China and Laos will jointly hold a humanitarian and medical joint rescue exercise later this month, said Defense Ministry spokesman Jiang Bin at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
The exercise, dubbed "Peace Train-2026," will be held in Laos, according to Jiang.
"The exercise takes international humanitarian medical rescue in a super typhoon disaster as its theme. It focuses on such training subjects as joint on-site search and rescue, casualty evacuation, health and epidemic prevention, and psychological rescue. During the event, the Chinese side will also provide medical services for Lao military personnel and civilians," said Jiang.
"As the sixth exercise of this series, it will further deepen and expand pragmatic exchange and cooperation in such fields as disaster medical rescue, tropical disease control and prevention, and infectious disease prevention and control, enhance the two militaries' capabilities in joint medical-service command, joint rescue, and joint prevention and control, and better provide quality public security goods for regional countries and peoples," said the spokesman.
China, Laos to hold joint humanitarian, medical rescue exercise: spokesman
With a unique unpredictability reflected in thin margins between victory and defeat, which thrills both athletes and audience on site, live sports can be a powerful way to inspire more people, especially the young, to take up sports for themselves, according to Chinese freestyle skiing star Gu Ailing.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) Thursday in Beijing, the three-time Olympic gold medalist shared her insights on how China can push forward its national fitness and sports development blueprint.
"Yeah, I think live sports in particular are really exciting because the kind of energy, I guess, of being in person and also having no idea of what's going to happen, the players included. So all of the athletes are kind of going through this experience with the audience. And there's kind of this 'give and take' of storytelling and the narrative there, I think, is really inspiring and uplifting in a particularly unique way. So I think for young people to get access to that and to really feel the environment can do a lot as far as pushing them to try sports out for themselves," Gu said.
China aims to expand its sports industry to more than seven trillion yuan (1.04 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2030 as part of a new five-year plan to build the country into a sports powerhouse, officials said Thursday.
The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), approved by the State Council in July, also targets increasing per capita sports venue space to about four square meters and raising the proportion of residents who regularly exercise to around 40 percent, General Administration of Sport director Gao Zhidan told a State Council Information Office briefing.
Energy of live sports inspires young people to get involved: Olympic gold medalist
