China Releases White Paper on People with Disabilities

　　The State Council Information Office released the white paper， Equality， Participation and Sharing： 70 Years of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Persons with Disabilities in the PRC， on July 25， 2019.
　　By April， 2018 China had promulgated over 80 laws and more than 50 administrative regulations on the welfare of people with disabilities. Last year， more than 5，000 people with disabilities were People’s Congress deputies or members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference committees above the county level.
　　During the 2013-17 period， governments at various levels appropriated more than RMB 180 billion from their budgets on undertakings for people with disabilities， marking a 123 percent growth over the previous five years.
　　Last year， 666，000 special needs students attended school， an increase of 298，000 people， or 81 percent since 2013. Between 2012 and 2018， 62，200 students with disabilities made it to mainstream colleges.
　　China also has various policy incentives for employment of people with disabilities， providing them services and training to help them find jobs or start businesses. Over the past decade the number of newly employed people in this group has remained above 300，000 every year， with the number in 2018 standing at 367，000. Last year more than 9.48 million holders of disability certificates were working.

New Tech Developed by China Approved by FDA

　　A new diagnostic technology developed by Chinese scientists for improving coronary heart disease treatment has received market approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration （FDA）， according to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. The technology， called Quantitative Flow Ratio （QFR） measurement system， was jointly developed by Pulse Medical Imaging Technology（Shanghai） Co. and a group of researchers at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
　　Based on the computational analysis of X-ray coronary angiography， the system is able to obtain QFR noninvasively， which can evaluate coronary artery blockage and function and then help doctors decide whether a patient needs to have surgical and interventional heart procedures.
　　The QFR technology can assess coronary function within four minutes and increase diagnosis accuracy by 33 percent compared with conventional coronary angiography. It also has a higher accuracy rate than optical coherence tomography， a common imaging technique. 　　The approval of QFR technology will provide a more accurate and noninvasive diagnostic device and better treatment for patients with coronary heart disease worldwide， the ministry said.

Traditional Folk Vocal Arts to Be Boosted

　　China will step up its support for its folk vocal arts， according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
　　The folk arts， named Quyi in Chinese， refers to various narrative and singing forms including ballad singing， comic dialogues， clapper talk， and crosstalk， which are popular among Chinese people.
　　The guideline aims to better preserve these traditional art forms and promote their development by conducting research in the art forms， encouraging young people to engage in the performances， and setting up more stages for performers.

Facts About Xinjiang’s Development Speak for Themselves

　　At a recent news conference， Shohrat Zakir， chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region， cited data and facts to illustrate the region’s development over the past decades.
　　From 1952 to 2018， Xinjiang’s economy grew 200-fold from RMB 791 million to RMB 1.2 trillion， at an annual rate of 8.3 percent （inflation factor deducted）； and per capita GDP grew 37.7-fold from RMB 166 to RMB 49，000， at an average annual rate of 5.7 percent.
　　From 1978 to 2018， the mileage of highways in Xinjiang grew from 23，800 km to 189，000 km， and that of railways from 1，435 km to 5，959 km. Local people’s income soared from RMB 319 to RMB 32，764 in cities and from RMB119 to RMB11，975 in rural areas， at the average annual rate of 12.3 percent and 12.2 percent respectively.
　　From 1950 to 2018， the total import and export volume of Xinjiang grew by 1，481-fold to US $20 billion. The number of officials of ethnic minority groups increased from 3，000 to 428，000， accounting for 50.3 percent of all local officials.
　　Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China （PRC）， assistance to Xinjiang from the central budget has added up to RMB 2.35 trillion， with the total for 2018 being RMB 302.2 billion， which accounts for 60.3 percent of Xinjiang’s government expenditure.