones have made full use of their institutional, industrial, and talent advantages to lead regional opening up and coordinated development. They have played a significant role in serving local economic growth and fostering inter-regional collaboration. It's fair to say the results have been quite significant," said Zhu.

He outlined three key roles these development zones are playing.

"First, the national-level economic and technological development zones have used industrialization to drive urbanization, becoming the main engines of high-quality growth in their regions. While advancing their own development, they have also continued to extend their positive influence to the surrounding areas," he said.

"Second, they have strengthened cross-regional coordination, helping to facilitate the orderly transfer and rational distribution of industries. At present, China has 232 national-level economic and technological development zones across all 31 provincial-level regions on the mainland. These zones demonstrate strong complementarity in terms of industrial structure and resource endowments. We have supported the establishment of a coordinated development alliance for the national-level economic and technological development zones along the Yangtze River Economic Belt and have consistently hosted industrial transfer matchmaking events. These efforts encourage industrial parks in the eastern regions to 'make room for new industries' and support parks in central and western regions to 'build strength to attract investment,'" said Zhu.

"Thirdly, we've strengthened paired assistance between the national-level economic and technological development zones to help less-developed areas improve their development capacity. Guided by the principle of 'government guidance, market-driven cooperation,' the national-level economic and technological development zones have carried out various forms of joint construction and support for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xizang and other border regions. Currently, there are nearly 700 such collaborative projects underway," Zhu added.

China's national development zones drive balanced regional development, cross-regional cooperation: official

The United States cannot legitimize an operation that attacked Venezuela and captured its president, a Chinese scholar said Sunday.

On Saturday, the United States launched a large-scale strike on Venezuela, during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were 'captured and flown out of Venezuela' according to a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account.

Teng Jianqun, director of the Center for Diplomatic Studies at Hunan Normal University, said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) that the aim of this operation is to take full control of Venezuela’s natural resources.

"I don't think the United States can legitimize this operation to take custody of the president of Venezuela. And also I don't think the United States can legitimize its any action in taking the oil reserves of that country. This is actually a very dangerous game played by the Trump administration. And of course, the United States would like to take full control of that country and to take full control of the natural resources, especially the large reserve of oil in Venezuela," said Teng.

Teng said Venezuela is not an isolated case but a common practice by the United States. The United States launched an invasion of Panama on Dec. 20, 1989, which continued until January 1990, with the stated objective of capturing Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega on charges of drug trafficking and organized crime.

"We still remember the so-called sentence of the former president of Panama in the late 1980s. And this time, the president of Venezuela will be under some judicial condition (judicial proceedings) for the so-called drug trafficking and some other crimes. So I think this is not a single case for the Venezuela country, but also this is actually a practice by the United States -- to use force, to use so-called justice under law against any leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean waters," he said.

US cannot legitimize operation against Venezuela: Chinese scholar