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By Cantona Joseph Published on: March 23, 2026 08:04 (EAT)

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China’s economic transformation and upgrading are deepening, with reform efforts tackling deep-seated problems.

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China is embarking on a new journey to advance Chinese modernization as its latest grand blueprint unfolds. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development was approved at the fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s national legislature, earlier this month.

“A well-conceived 15th Five-Year Plan and its effective implementation will ensure we have even stronger foundations for basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035,” Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, once said.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed that socialist modernization can only be realized through a historical process of gradual and ongoing development. It requires the unremitting hard work of one generation after another.

BUILDING NEW GROWTH MOMENTUM

The world is undergoing accelerated changes unseen in a century, with the challenges of securing peace, development, security and governance intensifying, while geopolitical risks are increasing, and global economic growth momentum remains weak.

Notably, China’s economic transformation and upgrading are deepening, with reform efforts tackling deep-seated problems. In addition, new quality productive forces are being fostered at an accelerated pace.

“Efforts should be redoubled to gain experience in analyzing new situations and solving new problems,” Xi said during China’s “two sessions” earlier this month.

Developing new quality productive forces is an essential requirement for building a modern industrial system and fueling a powerful engine for advancing high-quality development.

As a new driver of future development, new quality productive forces should be cultivated in line with local conditions. It is necessary to leverage local resource endowments, industrial foundations and research capabilities to selectively foster emerging industries, new business models and new growth drivers.

Guided by scientific and technological innovation and anchored in the real economy, efforts should be made to speed up the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and foster the growth of emerging industries and future-oriented industries, so as to accelerate the development of a modern industrial system.

Meanwhile, improving the national innovation system and stimulating the vitality of various innovation entities remain key priorities. With a focus on the frontiers of global science and technology, sustained efforts should be made to strengthen basic research and enhance original innovation capacity, while intensifying breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and frontier technologies.

Amid a rapidly changing international environment and various uncertainties, focusing on managing the country’s own affairs well and enhancing its development quality is crucial in ensuring a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan.

For China, it is imperative to advance high-quality development, build a unified national market and expand high-standard opening up to explore global markets.

China still faces challenges of uneven and inadequate development, including declining labor demand in traditional industries due to technological and industrial transformations, and growing pressure on public services and social security because of an aging population. Addressing these issues is essential for sustaining growth and ensuring that development benefits all.

GLOBAL VISION OF CHINA’S MODERNIZATION PATH

“Chinese modernization delivers benefit to the Chinese people and also advances common development of the world. It is a sure path for us to build a stronger nation and realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is also a path we must take to seek progress for humanity and harmony for the entire world,” Xi said in a keynote address at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting in 2023.

These remarks situated Chinese modernization within the historical context of China’s relations with the world, highlighting its inclusive character and pursuit of win-win outcomes.

Chinese modernization is fundamentally characterized by proactive global engagement. Since the reform and opening up, China’s developmental trajectory, guided by successive five-year plans, has been inseparable from international cooperation.   

Openness has always been the defining feature of Chinese modernization. From “the world factory” to “the world market,” and from a land for global investment to a global innovation hub, each leap in China’s development drives cooperation with the world into broader areas and deeper levels.

As industrial transformation accelerates, China’s massive market will continue to offer significant demand for countries worldwide. In pursuit of smart, green and integrated growth, China aims to share its manufacturing experience and technical innovations to drive global sustainable development.

Beyond that, the global significance of the Chinese model of modernization lies in its success in shattering the myth that modernization is synonymous with Westernization, thereby creating a new form of human advancement.

“China will do well only when the world does well, and vice versa,” Xi once said.

Leveraging the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative and Global Governance Initiative, the world’s second-largest economy is committed to the building of an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.

Faced with global changes not seen in a century, China will continue to stand on the right side of history and remain a steadfast, reliable and constructive force in a turbulent world.

CPC LEADERSHIP AS CORE

Chinese modernization is characterized by unique features: the modernization of a huge population, the modernization of common prosperity for all, the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement, the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and the modernization of peaceful development.

In advancing Chinese modernization, the key lies in upholding the overall leadership of the CPC, which has been the strong leadership core in developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

By integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and its fine traditional culture, the Party has, through years of dedicated efforts, deepened its understanding of the laws that underlie governance by a communist party, the development of socialism, and the evolution of human society.

The Party has led China in building one of the world’s most complete industrial systems, in eliminating absolute poverty, in growing into an economy of 140 trillion yuan (about 20.32 trillion U.S. dollars), and in becoming a major trading partner for more than 150 countries and regions.

Advancing Chinese modernization requires solid work and sustained efforts over time, and sound planning must go hand in hand with effective implementation. Party members and officials are urged to establish and practice a correct view on governance performance, remain committed to serving the public and improving people’s well-being, make well-grounded decisions, and focus on practical work. 

UN issues new climate warning as El Niño looms

Scientists fear that a natural warming phase called El Niño – expected to begin later this year – could soon bring further heat records.

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The Earth’s climate is further out of balance than at any time in recorded history, the UN’s weather agency has warned.

The World Meteorological Organization says that our planet is gaining much more heat energy than it can release, driven by emissions of warming gases such as carbon dioxide.

This record “energy imbalance” heated the ocean to new heights last year and continued to melt our planet’s ice caps.

And scientists fear that a natural warming phase called El Niño – expected to begin later this year – could soon bring further heat records.

In response to the report, UN Secretary General António Guterres reiterated his call for countries to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy to “deliver climate security, energy security and national security”.

“Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” he warned, in a typically punchy video address.

The last 11 years were the Earth’s 11 warmest years in records stretching back to 1850, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says.

In 2025, global average air temperatures were about 1.43C above those of “pre-industrial” times – before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels.

A temporary cooling from the natural La Niña weather pattern meant that 2025 was not quite as hot as 2024, which was boosted by the opposite El Niño phase.

But last year was still one of the three warmest years since records began. Many scientists now believe that warming is accelerating, although they say temperatures are broadly within the range of long-term predictions.

And the WMO points to a wealth of other evidence showing that the climate is changing faster than we have ever seen before.

Perhaps the most comprehensive measure is the amount of extra heat energy being taken up by the Earth.

This “energy imbalance” ultimately drives climate change and reached a new high last year, the WMO says.

While scientists are still working out exactly why the Earth has accumulated so much extra heat over the past decade or so, they have no doubt that heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are the root cause of the imbalance.

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are at their highest for at least two million years, the WMO says, due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Some of the extra energy trapped by these gases warms the atmosphere and the land, as well as melting the planet’s ice.

The world’s glaciers had one of their five worst years on record in 2024/25, according to provisional data, while sea ice at both poles was at or near record lows throughout most of 2025.

But more than 90% of the Earth’s extra energy heats the oceans, which in turn harms marine life, drives more intense storms and contributes to sea-level rise.

The heat stored in the upper 2km (1.2 miles) of the global ocean reached a new high last year, the WMO says. Over the past two decades, it has been warming more than twice as quickly as during the late 20th Century.

“Human activities are increasingly disrupting the natural equilibrium and we will live with these consequences for hundreds and thousands of years,” said Prof Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the WMO.

The report points to the impacts of rising temperatures today, which are helping to intensify many types of extreme weather and aiding the spread of diseases such as dengue.

The south-west US is currently in the midst of a record-breaking early-season heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40C in places over recent days – about 10-15C above average.

Rapid analysis by scientists at the World Weather Attribution group on Friday found that intensity of heat would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

Researchers are also closely watching the Pacific Ocean, with long-term forecasts strongly suggesting that a warming El Niño phase could form in the second half of 2026.

An El Niño – on top of the background human-caused warming trend – could push temperatures to new heights into 2027.

“If we transition to El Niño we will see an increase in global temperature again, and potentially to new records” said Dr John Kennedy of the WMO.

Why exposing young children to AI content could have irreversible consequences

The only way to know how AI may affect young children would be through well-designed longitudinal studies.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) already affects many areas of daily life, including the lives of young children.

Many families give screens to children younger than two, and AI-generated content is increasing on the popular YouTube Kids channel – and it plays automatically.

Most parents are not able to monitor everything their child sees online. Some AI-generated content can be both frightening and attractive to young children, including violence and sexual content using engaging animals and characters.

Early childhood education centres are also using AI to support learning, particularly for children with developmental differences. This includes those who do not learn to speak easily or who have other communication problems related to autism or intellectual disability.

In the US, many parents report their children are using AI for school work. The encouragement for early childhood centres, schools and parents to use AI with children is based on short-term studies, but the long-term impacts are unknown.

The only way to know how AI may affect young children would be through well-designed longitudinal studies. But by the time robust evidence emerged, a whole generation would have grown up exposed – and if there are indeed harmful effects, these may be irreversible.

There are already some alarm bells ringing over AI’s potential impact.

New Zealand research shows high use of screens during early childhood is associated with poor language, social and relational functioning.

Many children love to use screens, and AI is likely to be similarly rewarding because AI models are endlessly patient and instantly responsive to the topics of your choosing and do not seem to demand anything.

Human development during early childhood

Like all mammals, human infants are bound by biological processes and have evolved to develop in social groups in close physical connection with others. Everything we know about child development highlights the importance of face-to-face connection.

Children learn about themselves and the world through all their senses. They learn to communicate through “serve-and-return” interactions – responsive, back-and-forth exchanges between them and their caregiver. This includes physical touch, emotion and play. Collectively, these interactions help shape brain architecture.

Based on their experiences during the first few years of life, children form models, or templates, of how intimate relationships work. These relational templates endure throughout their lives and influence close relationships in adulthood.

Children also learn about emotional regulation, seeking and receiving comfort and conflict resolution during the preschool years. All the while, their brains are forming, with foundational structures that require good experiences to function well throughout life.

We do not yet know what the impact will be on children’s capacity for human relationships if they are exposed to AI while their physiological, neurological and emotional regulatory systems are developing. It is unclear how longer-term AI exposure may affect children’s understanding of other people and their development of empathy.

Normal social interactions in childhood include conflict, negotiation, resolution and play with other children. These interactions involve non-verbal communication, risk estimation, relational repair and decision making.

It’s unclear how instantly responsive and engaging AI will affect these aspects of childhood. It is possible that children experiencing many AI-mediated social interactions may find it more difficult to navigate real-world relationships, especially when there is conflict.

It is also possible that children will develop a preference for AI engagement over real-life engagement with family or friends.

Young children find it harder to distinguish fantasy from reality. This quality is delightful for adults and children alike, involving imaginary play, silliness and amusement. Yet AI-generated fantasy may be persuasive to an overwhelming degree, potentially leading to children being confused about reality and the consciousness of others.

Potential for both harm and help

If infants and children don’t have sufficient real-world experiences, their emerging cognitive capacities for detecting reality and interpreting sensory inputs may be affected.

There is much excitement about the potential for AI-assisted tools to aid children with disabilities in their development of social communication. This seems likely to have benefits such as earlier detection of neuro-developmental differences. There may also be risks if these interventions replace real-life interactions with other children and adults.

What will be the daily experiences for children with extra learning needs? Parents may be happy with AI-enhanced learning, but less happy if this is provided in lieu of a real teacher aide.

The introduction of AI seems inevitable and it is already affecting our children. We know that connection, touch, reciprocal and language-rich environments, and unstructured play are important during early childhood development.

To adopt AI into our children’s spaces without knowing the consequences is an experiment with outcomes that may not be reversible. Given the uncertainty, families should at least have the freedom to choose an AI-free environment for their children.

Sarah Whitcombe-Dobbs, Senior Lecturer in Child and Family Psychology, University of Canterbury

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Relief as Tanzanians rescued after boat capsizes

This follows a boat accident that left them stranded at sea for three days without food or water.

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Five Tanzanian nationals have been rushed to hospital for treatment in Kilifi county after a dramatic rescue by Kenyan fishermen off the Indian Ocean at the Coast.

This follows a boat accident that left them stranded at sea for three days without food or water.

Police said a resident of Pemba Island and captain of the ill-fated vessel Subira reported the incident on March 21.

The group said they had departed Mkoani in Pemba on March 17 for Mkokotoni in Unguja while transporting a consignment of bananas.

However, their journey took a tragic turn near Matumbini Mnarani in Tanzania when the vessel capsized due to strong winds and high tides.

The five men said they managed to cling to the wreckage of the boat, where they remained stranded in harsh ocean conditions for three days.

Their ordeal ended when Kenyan fishermen heading out for deep-sea fishing spotted and rescued them.

The survivors were brought ashore at Copacabana Beach in Mtwapa, where members of the public and officials from the Beach Management Unit quickly intervened.

The group was rushed to Kola Joy Medical Centre in Maweni, Mtwapa, where they are currently receiving treatment.

Two of the victims are reported to be in critical condition, while the others are in stable condition.

The victims narrated to authorities how they clung to the capsized boat with hopes of being rescued.

They said they knew the site was deep in the Indian Ocean and any attempt to swim would turn catastrophic.

Their prayers were answered three days later as other fishermen in the ocean showed up and rescued them.

Police officers visited the hospital and initiated necessary procedures.

Authorities have since handed over the survivors to the Tanzanian Consulate in Mombasa as further assistance and repatriation plans are arranged.

Such incidents are common in the ocean amid calls on the users to be cautious to avoid them.

Four ambulances set on fire in London in suspected antisemitic hate crime

The ambulances belong to Hatzolah, a volunteer organisation that transports Jewish people to hospitals for free.

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An arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish Community Ambulance service in north London is being treated as an “antisemitic hate crime”, the Metropolitan Police has said.

Four Hatzolah ambulances were found on fire after the London Fire Brigade were called to Highfield Court in Golders Green at around 01:40 GMT.

“We are in the process of examining CCTV and are aware of online footage. We believe we are looking for three suspects at this early stage,” said Supt Sarah Jackson, who leads policing in the area.

Nearby houses were evacuated as a precaution and road closures remained in place. There were no injuries, police said, and all fires had been put out.

The fire brigade said multiple cylinders in the vehicles exploded and caused windows to break in an adjacent block of flats.

The fire was under control at 0306, it added.

Hatzolah is a large non-profit, volunteer organisation that provides Jewish people emergency medical response and transportation to hospitals for free.

It has served the North London community of Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population, since 1979.

Supt Jackson said: “We know this incident will cause a great deal of community concern and officers remain on scene to carry out urgent enquiries.”

There had been no arrests so far, police said. Anyone with information has been urged to come forward.

Police said they were “engaged with faith leaders” and “were carrying out additional patrols in the local area”.

One local resident Ushi Gross told the BBC at the scene that he had heard an “explosion” shortly after 01:30 GMT and that “four ambulances” were on fire.

“We’ve all been woken up… by arsonists targeting the ambulances in our community”, he said.

The BBC has contacted Hatzolah for comment.

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