CD Voice

A Huawei logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China February 23, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Huawei officially unveiled its own operating system, HarmonyOS, for smartphones on Wednesday, offering a brand new choice for global customers in a digital world.

The Chinese name of the system, Hongmeng, is borrowed from the country's mythology, meaning breaking free from chaos and starting something new from scratch.

That is exactly the meaning Huawei intends to give to its new product. The launch of HarmonyOS marks a breakthrough in Huawei's drive in ecosystem development by itself in the face of Washington's aggressive and unfounded sanctions. It also marks a significant step in China's independent tech innovation amid potential risk of a technological de-coupling between the two countries pushed by Washington.

In addition to developing a new operating system, Huawei is also working on in-car software and cloud computing, pivoting to software and service business that does not rely on U.S. supply chains.

Given China's massive domestic market, Huawei has rather ample space to nurture its own ecosystem in collaboration with diverse application developers and device manufacturers.

While the roll-out of Huawei's operating system does not aim to replace other mainstream peers, the rise of HarmonyOS can be considered as the first step for Chinese tech companies to break the Western monopoly on operation systems.

In a sense, the fledgling system was born thanks to immense external pressure that is still seeking to stifle Huawei.

For quite some time, the United States has been hyping up groundless national security charges against Huawei and other Chinese tech firms, imposed round after round of embargoes and coerced its allies, notably those in Europe, into elbowing Huawei out of their 5G industries.

What those fearmongers and zero-summers in Washington have been obsessive about is to let China remain technologically inferior to the United States for as long as it can.

However, Washington's moves to deny China's legitimate rights to develop in a technological capacity have shown themselves to be ineffective as well as destructive.

On the one hand, attempting to shut out Chinese tech companies in an increasingly digitalized and highly-connected world is hardly possible. The birth of HarmonyOS is one example. Also, healthy competition between Chinese and American tech firms can lead to progress and is good for both sides and the rest of the world.

On the other hand, pushing Chinese firms out of the Western market and the semiconductor supply chain would leave those countries behind in the digital slow lane, damage their own industries, disrupt the global industrial and supply chains and harm market openness in Western countries.

Staying open and embracing cooperation as well as healthy competition: that is the key to stimulating technological innovation in today's world. That is also how the United States has developed into one of the world's top technological powers.

It is thus in the shared interests of the international community for the United States and other Western countries not to suppress China's technological development, but to accommodate it. Together, they can make a huge difference for the well-being of humanity.

Although the HarmonyOS still has a long way to go before it can be an alternative to iOS and Android, its development will bring about a healthy competition. Customers across the world, whose needs have been increasingly diverse, will stand to benefit the most.

Huang Kunming (center), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, is accompanied by China Daily Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Zhou Shuchun (left) during a visit to the newsroom on Tuesday in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua]

China Daily is expected to stay true to its duty of bridging China and the world for greater communication, and further present "a true, multidimensional and panoramic view of China", a senior Party official said.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remark while addressing a celebration on Tuesday in Beijing marking the 40th anniversary of China Daily's launch.

On Thursday, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter marking the anniversary.

Xi's letter "commends the important role played by China Daily over the past 40 years" and voices great expectations that the media group will better fulfill its duties and mission and make new contributions at a new starting point, Huang said.

The letter shows the great importance that the CPC Central Committee attaches to reporting for the outside world, demonstrates great care for China Daily and outlines the direction and provides a guideline for the media group's mission, Huang added.

He called on China Daily to learn from Xi's letter, innovate the international discourse system, enhance international communication capacity, effectively promote China's theory and tell China's stories well.

At the celebration, Huang named three areas as the media group's future tasks.

It is a primary task to constantly introduce to the world and present Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, manifest the great power of truth, practice and personality, and make the world better understand the propositions, wisdom and solutions offered by China, he said.

China Daily should focus on the Party's original aspirations, mission and great sense of duty, show how the Party unites and leads the Chinese people's fight for progress, and explain from a historical perspective the Party's centenary achievements as well as the development and progress of contemporary China, he said.

The media group is expected to step up the buildup of its international communication capacity, work harder on its brand building, deepen exchanges and cooperation with the world, further nurture talent that bears international vision and keeps pace with the times, and build bridges for mutual learning among cultures and stronger links among nations, Huang added.

Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, told the celebration that the entire staff, motivated by Xi's letter, "will surely step up their sense of duty and beef up their confidence and determination in breaking new ground".

"Over the past four decades, China Daily has been committed to promoting friendly exchanges between Chinese people and the world, and has been dedicated to boosting the international community's understanding and recognition of China, becoming a key bridge connecting China to the world," Zhou said.

Zhou noted that the media group has developed from a newspaper into a global, multilanguage, all-media flagship, with more than 350 million readers worldwide via print and digital outlets.

Ian Goodrum, a United States writer with China Daily, said that as China enters a new era, the country "faces new challenges", and "it is even more important that China takes the initiative and tells its stories to the world" amid an atmosphere of uncertainty.

"China Daily is an important instrument for that essential mission, and I'm grateful for the support President Xi has shown in his congratulatory letter," Goodrum said.

Yangcheng Evening News, which is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, said in an online commentary that Xi's endorsement of China Daily's efforts "is a boost to the whole nation's confidence and morale to further empower and develop its media".

Since China is the world's second-largest economy and the largest contributor to global growth, its economic development and impressive stories offer material for the nation's publicity, and it is crucial that its voice should overcome language barriers and transcend borders, the Guangzhou newspaper said.

Children and their parents participate in games and activities at a kindergarten in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on Sunday. The event was held to mark International Children's Day, which falls on Tuesday. WANG CHUN/XINHUA

A key meeting of the Communist Party of China unveiled on Monday a policy that would allow all couples to have up to three children, in place of the current universal two-child policy, in a bid to cope with an increasingly aging society. It also pledged stronger support for families.

The decision signaled a stronger emphasis from the nation's top leadership to stabilize births and respond to the aging population after recent national census data showed an aging demographic structure, analysts said.

It was announced after the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee heard a report on major policy measures to actively address the aging population during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and reviewed a decision on improving birth policies to promote long-term balanced population growth.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The meeting highlighted the need to carry out a national strategy to proactively cope with the aging society, including steps to introduce phased-in delays to the retirement age and promote the unified national management of basic old-age insurance funds.

The nation will improve the multilevel social security system for the elderly and explore the establishment of a long-term nursing insurance mechanism framework, according to a summary of the meeting.

It called for quicker steps to develop an elderly care service system and a health support system that coordinates the development of home care, community services and professional institutions and integrates elderly care with medical and health services.

The meeting urged the authorities at various levels to scale up their fiscal input, with steps to improve financial investment policies and improve the funding mechanism from multiple channels to support the growth of the elderly care sector.

The policymakers highlighted the significance of a three-child policy and its support measures in improving the demographic structure and maintaining China's edge in human resources.

They stressed the need for unified policymaking in terms of marriage, births, parenting and education, with stronger measures to guide young adults on issues related to marriage and family values and to target unhealthy social conduct during wedding ceremonies and excessive betrothal gifts.

The level of services to ensure good prenatal and postnatal care must be improved, and a child care service system that benefits all families will be established, the summary said.

The meeting called for greater equality in education and an enhanced supply of high-quality education resources to reduce families' education expenditure, saying that more incentives in taxes and housing will be rolled out and the legitimate interests of women in the job market will be safeguarded.

The policymakers also pledged to continue with aid packages for one-child families and rural families with two daughters from before the nation adopted the universal two-child policy in 2016, saying that the nation will establish and improve various policies for such families under the family planning policy.

China's latest national census data, published in May, showed a fertility rate of just 1.3 children per woman in 2020, which was on a par with aging societies like Japan.

The nation has adjusted its population policies twice since 2012, allowing couples, of which one partner is an only child, to have a second child in 2013 and carrying out a universal two-child policy starting in 2016.

Lu Jiehua, a professor of social demographics at Peking University, highlighted the need to give adequate guarantees in terms of the reproductive rights of women and allow them to give birth without any burden as the nation moves to bolster fertility rates.

Yuan Xin, a population scientist at Nankai University in Tianjin, said a three-child policy will serve to boost the fertility rate, and a new package of socioeconomic measures would be required to adapt to the policy shift.

He said the new policies must cover children, parents and seniors, to improve the financial situation of couples planning to have children and help elderly people live better lives.