Long March-12 rocket launches new internet satellite group

China launched a Long March-12 carrier rocket on Wednesday from a commercial spacecraft launch site in the southern island province of Hainan, sending an internet satellite group into space.

The rocket lifted off at 10:44 Beijing Time and successfully placed the payload -- the country's 22nd group of low-orbit internet satellites -- into the preset orbit, according to the launch site.

International reporters and journalists from Tanzania, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mongolia and others recently made a 10-day tour in Minning Town in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, gaining firsthand insight into the achievements of a landmark cooperation project between Ningxia and the eastern province of Fujian.

From June 8 to 17, the media professionals visited local schools, a village dedicated to poverty alleviation, a hybrid mushroom grass planting base and e-commerce livestreaming workshops.

Minning, a portmanteau comprising two Chinese characters associated with Fujian and Ningxia, was once an impoverished settlement on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Since the launch of the Fujian-Ningxia paired assistance program in 1996, the town has become a symbol of China's east-west collaboration in poverty alleviation.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the initiative.

Over three decades, Fujian has dispatched more than 7,000 professionals to support Ningxia in education and other fields, fostering partnerships between 122 schools in Fujian and 84 schools in Ningxia.

At a local primary school, Fujian teachers led students in singing folk songs in the Fujian dialect, drawing applause from visiting journalists.

"Under Min-Ning cooperation, Fujian is facilitating the schools not only with the building, with the funds, but also with the trained staff, with the teachers. And it's very good that trained teachers are coming to teach them the music, the sports, the study," said Salma Kousar, an anchor at Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV).

In a village featuring restored cave dwellings and adobe homes, reporters traced Minning's transformation and the local community's long struggle against poverty.

"I think our rural areas can learn from this cooperation, which is Fujian-Ningxia cooperation. How the model they represent, how they help, what kind of aid, what kind of empowerment that the rural areas need. I think it's important," Fatin Nabihah Binti Marzuki, a reporter from Malaysian National News Agency.

The visitors toured a growing base for juncao, a special mushroom grass hybrid species developed by scientists in Fujian. Juncao was brought to Ningxia to enhance food security, generate income, and promote environmental protection. To date, that model has been replicated internationally.

"Actually, this is a technology that can be applied in many countries, and I think in Tanzania they can use this model to develop a growing mushroom as the Chinese do," said Saleh Yussuf Mnema, senior manager of Zanzibar Corporation of Government Newspapers (CGN).

In an e-commerce workshop, the guests observed how local residents sell Ningxia specialties such as goji berries and red dates nationwide through livestreaming platforms.

"This spirit of mutual support and teamwork has become an important driving force for common development. Here we see China's genuine practice and vivid embodiment of promoting regional coordination and achieving shared prosperity," said Gungaajamtsjamts Bayanjargal, a reporter of the Mongolian National Broadcaster.

The Fujian-Ningxia partnership pairs officials and resources from Fujian with counterparts in Ningxia to coordinate targeted support for poverty alleviation. The program was initiated and promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his tenure in Fujian and has since become a cornerstone of China's regional cooperation strategy.