BEIJING: As Chinese policymakers outline the development roadmap for the next five years, a look at the country’s key projects over the past half decade may offer a hint at why China has made tremendous advancement in economic and social development.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China has implemented 165 major projects, highlighting the country’s progress in areas covering technological advancement, infrastructure development as well as social and cultural improvements.
These initiatives helped drive economic growth, enrich human understanding of the universe and bring concrete benefits to the people.
China launched the last satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in June this year, marking the completion of the deployment of its own global navigation satellite system.
As one of the four global navigation satellite systems in the world, Beidou is expected to provide global users with a range of services, including global short-message communication, basic navigation and international search-and-rescue assistance.
“Beidou serves not only China but also the world,” said Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The project is just one example of scientific endeavors China has made in the past years to meet its development needs as well as to contribute to the benefit of humanity.
Major achievements include the unveiling of the Tiangong-2 space lab, Jiaolong deep-sea manned submersible, Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), and the launch of dark matter probe satellite Wukong and the quantum science satellite Mozi. China announced the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in October 2018, which is the world’s longest cross-sea bridge. The 55-km-long bridge connects China’s southern mainland province of Guangdong with the country’s two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
In the past five years, China completed several infrastructure projects that connected its people and facilitated opening-up.
Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport, for instance, was built in less than five years and officially opened to flights on Sept. 25, 2019. –Agencies
