Japan PM seeks stronger ties with China: What’s behind the shift?
52:55 Share

Daily news and analysis. We keep you informed and inspired. This is World Today.

Japanese Prime Minister Shiba vows to strengthen communication with China. China's Spring Festival Gala for the Year of the Snake 2025 sets new records, and low-altitude economies soaring to new heights in China. Welcome to Road Today, the Spring Festival edition. I'm Ge'anna in Beijing. To listen to this episode again or to catch up on previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching Road Today.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening communication with China and advancing the strategic partnership between the two nations.

Speaking during a plenary session of the House of Councilors on Tuesday, the Prime Minister highlighted the importance of strengthening communication with China across a wide range of fields, reducing challenges and increasing collaboration. He emphasized that both countries are determined to work together in building a constructive and stable bilateral relationship. In November last year, Shigeru Shiba was elected as Japan's 103rd Prime Minister.

To discuss the latest developments in China-Japan relations, joining us on the line is Yang Xiyu, research fellow from China Institute of International Studies. Thanks for joining us and happy Chinese New Year. Hi, my pleasure to join your program. On this festive occasion, let's dive into the positive trends shaping China and Japan relations.

Prime Minister Ishiba has repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen communication and cooperation with China. What do you think prompted him to make such a decision? And what specific factors are behind this consideration? I think it's a very good and important question. I think the reason lies in two aspects. On one hand, everyone knows the so-called Trump 2.0 has improved great significantly.

unpredictable uncertainties in all dimensions, both on quite several important bilateral relations, including Japan-US relations, and also his external and domestic policies spill over all over the world. Facing the very unique uncertainties, I think Japanese government, especially the administration of Ishiba, has

to dig for some certain factors to hedge the uncertainties input by Trump, new administration. Actually, a stable, positive, predictable Japan-China relation

is one of the most important factors to attach the so-called uncertainties. So I think with the increased uncertainties from the regional, especially from the Trump administration, I think Japanese government needs to seek for certainties by strengthening China-Japan relations.

And on the other hand, during the past few years, everyone knows Japan and the China relations suffers a lot from the up and down roles that has brought harmful factors and losses for both sides. Even from Japanese perspective, try to improve the relations with China is the most important consideration for any Japanese policymakers. So in short,

from the external uncertainties and for their own national interest.

improve and develop further relations with China has been on the top priority for the Japanese administration. This focus on China comes at a time when Japan is rethinking its international priorities, as you said. Then to better understand Ishiba's strategy, let's delve into his broader political vision. The Japanese prime minister has said that

He aims to strengthen communication with China in a wide range of fields, reduce unresolved issues and increase cooperation and collaboration. Then with this in mind, I'd like to first discuss with you his political stance. How do you view his approach towards China compared to that of his predecessors such as Shinzo Abe, Yoshihide Suga and Fumio Kishida?

I think it's a very interesting question. In general, in terms of China policy direction by all Japanese administrations, I think direction of the China policy has no differences between the Ishiba administration and his predecessors. Say, every administration of Japan always try to build up strategic relationship based on mutual benefit.

So that direction has been there for decades long by every administration. But in specific, I think the Yishma administration has a very unique character. It seems to me that Prime Minister Yishma focused more, paid special attention more to actual, doable, takeable actions.

In other words, he's more active on real actions for the so-called strategic relationship of mutual benefit.

by individual detailed actions. For example, since the successful summit late last November between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Japanese Prime Minister, the Japanese side has taken several positive and active actions to strengthen the engagement with China. For example, he has sent his foreign minister to visit China, who met

his Chinese counterpart, and also met the Chinese premier Li Qiang. And that visit not only detailed, implemented the consensus made the two top leaders in the two countries, but also explored more ways to

widen and expand the exchanges between the two sides. And also, the Japanese side has sent a large group of business and politician delegates to visit China and invite Chinese high-level unofficial delegation to Japan. And also, Japanese side has expressed his strong willingness to host

a trilateral, say, China-Japan, South Korean foreign minister meeting to strengthen further the trilateral cooperation given the background of a successful resumption of the bilateral summit last year. In short,

During the past couple of weeks, Japanese has been more active than before, trying to strengthen the engagement with China. So I think this is a very unique category, different from his predecessors.

As you mentioned, Prime Minister Shiba is more pragmatic and believes Japan should appropriately strengthen cooperation with China. In your opinion, which specific areas will Japan likely focus on first in its efforts to deepen ties with China?

Well, I think you mentioned very key words to categorize Japanese prime minister, say, pragmatic. It seemed to me, in my observation, the Japanese new administration, say, Ishiba's administration, start to pay special attention to a very important but detailed

real business-like issues such as agriculture, trade, resumption of sea for the Japanese, sea for the exported to China. In technical level, such individual issue is quite detailed, concrete,

but just because of the quite several detailed business-oriented issues, I think he's very smart to try to lay a better base for the further improvement of the bilateral relation. Of course, on the other hand, he does not only focus on

few detailed concrete issues, but also he pays a vision covering a wide range of issues ranging from the political to economic, from the high-pay issues like economic exchanges, people-to-people exchanges, but also highly sensitive and important issues such as security disputes between China and Japan. In short,

He started from the detailed issues, but visioned in a wide range of issues covering all the area of bilateral relations.

But we know the U.S. exerts considerable influence in Japan, and many believe Prime Minister Ishiba's efforts to improve China-Japan relations may impact Japan-U.S. relations, especially after Donald Trump took office. What's your take? How do you think this could affect the dynamics between Japan and the U.S.?

I think China-Japan relation is one of the most complicated bilateral relations in the world, not only because of the historical reasons and the existing reasons, but also because of the very influential and strong so-called third-party

factor, say American factor in China-Japan relation because Japan has put US-Japan relation at the central piece of his foreign policy. In other words, Japan always take China policy based on the so-called central piece.

So, given such a background, it's impossible for Japan, for any policymaker of Japan to deal with China's relations without American factor. So that is the reality. Therefore, this is a very complicated issue. So on one hand, Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba really wants to improve and develop relations with China at the new year, just as President Xi Jinping indicated.

China-Japan relations now face a very critical era. He understands that, but in the critical era he has to take American factors into account.

So that is the complex reason. But I think Japanese politicians, the Japanese people, are better than before. A stable, constructive, positive relationship with China not only benefited Japan, China, but also benefited the region and the global world. So no matter how the so-called third-party factor influential is,

I think the mainstream of Japanese society, Japanese government's decision, determination on improving China's relation has been set. Just because of that reason, I'm confident that we will embrace a better relation with Japan. Of course, with greater and harder efforts, by joint efforts. Then building on this, in recent years, the trade protectionist policies of the U.S.,

have had a certain impact on Japan's economy. For example, the recent case where former US President Joe Biden blocked an acquisition between Japan's Nippon Steel and US Steel. Then under Prime Minister Ishiba's leadership, how will Japan respond to US trade pressures while maintaining economic cooperation with China? How will this triangular economic interaction evolve in your opinion?

I think economic ties and economic cooperation has contributed greatly to better and better China-Japan relations in the past few decades. However, by the same token, the economic factor also becomes the obstacle for the improvement and development of China.

China-Japan relation just because of the so-called third-party factor from the United States. However, under the current complex dynamics, I would say Japan's economic interest is not the same as Americans'. So actually, there has been a triangle relation between Japan, China and the US in terms of

economic relations. So I think the fundamental factor is driving health, positive economic relations between China and Japan comes from Japan. China does not come from Washington's determination. So I think with protectionism rising,

that has increased harmful effects on both Japan and China. Such because of the harmful effects, I think China and Japan will take greater efforts, make joint efforts to strengthen the economic ties, regardless of how strong negative influences from the United States. And also by the same token,

the protectionism by the US has also been harmful to US interests themselves. Therefore, I'm confident that no matter how Trump 2.0 is,

the further, closer economic ties and economic cooperation between Japan and China will be strengthened. And also China-Japan sunscreen, quite like the economic relation by the same token, will also be strengthened no matter how strong negative influences from Washington side.

Thanks for your insightful analysis. That was Yang Xiyu, Research Fellow from China Institute for International Studies. Coming up, China's Spring Festival Gala for the Year of the Snake 2025 sets new records. You've been listening to RARE today. Stay with us. Hello, my name is Alessandro Golombievski Teixeira. I'm a professor of public policy management at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

I am a great listener of The Wall Today. In my opinion, The Wall Today is one of the best China radio programs. In The Wall Today we can get the best news and analysis in what is happening now in the world. So please, come to join us!

Welcome back, this is Road Today. China's 2025 Spring Festival Gala has broken domestic engagement and international viewership records. Data shows that the event saw significant growth on new media platforms domestically. The number of on-demand views on social media platforms reached 2.8 billion, an increase of 32% from last year.

Social media discussions surrounding the gala surged, rating 16.6 billion views, up 550 million compared to last year. Internationally, the gala was broadcasting over 80 languages including English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian, while over 2,900 foreign media outlets provided live broadcasts.

This international broadcast has garnered nearly 1.6 billion rates globally and 520 million views.

These record-breaking numbers highlight the Spring Festival Gala's enduring global popularity and importance as a cultural event that resonated far beyond China's borders. So for more, my colleague Xu Yaowen spoke with Mahdou Shekharibabar, a Chinese language student at Beijing Language and Culture University, who performed at this year's Spring Festival Gala. Let's take a listen.

Happy New Year, Sherry. It's great to have you joining me today. So could you start by sharing with us how you felt when you first learned that you will be performing at China's Spring Festival Gala?

I was extremely excited because you know this is the most watched TV show program in the world. Billions of people around the world are watching it. I have spent Chinese New Year before in China with my friends and I used to be on this side of the screen but this time I was on the other side of the screen which was very very exciting. So I was deeply honored and

and very, very happy to be on it. How did you get the opportunity to be part of it? Could you tell us more about that? So I actually joined one week after the rehearsal had started. But I believe that a recruitment team from CCTV went to BLCU, my university,

and they were the ones who recruited, then I had to audition and they liked my audition program. Sherry, the performance you participated in is called "Yiqi China Fun" which translates to "Let's have fun in China together" or "Let's enjoy China together". Could you tell us a bit more about the meaning behind this performance and it has something to do with the surge in foreign travels to China last year, right?

Yeah, actually I can tell you what my meaning of it, what I think it means. It's because CCTV specifically chose us to perform and they came to our university because Beijing Language and Culture University has the most foreign students, I think, in China, more than any other university. And we were 38 students together, all from different countries.

And I believe that it means that we should all come together as one and enjoy and explore China together. And I will tell you something very interesting about that song. This song was unreleased. This song had not been released yet. This song, I think, was specifically chosen for this event.

particular event and then people got to know about this song after we performed on it. Before that, nobody knew. So I think that's very interesting. As the Pakistani student here in China, what was it like to be part of such a large scale celebration of Chinese New Year? I mean, how did the experience help you connect with Chinese traditions and values?

You know, I think actually I'm the first Pakistani student or person to perform at the Spring Festival Gala ever in recorded history. So I think that's, for me, it's a very wonderful achievement. And I think we, so I told people, my friends back home, my parents,

and about the show and everybody was watching it. Even in Pakistan, everybody was watching it. So if I told my friends and my family, obviously other people told their friends and their families and therefore

we were in no time everybody was getting more and more information about China they were getting more interested they were interested to watch and after the show I saw many people getting messages from their families and friends

of the show that they were watching it and they took their pictures on the TV. So I think it's a very, very good way to increase the people to people born and to learn more and more about the Chinese culture. Like people can just sit in their own countries

and just learn more about the Chinese culture. During the rehearsal and the performance and after it, did you learn anything new or surprising about Chinese traditions, festivals, or even the Chinese people's way of celebrating the new year? Yeah, I think it was amazing.

amazing how they were able to pull something such a big wonderful show they were able to organize it and without any problems without any glitches it's I think it's a wonderful wonderful thing and I think Chinese people they're very hard working

They're very, very hardworking because there were some backstage staff that I was talking to and they told me that these days they were only sleeping for maybe two or three hours. The rest of the time they were and they were sleeping inside the offices. They would just take a nap, wake up, get back to work, then sleep for a bit, then wake up, get back to work. I think they're very, very hardworking. And it was amazing.

I was very astonished to watch them work very hard and pull this all together. Like the efforts behind the stages, only people like you, like people who performed or being part of it knows about it. From the security guard to the cameraman to the costume man to the makeup artist, everyone, every single person, they worked very hard.

And I think we should consider, take that into consideration, not forget about it. Yeah, we know China's Spring Festival Gala is watched by hundreds or millions of people. Like we know last year, nearly 700 million viewers watched the show. So it's not...

just for Chinese people in China and around the world, but also is truly international, like you mentioned, like you're from Pakistan and also there are other international students or friends from other countries. During the show, we also saw like a performance from Peru and the United States, the One Republic. What's your take on having friends around the world join China's most watched TV show? Like what's your impression of that?

I believe that if China would welcome more and more artists, it would become even more interesting. And as you said, there were 700 million people. I feel like it would increase to billions and billions of people if China was to invite more foreign artists and give them a chance just to make this celebration even more wonderful. That's what I believe, you know.

And lastly, Sherry, how do you think this experience of performing in China Spring Festival Gala will impact your relationship with China and contribute to cultural exchanges between Pakistan and China? Well, I think I already made the point where, you know, more and more people in Pakistan are

are trying to learn Chinese and they want to come to China to study. And just by these small little changes like I made Xiao Hongshu and Douyin accounts and I posted these videos of our experience on it and watching those videos back home, back in Pakistan, people are watching those videos and they're learning more and more about China and the Chinese culture and the life in China.

So I feel like it's just developing their interest even more and more and more. It's just deepening their interest in coming to China and learning the Chinese language and the culture. So yeah, that's pretty much it. So as the new year is still going on, what message would you like to say to Chinese people who are sharing the moments with your family and friends?

I would just like to say that wish everyone all the best. I hope that this year brings them joy, happiness and lots and lots of money. And yeah, this goes for everyone, not just the Chinese people, but people throughout the entire world. Wish them all the best.

That was Mahdou Shehry-Babar, a Chinese language student at Beijing Language and Culture University. This is World Today. We'll be back after a short break.

Welcome back to Road Today, the Spring Festival Edition. I'm Ge'anna in Beijing. The low-altitude economy is soaring to new heights in China. This sector encompasses economic activities in aerospace at altitude below 1,000 meters and extending up to 3,000 meters. Chinese authorities have established a dedicated department for the low-altitude economy, highlighting the country's commitment to nurturing new drivers of economic growth.

This department will play a vital role in organizing plans, offering policy recommendations and coordinating key issues related to this emerging field. It is anticipated that the industry will reach a value of over 1 trillion yuan or approximately 140 billion U.S. dollars by 2026.

To delve deeper into this topic, I recently had a conversation with Yangquan Sheng, Senior Vice President of Aviation Industry Corporation of China International, Dr. Zhang Fan, Associate Professor of Astronomy Department of Beijing Normal University,

and Dr. Jiang Mi, Senior Research Fellow with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Let's start with a pivotal question. Is the low-altitude economy the next big thing, not just for China, but for the world? What kind of impact would it have on the global economic landscape? Mr. Yang, would you like to start? Okay, well, first of all, for the low-altitude economy, so-called,

in China, everybody thinks it's new, but in fact, worldwide, it's an old factor. I never see the low attitude in other countries, but they're general aviation. So basically, low attitude economy relating to general aviation. I know the low attitude economy in China means, but worldwide, we just relate to the general aviation. So they are equal to.

Professor John, what's your take? If you think low altitude economy, the next big thing? Right. Yeah. A lot of people are skeptical because they think it's renaming things. But sometimes renaming things also presents a new vision that people have. I think if it's done properly, it has the potential to be disruptive to one of the pillars of the economic activities, which means transport and logistics. The major problems we have right now is the road space on land is really limited.

But if you go into low altitude space, then first of all, it's three dimensional. You can cut it into different height layers and then there's no buildings in there. It's almost like a multi-story highway, but covering all spaces. So the capacity is enormous.

And then also there's the issue on the ground. When people talk about autonomous driving, they envision this future where the traffic lights wouldn't be necessary. Old cars would know where each other's are. They just zoom past each other, arrange themselves to avoid collisions. It's really difficult to do on the ground when you have like scooters running around rather quickly.

crazily. But in the low altitude space where legacy vehicles are far fewer, all the new drones and stuff, they're smart, then it's a lot easier to achieve that vision. So the flow rate, higher flow efficiency as well, in addition to just physical capacity, which means combining these two factors, you could potentially increase the efficiency of the transportation and logistics sectors quite tremendously.

This marks a transformative development that challenges conventional perceptions. Professor Zhou, what's your take? In what ways, in your opinion, will this new concept or the low-altitude economy reshape the global market in the near future? Actually, I think it's a kind of a very new idea that's kind of raised by the Chinese government. Maybe in other countries, they already have similar things, but it's not like just a sector.

In China, when we are trying to do something to encourage the development of a sector, we are not only trying to focus on the real patterns of these industries, but also trying to create an environment. So when we're talking about the low attitude economy, I mean, it's not only about the traditional ways of doing the aviation and also to like to be used in the farms or in the other kind of investigations.

but it's also having some new characteristics. The first one is the digitalization. The digitalization is one of these new characteristics that we can expect in the future, which is maybe coming from other countries, but we are having more circumstances to develop here in China, and it will be leading the world. And the second is the intelligence. We know that some companies are using the auto driving and auto piloting, and it is really a big challenge

The difference is compared with the past because there are so many vehicles. If we can expect in the future, it's not only about the cargos, but also about possible the humans. So the safety and security is one of the priorities we have to deal with. So we may need new tools and the new software to control these.

And the third one is about the interconnections. If we are going to develop the low-attitude economies, not only just in one country, maybe we will have more cross-border transportation and logistics. And that is definitely very important for us to do more coordination with other governments and administrations.

Indeed, the low-altitude economy holds the promise of becoming a new economic engine, driving transformation across industries and expanding markets, creating jobs, etc. And I think the establishment of the low-altitude department in China is undoubtedly a pivotal move to align with such a trend and accelerate the growth of the low-altitude economy.

So first of all, Professor Zhou, what progress has China's low-altitude economy achieved so far, and why the establishment of such a department happening at this particular time?

Yeah, you might understand that it's coming from the two ends. The first one is from the market. Maybe we know that some companies are really good ones like DJI and also some other companies. They are doing much good in producing those drones and also a lot of practices and this kind of products designed by the market. And it started to develop in the past several years or even decades.

And the second end is from the government. We know that the central government of China is trying to boom this low attitude economies by introducing some policies or trying to set up or establish a certain cities to try to do more experiments. And we can try to do a lot of cooperation based on these two ends.

And if we are talking about the new things, I think that the government is sending some very clear signal that we are going to support the development of this sector and it's very encouraging for a lot of related supply chains and industries to do with those sectors. Mr. Yang, what core policy signals does this move send in your view?

You're talking about the lower attitude economy. We're still back to the history of the general aviation. Back to 15 years ago, that time, a lot of the people noticed that China's economy grew very, very fast. From number seven, it already came to number two. So it's quite close to the U.S. number one. So the people compared the two countries

Now the GDP, now the back to other circles like the general aviation is one of them. Then people noticed the two countries, there are big difference between the general aviation regarding the number of the aircraft, regarding to the number of airports. So the big difference means big opportunity for China.

So that time, general aviation has become quite a hot topic for the people. A lot of companies evolved to push to develop general aviation. However, 15 years have passed. That made quite little progress or little achievement for them.

For that, government notice must have special policies to see why the general aviation cannot develop so fast like the GDP in China compared to the US, the general aviation sector is so big. That's why it's the type of the low-edged economy department set up.

Professor Zhang, what do you make of the timing and his consideration of the government's move establishing this department in the overall planning of the industry? Right. So I think you're talking about a subdivision of the National Development and Exchange Commission. It's not even a regular government department. It's above that.

When the leaders of the country sort of lay out this vision of what needs to be developed, then this commission handles the more detailed planning of how this vision is to be accomplished. They would go between different government departments, even military, to push

them to work together to make things happen. So this department is actually vital for the development of major policy initiatives. As an importance of the low-altitude economy, you can see that there are around 30, less than 30, sort of subdivisions within that commission. And the low-altitude one is on the same level of importance as others, like improvement of employment.

So you can imagine this is really something that they're aiming to do. For the necessity of this is some of the entrepreneurs in this sector actually told people that I know that the major hurdles is the opening up, is regulations, is they can't fly in old airspaces. To make

that regulation were relaxed, you need to coordinate between not just the civil aviation industry, but also military. So you need this kind of a super governmental sort of more like a SAR-like organization to be able to be this bridge, as I mentioned in your intro piece.

And then joining from the past experiences with supporting emerging industries like electric vehicle, for example, what differentiated measures might the low altitude department adopt to accelerate the growth of this sector? Professor Zhang. Right. One thing is regulation really has been more important in

in this airspace things, the military coordination thing I mentioned earlier, that's one vital difference. Another thing is with this new mode of the economy, low altitude economy, the local government are very enthusiastic. I think partly because, you know, it's not just fostering a new industry, but also it could provide an additional revenue stream for local governments can rent out some airspace now.

So it's rather than just top down as in the past, perhaps there's more of a bottom up push as well. So it's quite interesting because the bottom up approach would relay more of the on the ground demands by those entrepreneurs, by people who actually work on the front line and push that into the commission's radar.

Enabling this sort of two-way flow of information is one of the major new things that's happening with this particular drive. Professor Zhou, what's your take? What new mechanisms or collaborative models between departments can we expect for coordinating low-altitude economic policies?

Yeah, I think that as I mentioned, the first one is that the signal is very important. Like we know we have five year plans for each five year period. If we are going to support this low attitude economy, we may include that in the 15th five year plans. And it is really our general ideas for the continuously stable environment for the next five years.

And the second, I think that we should try to look at from two sides. The first one is by the supply side. So if we are going to develop the low altitude economy, how can we encourage the companies to build the flying objects like the helicopter, like the drones and try to make that more efficient?

And also, I mean, that is different to another different thing is about the software. We need to develop the software to control all those flying objects and to monitor them to avoid any kind of dangers that will be occur during this development. And the third one, I think that is also important. That is a market.

So if we are going to make it more sustainable, we need the market to believe that we do have enough demand for those projects. So I think that in China, we have so many big cities, super big cities, and they do need a lot of those supply because that logistics is becoming one of the priorities for the high valued products and also some of the transfer of the people.

So we do need to have that market and that is not only about the possibilities from the technology but also about the people's expectations and their willingness of whether they want to use that. Because if we are able to provide the companies with enough demand, I mean, the market will be good enough for sustainable development.

Professor Zhou, we've seen numerous provinces and cities rolling out new policies under this umbrella of national support. Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have announced initiatives to support this low-altitude economy, while Hainan has planned to build multiple general-purpose airports and take-off and landing points.

So given all of this, at this stage, are there any specific initiatives or measures from these regions that have caught your attention? And how do you think these policies will influence the broader national strategy for the low-altitude economy?

Yeah, I visited Guangdong several weeks ago and I noticed that there are some companies who are having some experiments on this sector. I know there is one company named Yi Hang, the intelligent companies. They are building the helicopter to

to transfer the people from one side to another. So in my understanding that for the policies, especially for the local areas, they can just try to do more to coordinate that level of the local levels. We still need more, like Professor Zhang mentioned, about how can we design that from national levels.

about the relations between the civil side and another side and trying to leave enough space for the development of the economy so from the second layer i i would argue that maybe from the local government it is one of these practices to support the companies together there to increase their

capacities of production of those flying objects and also trying to help them with human resources and also to support them by the fund investment. So actually I think that is a kind of supply chains related activities including the research and development, the software development, the manufacturers, the financing and also the market.

These are something that the local governments can do. Well, for Hainan, it is special because Hainan do have policies to build a free trade port. So for those kind of production, it must need more flu and the cost of free, but much more low cost of transportation and logistics.

So they are trying to do that because they have some advantages of a much stronger position in the lawmaking priorities. And I think that is a kind of space they can explore. But till now, I don't think that they have founded a very strong policies. And for the policies, they can still update those according to the demand of the market. Mr. Yang, are there any specific incentives or measurements rolled out by these cities

have caught your attention? I noticed that Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the big cities, I noticed that Jiangsu and Zhejiang province and even Chongqing province, their government pushed for policies and incentives to develop such a business.

However, I noticed most of them focus on major three sectors. First one is set up a company's park and to foster growth of such an economy. Second one is to build up the airport, land point, and also develop a manufacturer facilities for the flying vehicles.

But I think we have to back to the essential of the low-attitude economy, is flying. Without flight, no economy. So I think for policy, we must be sure how can fly easily, how can fly cheaply, how can fly safely. So these are three big issues for the low-attitude economy.

So for such an initial stage of the low attitude economy, must focus on how to make sure the flight can enter the sky, how to make them so cheaply. You cannot pay too much for the flight. And also safety is a priority. Without safety, aviation cannot be continued.

So I think for those regions and their policies, then we have a following policy will become out of this way. How to encourage to fly, how to fly to safely.

So that's my understanding. Professor Zhang, what's your take? Because Mr. Yang has brought up a very interesting observation. It seems that cities are implementing similar reforms when it comes to emerging sectors. Should we be concerned about duplication of efforts? And how are they working together to foster synergies across different regions?

Right. So because the low altitude economy is mostly for local flights, so this is less of a problem if there's a little bit of a policy disparity between different regions. However, you know, it's a good thing to have competition between different, not just different companies, but different regions.

you have now two major clusters of companies. One is based in Guangzhou. So Guangzhou is basically, Shenzhen is having a very powerful unmanned drone industry. And then Guangzhou looked at that and decided, you know, I'm going to,

get a piece of the demand market. So three of the major companies in EV toll companies, so the electricals, vertically take off and landing vehicles. So those demands, things, drones, basically. They're based in Guangzhou. And then another cluster is near Shanghai. So they're concentrating on slightly different technology options. One is concentrating more like drone and helicopter-like.

potentially targeting shorter distance travel. The other is more airplane-like, traveling more efficiently over longer distances. So the local policies, as Mr. Yang mentioned, depending on how the technology, how cheaply, how safely they can achieve with different technology options, the local government will have to adapt with different policies. So this divergence is not

It's not a bad thing. It may be necessary. And of course, in China, you always have the test beds, special economic zones, that sort of things where experience are learned and then rolled out across wider regions and having more test beds going up at the same time. It is not a bad thing. You get to the right answer more quickly.

Yes, we say policy set the direction. It would play a pivotal role in driving growth and unlocking the sector's potential. But everyone is keen to understand the development trends that lay ahead.

So, Professor Zhou, from a market demand perspective, which application scenarios in the low-altitude economy do you foresee rapidly gaining traction and becoming mainstream consumer trends in the next few years in China? We know that for the consumption, I mean that the consumers really need very fast and very fast.

less costly transportation. So we can expect that for some of the high valued customers, they depend a lot for the delivering of this very fast and easy way of certain products. Well, the second is for the easy communicating by the 3D space instead of the 2Ds, like from the skyscrapers, like from one side to another side when there are a lot of traffics.

So I think that for the why we started to do some experiment from these super large cities, because they have so many traffics. If you are looking at the United States, like for Washington, D.C., as one example, why the president of the United States will always use the helicopter to go from one place to another if it has to cross a lot of regions or districts, because that is very efficient. They do need some time sensitive persons and a group of persons.

Well, the second is, in my understanding, if we are able to provide for the public for some routines, like for the transportation from one site to another, cross a river or trying to go around the mountains, that is definitely one of the possibilities if we are able to provide affordable prices for the people to use. In my understanding, there are so many demands from that.

Then, Professor Zhang, speaking of consumer demands, a report shows that China will potentially see 100,000 EVTOs, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, serve as family vehicles or air taxis by 2030, with only five years to go. Is this target overly ambitious to you? Well, it might happen. Before the

That happens though, there needs to be some technological breakthroughs happening. First of all, you need to have really powerful batteries because staying in air really takes a lot of energy. You need to have really safe batteries with super high power density. And also you need light but cheap composite material, good avionics, that sort of things. So there's still some technological development that needs to be done. You can't just

scale up a unmanned drone into a passenger carrying air taxi because safety is paramount. The requirement for human carrying vehicles, the safety margin is like orders magnitude more than just unmanned drones. That's even just for countryside where if it crashes, it doesn't kill anybody on the ground. For densely populated cities, it's another few orders magnitude improvement. So that requirement at the moment

Sims 4.

quite stringent, in my opinion, slightly beyond what is currently capable. Mr. Yang, how do you foresee futuristic scenarios like flying cars or drone deliveries becoming a common part of daily life by 2030? Yeah, there's no doubt for the market demand for the low-attitude aviation exists in China. I can see that there are two major sectors for such a demand.

First one is professional requirement, like the rescue, like the electricity, cruiser, just need a professional maneuver for those whatever flying vehicles. Second one is a civil purpose utilization, like the cargo transportation, like the cargo delivery, and even for just an air taxi. However, for the civil locations,

The priority is making sure the safety. And for safety, not only for technical perspective, but it's another one, regulations. Must make sure whatever equipment used must be tested, must be approved.

But for the low altitude flying, there are a few aspects for the safety. First one is for the EVTOL, is the battery is a challenge for such a flight. Second one is how can make sure the traffic in the sky is regulated, avoid the sky collision. Last one is hard landing. Everybody knows this will be

caused the accident. So for me, the market demand is one side, but also make sure the safety for our society, for the flying, for the people. As Professor Zhang and Mr. Yang mentioned, the future looks promising, but the road to growth is rarely smooth. So let's dive further into the challenges China faces in developing its low-altitude economy.

Professor Zhou, in your view, what are the main challenges and issues facing the development of China's low altitude economy today?

Well, the first one is that we have discussed about the traffic. How can we have enough room or space for the development of this sector? I think that is a kind of physical space and also some of the virtual space because we are talking about the control of those products. I think that is definitely one of the challenges we have to deal with because it's not only about

the density of the signals, about the 5G or even in the next generation, the 6G network, but also about the response. How can we deal with the situation in a very short term of the interval that is quite different compared with the long distance aviation? You do need a lot of security. And second,

The challenge is coming from the materials. I know that in the world we're having so many competition between China and United States and also from different countries. So some countries are trying to protect their technology not to be landed or to be used by China, by Chinese companies. And that is definitely some barriers to stop the wider use of those technology in a much sound market.

And the third one is about the people. How can we accept this new method of transportation or logistics that do need a lot of proof? Even if you're looking at some of the, you know, inventions of the cars and also the trains,

There are so many accidents. People do have to believe that they can do that because that is safe or even safer compared with when they're moving on the road. And the fourth one is how can we integrate these new methods with traditional ones?

Like how can we connect to the different transportations and how can we make some space in the very natural and very crowded cities. And that wraps up today's edition of Road Today. Thank you so much for listening to our Spring Festival special. I'm Ge'Anna in Beijing. Happy Chinese New Year and bye for now.