New Finding

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  An explorer prepares to enter a doline for research in Donglan County, Hechi in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on March 3.
  The 420-meter deep doline, or sink hole, was among a number discovered by a team of Chinese and French scientists during an eight-day expedition that began on February 26. Many species live in these dolines, including bats and snakes. Some as-yet unidentified vertebrates and plants have also been found.


   Presidential Call
  Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 5 warned against “Taiwan independence,” saying that national secession should not be repeated.
  “We will resolutely contain‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist activities in any form,” said Xi when joining a group of lawmakers from Shanghai on the first day of the annual full session of the National People’s Congress, held in Beijing each spring.
  “Our policy toward Taiwan is clear and consistent, and it will remain unchanged along with the change in Taiwan’s political situation,” Xi told the legislators.
  Tsai Ing-wen, the candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party, won Taiwan’s leadership election in January. Tsai defeated Eric Chu, candidate of the Kuomintang, which has ruled Taiwan for the past eight years.
  Only by accepting the 1992 Consensus and recognizing its core implications can the two sides have a common political foundation and maintain good interactions, Xi said. The 1992 Consensus reached between mainland and Taiwan negotiators that year acknowledges that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one China.
  The Chinese mainland is committed to further promoting crossTaiwan Straits cooperation and exchanges in all fields, deepening economic and social integration, and enhancing the sense of a community of common destiny, according to Xi.
   Birth Policy
  On March 8 China’s top health official ruled out the possibility that China will change its family planning policy in the foreseeable future. Li Bin, Minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, made the remarks when addressing a press conference.
  As of 2015, the Chinese population numbered 1.375 billion. Li said that China’s per-capita economic output was “considerably low” as was the average living standard.
  “Our resources pale in comparison with our vast population. Until this changes, we will continue with the current family planning policy,”she said, adding that there is no timetable for the full relaxation of the policy, although it will continue to be improved and adjusted.   China has allowed all married couples to have two children from the beginning of this year. This followed an earlier easing of previous rules in 2013 that allowed couples to have a second child if either parent is an only child.
  The two-child policy is estimated to see 3 million more children born in China every year.
   Aid for Women
  Nearly 5 million women received micro-financing worth 247.8 billion yuan ($38.1 billion) in 2015, the AllChina Women’s Federation said on March 8. Central and local government subsidies contributed more than 21.37 billion yuan ($3.28 billion) to this sum.
  China began issuing microfinancing to women to encourage entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in 2009. The loans have helped boost the economy especially in underdeveloped western and rural regions.
  Another policy benefiting rural women is free screenings for breast and cervical cancer, a program that also began in 2009. In 2015, more than 50 million rural women have received free cervical cancer examinations and about 7 million breast cancer tests, the federation said.
  The government also provided medical assistance for 41,693 poverty-stricken women suffering from severe diseases last year.
   Relics Conservation
  Protection of cultural relics will be included in the evaluation of local officials’ performance, according to a newly released government document.
  China has been striving to protect its past since the late 1970s. The 1982 Cultural Relics Protection Law created institutional guarantees and various local regulations have sprung up since.
  In recent years, unmovable cultural relics were disappearing at a faster pace and responsibility of protecting them was not effectively delineated, though remarkable achievements have been made, said Liu Yuzhu, Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
  According to the document, issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on March 8, annual evaluations should be carried out to learn the condition of cultural relics, in addition to annual renovations.
  It proposes better protection in construction work, underscoring the need for archaeological surveys, exploration and excavation. The document also calls for an improved registration system and database of resources.
   Case Filing Surges
  The number of legal cases filed in China from May to December 2015 hit nearly 10 million, up 29.5 percent year on year since the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) simplified the filing system last April.   Since the establishment of a case register system, administrative cases have also increased by 66.5 percent over the same period of 2014, the SPC said in a white paper on judicial reform.
  Suit documents were previously subjected to thorough and lengthy reviews before the case was accepted. The reform requires that as long as cases are filed in accordance with the law, they should be registered on the spot.
  Legal cases that were traditionally difficult for the public to file, which often involved housing demolition, land requisition and government information publicity, have also seen an increase in acceptance, the white paper said.
  So far, 2,189 courts have online case-filing facilities and 781 courts have apps, making the service more efficient.
  The white paper also said that a platform outlining all information on court processes will provide transparent information to litigants and their attorneys.
   Underground Lab
  The world’s deepest subterranean lab in southwest China is building another underground space that will block cosmic rays, helping scientists trace the origin of elements. Jinping Underground Laboratory, which is 2,400 meters deep in a mountain in Sichuan Province, has begun building a nuclear astrophysics lab, the China Institute of Atomic Energy said on March 3.
  This arm of physics is a frontier science that studies nuclear reactions within stars, the process that creates many elements. Research into this area provides insight into stars’ evolution and the origins of elements.
  “The lab will offer the world a new top-class platform for conducting precise measurement on nuclear astrophysics,” said Liu Weiping, Vice Dean of the institute.
  Researchers hope to use the facility to explore the birth of heavy elements by measuring neutron source reactions, according to Liu.
  Scientists say cosmic rays are known to have disrupted previous observations. This new lab will provide a “clean” space for a number of physical and cosmologic experiments, including those concerns with the search for “dark matter.”
  The facility opened in December 2010 and was expanded in 2014.
   Securing the Title
  Liu Guoliang (third left), head coach of the Chinese table tennis team, joins the players of the men’s team to celebrate their victory in the final at the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 6.
  The defending champion, China, won the men’s team title for the 20th time after beating Japan 3-0 in the final. It is the eighth consecutive triumph for China in the event since 2001.   Earlier that day, the Chinese women’s team made the same record at the event by winning the title for the 20th time.
   Fun and Games
  Women of the Miao ethnic group participate in a sports activity held to mark International Women’s Day in a village in Danzhai County, Guizhou Province, on March 7.


   Wellbeing Initiative
  The government of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will continue to allocate large sums of money in 2016 toward enhancing local livelihoods, authorities said.
  A total of 110 billion yuan ($17 billion) will be administered this year to help steer 100 projects covering employment, housing, agriculture, poverty-relief and other fields in the region.
  About 10,000 villages in Xinjiang will receive 500,000 yuan($76,850) each to improve livelihoods. Meanwhile, 600 million yuan($92 million) will be used for poverty relief in 1,200 poverty-stricken villages, and 24 billion yuan ($3.69 billion) will be used to build houses for 300,000 rural herdsmen.
  The funding is part of a livelihood improvement initiative launched by the regional government. About 600 billion yuan ($92 billion) has been mobilized in the past six years thanks to the highprofile initiative, according to local officials.
   Shrinking Exports
  China’s exports in yuan-denominated terms slumped 20.6 percent year on year to 821.8 billion yuan($126.2 billion) in February, while imports dropped 8 percent to 612.3 billion yuan ($94 billion), according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on March 8.
  Total foreign trade value in February fell 15.7 percent year on year to 1.43 trillion yuan ($220 billion), a steeper decline than the 9.8-percent contraction seen in January.
  Business inactivity around the Spring Festival holiday, which fell in early February this year, overstated the year-on-year export slump.
  In dollar-denominated terms, China’s exports fell 25.4 percent from a year earlier in February, worsening from the 11.2-percent decline in January. Imports dropped 13.8 percent, a milder decrease than 18.8 percent in January.
  Foreign trade in the first two months dropped by 12.6 percent from a year earlier to 3.31 trillion yuan ($508 billion), with exports down 13.1 percent to 1.96 trillion yuan($301 billion) and imports down 11.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan ($207 billion).   Such vehicles are usually cheaper than similar models from domestic dealers or simply not available through official retail channels.
  The State Council piloted the plan in China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2014 before extending it to other free trade zones including Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian in 2015.
   Falling Energy Consumption
  China’s energy intensity, the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP, has been decreasing at a rapid pace in the past few years, official data showed on March 4.
  In 2015, China’s energy intensity declined 5.6 percent from the previous year, following the 4.8-percent and 3.7-percent falls seen in 2014 and 2013, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
  Coal consumption accounted for 64 percent of primary energy use last year, down 4.5 percentage points from the share in 2012, as the government pushes for “cleaner and greener growth.”
  “The data showed China’s energy structure is becoming more diversified and optimized,” said the NBS.
  China has specified that it aims to bring the share of non-fossil energy to 15 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030. In addition, coal consumption will be limited to 62 percent of energy use by 2020.
  The government has pledged that it will strictly control new capacity in the coal industry and that it won’t approve any new coal mines before 2019.
   New-Energy Plane


  China’s first new-energy plane—RX1E—has recently completed a test flight under low temperature and has since been put into mass production.
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