China has seen accelerated development in emerging marine industries, with breakthroughs achieved in frontier fields, such as high-end marine equipment and marine information technology, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The rapid development of emerging marine industries is also evidenced by an increasing number of more and more home-grown, world-leading technologies, products and business models, said the ministry.
In east China's coastal city of Qingdao, China's first commercially operated smart shipping route has achieved remote driving, autonomous navigation, and automatic berthing and unberthing of cargo ships.
Thanks to the support of marine big data models, captains can control the ships from land, significantly improving safety, reducing fuel consumption by more than 10 percent, and effectively alleviating the crew shortage problem.
Qingdao has established multiple big marine data models, including the "SeaStar" assisting in molecular comparison in drug research and development, and the "Linglong" providing precise services for fishing ship monitoring, disaster warning, and insurance loss assessment.
"Since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), Shandong's marine GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 8.4 percent, and emerging marine industries such as marine biomedicine, high-end marine equipment, and marine artificial intelligence have achieved positive results," said Gao Xianzhong, deputy director of the Oceanic Administration of Shandong Province.
In the first three quarters of this year, China achieved new breakthroughs in marine engineering equipment products across multiple fields. For instance, the world's largest single-unit floating wind power platform and the world's first 80,000-tonne-class aquaculture vessel were delivered.
In the nine months, China's first trusted data space in the marine field was launched in eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, which is expected to effectively stimulate the value of undiscovered marine data, while new progress was also made in deep-sea and polar exploration with China's manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong completing its first ice-covered dive under the Arctic ice.
China sees rapid development in emerging marine industries
European countries and international organizations have widely condemned Israeli air strikes on Lebanon which have resulted in more than 1,000 civilian casualties, including children, and have caused damage to civilian infrastructure.
Israel launched large-scale air raids across Lebanon on Wednesday, saying it had carried out 100 strikes within a matter of minutes on positions they claimed belonged to the Hezbollah group.
Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health reported more than 300 had been killed in the attacks, with roughly 1,150 wounded.
The attacks came after a two-week ceasefire agreement was reached by the United States and Iran. However, both Israel and the United States have maintained Lebanon is not included in the truce.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday accused Israel of violating international law to carry out the air strikes on Lebanon, calling the attacks "a shame on the conscience of all humanity".
Earlier on Thursday, Albares announced that Spain would reopen its embassy in Tehran in the hope of achieving peace in the region.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Israel had "disrespected" the two-week ceasefire with Iran by carrying out the strikes.
Meloni also warned of further economic turmoil if U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran flare up again, and said the European Union should consider a temporary suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact, an agreement which ensures economic stability within the European Union, in order to handle the potential monetary consequences.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday warned that Israel's military operations in Lebanon could cause the entire peace process as a whole to fail, telling a press conference in Berlin "that must not happen."
Merz announced that the German government will resume direct talks with Iran in order to support the newly agreed two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
He also stated that a window of opportunity for a negotiated solution has opened for the first time since the outbreak of the conflict, though he cautioned that the situation in the Middle East remains "fragile."
The UK's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Thursday that she is "deeply troubled" by Israel's escalating attacks on Lebanon, expressing hope that Lebanon will be included in the current ceasefire arrangement.
Cooper also reiterated the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the effective closure of the vital shipping chokepoint had been "deeply damaging for the world", while stressing how crucial the passageway is to the entire global economy.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described the Israeli strikes on Lebanon as "intolerable."
In a radio interview, Barrot said France strongly condemns "the massive strikes" which seriously undermine the temporary ceasefire reached earlier between the United States and Iran. The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Thursday that Israel's latest strikes on Lebanon, which killed hundreds overnight, could not be considered as an act of self-defense.
"Israel's right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction," Kallas said in a post on the social media platform X. She warned that the strikes risk further destabilizing the region and added that Israel's actions were putting the U.S.-Iran ceasefire under severe strain.
Despite this widespread criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Thursday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon, signaling that Israel will continue its military operations while pursuing planned negotiations with Beirut.
"There is no ceasefire in Lebanon," Netanyahu said in a video address to residents of northern Israel, adding: "We continue to strike Hezbollah with force and we will not stop until we restore your security."
Netanyahu said he had instructed his cabinet to open direct talks with Lebanon following what he described as repeated requests from the Lebanese government.
The negotiations, which are expected to begin next week in Washington, aim to disarm Hezbollah and reach a "historic and lasting" peace agreement, Netanyahu added. Delegations will be led by the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States.
Israel and Lebanon have no formal diplomatic relations and technically remain in a state of war.
European Leaders widely condemn Israeli attacks on Lebanon
