Editor's note: China's economy overcame numerous internal and external challenges last year, achieving 5.2 percent expansion and surpassing the target set at the beginning of the year. In the face of tests such as weak external demand, it wasn't easy for the Chinese economy to reach this level of recovery in the first year after the three-year pandemic.
However, Western critics who constantly underplay China's hard-won economic achievements are again trumpeting "China economic collapse" narrative. The Global Times (GT) invited Gary Hufbauer(Hufbauer), a non-resident senior fellow at US think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics, to share his perspectives on China's economic performance in 2023 and its economic outlook in 2024.
GT: China's GDP grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in 2023, higher than the target of about 5 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday. How do you view the growth rate in 2023, the first year of the post-COVID recovery?
Hufbauer: The 5.2 percent growth figure for China's economy in 2023 is a strong number, given the size of the Chinese economy, its state of development and the weak outlook for global growth. I sharply disagree with critics who say the Chinese economy is stumbling.
GT: How do you view the current economic situation in China? How do you evaluate China's economic prospects in 2024?
Hufbauer: In my view Chinese prospects in 2024 are good. Beijing can certainly manage dislocations in the property market and prevent any sort of financial crisis. Expansionary fiscal and monetary policies can avert the threat of deflation. China's economic challenges are modest compared, for example, with the challenges facing the EU.
GT: China remains an important engine driving world economic growth. The IMF's senior resident representative in China predicted that the Chinese economy will maintain a sound growth in 2024 and continue to account for one-third of global economic growth. How do you view the global significance of the steady and positive development of the Chinese economy?
Hufbauer: The world economy depends on strong Chinese growth, and that looks assured for 2024. If Chinese growth dropped to 2 percent, as expected for the US, and even less for the EU and Japan, the world outlook would be dismal.
GT: Global growth is projected to slow for the third year in a row - from 2.6 percent last year to 2.4 percent in 2024, the World Bank said. In a world battling many uncertainties, how should major economies jointly tackle challenges and promote global growth rather than politicizing economic issues?
Hufbauer: World leaders should welcome globalization and avoid new trade or investment restrictions. Unfortunately that's not happening in Europe, the US, India and several other places. This is an arena where China can lead.
GT: How should the largest economy in the world - the US - further improve its economic cooperation with China - the second-largest - to provide more certainty and positive energy for the global economy?
Hufbauer: The US should stop the search for new national security risks arising from trade and investment with China, and instead search for new areas of mutual economic gain. Many barriers can be reduced with no harm to the national security of the US or China.
GT: China sent only 45 percent of its exports to the developed economies including the EU and the US in November, figures from data provider CEIC showed. The decline in trade between China and Western countries in November reveals that the reality of "de-risking" is concerning, according to the WSJ. What's your perspective on "de-risking"?
Hufbauer: "De-risking" has gone far enough. "China hawks" in the US Congress want to expand "de-risking" until it reaches "de-coupling." This is misguided, and can only result in dividing the world economy into a China bloc and a US bloc.
A two-bloc world will depress global growth. Moreover, many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa reject the idea that they should show primary allegiance to one bloc or the other.
In the face of the major opportunities and challenges brought about by a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, innovation has become a topic of particular concern for all countries as it is a key factor in pushing forward a country's continued development.
In September 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the "Global Innovation Index (GII) Report 2023." The report showed that China, Turkey, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia are the middle-income economies that have made the most headway in innovation over the last decade. Among them, China is the only one that ranked among the top 30.
"China is far ahead in global innovation performance; it is close to the top 10 of the GII ranking and still the sole middle-income economy within the GII top 30," Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, head of the section of Economics and Statistics Division, and co-editor of The GII at the WIPO, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.
A close look at the GII reports revealed that since the first release of the GII report in 2007, China's overall ranking has shown a steady upward trend. In this year's ranking, China ranks 12th, having climbed 31 spots from its lowest ranking in previous years (43rd in 2010). The report also specially mentioned that China is the only middle-income economy among the top 30, followed by Japan in the 13th place.
Steady progress in innovation
Data in the GII report showed that in 2023, China ranked first globally in six specific indicators, including the proportion of creative goods export in total trade volume, domestic market scale, labor productivity growth rate, PISA scales in reading, math, and science, the ratio of trademarks by origin to GDP, and the ratio of utility models by origin applications to GDP.
"The GII rankings are compiled based on about 80 indicators which can be gleaned from the country profiles. The indicators are structured around innovation input and innovation output dimensions and cover fields such as human capital, research and development, venture capital, high-tech manufacturing, and patents, but also rank intangible assets and creative goods and services," Wunsch-Vincent explained.
A special excerpt from the GII also showed that the world's five biggest science and technology (S&T) clusters are now located in East Asia, with China emerging as the country with the greatest number of clusters as Tokyo-Yokohama leads as the biggest S&T cluster.
"The emergence of Chinese top science and technology clusters does not come as a surprise with all the science and innovation activity that has propelled China forward in the GII. It is impressive nonetheless - some of the top-ranked cities or regions are obvious leaders such as around Beijing or Shanghai," Wunsch-Vincent noted to the Global Times.
"In addition, there are many cities or clusters emerging, which are new and not that well-known yet as science and technology hubs around the world. In that sense, the ranking also allows the rest of the world to better understand the geography and potential of innovation in China," he said.
Feng Xingke, secretary general of the World Financial Forum and director of the Center for BRICS and Global Governance, told the Global Times that this reflects the shifting of the global center of technological activities to the East, with East Asia leading global technological innovation.
"The increase in the number of Chinese technology clusters is mainly due to China's continuous strengthening of regional technological innovation development strategies in recent years, forming an ecological system for technological innovation with central coordination, local healthy competition, and mutual development," Feng said.
Analysts generally believe that China has made remarkable achievements in the fields of new energy, high-speed rail, modern information, new materials, and artificial intelligence, and related new industries and products have shown strong growth momentum.
Feng pointed out that one important reason for China's innovation progress lies in the strong support from the government.
In recent years, the Chinese government has invested a large amount of funds in major scientific and technological innovation research and development, and has provided a favorable policy and business environment for scientific and technological innovation, strengthened the team of scientific and technological innovation talents, and laid a solid foundation for technological innovation progress, he said.
In a previous interview with the Global Times, Manuel C. Menendez, founder and CEO of MCM Group Holdings, hailed the great achievements that China has made over the last decade.
He noted that in addition to the country's policy, it is necessary to give credit to Chinese entrepreneurs and China's ability to take a policy and make it work step by step.
According to Wunsch-Vincent, an important reason for China to progress rapidly is that China has "prioritized innovation and science and technology policy as a means to achieve economic growth and development for many decades now. It has consistently increased its innovation expenditures and has built an impressive innovation ecosystem."
"I also believe that China has a dynamic start-up scene with abundant young and highly skilled human capital. These factors have helped China achieve the rise that the GII describes, and to stand out among other middle-income economies," he noted.
China has a long tradition of placing high emphasis on innovation and the capability to turn applications into industrial development. China is also sharing its outcomes from scientific development with other regions of the world, which experts pointed out will help facilitate global development.
For example, in November 2023, China hosted the first Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. China has signed intergovernmental science and technology cooperation agreements with more than 80 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partners, jointly building a comprehensive, multi-level, and wide-ranging science and technology cooperation pattern, Xinhua reported.
"China's growth - both economic and also innovation-wise - is significant both for the world and the wider region. China has made notable strides in innovation in fields such as information technology, health, electric vehicles and batteries with commercialized products, and nanotechnology or other deep science fields," Wunsch-Vincent said.
However, several experts also noted to the Global Times that such innovation in China also faces increasing challenges as some people in the West actively call for so-called "technological decoupling" from China.
"China should establish an open international cooperation mechanism for scientific and technological innovation and clearly oppose 'technological decoupling.' It is necessary to build a systematic, multi-level, comprehensive, and targeted international strategy for scientific and technological innovation cooperation," Feng told the Global Times.
"China should continue to strengthen innovation cooperation with the US, deepen scientific and technological cooperation with Russia, make good use of European scientific and technological innovation resources, seize opportunities for innovation cooperation with Japan and South Korea, and actively participate in the formulation of international regulations for emerging technologies," Feng said.
Middle-income economies full of development potential
The GII, launched in 2007 and is now in its 16th edition, takes the pulse of innovation by tracking the most recent global innovation trends and benchmarking about 130 countries worldwide and the top 100 science and technology clusters on their innovation performance.
With the theme "Innovation in the Face of Uncertainty," the GII 2023 report used the average of the input and output sub-indices to track the global state of innovation. The highlight is that innovation investments showed mixed performance in 2022 within a context of many challenges and a downturn in innovation finance, Wunsch-Vincent said.
According to Wunsch-Vincent, in 2023, global scientific publications, research and development (R&D), venture capital (VC) deals, and patents continued to increase more than ever. However, growth rates were lower than the exceptional increases seen in 2021. In addition, the value of VC investment declined and international patent filings stagnated in 2022. In particular, reflecting a deteriorating climate for risk finance, the value of VC investments declined sharply in 2022 from an exceptionally high level in 2021. And the VC volumes declined by over 30 percent in 2023 relative to 2022, and are expected to be only half of the amount invested in the VC boom year of 2021.
Wu Jinxi, Director of the Strategic Emerging Industries Research Center at the School of Social Sciences of Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that in the face of global issues such as rising R&D costs and slowing patent growth, the efficiency of scientific research and innovation system should be improved first, and scientific research resources should be allocated reasonably, "putting money where it matters most."
Despite downward pressure on the global economy, countries should not reduce investment in scientific research, he said.
However, many experts and analysts from various countries also see the current situation of opportunities and challenges coexisting. The 2023 GII report shows that the innovation performance of middle-income economies as a whole is quite remarkable. In the last decade, China has become the fastest-growing middle-income economy on the GII rankings along with Turkey, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Iran.
A total of 21 economies, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania, are rated by the report as "exceeding expectations" in terms of their innovation performance relative to their level of economic development. India, Moldova, and Vietnam have outperformed expectations for 13 consecutive years.
According to Feng, the reason behind these economies' performance exceeding expectations is mainly the world governance pattern of globalization and multilateralism. In the context of the new round of scientific and technological revolution, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the development of emerging industries have provided a historic opportunity for developing economies to catch up with developed economies in new areas, he noted.
Compared with Western countries using technological monopoly advantages to contain developing countries and emerging economies, China is more willing to share innovative technologies through technology transfer or joint development said Liang Zhihua, president of Southeast Asia Social Science Research Center.
Liang believes that with the export and sharing of China's scientific and technological innovation, the digital transformation of middle-income and emerging economies, including Malaysia, will further be propelled.
Wunsch-Vincent noted that the GII report is a "tool for action" regarding innovation policy for governments around the world. A survey carried out by WIPO in 2022 showed that 70 percent of WIPO member states were using the GII to improve innovation ecosystems and metrics, as well as being a benchmark for national innovation policies or economic strategies.
In Feng's view, middle-income economies have the corresponding economic strength, scientific and technological foundation, and late-comer advantages, and have the opportunity to become a new engine of global innovation, but this is not an inevitable result.
"Only by balancing the relationship between the government and the market, formulating sound industrial and financial policies, building a market-oriented, legalized, and internationalized business environment, and stimulating the motivation and vitality of enterprises to innovate through market mechanisms can middle-income economies be expected to become the main force of innovation," he said.
As an important powerhouse of China's economy, Guangdong Province has achieved a new milestone in 2023 by leading the nation in the total number of business entities, enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, and private-owned companies.
The achievement is attributed to various factors, including the province's favorable business environment, experts said.
In 2023, the total number of registered business entities in Guangdong reached a staggering 18 million, representing a 10th of the country's total. The figure marked a significant increase of 1.7 million, or 10.6 percent growth from the previous year, making it the highest growth rate in the past five years, according to Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation.
The province also boasts the largest number of all types of enterprises in China. It is home to 7.8 million enterprises, accounting for one-seventh of the nation's total, which includes some 7.2 million private enterprises,
After the issuance of the guidelines on boosting the growth of private economy on July 19, 2023, Guangdong launched a series of measures to respond to the problems that private businesses face, and it focused on promoting fair market competition and protecting the legitimate interests of private businesses and entrepreneurs, Zhou Rong, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
For private enterprises of different sizes, including individual businesses, Guangdong Province responded to their problems in a targeted manner, published guidelines and solutions covering all industrial sectors to help private enterprises tackle their problems related with their business development, Zhou said.
Guangdong is also one of the most preferred destinations for foreign investors. In 2023, 21,000 newly foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the province, making Guangdong home to over 199,000 foreign-invested enterprises, accounting for a quarter of the nation's total.
Guangdong has also taken measures to optimize the business environment in the Greater Bay Area, creating a favorable investment environment for all overseas investors, Zhou said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macao-invested business entities in Guangdong Province amounted to 96,000 in 2023, up 15.5 percent year-on-year. Notably, over 8,000 entities were registered in 2023, rising 64.4 percent over 2022.
The success of Guangdong Province in attracting Hong Kong and Macao businesses is mainly attributed to the vigorous efforts made by the province in providing the best services. Measures were taken to optimize business environment in the Greater Bay Area, especially in promoting the linkage between the markets of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Zhou noted.
The province is deepening reform of business registration system, implementing universal registration in the Greater Bay Area, and pushing electronic notarial instruments for Hong Kong investors, so as to realize full electronic registration of Hong Kong-invested enterprises, and facilitate investment and development of businesses in the Greater Bay Area, cctv.com reported.
Through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), Chinese mainland residents can take international flights directly from Hong Kong International Airports (HKIA) without entry permit. The new policy, set to take effect on Tuesday, will further facilitate international travel for travelers from the Chinese mainland and drive passenger growth at HKIA.
This policy aims to simplify foreign travel procedures for mainland travelers through HKIA, and take advantage of the airport's direct international flights.
The move is expected to increase mainland passenger traffic at HKIA and create demand and business opportunities for Zhuhai International Airport in South China's Guangdong Province. According to media reports, Zhuhai Airport operates flights to nearly 90 mainland destinations, while HKIA offers direct flights to nearly 200 international destinations.
Zhuhai Airport will also open a multimodal passenger terminal to provide shuttle bus service for passengers traveling to Hong Kong Airport for transit flights. Passengers will board buses at Zhuhai Airport and go directly to the Skypier Terminal of Hong Kong International Airport after completing exit procedures and collecting boarding passes at Zhuhai Highway port.
Following the implementation of northbound travel for Hong Kong and Macao vehicles, allowing Chinese mainland travelers to travel via HKIA without entry permit will further integrate the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The action is also conducive to deepening business cooperation between airports in the area.
The border control of HZMB has set up a designated inspection channel in Zhuhai highway port to differentiate ordinary travelers and travelers to HKIA for inspection, and to provide convenient and high-quality customs clearance services, Lin Meihong, a senior official of HZMB boarder control was quoted as saying.
This policy will further leverage the bridge's central role of connecting the Greater Bay Area and influencing the western part of Guangdong, helping to promote the formation of a world-class airport cluster in the area, Lin said.
At this stage, Chinese mainland travelers to HKIA will need to check in and complete exit procedures at Zhuhai Highway porter, in the future, travelers traveling via HKIA are expected to be able to complete their flight procedures directly at Zhuhai Airport, according to news.cctv.com.
HKIA is one of the busiest airports in South China. In the first 10 months of 2023, the airport's passenger traffic had reached 31.4 million, up 9.5 times compared to the same period last year, according to the Airport Authority Hong Kong.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is accelerating integration and facilitating convenience for local residents. On Sunday, the Digital Bay Area Development Forum in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province announced a new application which provides integrated transportation, payment and healthcare services to residents of the Greater Bay Area, it is now online on multiple platforms such as Alipay, Wechat, AlipayHK and MPay, according to Chinanews.com.cn.
A college research team from East China’s Jiangsu Province has recently released China’s first large language model (LLM), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and massively big data sets to help conduct research on Chinese ancient books.
The LLM for ancient books was designed to intelligently process ancient texts, promote innovative development in the research and preservation of Chinese ancient books, enhance the efficiency and quality of the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and facilitate deep integration between LLMs and the processing of ancient books.
The LLM “Xunzi,” named after Xun Zi, one of the most famous philosophers in ancient China for his Confucian classic Xunzi, contains the vast majority of Chinese ancient books and documents including the collections of the “Complete Library in Four Sections” or “Siku Quanshu,” with a large-scale corpus of over 2 billion Chinese characters and words.
The research on Chinese traditional classics is a painstaking and laborious work even for scholars and experts, let alone for average learners. Thus, translating ancient texts into modern Chinese is one of its most important functions, Wang Dongbo, professor from College of Information Management of Nanjing Agricultural University in Nanjing, Jiangsu, who led the research team told the Global Times.
With the model, researchers can swiftly summarize the ancient texts and know about the themes of the ancient books. The model can also extract key information from the ancient texts, such as characters, events and places, to sort out the information with efficiency.
Besides, the model can also automatically generate ancient poems that comply with grammar and prosody rules with the prompts the users give to it to provide inspiration for poetry lovers. It can also precisely translate ancient texts into modern Chinese to help researchers understand the original meaning and connotation of ancient texts.
Led by Wang, the research team has been working in the area of digitization of ancient books and documents for a decade. Supported by the presence of the university’s strong computing power and based on the application scenarios provided by Zhonghua Book Company, the research team accomplished China’s first open-source LLM for ancient texts in AI.
The LLM has been published on websites such as github.com and modelscope.cn as open-source software, allowing users to download and use it for free.
“We trained Xunzi using big data built on ancient books which can be obtained for free on the internet just like the way OpenAI trained ChatGPT. Although we spent great effort, labor force and money into it, we still share it for free with the aim to encourage more people to study and pay attention to traditional Chinese culture,” Wang said.
More than 5,000 Chinese suspects of economic crimes fleeing overseas have been caught and arrested from over 100 countries and regions by the public security organs across the country since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
A symposium on economic crime investigation work was recently held by the MPS in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, to emphasize the improvement of the public security organs’ professional investigative capabilities and outline the modernization of economic crime investigation work, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.
According to the meeting, since the 19th National Congress of the CPC, public security organs across the country have solved 467,000 cases of various economic crimes, recovering direct economic losses of more than 280 billion yuan ($39.28 billion), apprehended more than 5,000 suspects of economic crimes fleeing overseas from more than 100 countries and regions, and collaborated with the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision to apprehend 14 individuals among the 100 fugitives on Interpol’s Red Notice.
According to meeting notes, nationwide public security economic crime investigation work has consolidated outstanding achievements in combatting against crimes, preventing risks, maintaining stability, and serving the development of other sectors.
The meeting urged to further improve the investigation work, improve the quality of the public security investigative teams, enhance investigative efficiency and deepen the understanding of the rules of public security economic crime investigation work in the new era.
The meeting noted that economic crime investigation work has to be further developed with innovation and the help of big data, to improve technical capabilities.
The work has to focus on cracking down on counterfeit currency, cards, invoices, money laundering, tax-related crimes, securities-related crimes, crimes in finance, and other key areas, to continuously improve the fight against crime.
The discipline of the public security investigative team has to be constantly strengthened to improve the professionalism and capability of the team, according to the meeting.
What does it feel like to dive 100 meters deep under the surface of the ocean with one breath? "The hydrostatic pressure will be 11 times than that a person feels on the ground," Xu Tongtong, Chinese freediver and the country's record breaker, told the Global Times in a recent interview.
A person now titled with two record-breaking champions, the 35-year-old Xu is now the first woman of China reaching 100 meters under the sea level in history, after she claimed a gold in Constant weight (CWT) freediving discipline in Asian Freediving Cup in the Philippines in June.
The win of her first 100-meter try gave her courage.
During July, in another competition she participated in AIDA Panglao Depth Championship in Bohol Island, the Philippines, Xu finished her another 100-meter challenge in the Constant weight bi-fins (CWTB) depth discipline, ranking second place in the world.
"If we compare the 100 meters to the height of a building, it means we are about to jump from the 30th floor to the ground and then climb back to the roof top, with one breath," Xu added. "I feel so happy when I touched and grabbed the tab underwater.
This was a goal I set for myself three years ago, and I feel nice that the world can see the efforts we made as Chinese freediving athletes," she told the Global Times in an interview on the phone at her home in the Philippines.
The two records Xu set pushed China to reach the next level: Since then the depth record of Chinese women in freediving has entered the 100-meter level.
'First try'
Xu now lives in Boho Island, an area covering an area of 3,269 kilometers and known as top island in the Philippines.
The Boho Island has been boasting its hospitality of the freediving lovers. And it is also among the most popular freediving destinations in the country where international competitions are often held here.
But for Xu, the place means much more than a freediving heaven, as both of the two competitions she participated in with record breaking also took place here in Boho Island.
June's competition is her first ever try in challenging 100 meters freediving. "I made it," recalled Xu. "That was an unprecedented experience for me as I remembered my smile as I swam up out of the surface."
Before heading to the competition, she undergone a three-month systematic training where her coach developed a training program cut out for her.
"There were different proportions I needed to devote to in including the physical training and muscle training."
Based on her training plan, the last training Xu had the free diving reached 98 meters under the water. "By two meters deeper during each try, I would reach 100 meters by the time of my competition day."
"This needs a stable state of mind. If you're nervous you fail, but if you're not you win," Xu added.
Explaining the trick of the sport, Xu said that it is the opposite of the others as one needs to calm her/him down to be "as stable as possible in order to slow down the heart rate, which is essential to reduce the oxygen consumption."
A yearn for ocean
Born in Anhui, a landlocked province in East China, the 35-year-old free diver has a nickname Mutou, translated as wood often known by her friends. She also named her social media atlas after Mutou.
She believed in the flexibility of the wood as "a piece of wood can be carved into anything you want. And I wish I can have the quality just as the wood."
Xu started her swimming training as early as 8. Being a professional swimmer, Xu has participated in a string of competitions nationwide, where she won second place as her best result.
Xu's free diving enlightenment came from a video she accidentally came across on social media. As early as 2012, when she saw the famous French freediving champion Guillaume Néry "flying" in the ocean.
"Normally we swim horizontally, but I never try swimming vertically. And I decided to have a try."
From 2012 to 2017, Xu has traveled to islands across the world for freediving, where she would immerse in the enjoyment the ocean brought her.
"If we carry gas cylinders, the bubbles that pop out will keep those sea creatures from approaching us. We are just 'guests' in the ocean, and in the ocean, we are so small," said Xu.
In the years of her career in ocean, she also received help from Israeli freediving legend Aharon Solomons, who she met in China when the later traveled there for freediving classes.
According to Solomons, freediving is a kind of sport that requires intelligence, commitments and common sense, where he believed that Xu has all of them.
Among many sports, freediving can be dangerous, but "she has been outstanding," Solomons told the Global Times in an interview.
"I also feel honored that he coached me during my entering stage of the sport, and I've never experienced from a single injury," Xu recalled her experience when learning from Solomons.
Now in Israel, Solomons is still preparing for more competitions as he told the Global Times.
China's first naturalized basketball player Li Kai'er, who made a scoreless debut for Team China at the FIBA World Cup on Saturday night in Manila, posted the two lines, coupled with a Chinese national flag icon and heart emojis, on social media on Sunday morning.
Contributing only four rebounds and four assists, the 29-year-old, 2.06-meter-tall Minnesota Timberwolves forward, better known to National Basketball Association (NBA) fans as Kyle Anderson, missed all his nine shot attempts during the World Cup game against Serbia on Saturday. Team China swallowed a tough 105-63 loss with Li struggling to deliver a pace-setting performance.
Disappointed Chinese basketball fans rated Li's debut a meager 4.6 out of 10 points, one of the lowest of the team squad, with some even saying that his "assimilation" to the team should not mean playing at their level.
When asked to comment on Li's first game with Team China in the World Cup, Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) Hall of Famer Liu Yudong told media that even in the NBA, Li is not a main scorer.
"It would be difficult to rely on his individual performance to compete in the World Cup. Basketball fans should not overestimate the capability of him or the team."
However, it is still too early to feel deflated or to look down on Team China's recruitment of its first naturalized player since growing pains are inevitable for both the team and its new floor general Li as the young squad goes through a period of adaption and adjustment.
Admittedly, despite having a shining resumé and being active for nine years and counting in the NBA, Li has hit a "rookie wall" in the international game under the FIBA basketball rules, Su Qun, one of the best-known basketball commentators in China, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Li has not played against any European powerhouses as strong as Serbia throughout his decade-long career within the NBA. It is hard for his signature slow-motion game style to cut when facing Serbia's well-disciplined defence, Su said.
Outside failing to score, statistics showed that Li could be considered the worst performing individual in the China-Serbia faceoff - when he was on the court, China was losing 35 points more than when the team was without him.
It also marked the most embarrassing debut at an international basketball game for any naturalized player worldwide so far, which, according to Su, shows that Li has not fully adapted to playing with the rest of the squad and that China's tactics system built around him has not yet been established.
Naturalizing Li so he could play for Team China before the World Cup and Paris 2024 Olympic Games was a carefully considered decision and so there is good reason to believe that Li and Team China can deliver well-engineered games, Wei Qi, a basketball commentator with the Beijing Radio and Television Network, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Also, it would be unrealistic to expect that the young man from New York could instantly adapt himself to the European basketball style that China's new head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic, who is from Serbia, is known for, Su noted.
The only nine shot attempts showed that Li has a strong will to better coordinate with Djordjevic's team basketball play style, Wei said.
Chinese basketball commentators and fans still have high faith in Li, and there could be a strong rebound in the remaining two games in the World Cup group competitions, where Team China is set to take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico. As they won't be going up against powerful Serbia, that means victory is much closer in reach for the team.
Players with South Sudan who are mostly playing in the development league of the NBA or at that level are entirely different than those with Serbia. Although they also have great physicality, Li may find that kind of game more familiar and there is a great chance Li can deliver a great comeback individual show in the next game on Monday with South Sudan.
The bad performance China had battling Serbia could also be the result of a "strategic retreat" for the sake of better preparation for matchups with more evenly matched rivals, which is quite common in international tournament games, analysts said. Therefore, there is only more hope that China will bounce back with force in the next games.
China aspires to be the best-performing Asian team in order to win direct qualification for the Paris Olympics in 2024. All six Asian teams competing in the World Cup, including tournament hosts Japan and the Philippines, suffered losses in the first round.
The Chinese duo Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping bagged the first gold medal of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou in the women's lightweight double sculls. The pair shared their proud feelings of winning in the hometown and their top goals for the Paris Olympics 2024.
During an interview on Sunday afternoon, the duo shared with the Global Times their shiny gold medals, as well as their calloused and scarred hands.
They said they didn't feel exhausted or laborious because of it. "People in all walks of life have hard times. Since we chose this path, we must strive to be the best we can be," Qiu told the Global Times.
Talking about the match, Qiu said that she was extremely excited when she saw the national flag and heard the national anthem as they rowed past the terminal line.
Zou, a Hangzhou local, was excited over the support she received at her hometown. "Usually, we only hear (spectators cheering) in the last 250 meters of the red buoys, but today we can hear it in the 500 meters, which is quite exciting.
Qiu also shared the excitement over the home crowds. "I would like to thank you all for coming today," she said. "I saw so many people paying attention to rowing today. I am really touched. I hope everyone will pay more attention to rowing in the future."
Speaking of the next goal - Paris 2024, the pair did not hide that they are reaching for the top podium.
"Since we walked off the Hangzhou podium, Paris has become our goal," Qiu said. "We will restart from zero, completing every training session whole heartedly. We wish to go to the top in Paris."
Zou noted that the gold medal in the Asian Games will help them prepare and build self-confidence.
Zou said that she and her partner have developed a tremendous rapport in life. "We eat, live and sleep together, and will get to know each other more and more in life, from every detail, and then bring this tacit understanding to the boat."
In the match on Sunday morning, Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping finished well clear the other rowers, finishing at 7:06.78, about 10 seconds ahead of Team Uzbekistan in second, while Indonesia claimed the bronze medal.
Since joining hands, they have achieved a series of impressive results. In 2022, they finished second in this event at the World Rowing Cup in Belgrade. The pair has already qualified for the Paris Olympics through the 2023 Rowing World Championships.
On Sunday, the first matchday of the Hangzhou Asian Games, China's rowing bagged six gold medals, taking their all-time Asian Games rowing total to 104, including 98 golds, and they are likely to surpass the 100 gold medal-mark on Monday.
