SOCIETY

SOCIETY

Completed Relocation

The resettlement of about 92,000 residents originally living around the Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China’s Hubei Province, a source of the south-north water diversion project’smiddle route, has been completed.

The water diversion project will take water from China’slongest river, the Yangtze, to supply drought-prone areas in the north from 2014. Water w ill flow north via eastern, middle and western routes.Construction of the eastern and m idd le routes started in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Pre-construction evaluations of the western route w ill begin soon.

The construction of the middle route involved the relocation of 330,000 people from Hubei and Henan provinces. The relocated residents have been settled in new communities in other parts of the two provinces.

Green Targets

M inister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian signed agreements on emission reduction targets w ith provincial-level governments and major state-owned enterprises on December 20.

The agreements, which were endorsed by the State Council, specify mandatory em ission reduction targets and pollution control targets that these local governments and enterprises must meet during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15). Signatories are also obliged to complete a series of em ission reduction projects w ithin a designated time frame.

According to the projects listed for 2011-15, China will build at least 1,184 new sewage treatment plants that w ill be able to treat 45.7 million tons of sewage daily, and equip thermal power plants w ith a total generating capacity of 400 m illion kw w ith desulfurizing facilities.

ON PATROL Chinese patro l ship Haijian 50 takes part in a jo in t sea and air patro l in the East China Sea on Decem ber 17, 2011

Settling Disputes

The Guangdong Provincial Government set up a special work team on December 20 to deal w ith land disputes and other issues in Wukan, a village overwhelmed with demonstrators.

On September 21 and 22 some villagers in Wukan vented their anger against village authorities over issues related to land use,financing and the election of local officials,and on November 21 and 22, large-scale protests occurred in the village. Another demonstration took place on December 11 after Xue Jinbo, who was suspected of leading the demonstrations, died suddenly in police custody.

“The major demands of the Wukan villagers are reasonable. There were some mistakes made by grassroots Party committees and government organizations,” said Zhu Mingguo, head of the team.

Zhu said that corrup tion am ongst involved officials would be severely punished.

More Pandas

The number of wild pandas in the vicinity of Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, has risen from 18 to 41 over the past decade, according to the latest research.

The increase is attributed to the pandas’improved reproduction rates and migration from surrounding areas, said the city’s Bureau of Forestry. Forest coverage in the region has increased from 384,100 hectares in 2000 to the current 454,760 hectares.

W ild pandas in the vicinity of Xi’an belong to the Qinling subspecies, which live in Shaanxi’s Qinling Mountains.

Most of China’s 1,600 pandas inhabit southwestsern Sichuan Province and there are only 200 to 300 Qinling pandas.

MAGIC SHOW French m agic ian Nesto r Hato perfo rm s at the Eighth China Ac robatics Go lden Chrysan them um Aw ard in Pingd ingshan,Henan Province on Decem ber 19

MANUAL CONTEST Teenagers take part in a m ode l-building com petition in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, on Decem ber 17