China remains world’s manufacturing hub
CHINA has maintained its position as the world’s largest manufacturing hub for 11 straight years, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the global manufacturing output, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
In the past five years, the valueadded industrial output in China has increased from 23.5 trillion yuan (US$3.63 trillion) to 31.3 trillion yuan, Xiao Yaqing, minister of MIIT, said yesterday.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, the average growth rate of the value-added output from China’s high-tech manufacturing sector reached 10.4 percent, up 4.9 percentage points from that of the overall industrial output, MIIT data showed.
The information transmission and software and information technology service industries have seen remarkable progress during the period. Their valueadded industrial output surged from 1.8 trillion yuan to 3.8 trillion yuan with the proportion in gross domestic product growing from 2.5 percent to 3.7 percent, Xiao said.
China supports the development of 5G, new-energy car and chip industries to boost innovations and economic transformation, the industry regulator said. By the end of 2020, household penetration of fixed broadband in China reached 96 percent, while the mobile broadband penetration rate came in at 108 percent, the data showed.
In terms of 5G development, the country has built a total of 718,000 5G base stations by the end of last year, with the number of mobile terminals connected to the network exceeding 200 million, according to the MIIT.
China’s integrated circuit sales are estimated to reach 884.8 billion yuan in 2020, up 20 percent year on year, said Tian Yulong, chief engineer with the ministry.
While improving policies favorable to the sector, China will further boost international cooperation to achieve the healthy development of the integrated circuit sector, he said.
In July 2020, China rolled out a set of policies to support the high-quality development of the integrated circuit sector, covering tax incentives, financial support, research, market application and international cooperation.
“NOMADLAND” made Golden Globes history on Sunday as Chloe Zhao became the first female director to win the awards’ top prize for best drama, putting her film about marginalized Americans roaming the West in vans into Oscars pole position.
Beijing-born Zhao also bagged the best director Globe, making her only the second woman to do so and the first female winner of Asian descent in the 78 year’s history of Hollywood’s traditional awards season opener, which was a mainly virtual ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The late Chadwick Boseman won best actor for 1920s blues drama “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” six months after his death from cancer at age 43, in a night of emotional moments interspersed with technical glitches, awkward jokes and a row over the lack of diversity among event organizers.
Semi-fictional film “Nomadland” stars Oscar winner Frances McDormand alongside a rag-tag bunch of non-actors who truly live on the open road, working mostly menial jobs to scrape by off the grid.
“For everyone who has gone through this difficult and beautiful journey at some point in their lives — this is for you. We don’t say goodbye. We say see you down the road,” said the 38-year-old director who lives in Los Angeles.
“Sometimes a first feels like a long time coming — you feel like it’s about time. I’m sure there’s many others before me that deserve the same recognition,” she told journalists in a virtual press room after her historic win.
Zhao also was nominated for best motion picture screenplay and lost to Aaron Sorkin. McDormand received a nod for actress in a motion picture drama, but lost.
Usually a star-packed party that draws Tinseltown’s biggest names to a California hotel ballroom, this pandemic
edition of the Globes was broadcast from identical sets at the Beverly Hilton and New York’s Rainbow Room, with essential workers and a few A-list presenters among the few in attendance.
The night’s most poignant moment came with the win for “Black Panther” actor Boseman. “He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifice,” said his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepting on his behalf.
“He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice that tells you you can, that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you are meant to be doing at this moment in history.”
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” a sequel about the fictional Kazakh journalist, won the comedy section’s best film and best actor prizes for creator Sacha Baron Cohen.
“Hold on, Donald Trump is contesting the result. He claimed a lot of dead people
voted, which is a very rude thing to say about the HFPA,” joked Cohen, referring to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the Globes.
Cohen also had a couple of zingers for Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was tricked into a fake hotel room “interview” with an attractive and flirtatious young woman, played by nominee Maria Bakalova. “I mean, who can get more laughs out of one unzipping? It’s just incredible,” asked Cohen.
Best comedy actress went to Rosamund Pike for Netflix’s dark thriller “I Care A Lot.”
“I had to swim up from a sinking car. I think I still would rather do that than have to be in a room with Rudy Giuliani,” said Pike.
The biggest upset came as Andra Day won best drama actress for her portrayal of the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in “The United States vs Billie Holiday.”
Comedians Tina Fey and Amy
Poehler, hosting from opposite coasts, opened the ceremony making fun of the HFPA, which has been under mounting pressure for its lack of diversity.
“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is made up of around 90 — no Black — journalists that attend movie junkets each year, in search for a better life,” said Fey.
Asked about heightened Oscar hopes for “Nomadland,” Zhao said, “The awareness that I think it’s going to bring to the nomadic community, I think is a great thing.”
Jodie Foster won best supporting actress for Guantanamo legal drama “The Mauritanian,” while Korean-American immigrant family drama “Minari” won the Globe for best foreign language film.
Pixar’s “Soul,” mispronounced by presenter Tracy Morgan as “Sawl,” to widespread amusement among the various stars on videolink, won best animated feature, as well as best musical score.