By Li Xinping, Qiongda Zhuoga, People’s Daily

Stretching 1,956 kilometers, crossing 550 kilometers of permafrost, and cresting the 5,072-meter-high Tanggula Pass, the Qinghai-Xizang Railway began full operations on July 1, 2006.

Hailed as one of the greatest engineering feats of the modern era, the railway still holds three world records: the highest railway in average altitude, the longest plateau railway, and the highest railway station on Earth. Two decades after its launch, these records remain unbroken.

Why did China devote such immense resources to building a railway across the roof of the world?

An elderly Tibetan woman surnamed Lhamo voiced the long-held dream of many plateau residents: “For years on end, we have dreamed for a route connecting us to the outside world — one that would lift us out of poverty and backwardness and lead us to prosperity.”

Where the railway reaches, development follows. In 2006, freight transported into and out of Xizang totaled just 361,000 tons. By 2025, that figure had risen to 8.31 million tons. Over the past two decades, the railway has carried more than 100 million tons of cargo to and from Xizang.

These figures bear witness to booming local industries. Previously, Tibetan medicinal products could only be transported by air, incurring exorbitant shipping costs that weighed heavily on manufacturers. Rail freight has since driven logistics expenses down and widened profit margins. A local medicine manufacturer has seen its annual revenue surge to 60 million yuan ($8.84 million).

Special tourist trains now roll into Xizang in constant streams. In 2025, the autonomous region received over 70 million tourist arrivals, marking remarkable growth in its tourism sector.

Traditional Tibetan cultural treasures, including thangka paintings, Tibetan incense, and Tibetan opera, are reaching audiences across the country via the railway. The large-scale live performance Princess Wencheng, which has been staged continuously for 13 years, has generated an associated industry worth more than 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion).

As industries thrive, local residents enjoy much better lives. Beside Nagqu Station along the Qinghai-Xizang Railway, Ma Yong and his wife run a restaurant with an annual net income exceeding 200,000 yuan ($29511). A young Tibetan man Landro works as a taxi driver earning 7,000 yuan monthly, and cargo loader Phuntsok Norgyal also makes 7,000 yuan ($1033) each month. The railway has laid a solid foundation to support their whole families.

For countless plateau residents, the railway has created jobs, improved livelihoods, and opened a pathway to a better life. Over the past 20 years, the Qinghai-Xizang Railway has hauled a total of 824 million tons of cargo and handled 104 million passenger trips, among which over 4.5 million were student travelers commuting between Xizang and other parts of China.

How has China addressed the challenge of building on such fragile terrain? The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is home to an extremely delicate ecosystem. Vegetation grows slowly, the food chain is simple, and any ecological damage would be difficult to reverse. The answer, according to railway planners, lies in respecting and protecting nature.

Ecological protection was integrated into the project from the very planning stage. In 2015, work began on expanding the capacity of the Golmud-Lhasa section. At Hoh Xil Station, a site long reserved for future use was formally incorporated into the project. However, field surveys revealed that the original location sat directly on a well-established migration route for Tibetan antelopes.

“The lights and noise from passing trains, as well as routine station operations, would disturb the antelopes during their breeding season,” explained Zhang Caihong, deputy head of the infrastructure division under the planning and statistics department of China Railway Qinghai-Xizang Group Co., Ltd.

After joint consultations by all relevant authorities, a unanimous decision was made to relocate the station to make way for wildlife migration. The entire Hoh Xil Station was shifted 8.8 kilometers north, requiring an extra investment of over 13.76 million yuan ($2.03 million).

In the 1990s, fewer than 20,000 Tibetan antelopes lived in Hoh Xil. Today, the population has surpassed 70,000. Herds now cross beneath the railway calmly and safely, providing vivid testimony to China’s commitment to green development.

To preserve the traditional grazing practices of local herders, the railway’s designers reserved natural wildlife crossing corridors. Along the entire length of the Qinghai-Xizang Railway, dedicated wildlife passages stretch for nearly 60 kilometers. Countless culverts and viaducts also serve as safe transit routes for cattle, sheep, and wild animals alike.

To protect vegetation, every effort was made to restore what had been disturbed. The plateau’s topsoil and vegetation layer are extremely thin, sometimes only 20 to 30 centimeters deep. During construction, workers carefully lifted every piece of turf, preserved it, and later replanted it. 

They also developed four innovative ecological restoration techniques, including vegetation bags, vegetation belts, fiber blankets, and thick-substrate spray planting. Today, more than 90 percent of the transplanted turf along the railway has been successfully restored.

To curb sand hazards and stabilize drifting sand, a full set of sand-fixation solutions have been adopted.

Dachaidan in Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province, lies in a barren desert expanse once described as a place “where the wind blows even the stones away and nothing grows.”

Within this “lifeless no-man’s-land,” workers hand-laid magical grid barriers over the desert surface. Stone grids, salt crust grids and straw grids stretch out like enormous chessboards, firmly trapping rampant shifting sands.

Over the past two decades, sand encroachment along the railway has been brought largely under control, and the amount of sand cleared from the tracks each year has fallen dramatically.

The construction of the Qinghai-Xizang Railway also marked the first time that an environmental supervision system was established for a railway project in China. That philosophy has since been carried forward into the planning, design and construction of subsequent railway projects across the country.

Today, the Qinghai-Xizang Railway has entered the smart era. More than 3,000 surveillance cameras monitor train operations in real time along the entire route. Fifty-two monitoring stations installed in high-wind sections serve as vigilant “ears,” while 182 observation sites continuously track permafrost temperatures and ground settlement. Supported by intelligent monitoring systems, dispatchers hundreds of kilometers away can maintain a comprehensive view of operations at all times.

Over the past two decades, the railway network across the plateau has continued to expand. The combined operating railway mileage in Qinghai province and the Xizang autonomous region has grown from 2,207.8 kilometers to 4,060.1 kilometers, an increase of 83.9 percent. Meanwhile, the Fuxing high-speed train has, for the first time, achieved full coverage across all 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland.

Running across Qinghai and Xizang, the Qinghai-Xizang Railway is far more than a mere transport thoroughfare. It has grown into an ecological shield safeguarding the plateau’s fragile environment, a vital bond cementing ethnic unity, and a pathway leading local residents to prosperity and sound development.

By Zhang Jixing

The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century at an accelerating pace. Geopolitical conflicts and regional wars continue to erupt, while unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, severely disrupting the international order. At the same time, the global economy is losing momentum, and uncertainties and destabilizing factors affecting global supply chains are increasing.

According to a report released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in June 2026, global economic growth is expected to slow down from 3.4 percent in 2025 to 2.8 percent in 2026. Research from the World Economic Forum identifies armed interstate conflicts, geoeconomic confrontations, and extreme weather events as the world’s three most significant risks at present.

The more turbulent the global environment, the greater the need for collective action. More than ever, countries must strengthen solidarity and cooperation, overcome divisions through openness and inclusiveness, and approach the shared future of humanity with a broad perspective. The international community should work together to enhance the resilience and stability of global supply chains, choosing to “join hands” rather than “let go,” and to extend supply chains rather than sever them.

China has consistently been a key participant and active contributor to global industrial and supply chains. It remains firmly committed to preserving the public-good nature of these supply chains and has taken concrete steps to deepen international cooperation, making global supply chains more secure, efficient, inclusive, and mutually beneficial.

On one hand, China has actively promoted openness and cooperation in supply chains, adhering to the principles of openness and inclusiveness and sharing the development opportunities it has created with the world.

As the world’s first national-level exhibition dedicated to supply chains, the China International Supply Chain Expo, since its launch in 2023, focuses on strengthening connections between upstream, midstream and downstream industries. It fosters collaboration among large, medium, and small enterprises, promotes coordination among businesses, universities, research institutions, and end uses, and encourages interaction between Chinese and foreign companies. The expo has become a major international trade event and a global public good shared by the international community.

At the fourth edition of the expo, the number of participating organizations increased from 515 at the inaugural event to 676. Both the number of countries represented and the proportion of overseas exhibitors continued to increase, while the number of international visiting delegations grew significantly. Channels for international industrial and supply chain cooperation have expanded, and the expo’s global influence has steadily strengthened.

On the other hand, China has continued to enhance the core competitiveness of its industries and supply high-quality products and services to global markets.

Leveraging its technological strengths in areas such as next-generation information technology, new energy and green manufacturing, China is accelerating its efforts to become a global hub for scientific and technological innovation. It is also enhancing industrial cooperation with more countries, helping global supply chains improve in both quality and efficiency.

By the end of 2025, the value added of China’s core digital economy industries had risen to more than 10.5 percent of its GDP. Meanwhile, China’s research and applications in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology rank among the world’s leaders, providing sustained momentum for global economic growth.

The Global Supply Chain Resilience Index Matrix, released during the fourth China International Supply Chain Expo, indicates that the overall operating environment for global supply chains has become increasingly stable, with positive factors continuing to dominate.

Between 2018 and 2025, the indices for global supply chain promotion, connectivity, innovation and resilience all registered growth, rising from a base value of 1 to 2.839, 1.657, 2.565 and 1.249, respectively. Their compound annual growth rates reached 16.07 percent, 7.48 percent, 14.40 percent and 3.23 percent, demonstrating that global supply chains are evolving toward greater resilience, higher efficiency and stronger dynamism.

Despite mounting challenges, openness and cooperation remain the defining trend of our time, and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes continue to represent the mainstream. Countries should stand together to safeguard the stability and smooth functioning of global supply chains and continue deepening practical cooperation.

(Zhang Jixing is head of the international trade research department and an associate research fellow at the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.)

By Zou Song, People’s Daily

Cloves, one of the five key ingredients in Chinese five-spice powder, add a layered fragrance to countless Chinese dishes. Today, thanks to China’s zero-tariff policy for Africa, their rich aroma is forging a tangible connection between households across China and farming communities on Tanzania’s Zanzibar, thousands of miles away.

It has been two months since China extended zero-tariff treatment to all 53 African nations with which it maintains diplomatic relations. The policy dividends are now steadily materializing in measurable trade gains.

One statistic illustrates the impact: roughly four out of every 10 imported into China come from Tanzania’s Zanzibar, making it China’s largest source of imported cloves. This achievement has been made possible in large part by China’s continued zero-tariff policy for Africa.

In December 2022, China waived tariffs on 98 percent of taxable items from 10 least-developed countries, including Tanzania. Spices such as cloves and nutmeg were among the products covered. 

In September 2024, at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China announced a further commitment: zero-tariff treatment to 100 percent of tariff lines for all least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 African countries. 

This May, China took another significant step by implementing zero-tariff treatment across all tariff lines for products from the 53 African countries that maintain diplomatic ties with China.

Zero tariffs have delivered a clear competitive advantage.

Previously, most cloves from Zanzibar reached China only after passing through intermediaries in countries such as India and the United Arab Emirates, adding significantly to procurement costs. Following the introduction of the zero-tariff policy, the landed cost of Zanzibar cloves has fallen by 15 to 20 percent. Supply chains have grown far more efficient, and direct bulk purchasing between Chinese buyers and Tanzanian producers has surged rapidly.

More recently, stakeholders in both China and Tanzania have accelerated efforts to improve customs clearance procedures and establish direct procurement channels, promoting larger-scale and more efficient trade in spices.

Zero tariffs have also brought greater market certainty.

Historically, Zanzibar’s clove exports depended heavily on markets in Europe, the United States and the Middle East, leaving growers vulnerable to sharp fluctuations in demand and unstable incomes. In recent years, mounting uncertainty in the global market, coupled with drought-induced declines in local production, has led to a significant drop in clove exports from Zanzibar. 

Against this challenging backdrop, the predictable market access guaranteed by zero-tariff treatment has become particularly valuable. According to international spice industry statistics, following the full implementation of the policy, China’s share of clove imports from Zanzibar increased from about 37 percent to around 41 percent, while the number of Chinese buyers multiplied. China has become an important stabilizing force, helping Zanzibar withstand external risks and sustain one of its pillar sectors.

The rewards of this zero-tariff framework extend far beyond cloves and Tanzania alone.

Ethiopia’s richly aromatic coffee, infused with the sunshine of the African highlands, has become a popular choice for Chinese consumers. Fresh avocados and nuts from Kenya, prized for their rich flavor and nutritional value, are bringing greater variety to Chinese dining tables. Citrus fruits from South Africa, chili peppers from Rwanda, vanilla from Madagascar, and an ever-growing range of quality African products, are finding their way into ordinary Chinese households.

These agricultural products serve as living bridges between Chinese and African peoples. Through them, Chinese consumers see not a stereotyped image of Africa, but hardworking communities striving for a better future; not a distant continent, but countries rich in natural resources, vibrant cultures and boundless vitality. That may well be the most valuable dividend generated by the zero-tariff policy.

Trade unlocks shared opportunities, while closer ties between peoples endure even longer. Whether it is a single clove, a piece of fresh fruit or the aroma of a cup of coffee, these everyday symbols of China-Africa friendship are helping the world see ever more clearly that China-Africa cooperation is not an abstract narrative, but something tangible, visible in daily life and savored in every shared moment.