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Ji’an, a Chinese-made light missile frigate, is put into service in Shanghai by the East China Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army Navy on January 8.
The ship will undertake patrol and escort missions and is equipped with antisubmarine capabilities, according to sources within the navy.
Public reports state that at least 17 vessels have entered naval service since 2013, which military experts said will be significant in enhancing China’s capacity to safeguard its maritime rights and interests.
Air Pollution
In the country’s latest effort to combat pollution, the 31 provincial-level regions of the Chinese mainland have been set targets to reduce major air pollutants by 5 to 25 percent. Among provincial-level regions, 11 were given goals for reducing PM2.5, including an annual 25-percent decrease, the highest, for Beijing, the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, according to a liability paper signed on January 7 by the regions and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. PM2.5 refers to airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, making them small enough to pass into the gas exchange region of the lungs.
The paper also urged the regions to take measures such as reducing coal consumption, eliminating outdated industrial capacity and tightened management and control of heating boilers, vehicles and dust.
Local governments have been ordered to map out detailed plans to ensure the implementation of various anti-pollution methods and lay down specific goals for each year.
Meanwhile, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, is planning a system of evaluation for each provinciallevel government’s progress, with those failing to reach their goals to be named and shamed.
A government report released in December 2013 revealed that prog- ress in China’s four environmental targets was lagging, including carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption. In the relatively more polluted north China, 58 days of heavy air pollution were reported last year, roughly one out of every six.
Protecting Minors
Prosecutors should not publicly disclose the private information of minors involved in criminal cases, and are required to respect and protect their reputations, China’s top procuratorate said on January 7.
Under a revised regulation issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on December 31, 2013, names, residences and photos of minors implicated in criminal cases, as well as other information implying their identity, should not be made public. Juveniles’ reputations should be protected and their personal dignity should be respected, the document said. The regulation also instructed procuratorates at provincial and city levels to set special tribunals or panels to deal with juvenile cases. It recommended that prosecutors in charge of such cases receive special criminological, sociological and psychological training, as well as training on the physical and mental traits of young people.
Medical Waste
China will impose harsh punishments on those who handle medical waste improperly, in a bid to reduce pollution and protect public health. Companies or government agencies that illegally collect, store, transport and handle medical waste will have their licenses revoked and will be heavily fined, according to a statement from the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued on January 8.
The commission said that it will strengthen the monitoring of medical waste disposal companies and units, as well as cooperating with environmental authorities to shut down substandard waste disposal facilities.
It also urged local authorities to establish a sound pricing system for medical waste procurement before the end of 2015 and improve hazardfree disposal of medical waste.
Tibetan Encyclopedia
Translation has begun on a Tibetan version of the Chinese Encyclopedia, making this the third ethnic minority language edition of the comprehensive encyclopedia.
The translation is estimated to be completed in five years, according to a statement by Cedain Zhaxi, head of the Tibetology Studies Institute of the University of Tibet, made on January 6.
Translation and publication of the Tibetan version will be carried out jointly by the university and the Tibet Autonomous Region’s press and publication authorities.
The Tibetan edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia will significantly enrich the Tibetan language, according to Cedain Zhaxi, who is in charge of the translation project. He said that hundreds of Chinese terms in philosophy, foreign literature and world geography have no corresponding Tibetan expressions.
Cedain Zhaxi said the Tibetan version would be distributed among schools and libraries in cities, monasteries and rural areas.
Published in 2009, the second edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia consists of 32 volumes and 60,000 items. In 2011, China started translating the encyclopedia into the Uygur and Kazakh languages.
Math Document
Chinese archaeologists and experts announced on January 7 that they have discovered the country’s earliest mathematics document, dating back more than 2,200 years ago. The document consists of a mathematical method inscribed on bamboo slips from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), according to Li Xueqin, head of the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Texts at Tsinghua University.
The unearthed document provides a method for the multiplication of any two whole numbers under 100 and certain fractions, said Li, a well-known historian.
The document is the earliest of its kind discovered so far, and has filled in a historical blank for math documents prior to the Qin Dynasty(221-206 B.C.), said Guo Shuchun, Director of the Chinese Society of the History of Mathematics.
It is older and has greater calculating functions than other ancient multiplication tables discovered, said Guo. “It was very advanced for the world at that time, and is an important discovery in the mathematical history of China and even the world.”In July 2008, Tsinghua University acquired a rare collection of 2,500 bamboo items belonging to the late Warring States period, which had previously been smuggled out of China.
Foreign Students
The Ministry of Education is drafting a regulation on the enrollment and instruction of international students in Chinese schools that aims to unify admission conditions and boost educational quality.
The draft, open to public opinion until February 3, stipulated that schools must not enroll foreign students who don’t meet admission standards or haven’t completed insurance procedures. Likewise, the draft said that minors, staying in China without the company of their parents and lacking entrusted custody papers, cannot be enrolled.
According to the draft, China’s higher education institutions should provide specialty lessons in English or other foreign languages if their resources permit.
International students must leave the country within a specified time after they finish their education in China, the draft added.
Drug Bust
A major production base for methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice” or “meth,” has been rooted out in Boshe Village in Lufeng City, south China’s Guangdong Province, after police raids were carried out on December 29, 2013.
Local police announced on January 2 that they had seized 3 tons of methamphetamine and more than 23 tons of raw materials for producing the drug. A total of 182 suspects from 18 drug production and trafficking rings were arrested in and outside of the village. The village was responsible for more than one third of the methamphetamine produced on the Chinese mainland over the past three years and more than 20 percent of local households were directly involved or had a stake in the drug production and trafficking rings, according to police sources.
GroundBreaking
A container ship is delivered to its buyers on January 8 in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
It is the first 10,000-TEU(the 20-foot equivalent unit) ship independently developed, designed and constructed by a Chinese shipbuilder.
Inflation in Check
On January 9, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that China’s consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, had grown 2.5 percent year on year in December, and 2.6 percent for the whole of 2013, well below the government’s full-year limit of 3.5 percent.
December’s CPI was 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous month, according to the NBS.
December’s inflation was 2.5 percent in both cities and rural areas. Food prices, which account for roughly a third of the CPI, rose 4.1 percent in December compared to a year ago, while other products edged up by 1.7 percent.
On a month-to-month basis, December’s CPI edged up slightly by 0.3 percent from November. Food prices increased 0.6 percent from November while prices of other products increased 0.1 percent, according to the NBS.
The producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.4 percent year on year in December. The NBS data showed that annualized PPI for 2013 fell 1.9 percent year on year.
Pension Boost
The State Council will increase the pensions of enterprises’ retirees by 10 percent.
The decision was made at the cabinet’s executive meeting on January 8. The move will benefit more than 74 million retirees.
The State Council urged government departments to reform their endowment insurance and pension systems.
The meeting also pledged to improve the social assistance system, which helps disadvantaged groups.
The social assistance system, when revamped, will offer financial aid that will improve standards of living for disadvantaged group.
The Central Government has allocated more than 98 billion yuan($16 billion) to help disadvantaged groups, and has asked that local authorities make sure the money will be given to the needy in a timely manner. It also encouraged nonprofit organizations to take part in the relief effort. Private Banks
China will set up three to five fully private banks on a trial basis this year in a bid to further open up the banking sector to domestic and foreign capital, according a statement made on January 6 by the China Banking Regulatory Commission(CBRC).
Private capital will be introduced to restructure current banking institutions or set up new ones which bear their own risks, the CBRC said at a work meeting.
Strict procedures and standards will be set for the pilot banks, with demanding set-up criteria, limited licenses, enhanced supervision and a risk handling system.
The CBRC will try to relax the threshold for foreign capital to enter China’s banking sector and ease operation requirements for the yuan, while more policies will be issued to support banking reform in the Shanghai free trade zone and the financial reform pilot zone.
Yuan Bonds
The Bank of China’s London Branch issued 2.5 billion yuan-denominated bonds on January 8.
This issuance marked the first yuan bonds issued in the London market by the British branch of a Chinese bank, which will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The funds raised from the deal will be retained in London to support further development of the London offshore yuan market as well as UKChina bilateral trade and investment, the Bank of China said.
“By leveraging the Bank of China Group’s leading position in other major offshore yuan markets, our London Branch has introduced a full range of yuan products and services in London,” said Fang Wenjian, General Manager of Bank of China London Branch.
Logistic Slowdown
China’s logistics sector grew at a slightly slower pace last December compared to its growth in the previous month, according to figures released on January 6.
The logistics performance index for December stood at 52.4 percent, down 0.6 percentage points from November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said.
A reading above 50 percent indicates expansion compared to the previous month, while a reading below indicates contraction.
He Hui, Deputy Director of the China Logistics Information Center, attributed the decline to a slowdown in production activities at the end of last year.
The federation began collecting index data from more than 300 logistics companies in December 2011. Since then, the index has stayed
above 50 percent.
Horse Year Coming
A shop owner at the Zhejiang Yiwu China Small-Commodities City decorates a horse mascot. Sales at the market located in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, reached 68.3 billion yuan ($11.28 billion) in 2013, up 17.76 percent from 2012.
The ship will undertake patrol and escort missions and is equipped with antisubmarine capabilities, according to sources within the navy.
Public reports state that at least 17 vessels have entered naval service since 2013, which military experts said will be significant in enhancing China’s capacity to safeguard its maritime rights and interests.
Air Pollution
In the country’s latest effort to combat pollution, the 31 provincial-level regions of the Chinese mainland have been set targets to reduce major air pollutants by 5 to 25 percent. Among provincial-level regions, 11 were given goals for reducing PM2.5, including an annual 25-percent decrease, the highest, for Beijing, the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, according to a liability paper signed on January 7 by the regions and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. PM2.5 refers to airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, making them small enough to pass into the gas exchange region of the lungs.
The paper also urged the regions to take measures such as reducing coal consumption, eliminating outdated industrial capacity and tightened management and control of heating boilers, vehicles and dust.
Local governments have been ordered to map out detailed plans to ensure the implementation of various anti-pollution methods and lay down specific goals for each year.
Meanwhile, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, is planning a system of evaluation for each provinciallevel government’s progress, with those failing to reach their goals to be named and shamed.
A government report released in December 2013 revealed that prog- ress in China’s four environmental targets was lagging, including carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption. In the relatively more polluted north China, 58 days of heavy air pollution were reported last year, roughly one out of every six.
Protecting Minors
Prosecutors should not publicly disclose the private information of minors involved in criminal cases, and are required to respect and protect their reputations, China’s top procuratorate said on January 7.
Under a revised regulation issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on December 31, 2013, names, residences and photos of minors implicated in criminal cases, as well as other information implying their identity, should not be made public. Juveniles’ reputations should be protected and their personal dignity should be respected, the document said. The regulation also instructed procuratorates at provincial and city levels to set special tribunals or panels to deal with juvenile cases. It recommended that prosecutors in charge of such cases receive special criminological, sociological and psychological training, as well as training on the physical and mental traits of young people.
Medical Waste
China will impose harsh punishments on those who handle medical waste improperly, in a bid to reduce pollution and protect public health. Companies or government agencies that illegally collect, store, transport and handle medical waste will have their licenses revoked and will be heavily fined, according to a statement from the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued on January 8.
The commission said that it will strengthen the monitoring of medical waste disposal companies and units, as well as cooperating with environmental authorities to shut down substandard waste disposal facilities.
It also urged local authorities to establish a sound pricing system for medical waste procurement before the end of 2015 and improve hazardfree disposal of medical waste.
Tibetan Encyclopedia
Translation has begun on a Tibetan version of the Chinese Encyclopedia, making this the third ethnic minority language edition of the comprehensive encyclopedia.
The translation is estimated to be completed in five years, according to a statement by Cedain Zhaxi, head of the Tibetology Studies Institute of the University of Tibet, made on January 6.
Translation and publication of the Tibetan version will be carried out jointly by the university and the Tibet Autonomous Region’s press and publication authorities.
The Tibetan edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia will significantly enrich the Tibetan language, according to Cedain Zhaxi, who is in charge of the translation project. He said that hundreds of Chinese terms in philosophy, foreign literature and world geography have no corresponding Tibetan expressions.
Cedain Zhaxi said the Tibetan version would be distributed among schools and libraries in cities, monasteries and rural areas.
Published in 2009, the second edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia consists of 32 volumes and 60,000 items. In 2011, China started translating the encyclopedia into the Uygur and Kazakh languages.
Math Document
Chinese archaeologists and experts announced on January 7 that they have discovered the country’s earliest mathematics document, dating back more than 2,200 years ago. The document consists of a mathematical method inscribed on bamboo slips from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), according to Li Xueqin, head of the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Texts at Tsinghua University.
The unearthed document provides a method for the multiplication of any two whole numbers under 100 and certain fractions, said Li, a well-known historian.
The document is the earliest of its kind discovered so far, and has filled in a historical blank for math documents prior to the Qin Dynasty(221-206 B.C.), said Guo Shuchun, Director of the Chinese Society of the History of Mathematics.
It is older and has greater calculating functions than other ancient multiplication tables discovered, said Guo. “It was very advanced for the world at that time, and is an important discovery in the mathematical history of China and even the world.”In July 2008, Tsinghua University acquired a rare collection of 2,500 bamboo items belonging to the late Warring States period, which had previously been smuggled out of China.
Foreign Students
The Ministry of Education is drafting a regulation on the enrollment and instruction of international students in Chinese schools that aims to unify admission conditions and boost educational quality.
The draft, open to public opinion until February 3, stipulated that schools must not enroll foreign students who don’t meet admission standards or haven’t completed insurance procedures. Likewise, the draft said that minors, staying in China without the company of their parents and lacking entrusted custody papers, cannot be enrolled.
According to the draft, China’s higher education institutions should provide specialty lessons in English or other foreign languages if their resources permit.
International students must leave the country within a specified time after they finish their education in China, the draft added.
Drug Bust
A major production base for methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice” or “meth,” has been rooted out in Boshe Village in Lufeng City, south China’s Guangdong Province, after police raids were carried out on December 29, 2013.
Local police announced on January 2 that they had seized 3 tons of methamphetamine and more than 23 tons of raw materials for producing the drug. A total of 182 suspects from 18 drug production and trafficking rings were arrested in and outside of the village. The village was responsible for more than one third of the methamphetamine produced on the Chinese mainland over the past three years and more than 20 percent of local households were directly involved or had a stake in the drug production and trafficking rings, according to police sources.
GroundBreaking
A container ship is delivered to its buyers on January 8 in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
It is the first 10,000-TEU(the 20-foot equivalent unit) ship independently developed, designed and constructed by a Chinese shipbuilder.
Inflation in Check
On January 9, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that China’s consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, had grown 2.5 percent year on year in December, and 2.6 percent for the whole of 2013, well below the government’s full-year limit of 3.5 percent.
December’s CPI was 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous month, according to the NBS.
December’s inflation was 2.5 percent in both cities and rural areas. Food prices, which account for roughly a third of the CPI, rose 4.1 percent in December compared to a year ago, while other products edged up by 1.7 percent.
On a month-to-month basis, December’s CPI edged up slightly by 0.3 percent from November. Food prices increased 0.6 percent from November while prices of other products increased 0.1 percent, according to the NBS.
The producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 1.4 percent year on year in December. The NBS data showed that annualized PPI for 2013 fell 1.9 percent year on year.
Pension Boost
The State Council will increase the pensions of enterprises’ retirees by 10 percent.
The decision was made at the cabinet’s executive meeting on January 8. The move will benefit more than 74 million retirees.
The State Council urged government departments to reform their endowment insurance and pension systems.
The meeting also pledged to improve the social assistance system, which helps disadvantaged groups.
The social assistance system, when revamped, will offer financial aid that will improve standards of living for disadvantaged group.
The Central Government has allocated more than 98 billion yuan($16 billion) to help disadvantaged groups, and has asked that local authorities make sure the money will be given to the needy in a timely manner. It also encouraged nonprofit organizations to take part in the relief effort. Private Banks
China will set up three to five fully private banks on a trial basis this year in a bid to further open up the banking sector to domestic and foreign capital, according a statement made on January 6 by the China Banking Regulatory Commission(CBRC).
Private capital will be introduced to restructure current banking institutions or set up new ones which bear their own risks, the CBRC said at a work meeting.
Strict procedures and standards will be set for the pilot banks, with demanding set-up criteria, limited licenses, enhanced supervision and a risk handling system.
The CBRC will try to relax the threshold for foreign capital to enter China’s banking sector and ease operation requirements for the yuan, while more policies will be issued to support banking reform in the Shanghai free trade zone and the financial reform pilot zone.
Yuan Bonds
The Bank of China’s London Branch issued 2.5 billion yuan-denominated bonds on January 8.
This issuance marked the first yuan bonds issued in the London market by the British branch of a Chinese bank, which will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The funds raised from the deal will be retained in London to support further development of the London offshore yuan market as well as UKChina bilateral trade and investment, the Bank of China said.
“By leveraging the Bank of China Group’s leading position in other major offshore yuan markets, our London Branch has introduced a full range of yuan products and services in London,” said Fang Wenjian, General Manager of Bank of China London Branch.
Logistic Slowdown
China’s logistics sector grew at a slightly slower pace last December compared to its growth in the previous month, according to figures released on January 6.
The logistics performance index for December stood at 52.4 percent, down 0.6 percentage points from November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said.
A reading above 50 percent indicates expansion compared to the previous month, while a reading below indicates contraction.
He Hui, Deputy Director of the China Logistics Information Center, attributed the decline to a slowdown in production activities at the end of last year.
The federation began collecting index data from more than 300 logistics companies in December 2011. Since then, the index has stayed
above 50 percent.
Horse Year Coming
A shop owner at the Zhejiang Yiwu China Small-Commodities City decorates a horse mascot. Sales at the market located in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, reached 68.3 billion yuan ($11.28 billion) in 2013, up 17.76 percent from 2012.