The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is marking its fifth anniversary. Facts speak louder than words, and by all accounts, the Beijing-based multilateral development bank has been doing quite well.

Despite 2020 being full of hardships and uncertainties, China continued making progress on several fronts and, in the process, safeguarding national interests, and helping the world fight the novel coronavirus pandemic and rejuvenate the global economy.

Netizens from the Republic of Korea flocked to Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun's Twitter account and video star Li Ziqi’s YouTube account in recent days, claiming kimchi is Korean after the two shared videos and pictures about kimchi. Two experts shared their views on the kimchi debate with China Daily. Excerpts follow:

China has made unprecedented investments to bring education to the younger generation over the past 30 years, but now the nation faces a new challenge: ensuring that the whole population has the skills to thrive in a fast-changing economy.

Obesity has become a serious public health problem globally, not only in developed countries, but also in developing countries, not only among adults, but also among children.

The Chinese people have always attached special importance to education.

To contain China's peaceful rise, the United States administration has been triggering trade frictions and imposing technology blockades for the past more than two years.

As the world around us continues to evolve, so do the characteristics of global cities.

Population aging is a fundamental reality in today's China and has become a critical challenge to its development

US President Donald Trump has altered the almost four-decade-old framework for Sino-US relationship, thanks to his "America first" and anti-China policies, and turned it from one of engagement and cooperation to one of strategic competition. As a result, bilateral ties have been in a free fall over the past couple of years.

Since the beginning of 2020, President Xi Jinping has been emphasizing the need to foster a new development paradigm in which the domestic market plays the main role, and the domestic and world markets complement each other, in order to ensure sustainable development. Accordingly, the recent Central Economic Work Conference charted out the country's economic course for 2021.

Many managers are treating 2020's pandemic-induced shift to work from home as though it were standard telecommuting. But it's not, and operating under the assumption that it is can harm employees' morale. While office workers are typically faring better than essential workers during the pandemic, the abrupt shift to remote work has been jarring, and its effects should not be overlooked.

Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is playing an increasingly bigger role in helping to realize the 2063 Agenda for Africa

The pandemic has spurred the transition to more sustainable energy use

Officials and business leaders I have met in Brussels over the past two years have often complained about the slow pace of the negotiations on the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. So much so that some were not optimistic about the talks being concluded even though Chinese and European Union leaders repeatedly vowed to do their best to wrap them up by the end of 2020.

China and Africa have been supporting each other in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, with China being the only country to hold an online summit with African countries－the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19－to boost international cooperation to contain the disease.

Editor’s note: President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, a shocking event for the US and the rest of the world. What kind of far-reaching impact will the dramatic storming bring to US society? Experts share their views with China Daily. Excerpts follow:

The number of newborn babies in China has swung widely over the past decade－with slow growth in the first few years followed by a rapid decline. After China's family-planning policy was relaxed in 2016, the number of new births rose briefly to 17.86 million in 2017－compared with 15.88 million in 2010－but it has fallen every year since. Chinese mothers gave birth to a nearly five-decade low of 14.65 million babies in 2019, reinforcing worries about the cost of a lower birthrate on the economy and the country's ability to support its rapidly aging population in the years to come.

Over the past 30 years, remarkable achievements have been made in China's capital market, and it has become more market-oriented, law-based and international.

That Tokyo will host the postponed Olympic Games from July 23 to Aug 8, 2021, and the Paralympic Games from Aug 24 to Sept 5 is encouraging news for not only Japan but also China because Beijing is scheduled to hold the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

US outgoing President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps, including payment apps Alipay and WeChat Pay, to "protect US national security".

Addressing the pressing global challenges depends on the West's capacity to work with China and vice versa

China and the UK can join hands to overcome the pandemic and contribute to a global community of health for all

That the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have formally approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines of COVID-19, which are 95 percent and 94.1 percent effective respectively, and the UK has given the green light to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines for emergency use has paved the way for mass vaccination in many Western countries.

As the United States prepares for a radical course-correction on climate change, China is raising its game. Climate action has become yet another front in the competition between the world's two largest economies.

Despite the pandemic, the SCO members must continue to strive to realize a close Eurasian economic partnership

The process of ensuring regional security within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization region is supported by intensive development of trade, economic and humanitarian ties.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be largely controlled, the world economy is expected to be on the track to recovery, and major-country relations are projected to remain relatively stable in 2021. Yet the world will still face risks.

Mutual understanding is a prerequisite for friendly ties between nations, just like any other relationship. More often than not political agenda dominates international or geopolitical relations, but in reality, politics is deeply rooted in culture. A true understanding of culture will make many political conflicts and ideological disputes look futile and far-fetched.

With China poised to roll out its long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines, we can expect a barrage of criticism and skepticism from some Western media outlets. Most of the Western media outlets have been portraying China's efforts to develop vaccines as a "great power competition" with the United States.

As the world is going through profound changes unseen in a century, COVID-19 has emerged as a catalyst, reinforcing the ongoing trends and giving rise to instability and uncertainty in international dynamics. Humanity is grappling with the worst pandemic in a century. The world economy is in the deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression. The international order has never been as seriously affected by unilateralism, protectionism and acts of bullying as it is today since the end of World War II. Some even surmised that the world has entered a dark moment, it is unable to go back to where it was, and that there is no future in sight.

China replaced the United States to become the largest trade partner of the European Union in the third quarter of 2020, with the total trade volume between the two economies reaching 425.5 billion euros ($517.3 billion) during the first nine months, an increase of 3 percent compared with the same period of 2019. However, there is still much room for improvement in terms of China-EU economic cooperation. The figure for investment exchanges between the two sides remains relatively low. In 2017, China's direct investment to the EU accounted for merely 1 percent of the latter's total amount, and the EU's direct investment to China was only 6.7 percent of China's actual foreign investment.

Achieving sustainable social and economic development is a long-term pursuit of humanity. From the perspective of environment, the United Nations Environment Programme believes that the degrading ecosystems and biodiversity loss are a huge crisis confronting humans in their pursuit of sustainable development. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic is a strong warning nature has given to humans, underlining the close links between the ecosystems, biodiversity and human health.

Although 2020 has been a turbulent year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volatile world economy and increasing global uncertainties, China and Japan found ways to overcome difficulties and develop a pragmatic, mature and progressive bilateral relationship.

Today, COVID-19 is devastating the world. It's in the process of infecting many (perhaps even most) of us, killing some, shutting down our normal social relations, halting most international travel, and clobbering our economies and trade. What will the world be like a few years from now, after this acute crisis has waned?

Development of relations between China and Guinea-Bissau have entered a new phase of in-depth cooperation

The new trends in the consumer market that emerged during the pandemic will continue to develop driving domestic economic circulation

Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, institutionalized cooperation between China and African countries has not only deepened but also extended to organizations and platforms such as the United Nations, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Non-Aligned Movement, reflecting the ever increasing importance and benefits of multilateralism.

Foreign-funded institutions generally acknowledge that China has opened up its financial market wider. But why is there still a gap between China's policy efforts and foreign financial institutions' sense of gain? Perhaps because of the difficulties and challenges faced by these institutions in doing business in China.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) was officially signed by China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 ASEAN countries on Nov 15, after eight years of negotiations, marking the creation of the largest free trade area (FTA) in the world.

China's governing system, if compared to its counterparts in the West that have historically focused on short-term goals due to the lack of visibility beyond the next election, has always been widely admired for its long-term views and for the ability to develop well-crafted plans that rely on clear milestones and on a constant monitoring of the direction the nation is taking.

Reform of the electricity market should be accelerated to establish the energy mix through market competition based on the comprehensive costs of power generation

Proficiency China has demonstrated in its fight against the novel coronavirus can be leveraged to lead the way in addressing the climate challenge

What will China's education journey be like during the rest of the 21st century? In the fourth of a series of commentaries, a senior journalist with China Daily searches for the answers.

To ensure food security, the recently concluded Central Economic Work Conference vowed to bolster the growth of the seed sector and expedite the construction of seed banks on a priority basis, reflecting the importance the top authorities pay to the protection of seeds. In fact, the CEWC has made seed protection and development one of the eight key tasks for 2021.

African Continental Free Trade Area agreement presents Africa with a unique opportunity to unleash its economic potential

China's central bank is introducing new methods to help the country achieve its carbon neutrality objective

Although 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India, the two sides could not formally observe the occasion because of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the military standoff in the Galwan Valley on the non-demarcated Sino-Indian border.

Sino-US relations have deteriorated at an unprecedented pace over the past nearly four years thanks to the Donald Trump administration's "America first" policies. Hopefully, the incoming US administration of Joe Biden will take steps to reverse this trend.

Editor's note: At this year's Central Economic Work Conference that concluded in Beijing on Dec 18, President Xi Jinping presented a guideline on how to rebuild confidence and achieve fast economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic-induced slowdown.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has signed a bill calling for the delisting of foreign companies that don't adhere to the same accounting transparency standards that securities regulators impose on US public companies.

Despite their growing importance, the problem of financing for private businesses, especially privately-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, is still a long-term problem in China. Amid the unbalanced economic recovery in the post-pandemic era and external headwinds faced by SMEs, the Chinese policymakers should pay special attention to reducing the funding challenges for private businesses.

There is no doubt that China and the United States have provided useful experience in agricultural development for human progress, especially for developing countries. The US leads the world in agricultural modernization and output, and China is transitioning from smallholder farming to modern agriculture, having made huge progress in agriculture since the launch of reform and opening-up, not only feeding 1.4 billion people, but also laying a material foundation for poverty alleviation and a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Recent good news on vaccines for COVID-19 brings us closer to ending the acute phase of this terrible pandemic. But the sense of collective relief must be accompanied by a healthy dose of reality.

After a turbulent 2020, China's economy is entering 2021 with a strong tailwind. The COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdowns and other strict measures implemented to contain it resulted in－6.8 percent year-on-year GDP contraction in the first quarter. But after China largely contained the spread of the novel coronavirus in the second quarter, the economy started to recover at an exceptional pace thanks to the policy stimulus and a strong rebound in demand in the housing and auto sectors. Better-than-expected export performance also helped boost industrial output.

Danke Apartment, one of the country's largest housing rental platforms, has been running short on liquidity and therefore defaulting on rents since September in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, leaving its clients－property owners and tenants－jostling with each other.

Promoting the development of the digital economy has become an important part of China’s overall economic policy. Yet the monopoly of internet companies, which are the main drivers of the digital economy, and their disorderly capital expansion have reached such alarming levels that they can no longer be ignored.

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement on Nov 15 concluded eight years of negotiations among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.

President Xi Jinping announced at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 22 that "China will scale up its nationally determined contributions and adopt more vigorous policies and measures, strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060".

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic dealing a severe blow to the global economy in 2020, vaccine developments have fueled optimism about global growth. And although major uncertainties remain about the speed of global vaccine rollout, we (at Oxford Economics) anticipate a sustained relaxation of social distancing in 2021, and thus a rebound of economic activity worldwide.

A fourth industrial revolution is emerging which is bringing about a new round of technology revolution and industrial transformation. The application of 5G, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, quantum technology, intelligent supply chains and biomedicine will have profound impacts on human activities and social development. Around the world, a transformation is underway from quantitative accumulation to qualitative change.

China's low birthrate and slowing population growth are expected to continue into the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), with its population likely to peak and start negative growth earlier than previously predicted. This trend poses severe and far-reaching challenges to the country.

The year 2020 has been an annus horribilis for the world economy, global health－and Sino-US relations. Bilateral relations further deteriorated due wholly to the United States' hostile trade and security policies toward China.

As COVID-19 infections continue to rise in much of the world, many are clinging to the hope that a vaccine will soon restore life as we knew it. That is wishful thinking. Even if an effective vaccine is found, COVID-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future－at least for the next five years. We are going to have to learn to live with it.

It is safe to say 2020 has been a year of firsts in many ways, and the National Security Law implemented in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on June 30 and took effect immediately, is no doubt the most impactful of its kind concerning Hong Kong in recent memory.

Rumors have been circulating on social media over the past few days that the HKSAR government’s decision to procure some COVID-19 vaccines from mainland companies was politically motivated, and was made for the transfer of benefits to the mainland.

As the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic brings the city's economic activities to a partial standstill, the government is now forecasting our GDP to decline by 6.1 percent this year.

The world is eagerly looking forward to a COVID-19 vaccine. It is anticipated that the vaccines will be available by the end of this year, then everyone will hopefully regain their freedom after vaccination.

The current US administration's hostile containment policies toward China in the South China Sea have been to the detriment of not only the world's two largest economies, but also all other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The early months of this year dealt a heavy blow to the education sector.

Most of the stuff we need to live is human-made, except air and sunshine. The food we eat.

News of a COVID-19 vaccination has continued to dominate headlines as Britain began its first round of vaccinations on Tuesday.

With China marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) this year, Qianhai, as Shenzhen's first "Pilot Free Trade Zone", naturally plays a key role in the advancement of the region as it develops into the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone".

Jurisdictions worldwide are planning for economic recovery coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carrie Lam, the HKSAR chief executive, very recently mapped out the revival blueprint to be applied in Hong Kong over the next year and well beyond in her 2020 Policy Address.