Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei co-host regional initiative to promote consumption

As part of the Ministry of Commerce's "Shopping in China" campaign, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Consumer Season, together with the 2026 National Consumption Promotion Month initiative, kicked off in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Monday evening, highlighting coordinated efforts to boost regional consumption.

Co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce, China Media Group and the governments of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the event aims to showcase the region's commercial strengths and distinctive consumer offerings.

The launch ceremony featured a wide array of products from across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, including intangible cultural heritage items, local specialties, time-honored brands, and emerging consumer labels.

Organizers also unveiled the first list of specialty souvenirs from the regions and released a bilingual Shopping in China · Consumption Guide for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, covering shopping, dining, tourism, and exhibitions and performances to foster the region as a global shopping hub.

This year's consumer season underscores regional coordination, rolling out ten joint initiatives such as AI-plus experiences and premium shopping routes. The campaign is designed to develop a year-round, integrated consumption brand spanning commerce, culture, tourism, and sports.

"By linking signature events, we aim to create year-round highlights that showcase Tianjin's unique charm and consumption vitality," said He Xiaoyang, Director of the Consumption Promotion Division at the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

The regional initiative coordinates with the earlier announcement of the Ministry of Commerce to continue building the “Shopping in China” brand, improve trade-in programs for consumer goods, advance new consumption models and scenarios, and enhance the international consumer environment.

By expanding premium consumer goods supply and leveraging first-launch, green, healthy, and smart consumption models, the initiative explores ways to achieve coordinated consumption growth in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, a major trade and industrial powerhouse in northern China.

Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei co-host regional initiative to promote consumption

Deliberately targeting civilian service institutions in Iran by the United States and Israel is the biggest operational challenge facing humanitarian workers, according to Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The United States and Israel on Saturday launched strikes against Iran, plunging the war-torn Middle East into a new round of violent conflicts. Iran has retaliated with a series of counterattacks against Israel and U.S. targets across the region.

A large-scale offensive jointly conducted by Washington and Tel Aviv on Saturday struck a girls' elementary school in southern Iran's Minab, home to a military base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and killed over 160 pupils.

"The first attack targeted a girls' primary school in the city of Minab. It was a brutal and sad incident that was unprecedented in the history of humanity. More than 168 children aged 7, 8, and at most 9 and a half years old were martyred. The school was attacked in two phases, and unconventional weapons were used in this assault," Kolivand said.

At least seven hospitals and emergency stations in Iran, including Tehran's Gandhi Hospital, were struck by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Sunday night, causing widespread destruction and casualties.

The Iranian official framed these attacks as a fundamental violation of international laws.

"Our challenges are these direct attacks on the service providers. Just today, five of my colleagues were injured. And this is against humanitarian law, against the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions and against all international laws. One of our challenges is that international institutions are almost ineffective and we do not see any trace of it. That is, we do not feel any vital signs of it. These are our main challenges. We have no internal challenges," he said.

Iranian Red Crescent chief decries US-Israeli attacks on service institutions