France will take the presidency of the Council of the European Union on Saturday and aims to make progress on many ambitious goals in the six-month term that will coincide with the presidential election.

In a speech about the EU Council presidency this month, French President Emmanuel Macron listed the priorities as defending European sovereignty, managing migration and reforming the border-free Schengen Area, building a new European model, advancing a carbon border tax, building a digital powerhouse and pushing forward with the EU's relations with Africa.

Taking "recovery, power, belonging" as the motto for the presidency, Macron said, France's aim is "to move toward a Europe that is powerful in the world, fully sovereign, free in its choices and in charge of its own destiny".

France's EU presidency from Jan 1 to June 30, its first in 14 years, will feature hundreds of events, conferences, artistic workshops, debates, films and collective activities all over the country to show not only the EU's strengths but also its weaknesses and to discuss what its citizens agree on.

The French president said the "EU has been pursuing a sovereignty agenda for the last four years" in economic matters with: Shared debt, ecological matters with carbon neutrality in 2050, defense with the first common military budget and social matters with the revision of the directive on employees posted in other EU countries.

"This agenda for a sovereign Europe will be accelerated with the French presidency," Macron said.

A sovereign Europe must first of all be able to control its borders, he said, referring to the migration crisis on the borders between Belarus and the EU member states Poland, Latvia and Lithuania in recent months.

Macron said the function of the Schengen Area would be improved and that there would be progress in pursuing European defense, a matter he first proposed in 2017 and strengthened when former US president Donald Trump neglected the EU and threatened to pull the US out of NATO.

Affronted by allies

France was also deeply affronted when the US, the United Kingdom and Australia signed the trilateral AUKUS security pact in September and Australia abandoned its plan to buy French submarines at a cost of $66 billion.

In his speech, Macron also said a new European growth model would be built in which "we have to define our shared vision for Europe in 2030". He talked about making Europe a major continent for production, innovation and job creation to reduce dependence and to "compete with China and the United States".

Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that Macron, as someone promoting EU autonomy, will push forward and secure the sovereignty agenda as his political capital and legacy.

"He will maintain the status quo when it comes to relations with China," Ding said, citing Macron's recent announcement that France will not join the US in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

The ratification of the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment has stalled in the European Parliament due to tit-for-tat sanctions between the EU and China early this year. In a telephone conversation with China's President Xi Jinping on Dec 21, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced his hope for an early ratification of the agreement.

Stanley Pignal, a writer for The Economist in Paris, said: "France is one of two major EU powers. It steers the agenda whoever chairs EU meetings. Europe matters to Macron anyway. It would feature in the 2022 (French presidential) race."

Macron has not formally announced he is standing for reelection, but many expect him to do so in the coming days.

Manon Aubry, a French member of the European Parliament, said that with France holding the EU presidency, "Macron will instrumentalize it to support his electoral campaign".

Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe of the political and corporate consultancy Eurasia Group, said Macron's agenda is too ambitious.

"Macron's extraordinary EU wish list went far beyond what can be even started, let alone finished" in the six-month presidency, Rahman said.

"Emmanuel Macron may not be France's leader after April, but he spoke today as if he planned to be the leader of Europe for the next decade or more."

Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, director of Research Strategy and Innovation at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, said that in face of the dual challenges of global economic recovery and climate change, a framework for cooperation needs to be established to help countries meet their climate commitments.

He stressed that as countries in the Asia-Pacific are pursuing long-term, deep-decarbonized, recyclable and net-zero emission economies, it offers a unique opportunity to reintegrate environment, energy, trade and fiscal policies into macroeconomic plans and national budgets. To achieve the energy transition and net-zero emission goals, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations needs to develop a new type of partnership and conduct more international cooperation to reduce the costs of the energy transition.

"Both policymakers and the private sectors have the responsibility of following the principles of the market and fully tapping the potential of international cooperation to jointly reduce the costs of the green transition," he said.

Local governments should heed the suggestion as it exposes an acute problem with rural tourism.

Many old buildings in villages, which not only carry the collective memory of the villagers but also reflect the local culture, are being demolished to give way to mundane parodies, and tourism agencies and companies rent the villagers' homes to sell mass-produced souvenirs and fast food to visitors.

So a weekend outing to a village is now a weird urban experience in the countryside rather than an idyllic escape from the city. What travelers experience is no longer fresh air, quiet villages, homemade food and welcoming farmers, but traffic jams, noisy shops, standardized homestays and professional merchants which many places leverage as a means to realize rural revitalization.

The development of the tourism industry should not come at the cost of sacrificing local characteristics, culture and historical traditions.

Villages should attach great significance to protecting their local characteristics that distinguish one village from another.

The construction of new buildings in villages must balance development and protection. And the villagers should try to maintain their traditional lifestyle and protect the village way of life while developing tourism. Otherwise, the villages will become only homogeneous hollow shells selling exactly the same experience.

Local governments should pay more attention to protecting the intangible cultural heritage of the villages than to constructing new buildings.

Also, they should offer training to the farmers to improve their skills and abilities to manage their business, and cater to the personalized demands of travelers, and deepen their understanding of tourism and how to present the local culture, so that they can benefit from the boom in rural tourism and cultivate their comparative competitiveness.

Given China's relative success compared to other countries in restricting the spread of COVID-19, the quality of cultural experience when going abroad has arguably deteriorated, which also threatens disruption in the educational experience. This has made students – and even more parents – concerned about the risks of travelling overseas. There are many choices inside China, including both local and international university programmes. Sino-foreign cooperative universities offer the most complete international experience. They are joint ventures between high-quality international universities and local partners, sometimes universities and sometimes specialist providers of educational services. Today, there are nine Sino-foreign universities in operation: two with the UK, three with the US, two with Hong Kong, and one each with Israel and Russia.

Many parents and students who had originally planned to study abroad have turned to international education in China, especially as the Chinese government has allowed fast track applications for students with a firm offer from a reputable international university. In particular, applications for masters' study have increased dramatically. Students can study an international syllabus with more adaptation to China than when studying abroad, ending up as talented graduates with international qualifications. But why do students choose to "study abroad without leaving China"?

To provide insights into student psychology in choosing Sino-foreign universities, we conducted 17 face-to-face interviews with masters students at our university, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, which was founded in 2004. Choosing where to study is a high stakes decision for the individual as it is typically a once-in-a-lifetime choice. It often involves high costs (especially if studying abroad), high personal involvement, and a lot of time. Students have to make complex decisions, including choosing which country, which university and which programme they wish to participate in. They perceive high risks in making these decisions because a wrong decision could result in financial loss, loss of motivation to study and even academic failure.

To reduce potential risks, students attempted to obtain information from multiple sources, though not always the best ones. We found many students do not start with a wide choice set of universities which they then narrow down. Instead, they tend to have an initial set of choices, to which they may add further options at a later stage. These initial choices are influenced predominantly by word of mouth from prior and existing students, other significant contacts (e.g. family and friends) and online forums. Hence, a challenge for Sino-foreign universities is to be recognized as a possible choice at an early stage of decision-making when most contacts have gone to domestic Chinese universities or studied abroad.

We also found that students have varied motivations when selecting Sino-foreign universities. One motivation revolves around pragmatism and job-orientation. This is in line with China's fast-paced economic development, including overseas expansion of Chinese companies, together with more foreign companies coming to China to launch their business. Both options create great demand for high-quality employees, especially those with an international higher education background. This provided 'push' motivations for students to prefer universities with a global vision and an international education system.

On the other hand, there is the 'pull' of a university's reputation. Students assess the Sino-foreign university's academic reputation, the ranking of the 'parent' foreign university and that of the Chinese partner. They also look at the programme itself, instructional strategies, staff expertise, innovation, resources and the alumni community. Apart from the university itself and the quality of its academic faculty, students also evaluate the university's city, including its climate, lifestyle, safety, economic growth, and cultural atmosphere. While students often reach consensus on some of these factors, others such as climate are a more personal preference. Several students chose our university because of its proximity to their hometown. So, while the global perspective of Sino-foreign universities is sought, nearby cities are an important market. Hence, universities could leverage the influence of their local alumni as university ambassadors. They need to promote not only their education and reputation but also the characteristics of their local area.

At this stage, university Open Days, official websites and other activities such as debate competitions become critical channels for students to acquire information about universities. We found that a university's admissions office is a critical point of contact that can determine whether students select the university. In our interviews, students said they contacted the admissions office of universities in which they were interested, to learn more about the university and get a feel for it. When interacting with admissions office staff, they developed an impression of the university and then decided whether or not to apply. As university applications are mostly online, it is equally important to make sure that the online application system is user-friendly and convenient to use. The speed and effectiveness of response to inquiries was critical to making a final decision.

In addition, we found several other factors that could motivate the students to make the decision to choose a Sino-foreign cooperative university, including lower costs than studying abroad to obtain the same qualification, diverse course content in an internationalized system, the opportunity to improve in the English language, shorter length programmes than in China and, last but not least, high employability of graduates. We would add that while the total duration of masters' programmes can be shorter in a Sino-foreign university, the intensity of study is higher as it is year-round.

All interviewed students expressed their satisfaction with their experiences at our university, as well as its efforts to collect feedback and improve. The latest independent international survey of our business masters students found an astonishingly high 99 percent satisfaction rate. While student mobility has been restricted worldwide since the COVID-19 outbreak, Sino-foreign universities, with high-quality educational resources from overseas, have allowed students to 'stay in the nation to study abroad.' Their advantages are clear, their students are pleased with their choice, and they offer an attractive alternative to both domestic universities and studying abroad.

Martin Lockett is Dean of NUBS China at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Yangyang Jiang is an Associate Professor in Marketing at NUBS China. Chenlei Cai is a recent masters' programme graduate from NUBS China.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the structural power struggle between major powers. The global power shift is fast evolving, and the Asia-Pacific region is the center of global gravity in terms of geoeconomics, geopolitics and technology. Some say that the 21st century is the century of Asia, mainly shaped by the rising economic and strategic powers.

As the importance of the Asian economic powerhouses is growing and expanding, so are their global responsibility and leadership roles. Therefore, Asian wisdom and concepts on international relations need to be further explored and structured in a coherent and systemic manner.

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is China's key foreign policy objective. Launched in 2012 at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the concept has been deeply integrated into China's foreign relations and is widely promoted in various bilateral and multilateral cooperation frameworks. The concept aims at promoting a new type of international relations for the new era.

At the recent special summit to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations dialogue partnership, President Xi Jinping proposed building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Cambodia, generally regarded as one of the most reliable of China's friends, was among the first countries in Southeast Asia to endorse the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, because it shares the same foreign policy principles as China, embracing win-win cooperation and practical cooperation. Trust-based cooperation is the underlining factor of their strategic partnership.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of an international stadium funded and built by China in September, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen stressed that political trust is the cornerstone of the two countries' ironclad friendship. Later, speaking at the inauguration of the 10th China-Cambodia Friendship Bridge on Nov 23, he called it "the bridge of shared destiny" to reflect the depth of the bilateral relationship in the new era.

The concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind is compatible with Cambodia's foreign policy priority of focusing on win-win cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual learning, noninterference and sovereign independence. The concept also serves the projection and realization of Cambodia's national interests.

During the Cambodian prime minister's visit to China in January 2019, both sides agreed to formulate an action plan for forging the China-Cambodia community with a shared future with strategic significance. This action plan embodies comprehensive cooperation based on five pillars, namely political cooperation, security cooperation, economic cooperation, cultural and people-to-people cooperation and multilateral cooperation.

In terms of the broader China-ASEAN partnership, Cambodia was one of the first ASEAN members to support China's proposal to upgrade the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The outcomes of the China-ASEAN Special Summit on Nov 23 signify a new era for the China-ASEAN partnership as both sides agreed to upgrade the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership that is meaningful, substantive and mutually beneficial.

The main challenges are the differences between China and some ASEAN member states concerning the evolving geopolitical competition between China and the United States. ASEAN is under mounting pressure to maintain its unity and centrality within the context of an ambiguous and volatile geopolitical landscape.

The future of China-ASEAN partnership depends on the quality of the bilateral relationship between China and each ASEAN member state. Enhanced China-Cambodia ties contribute to the development of China-ASEAN partnership and the building of a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

The author is president of the Asian Vision Institute, an independent think tank based in Phnom Penh. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

"While it is always scary to hear we are facing another wave of COVID-19 cases, we must remain calm and turn our anxiety into action," Alan Winde, the premier of Western Cape Province. said in a statement on Monday.

"What is different in this wave is that we have the vaccine as a weapon in the fight. Let's use it."

Winde urged public members to vaccinate soonest possible, wear masks, ensure good ventilation with lots of fresh air and hold meetings outdoors. 

"Together with the golden rules of good hygiene, including staying home when you feel sick, we can slow the spread and save lives and jobs in the Western Cape," he said. 

Nomafrench Mbombo, the provincial minister of health, said Western Cape has adopted a six-point action plan as a response to the fourth wave of the pandemic. 

"Using data and lessons from previous waves, we will use a trigger response to bring online the resources needed to care for every person who needs treatment," he said.

While giving an update on President Cyril Ramaphosa's health after he tested positive for COVID-19, Mondli Gungubele, the minister in the presidency, on Sunday urged South Africans to get vaccinated to avoid severe illness and hospitalization. 

"President Ramaphosa says his own infection serves as a caution to all people in the country to be vaccinated and remain vigilant against exposure," Gungubele said.

He said Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated, is in good spirits and in self-isolation in Cape Town, where he is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service of the National Defence Force.

During a news briefing on Friday, Joe Phaahla, the minister of health, said the government will work hard with the provinces to ensure hospital preparedness, including flexible, agile bed surge planning, ensuring the availability of health care workers and resources such as oxygen. 

"We will also make decisions about lockdowns or increasing the levels of restrictions as more information becomes available and as the picture of COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions unfold across the country," Phaahla said.

As of Monday, South Africa had reported about 3.2 million infection cases and 90,148 deaths. So far, 25.5 percent of the country's population is fully vaccinated.