By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

“How much more will we pay when tariffs hit?”

This is the question ricocheting across U.S.newsrooms and households alike, as American consumers brace for price hikes and product shortages. With inflation fears mounting, somehave even begun stockpiling daily essentials. These concerns come from America’s growing appetite for economic extremism.

The U.S. side’s reliance on punitive tariffs and economic coercion not only runs counter to economic laws, but also threatens to dismantle the intricate global industrial and supply chains painstakingly built over decades. Such moves hamper economic development worldwide and, more importantly, jeopardize the wellbeing of people in all countries, including those in the U.S.

The modern global industrial and supply chains were not imposed by fiat. It evolved organically, shaped by comparative advantages of different nations and the natural flow of capital, labor, and innovation across global markets. China and the U.S., with different development stages, distinct industrial structures and complementary strengths, have grown increasingly intertwined. This economic relationship is forged over decades of market competition, proving to be the most efficient system in the global economy.

China’s recently released white paper, “China’s Position on Some Issues Concerning China-U.S. Economic and Trade Relations,”presents a compelling case for the positive impact of this cooperation. It demonstrates how this partnership has facilitated the upgrading of American industries and brought tangible benefits to American consumers.

The U.S. has imported from China a large quantity of consumer goods, intermediate goods, and capital goods, which has supported the development of the supply and industrial chains of the U.S. manufacturing industry, provided U.S. consumers with more choices, lowered their cost of living, and increased the real purchasing power of the American people – especially the low and middle-income groups.

Through cooperation with China, U.S. multinational corporations have boosted their international competitiveness by integrating the strengths of resources from both countries. China has taken on certain production processes for American enterprises, which enabled the U.S. to allocate resources such as capital to innovation and management, and focus on the development of high-end manufacturing and modern services. It has driven U.S. industry towards higher value-added and more technologically advanced sectors, reducing U.S. domestic pressure for energy consumption and environmental protection.

China-U.S. cooperation on industrial and supply chains is far from a zero-sum game, but rather a mutually beneficial and reciprocal arrangement. In 2024, the total trade volume between China and the U.S. reached $688.28 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.7 percent. According tothe American Chamber of Commerce in China, 53 percent of U.S.companies are expected to invest more in the country through 2025.

At the 2024 China International Import Expo, U.S. companies claimed the largest exhibition area, and at the China International Supply Chain Expo, the U.S.firms were at the forefront of foreign participants in terms of exhibitor numbers. Out of Apple’s 200 major suppliers worldwide, over 80 percent have set up factories in China. Amazon’s third-party sellers count on Chinese supply chains to remain price-competitive.

These examples reflect the underlying logic of efficiency driving China-U.S.industrial and supply chain cooperation – creating broad opportunities for stakeholders across the globe. This collaboration facilitates raw material exports, intermediate goods production, and service sector growth in other countries, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the global value chain.

However, the U.S.”tariff blackmail”is wreaking havoc on global industrial and supply chains, distortingthe allocation of resources in the global market, which hurts others as well as itself. While the goal behind these tariffs is to reshore manufacturing, the reality is far from simple. Tariffs cascadethrough industrial and supply chains, heightening the risk of fragmentation andacceleratingthe hollowing-out of the U.S. industry. Rather than revitalizing American manufacturing, this approach undermines its very foundation.

The Mechanical Engineering Industry Association based in Germany has warned that sweeping U.S. tariffs will cause serious damage on both sides of the Atlantic. These measures will never resolve bilateral trade issues but are more likely to escalate into a damaging tit-for-tat standoff that harms European exports and impedes U.S. industrial transformation.

Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, has pointed out that America is trying to undo the very system of open trade that it created. The resulting collapse in trust of the countries that used to share its values will end up very costly for the U.S., too.

Both history and reality have shown that the rules-based multilateral trading system meets the common interests of all countries, while unilateralism and protectionism undermine global industrial, supply, and value chains, and threaten the stability and development of the global economy.

In the face of shared global challenges such as sluggish global economic growth, China and the U.S., as the world’s two largest economies, must see each other’s development as opportunities rather than threats, and engage as partners, not rivals.

Both countries bear responsibility for stabilizing global industrial and supply chains. They must work together to make these systems more resilient, efficient and dynamic, so as to provide certainty and momentum to global economic development.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)

By Yao Xueqing, People’s Daily

With a soft hum, a drone carrying a box of medicine lifted off from a pharmacy on Tianyuan West Road in Jiangning district, Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province. Guided by its operator, it flew eight kilometers and landed smoothly at the east gate of the Purple Mountain Laboratories, a major scitech innovation platform focusing on basic and frontier research on the internet. .

This rapid, sustained, and stable flight exemplifies the application of 6G technology in advancing smart city development and the burgeoning low-altitude economy.

6G, the sixth generation of mobile communication technology, distinguishes itself from predecessors most notably in speed. A widely cited analogy illustrates this progression: if 2G resembles an oxcart, 3G a bicycle, 4G a car, and 5G a high-speed train, 6G would equate to an airplane.

According to Huang Yongming, director of the Pervasive Communication Research Center at Purple Mountain Laboratories, the first generation of mobile communications relied on a “cellular” network architecture.In this system, base stations transmit signals to terminals within a designated coverage zones,- termed”cells” – which are typically hexagonal, giving rise to the concept of “cellular communication.”While later generations improved performance, the foundational cellular structure persisted.

In 2018, when Purple Mountain Laboratories was founded, You Xiaohu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team embarked on a groundbreaking mission:developing cell-free radio access network technology.

“This innovation dismantles traditional cell boundaries by synchronizing and centrally processing all information.The outcome is enhanced signal strength and coverage extended over tenfold compared to conventional cellular networks,” explained Wang Dongming, a professor at the Pervasive Communication Research Center.

For example, a delivery drone traveling eight kilometers under a 5G network would traverse nearly 20 distinct cells, requiring repeated signal handovers at each boundary. Such frequent transitions heighten disconnection risks, potentially forcing the drone to abort its mission.A cell-free network effectively resolves this challenge.

6G’s advantages extend far beyond speed.

Above the vast waters of Taihu Lakenear Xishan Island, adrone hovered in flight, conducting a 33-kilometer aerial inspection of fishery resources. Equipped with a high-definition night vision camera, infrared sensors, and custom-developed smart applications, the drone was operated autonomously – capable of taking off, landing, recharging, and 24/7 task execution – allpowered by a single base station on the island.

Last year, Purple Mountain Laboratories partnered with China Unicom and the Taihu Fishery Management Committee Officeto trial ultra-long-range cell-free communication at a lake-basedfishery conservation area. “A single station provides ten times the coverage of 5G,”explained Liu Dongjie, the project’s technical lead.

By transcending the limitations of terrestrial base stations, 6G enables seamless integrated communication across land, sea, air, and space. It also unifies communication, sensing, computing, and artificial intelligence into a cohesive system.

In January this year, Purple Mountain Laboratories collaborated with China Railway Signal & Communication Co., Ltd to conduct a “One Tower, One City” low-altitude communication test in Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in southwest China’s Yunnan province.

By installing cell-free base stations on elevated infrastructure, they enabled drone-assisted forest fire monitoring, addressing persistent challenges such as exorbitant infrastructure costs and weak signal coverage in mountainous regions.

Meanwhile, along a road section between Mozhou East Road and Yougu Road in Jiangning district, three autonomous street-sweeping vehicles operated across a 21,000-square-meter area.Following predefined routes, these vehicles utilized high-definition cameras, LiDARs, and multi-sensor arrays to detect obstacles and pinpoint debris with precision.

“Thecell-freenetwork,transmits images from the sweepers to a control center, where data isprocessedand commandsare issued – all within milliseconds,” explained 6G engineer Jiang Tianxiang. The network’s stable performance and deterministic latency ensure rapid, accurate responses from the vehicles.

Globally, 6G development is transitioning from theoretical research to overcoming core technical challenges. Priorities have expanded beyond isolated technological breakthroughs to establishing a cohesive industrial ecosystem.

Experts designate 2025 as the “inaugural year of 6G standardization,”with standardization efforts projected to conclude by 2029 and preliminary commercial deployment anticipated around 2030.

“Looking ahead, 6G has great potential to revolutionize manufacturing,” said Huang. Among the many use cases, embodied intelligencestands out as a particularly transformative use case..

“Leveraging 6G’s ultra-high-speed connectivity and deterministic latency, industrial robots will achieve unprecedented agility and precision in executing intricate, high-skill operations. Future intelligent robots may even collaborate with other autonomous systems via 6G networks to accomplish complex missions,” Huang elaborated.

By Yang Yi, Liu Hui, People’s Daily

In the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Qinzhou, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, trucks loaded with construction materials shuttle back and forth, while cranes and bulldozers operate on both sides of the roads. New projects are under rapid development, creating a dynamic and bustling atmosphere.

“The park continues to draw robust investment interest, with an increasing number of enterprises establishing operations here,” said Zuo Kongtian, deputy director of the administrative committee of the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park.

As of December 2024, the first phase of the park had attracted a total of 345 projects, generating an industrial output of 106 billion yuan ($14.55 billion) and a foreign trade volume of 45.14 billion yuan. The park has also utilized approximately $822 million in foreign investment.

Launched 12 years ago, the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Malaysiaand the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Chinahave developed in tandem, pioneering the “Two Countries, Twin Parks” model of international industrial cooperation. This initiative has injected fresh momentum into the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Malaysia.

Located in Malaysia’s East Coast Economic Region inthe state ofPahang, the MCKIP has transformed the coastal city of Kuantan into a regional industrial hub. Approximately 10 square kilometers – representing71.5 percent of the park’s total area – have been developed to date, with 15 projects secured across industries such as steel production, tire manufacturing, paper-making, automotive components, and food processing. The park’s cumulative industrial output has surpassed 100 billion yuan.

Since Chinese companies became shareholders in the nearbyKuantan Port, the port’s new terminals have seen a significant rise in operational capacity,with daily cargo throughput increasing from 10,000 to 30,000 tons.

“In the new deep-water terminal area, two 150,000-ton-class berths built through joint efforts now handle nearly 10 million tons of bulk cargo annually, making them among the largest public bulk cargo terminals in Malaysia,” said Wang Chao, assistant general manager of the operations department at Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn Bhd.

Since the launch of a direct container shipping route between Qinzhou Port and Kuantan Port in 2017, the voyage time between the two ports has been shortened to just three to four days, significantly boosting trade flows between the twin parks.

The first enterprise to establish operationsin the MCKIP was Alliance Steel (M) Sdn. Bhd. (ASSB), which commenced full-scaleproduction in 2019. Now operating at an annual production capacity exceeding 3.5 million tons, ASSB has evolved into one of Malaysia’s most advanced and vertically integrated steel manufacturers, with products distributed globally.

“ASSB has driven significant advancements in Malaysia’s steel industry, transitioning the nation from a steel importer to an exporter,”stated Hu Jiulin, chief engineer and deputy general manager of ASSB.

“Sustainability remains central to our project’s design and operations,” Hu added. “Our carbon emissions adhere to standards exceeding local regulations,and we’ve implemented circular economy practices – recycling waste heat and gases for energy generation – to reduce emissions and energy consumption.”

In recent years, Malaysian specialty products such as bird’s nest, durian, and coffee have gained significantpopularity among Chinese consumers through major trade expos like the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and China-ASEAN Expo. Many of these products are processed and packaged in the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park.

Dato’Ragu Sampasivam, chief operating officer of Malaysia’sEast Coast Economic Region Development Council of Malaysia, emphasized that an increasing number of high-quality products from both countries are now entering each other’s markets via the twin parks, creating greater development opportunities for businesses on both sides.

Khairy, a senior executive of Industrial Relations atASSB’sBusiness Management Department, shared his insights with People’s Daily at the MCKIP, speaking fluent Chinese:”My parents enrolled me in a Chinese language school when I was young, believing it would broaden my future prospects. They were absolutely right,”Khairy said.

A native of Kuantan, Khairy resides just a short drive from the park.. “Even during my college years, I followed the progress of the Malaysia-China joint industrial park project.He recalled:”When I was still in college, I heard about the joint industrial park project between Malaysia and China. Watching the buildings and factories rise from the ground, many local young people, including me, saw the park as a place of opportunity,” he said.

Today, the MCKIP has not only elevated Kuantan’s regional profile but also generated abundant employment opportunities. AIIB alone hires more than 4,000 local employees, offering salaries above the regional average. “Securing a position at the park has become the top career aspiration for young people in this area,”Khairy added.

Recently, the maiden voyage was made along the Kuantan Port – Beibu Gulf Port cold-chain shipping route, marking a new milestone in the “Two Countries, Twin Parks” collaboration.

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the new route is more than just a logistics corridor- it is a testament to the long-term partnership between Malaysia and China.

“Under the framework of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the twin parks have laid a solid foundation for deeper collaboration in industry, trade, and infrastructure between our two countries,” he said.