Shanghai launched the six-month World Expo yesterday with a star-studded gala ceremony set to end in a lavish blaze of fireworks and light along the city’s riverfront.
Still basking in the glow of its successful staging of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is treating the Expo as an equally important showcase for its growing political and economic clout.
From the US to North Korea, a total of 189 countries will take part in the six-month display of ideas, culture and technology expected to attract at least 70 million visitors — the vast majority of them Chinese.
“Expo 2010 Shanghai is now open!” Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) declared, after the national anthem rang out in the Expo cultural center and the flags of all participating countries were paraded through the giant hall.
Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan serenaded thousands of guests including 20 world leaders to open the event.
The gala — set to end with a fireworks and light show planned by the team behind the opening and closing ceremonies for the Vancouver Winter Olympics — was a departure from past World Expos, with an all-star line-up.
“We look forward to stunning the world,” said Ignatius Jones, the artistic director of the ceremony, which was to feature huge fireworks and a chain of searchlights along a 3.5km stretch of Shanghai’s riverfront.
Participating countries at the Expo will vie to outdo each other in presenting the best they have to offer the world — with a particular eye on China’s market of 1.3 billion people.
Denmark has made a splash by bringing its Little Mermaid statue out of Copenhagen for the first time, France has impressionist paintings and Rodin sculptures, while Italy is showing works by Renaissance master Caravaggio.
India is bringing a cast of Bollywood stars and Canada’s pavilion will bear the imaginative touches of contemporary circus troupe Cirque du Soleil.
Past Expos are remembered for leaving architectural landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Space Needle in Seattle, and introducing the television and electric lighting to a mass audience.
In Shanghai, the spotlight will be on the cutting-edge design of the national pavilions.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
RSS