SOCIETY
Regulating School Buses
The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued a draft regulation on school bus safety management on December 11 and asked for public feedback.
The draft stipulates that local governments above the county level should take“overall responsibility” for school bus safety.
The government will establish and regularly update a system of mandatory technical standards for the quality of vehicles used as school buses.
China issued a set of technical standards for school buses for primary school students last year, and the drafting of another standard for buses used in kindergartners is also underway.
According to the draft, the government will adopt a license system for school bus operation.
Measuring Emissions
China plans to develop its own new comprehensive system for monitoring and accurately calculating the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, said a leading Chinese scientist.
Ding Zhongli, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said that the new system would help the country keep track of exactly how much GHG it emits, knowledge that will serve as the basis for China’s carbon emission reduction efforts.
Researchers will compile GHG emission lists for the quantitative evaluation of carbon dioxide emissions generated through both natural process and human activities, as part of an ongoing research program led by the CAS.
The list will cover major human activities that cause emissions such as energy generation, cement production, land use and livestock farming, said Ding.
Submarine Success
Sixteen submarine hydrothermal deposits were discovered during China’s largest global ocean expedition, researchers said. The deposits of metals and minerals occur in the deep ocean when water is heated by magma through fissures in the earths crust.
The 369-day expedition, the country’s 22nd, was conducted by the expedition vessel, Ocean No.1, which traversed the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans between December 8, 2010 and December 11.
Tao Chunhui, chief scientist of the expedition team, said that five of the 16 submarine hydrothermal deposits were discovered in the south of the Atlantic Ocean, and the other 11 in the east Pacific Ocean.
China has discovered 33 submarine hydrothermal deposits in the three oceans since the 19th expedition in 2007. These discoveries account for one in 10 of the hydrothermal deposits discovered during the last three decades.
Record Maker
A medicinal botanic garden in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has been confirmed by Guinness World Records to contain the most varieties of medicinal plants and the largest cultivated area of medicinal plants in the world.
The garden covers 202 hectares and is home to more than 6,000 species of living medicinal plants (including more than 100 endangered varieties and over 30 new varieties), over 3,200 kinds of medicinal plant seeds and 100,000 images of medicinal plants.
Guangxi’s health authorities built the garden in 1959, aiming to cultivate, collect and save medicinal plants and also conduct research.


ECONOMY
FDI Down
China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped 9.76 percent year on year to $8.76 billion in November, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
The number of foreign-invested companies approved by the Chinese Government in November also dropped 12.91 percent from a year earlier to 2,718, according to the MOFCOM.
The weakened FDI in November was largely affected by gloomy economic growth in the United States and debt woes in the EU, said Shen Danyang, a MOFCOM spokesman.
The November figure brought the total FDI in the first 11 months to $103.77 billion, up 13.15 percent year on year.
During the same period, the government approved the establishment of 25,086 foreign-invested companies, up 3.23 percent year on year.
Duties on U.S. Vehicles
China decided to levy anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on sedans and sport-utility vehicles with engines of 2.5 liters and above imported from the United States, after an investigation showed evidence of dumping.
Effective December 15, importers of related vehicles from the United States are required to set aside deposits with Chinese customs ranging from 2 percent to 12.9 percent according to the level of dumping and the subsidies U.S. carmakers received from their government.
U.S. carmakers, including General Motors and Chrysler Group, have received government subsidies and dumped their vehicles into the Chinese market, which has harmed China’s auto industry, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The duties will expire on December 14, 2013.
Offshore Drilling
The China National Offshore Oil Corp.(CNOOC), the country’s biggest offshore oil and gas company, will start drilling the first well in the Block F offshore in Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk Province later this month, said Li Fanrong, CEO of CNOOC on December 13 in Phnom Penh.
The first well drilling is expected to cost$20 million.
Sok An, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers, said it was a very good sign for Cambodia’s oil and gas sector and added that Cambodia fully supported CNOOC for the drilling.
He also asked the CNOOC to help train Cambodian petroleum officials to keep up with new techniques in oil and gas industry.
Steel Provider
Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corp.(Anshan Steel) said on December 14 that it has clinched a strategic partnership with the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, the world’s largest container shipping operator.
The two sides signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shanghai in which Anshan Steel promised to supply high-quality products for Maersk’s ships.
Anshan Steel, based in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, is China’s largest supplier of container board steel.
Maersk Line, the container division of the Denmark-based company, has a fleet of more than 500 vessels.