阿拉爱上海

A paper written by Chinese scientists, titled "Description of six new genera and twenty species of the orb-weaver spider family Araneidae (Araneae, Araneoidea) from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China" was recently published. Among the 20 new species described, 16 were named after songs by Jay Chou, such as C. xingqing sp. nov., C. longquan sp. nov., and Pengaraneus qingtian sp. nov.

This paper was published in Zoological Research: Diversity and Conservation, and available online on December 18, 2024.

The first author of this paper is Professor Mi Xiaoqi from Tongren University, and the corresponding author is Researcher Li Shuqiang. The website unveiled that the research was carried out by Li Shuqiang's team at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), starting in 2006, and has resulted in 78 taxonomy-related papers published in international journals.

Mi told the Hongxing News that naming species requires ensuring that there are no duplicates within a group, and it took considerable time to name the 16 new spider species. Using song titles made the naming process quicker and simpler. 

Mi also mentioned that in this study, they discovered six new genera and 16 new species, all of which belong to the family Araneidae. Mi also emphasized the importance of paying more attention to and protecting biodiversity.

Mi mentioned that he enjoys listening to Jay Chou's music in daily life as a way to relax and unwind.

The news has sparked widespread discussions online, with netizens humorously "shouting" to Jay Chou, saying "Your fans are now scientists!"

Some people remarked that the spider names sound very cool, and it seems like the author named them while listening to Jay Chou's songs.

In fact, this is not the first time Jay Chou's fans have appeared in the scientific world. In 2020, Sun Zhixin, then a master degree candidate from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS, named a unique 500-million-year-old trilobite he discovered Phantaspis auritus.

Sun explained to Science and Technology Daily that Jay Chou's songs have had a significant influence on him. By naming the trilobite Phantaspis auritus, he intended to pay tribute to Jay Chou's whimsical musical style. It is a romantic gesture from a science enthusiast. 

A meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership has stressed strengthening Party discipline and urged senior leaders to set an exemplary and leading role in observing Party rules.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered an important speech while chairing the criticism and self-criticism meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which was held from Thursday to Friday.

The Wenzhou People's Procuratorate in Zhejiang Province on Monday filed charges against 39 members of the Ming family's "mafia" and associated criminal groups, who had long been operating in the northern Myanmar's Kokang Self-Administered Zone. They used armed forces and carried out telecom network fraud and other crimes targeting Chinese citizens. Among those indicted are Ming Guoping, Ming Zhenzhen, Ming Julan, Bi Huijun, Zhou Weichang, Luo Jialiang, and others.

The charges include fraud, intentional murder, intentional injury, illegal detention, operating a casino, drug trafficking, and organizing prostitution. The case has been referred to the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court for trial, according to CCTV News.

China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in November 2023 announced that Ming Guoping, Ming Julan and Ming Zhenzhen, ringleaders of the telecom and online fraud criminal gang in northern Myanmar's Kokang, have been arrested, and that the chief criminal of the gang Ming Xuechang has committed suicide. All four of them were put on a wanted list with a reward by the police in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

A research team led by Xing Lida from the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), in collaboration with co-authors from Spain, Brazil, South Korea, and Australia, has made notable progress in classifying Cretaceous sauropod tracks.

The sauropod tracks, found in Gajin-ri, Jinseong-myeon, Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, were named Gyeongsangsauropus pentadactylus. This marks Gyeongsangsauropus as the first sauropod ichnogenus identified in South Korea, with its unique morphology shedding new light on the posture and gait of sauropods.

The research findings have been published in the monograph Vertebrate Ichnology: The Fossil Record of Prehistoric Behavior.

Gyeongsangnam-do, in South Gyeongsang Province, has long been a significant area for dinosaur research in South Korea. Regarding the sauropod skeletal record, a study in 2016 reported on an Early Cretaceous somphospondylan (Dinosauria: Titanosauriformes) from Haedong-gun, featuring partial cervical and dorsal vertebrae. Since 2006, Korean researchers have documented over 4,000 dinosaur tracks in Goseong County, South Gyeongsang Province, cementing its status as one of the world's most important sites for dinosaur footprints.

In 2012, South Korean Jeong Yul Kim and co-authors described a new sauropod ichnospecies, Brontopodus pentadactylus, under the widely distributed ichnogenus Brontopodus, from the Haman Formation at the Gazin site in South Gyeongsang Province. The fossil-bearing strata are dated to between 113 and 94 million years ago. The Brontopodus pentadactylus tracks are well-preserved, with clear digit traces, and provide an invaluable sample of sauropod track morphology.

A recent study re-examines this ichnospecies by conducting a detailed comparison with various sauropod track records. The research group suggests that the features of Brontopodus pentadactylus, including the rotation angle of manus tracks, differ significantly from those of other Brontopodus ichnospecies. Consequently, this ichnospecies has been reclassified into the new ichnogenus Gyeongsangsauropus.

This study identifies the distinctive characteristics of medium-sized sauropod tracks (approximately 40-50 cm in length), including manus tracks with five short, blunt digits, with digits III-V being nearly identical in length and width. The manus tracks are noticeably outward rotated from the midline of the trackway.

The trackway parameters of Gyeongsangsauropus pentadactylus include an average stride length of 150 cm and a distance between manus and pes tracks of 50-80 cm. The hip height of the Gyeongsangsauropus pentadactylus trackmakers, estimated from footprint length, is approximately 2-2.9 meters.

The establishment of the ichnogenus Gyeongsangsauropus provides important scientific evidence for studying the locomotion and ecological adaptations of sauropods. The findings suggest that different groups of sauropods may have exhibited significant diversity in their postures and gaits, Xing said.

According to Xing, further research is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of sauropod evolution and their ecological roles within the paleoenvironment.

Q: On December 21, the White House announced military assistance worth US$571.3 million to Taiwan. The US Department of Defense announced on the same day that the State Department has approved US$295 million worth of arms sales to Taiwan. What’s China’s comment?

A: The US once again approved military assistance and arms sales to China’s Taiwan region. This seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, especially the August 17 Communiqué of 1982, and China’s sovereignty and security interests. The decision is a severe breach of the US leaders’ commitment of not supporting “Taiwan independence,” and  sends a gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes it and lodged serious protests at once with the US. 

The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests, and the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations. To aid “Taiwan independence” by arming Taiwan is just like playing with fire and will get the US burned, and to use the Taiwan question to contain China is doomed to fail. China urges the US to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop the dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. We will take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

President Xi Jinping on Friday met with Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee, who is on a duty visit to Beijing.

During the meeting, Xi heard a report from Lee on Hong Kong's current situation and the HKSAR government's work.

The Global Times Annual Conference 2025, themed, "Moving forward in Partnership: Resonance of Values between China and the World," is held in Beijing on Saturday. During a discussion on how to address the global security deficit, Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore and Singapore's former permanent representative to the United Nations, delivered a video speech stating that the West must adapt to a multi-civilizational, multipolar and multilateral world.

Mahbubani said that our world today is a troubled place, and the fundamental reason is that the world is experiencing three fundamental structural changes. The world is becoming multi-civilizational, multipolar and multilateral, he said. The multi-civilizational world is a natural result of the fact that we are moving away from the era of Western domination of world history. And we are seeing the return of many other civilizations especially in Asia, the Sinic, the Indic, the Islamic civilizations. While the US tries to stop the return and development of China, it cannot stop the return of such an old and resilient and strong civilization, Mahbubani emphasized. 

Multipolarity is emerging because new powers are rising. Mahbubani believes that Russia is one of the great powers of the world, and the West must understand that 85 percent of the world's population have not imposed sanctions on Russia. The legitimate security interests of Russia must also be taken into consideration while also respecting international law, he noted. 

Moreover, the world is becoming more multilateral, Mahbubani said. Regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, he said that the UN was constantly calling for a "two-State solution" between Israel and Palestine when the Cold War ended. The West had an opportunity to create a permanent two-State solution, it failed to do so. It allowed the problem to fester and grow, and so at some point, it had to explode, the scholar stressed. 

Mahbubani believes that in the face of these conflicts, we have to find ways and means of bridging the divide. He is glad that China has taken some steps toward trying to improve the situation in the Middle East by organizing the meetings between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and by organizing a meeting of the Palestinian factions in Beijing. He thinks China and the other Asian countries can step up and do more to persuade the West to accept the fact that the West has got to adapt to a different world which is multi-civilizational, multipolar and multilateral. 

Workers carve a big snowman in a public square in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on December 15, 2024. Their work attracted numerous tourists, many of whom stopped to watch and take pictures. Photo: VCG

China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced on Tuesday that the permitted stay for foreign nationals entering China under the visa-free transit policy for purposes such as tourism, business, visits, and family reunions has been extended from the original 72 hours and 144 hours to 240 hours or 10 days, as part of the latest measures to further relax and optimize the visa-free transit policy. The policy takes effect immediately.

At the same time, the NIA announced that the number of ports eligible for the visa-free transit policy will be increased from the original 39 to 60, including Chengdu Tianfu International Airport Port in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Sanya Phoenix International Airport Port in South China's Hainan Province.

Also, as part of the latest policy announced on Tuesday, the permitted activity areas for visa-free foreign nationals will be expanded to 24 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities including Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hainan and Guizhou provinces from the original 19.

During their staying in China, foreigners who travel in transit without a visa can engage in activities such as tourism, business, visits, and family visits. However, those who want to work, study, or conduct news interviews and other activities that require prior approval still need to obtain a visa before coming to China, per the NIA.

So far, there are 54 countries that are eligible for the 240-hour transit visa exemption policy.

The latest data released by the NIA on Tuesday shows that from January to November 2024, there were 29.218 million foreign entries into China through various ports, an 86.2 percent year-on-year increase. Of these, 17.446 million entries were made visa-free, a year-on-year growth of 123.3 percent.

The US insisted on arranging Lai's "transit" to offer platform for "Taiwan independence" separatist activities, seriously violating the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and sending a seriously wrong signal to the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. China strongly protests this and has lodged a stern representation with the US, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference on Friday.

Taiwan regional Leader Lai Ching-te is reportedly completing "transiting" through Hawaii and Guam and is scheduled to return to the island on Friday.

Lin said the Taiwan question is the primary, non-negotiable red line in China-US relations. The actions of "Taiwan independence" are incompatible with peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

China urges the US to adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, honor US leaders' commitments not to support "Taiwan independence," cease official exchanges between the US and the island of Taiwan, stop hollowing out or undermining the one-China principle, and cease any form of support or tolerance for "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and their activities and take concrete actions to stabilize China-US relations and maintain peace in the Taiwan Straits, said the spokesperson.

Any attempt to rely on the US for "independence" will hit a wall, and any efforts to use Taiwan island to contain China are bound to fail, Lin said.

In response to another inquiry on whether the mainland is planning to conduct more military exercises surrounding Taiwan island as Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te has completed "transiting" through Hawaii and Guam, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the foremost, non-negotiable red line in China-US relations. China's determination to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering.

Previously some Taiwan local media claimed that the mainland military is poised to "encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise 'Joint Sword-2024C,'" as Lai returns from his visit to "diplomatic allies" in the Pacific via "transit" through Hawaii and Guam.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Palau on Friday, Lai claimed that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are "not subordinate to each other," which Lin also refuted on Friday, saying that the separatist activities of the "Taiwan independence" forces and the connivance and support from external forces are the greatest threats to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

Lai and the DPP authorities have consistently used various pretexts to promote "Taiwan independence" separatism. Regardless of what they say or do, they cannot change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China, nor can they stop the historical trend that China will be and must be reunified. The attempt to rely on external forces for independence is doomed to fail, Lin said.

Also on Friday, Lai claimed that he is confident in deepening cooperation with the next Trump administration in the US. The day before, he had a phone call with US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.

In response, Lin said that China has repeatedly stated its firm position on this matter. We urge the US to recognize the "Taiwan independence" separatist nature of Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities, and the serious harm that "Taiwan independence" separatist actions pose to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

The US should adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, stop interfering in Taiwan affairs, stop meddling in China's internal affairs, and cease supporting or conniving "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, said Lin.