Saviours

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  Emergency responders conduct a rescue operation at the flooded Xiahaizi Coalmine in Qujing City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, on April 7. Twenty-two miners were trapped underground by a flood early on that day.


   Healthcare Rules
  Chinese authorities unveiled a barrage of new measures on April 9, which consisted of relaxing price controls covering non-public hospital services and encouraging the private sector to build healthcare institutions.
  The measures were announced in a joint circular by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
  The measures are aimed at giving private organizations more leeway to charge what they want for medical services and to encourage competition, according to the circular.
  Authorities want private capital to enter the healthcare sector as soon as possible to increase the supply of medical services, and in turn to help ease the problem of inadequate health provisions available to the public.
  The circular also specified that all provincial governments have to publicize a directory listing all public hospitals within their regions before the end of June.
   Language Protection
  Authorities in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region are enacting a new legally-binding regulation to safeguard the heritage and development of the Tibetan language, local authorities revealed on April 7.
  The Tibetan Language Work Committee and other authorities in Tibet have finished drawing up a draft regulation, according to Chodrak, the committee’s deputy director.
  The regulation, which has gone through four amendments, is expected to come out in September.
  According to the committee, the new regulation will provide legal protection for the rights and freedom of the people of Tibetan ethnic group to study, use and develop their language. In Tibetan areas, most classes are taught in Tibetan, though Mandarin and English classes are also on the curriculum.
   Smog Forecast
  An air-quality early warning system that will forecast smog two or three days in advance is to be put into use, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on April 3.
  At a meeting on environmental monitoring, Vice Minister Wu Xiaoqing said that an air-quality forecast and early warning center covering the whole country is already in operation with an accuracy of 60 to 70 percent.   China began air-quality forecasts in 47 major cities in 1998. The new system covers all prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, as well as the areas surrounding Beijing and other capital cities of provincial regions.
  Wu called for improvements through remote sensing and other cutting-edge technology, as well as innovations in publicizing air-quality information. China currently has around 1,200 automatic air-quality monitoring stations across 252 cities.
   Nurseries
  Southwest China’s Guizhou Province is to establish 800 nurseries for
  “left-behind” children, to ease their psychological problems caused by the absence of parents.
  The nurseries, to be built in rural boarding schools, are expected to be completed before the end of 2014, the Guizhou Education Department said in a statement on April 4.
  The facilities will help create a better environment for healthy growth by providing good physical conditions as well as sufficient psychological intervention, according to the statement.
  The provincial education authority will award 20,000 yuan ($3,220) to each nursery that operates well in the future, it added.
  “Left-behind” children are those who remain in rural homes while their parents go to work in cities. The children are usually taken care of by their grandparents or other relatives.
  Guizhou had about 2.4 million“left-behind” children in 2013 due to the large number of outbound local laborers, a report by the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences showed.
   Government Microblogs
  The number of microblog accounts operated by government departments and individual officials increased by 46 percent in 2013, according a report issued on April 8 by the E-Government Research Center with the Chinese Academy of Governance. It has issued the report annually since 2011.
  The growth rate was mild compared with the 249 percent recorded in 2012 and 776 percent in 2011, the report noted. It attributed the slowdown to users shifting to new social network tools such as WeChat, an instant messaging application claiming to have about 400 million active users.
  Verified government accounts on the four top microblog services in China—Sina, Tencent, People.com. cn and Xinhuanet—totaled around 258,700 at the end of 2013.
  About 70.8 percent of them were operated by government departments and the rest were individual users whose identities were verified to be officials.   Governments in richer regions and bigger cities have proved more inclined to communicate with the people through microblogging, according to the report.
  Among various government departments, police have been the most active, according to the report. Four out of the top 10 government microblog accounts were operated by police departments.
   Cloned Tree
  A 5,000-year-old cypress tree said to have been planted by the Yellow Emperor, the mythological sovereign considered the common ancestor of all Chinese, has been cloned, scientists said on April 5.
  The 20-meter-high tree is in the Xuanyuan Temple near the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, also known as Huangdi, in Huangling County, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.
  Created using asexual reproduction methods such grafting, eight saplings from the ancient tree are growing well, said Jiang Zeping, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Forestry.
  The project started in April 2013 when scientists from the academy ob- tained samples and cultured more than 1,500 clones.
  Aging has put the ancient cypress in danger, said Peng Hong, deputy head of the Forestry Department of Shaanxi. “It is important to preserve the genes of millennial cypress trees,”Peng said.
  “Luckily, we have been successful and a second clone can be made from the saplings after three to five years,”Jiang said.
  The project is of great significance in conservation of genetic resources and protecting rare ancient trees, according to scientists.
   Bookworms
  A reader picks books in Beijing’s Sanlian Taofen Bookstore on the early morning of April 9.
  The bookstore launched a 10-day trial of 24-hour opening on April 8. If the trial goes smoothly, it may never close again. Some 3 million yuan ($483,600) have been invested in the operation, according to the bookstore’s management.
  According to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, the average Chinese person read 4.39 books in 2013.
   Bon Voyage
  China’s most sophisticated research vessel—Kexue, which means“science”—left for the West Pacific on April 8 from the port city of Qingdao in east China’s Shandong Province, beginning its first ocean expedition.
  Its research will focus on the currents in the Pacific, regional climates and deep-sea ecology.
  A total of 46 scientists and technical staff are on board. The staff will carry out marine geophysical surveys and biological sampling. The ship is expected to return in the second half of May.


   Trade Decline
  China’s exports went down 6.6 percent to $170.11 billion in March, customs data showed on April 10.
  Imports went down 11.3 percent to$162.41 billion and total foreign trade volume declined 9 percent to $332.52 billion, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.
  Trade balance returned to a surplus of $7.71 billion in March after a surprise deficit of $22.98 billion in the previous month, the GAC said.
  Total trade volume of the first quarter stood at $965.88 billion, down 1 percent year on year. Of the total, exports declined 3.4 percent to $491.31 billion while imports grew 1.6 percent to reach $474.57 billion in the first quarter.
  “Judging from data, China’s foreign trade has encountered some difficulties. But we should never overestimate those difficulties,” said Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman of the GAC.
  “The decline in foreign trade data will be temporary and short-term. China’s foreign trade will regain growth from May this year and then enter a mild growth period.”
  China’s foreign trade still has several advantages, including global economic recovery, China’s efforts in comprehensively deepening reforms and Chinese companies’ surging overseas investment, Zheng said.
  “It’s likely that China will realize its 7.5-percent foreign trade growth target,”he predicted.
   Economic Circle
  China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), announced on April 9 that it is drawing up a plan for the coordinated development of a Beijing-centered “economic circle.”The Beijing-centered circle is one of three economic growth poles in east China, and its progress will push forward the economic transformation and upgrading of the area surrounding the Bohai Sea, the NDRC said.
  The NDRC said the draft will make use of the region’s comparative advantages and bring about specific measures in infrastructure construction, industrial layout and innovation in the three areas.
  It also vowed to strengthen ecological building practices and environmental protection, promote widely beneficial public services, and deepen reform and opening up. A mechanism for regional cooperation can also be expected in the plan.
  The NDRC did not unveil when the plan will finally come out, saying it depends on the drafting progress.
  The economic circle is home to over 100 million people and boasts a combined GDP of over 6 trillion yuan($967.2 billion) with a total area of 216,000 square km.    Railway Investment
  China will increase railway fixed asset investment to 720 billion yuan ($117.09 billion) in 2014, said Sheng Guangzu, General Manager of the China Railway Corp. (CRC).
  Sheng said the corporation was increasing investment to meet demand. Forty-nine new projects and over 7,000 km of new railway lines will be put into operation this year.
  The former plan set at the beginning of the year targeted 700 billion yuan ($113 billion) of fixed asset investment, 44 new projects and 6,600 km of new railway lines, according to the CRC.
  Sheng said that 78 percent of all construction investment will go to the central and western regions, which will be the site of 86 percent of this year’s newly operated railways.
  According to a five-year plan from 2011 to 2015, 230,000 km of new railway lines will be built in central and western regions, with an investment of 1.85 trillion yuan ($300 billion).
  Sheng said from 2011 to 2013, 1.15 trillion yuan ($190 billion) had been invested in the regions.
   Ship Fair
  Visitors observe a ship model at the 2014 China International Marine, Port and Shipbuilding Fair on April 9.
  The fair, lasting from April 9 to 11, was held in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province. It attracted over 400 companies from 12 countries to display their latest technologies, products and services.


   Wider Acceptance
  China UnionPay announced on April 9 that it had signed deals with two Australian banks to cooperate on UnionPay card business in Australia, New Zealand and some island countries in the south Pacific.
  China UnionPay said it had signed the agreements with Westpac Banking Corporation and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
  Su Ning, Chairman of China UnionPay, said the deal would make the UnionPay card more acceptable in Australia and New Zealand. China UnionPay and the two banks will expand the card business together, especially in the field of “innovative payments.”
  They will also speed up acceptance of UnionPay cards by all ATMs and POS terminals of the two banks in Australia, New Zealand and other countries.
   Duty-Free Shop
  South China’s tourist island province of Hainan is to build the world’s largest duty free shop (DFS).
  Hainan plans to relocate an existing DFS downtown in the resort city of Sanya, in a 60,000-square-meter complex at Haitang Bay, said vice provincial governor Tan Li on April 9. Sanya’s current DFS is only about 10,000 square meters.   The Sanya Haitang Bay International Shopping Mall will attract international brands and fashion labels and combine duty-free shopping with hotels, restaurants and entertainment.
  Hainan also plans to expand and transform another DFS in the provincial capital of Haikou from 3,650 to 4,880 square meters.
  The State Council gave Hainan permission to run a duty-free program on a trial basis in April 2011 to promote the province as an international tourist destination.
  Offshore duty-free shopping in Hainan’s two DFS stores in 2013, hit 3.29 billion yuan ($530.6 million), up 40 percent year on year.
   More Tax Breaks
  More small businesses in China will enjoy tax breaks as part of the government’s efforts to address the pressure on economic growth.
  Any company with annual taxable income under 100,000 yuan($16,000) will have its business income tax halved starting from January 1 till the end of 2016, said a joint statement of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) released on April 8.
  This means the tax breaks apply to more small businesses. China’s State Council decided in 2011 that any company with annual taxable income under 60,000 yuan ($$9,670) will have its business income tax halved during the 2012-15 period.
  The move aims to promote economic growth and create jobs, said the statement.
  Small and micro-firms serve as the foundations for continuous and steady economic growth, said a latest report by SAT.
  By the end of 2013, there were about 11.7 million small and micro companies in China, accounting for 76.6 percent of the total number of firms in the country, the SAT report showed.
  Taking small family businesses into account, small companies accounted for 94.2 percent of the total number and created about 150 million jobs.
   Big Buy Goes Ahead
  Alibaba, China’s e-commerce leader, has continued acquisitions aiming to sharpen its cutting edge ahead of an expected initial public offering (IPO) in the United States.
  Hangzhou Yunxi Investment Partnership Enterprise, owned by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Shi Yuzhu, founder of Giant Interactive Group Inc. and Simon Xie, co-founder of Alibaba, has bought a 20-percent stake in Wasu Media Holdings Co. Ltd. for 6.5 billion yuan ($1 billion), according to a statement from Wasu on April 8.
  Alibaba and Wasu Digital TV Media Group, dominant shareholders in Wasu Media Holding Co. Ltd., signed a strategic cooperation agreement on April 8.
  Capital raised will be used to develop original content and expand Wasu’s Internet TV terminals.
  Alibaba, keen to expand out of its core online retail business, has expanded its reach to include shopping malls, home appliances, mapping services and financial services through a series of acquisitions in the past year.
  “Alibaba’s recent investments are still a multi-access strategy,” said Hu Yanping, founder of Data Center of China Internet.
   I, Robot?
  People try smart hardware products at the inauguration ceremony for the Huaqiang Yugu Industrial Park in south China’s Shenzhen, Guangdong Province on April 8.
  The park aims to promote development of the smart hardware industry.

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