THIS WEEK

THIS WEEK

“Talking about China’s lowered growth rate, I think we are not talking about a temporary adjustment. We are talking about more long-term development issues.”

Justin Yifu Lin, World Bank’s chief economist and Senior Vice President, speaking to the press as he launched his new book in the Washington, D.C.-based global institution, on March 6

“China develops nuclear energy under a safe precondition.”

Huang Wei, Chinese deputy envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), addressing the IAEA Board of Governors meeting which reviewed the development of nuclear technology last year on March 6

“Syrian affairs have to be determined by the Syrian people themselves, and foreign states should not intervene in the internal affairs of Syria by force, or push through ‘regime change’in the Middle East country. Sanctions or the threat of sanctions are not conducive to a proper settlement of the Syrian problem.”

Li Baodong, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN, speaking to Xinhua News Agency on March 6

“If they (the West) seek to continue with their previous course of action and try to force concessions under pressure, negotiations will yield no results.”

Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani, speaking to the press on March 7

AIDS Plan

China aims to reduce AIDS fatalities and the number of new HIV/AIDS cases by 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively, in 2015 as compared to 2010, according to a national action plan issued on February 29.

The plan sets a target of 1.2 million people in China living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2015. At present, China has an estimated number of 780,000 people living with HIV/ AIDS, including 154,000 AIDS patients.

The target awareness rate among urban and rural residents aged 15 to 60 is over 85 percent and 80 percent, respectively. It should reach over 90 percent among high-risk groups and adolescents, over 85 percent for people traveling in and out of China, migrants, and over 95 percent for prisoners, the plan says.

The coverage of high-risk group interventions should reach over 90 percent, according to the plan. Over 80 percent of pregnant women are expected to receive HIV tests, and in high-prevalence regions the ratio would top 90 percent.

The plan also says that officials’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS and their record in its prevention and control will be factored into their annual performance evaluations.

HOME AT HAND Tenants register themselves before moving into Nanhu Xincheng, a new public rental community in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, on March 5. The city has assigned its first 900 public rental apartments to residents in need

Earth Monitoring

China completed a system designed to monitor the movement of Earth’s crust and predict earthquakes on March 2, said the China Earthquake Administration.

REVIVAL OF THE PAST Models present creations from Shiatzy Chen’s Autumn/Winter 2012 women’s ready-to-wear collection, a brand from China’s Taiwan, at the Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, on March 6. The creations feature traditional patterns of the Miao ethnic group of southwest China

Based on satellite navigation, it involves a network of 260 constant observing stations and 2,000 part-time observing stations equipped with advanced data-processing technology. The network will also be used for weather forecasting and scientific research.

The new network is one of the most advanced means of observing the movement of Earth’s crust, along with the U.S. Plate Boundary Observation system and Japanese GEONE .

China started the project in December 2007, with a total investment of 524 million yuan ($83.2 million).

Aging Population

China’s population of people aged 60 or above had hit 185 million by the end of 2011, or 13.7 percent of the nation’s total population, according to official figures released on March 1.

The number is 4 percent higher than in 2010, when it stood at 177.6 million.

It is predicted that, by the end of 2015, the elderly population will have increased by 43 million, taking the total number of over-60s to 221 million, said Li Liguo, Minister of Civil Affairs.

At that time, China will have 24 million people aged 80 or above, and more than 51 million people aged 65 or above will be empty-nesters, without children living at home to support them, according to Li.

Uygur Micro-blogging

Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have launched a micro-blogging service in the Uygur language, the mother tongue of more than 9.65 million inhabitants in the region.

The micro-blogging service,www.barmu. cn, which is currently in trial operation is operated by Tianshannet.com, the regional government’s official website.

“The service is the first online platform which allows Uygur-speaking people to communicate with their government in their language,” said Eliti Sali, deputy head of the Information Office of the Xinjiang Regional Government.

The Uygur language, based on the Arabic alphabet, is part of the Tujue (Turks) branch of the Altaic language family.

Antibiotic Curbs

China’s health authorities announced on March 6 plans to further curb the overuse of antibiotics, including setting caps for the varieties and use ratio of antibiotics, and punishing doctors found to be misusing antibiotics.

SIMULATED DRILL A girl learns how to use a safety belt at the newly opened first emergency education center in Shanghai on March 2

EINSTEIN SHOW An exhibition celebrating late theoretical physicist Albert Einstein opens in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, on March 2. More than 200 exhibits related to Einstein, including videos and replicas, are displayed at the three-month exhibition

The Ministry of Health has taken steps to limit the varieties of antibiotics a hospital can stock according to the institution’s grade and function.

The use ratio, the share of antibiotics among all prescription drugs, has also been capped, which is 60 percent for general hospitals.

Moreover, if doctors are found to be using antibiotics inappropriately, they will be subjected to penalties ranging from warnings, and the suspension or cancellation of their prescription-writing rights, to having their licenses withdrawn.

Doctors’ clinical prescription performances will be factored into their overall performance evaluations, according to the plans.

Land Violations

Supervisory departments at multiple levels of the government dealt with 1,480 cases of forced demolition and land appropriation in 2011, the Ministry of Supervision said on March 2.

Of the 1,480 cases, 11 forced demolition cases that resulted in fatalities were handled by the Ministry of Supervision and the State Council Office for Rectifying Malpractices, with 57 officials being punished in line with administrative regulations and 31 people transferred to judicial departments.

A total of 307 cases of low-rent housing regulation violations were also handled in 2011, involving 26,000 housing projects, according to the ministry.

Grand Museum

The National Museum of China, located to the east of the Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, officially opened to the public on March 1 after a one-year trial period.

More than 4.1 million people visited the museum during its soft-opening, which took place after the completion of nearly four years of renovation.

The museum was expanded to nearly 200,000 square meters during the renovation, making it the largest museum in the world, according to the museum’s official website.

The museum houses more than 1.2 million cultural relics.

Top Scientists Awarded

Chinese scientists Wang Zhenyi and Chen Zhu were granted the Seventh Szent Gyorgyi Prize, a top U.S. award established by the U.S. National Foundation for Cancer Research, on March 6 for their innovative research that led to a new therapeutic approach to acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

Since the 1990s, the two scientists have worked together to conduct clinical trials combining all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide to treat APL patients. By combining traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine, they have increased the survival rate of APL patients from approximately 25 percent to 95 percent during their "five-year disease-free" period. Their therapy is now a standard for APL treatment throughout the world and has turned one of the most fatal diseases into a highly curable one.

Wang, 88, graduated from the former Aurora University in Shanghai in 1948 with a doctoral degree. His specialties are hematology and the treatment of cancer. Wang is the first scientist to transform cancer cells into normal cells. In 1994, he was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Chen, 58, Wang's former student, made major contributions to the identification of the molecular mechanisms of both ATRA and arsenic trioxide in APL. He was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995 and was its vice president from 2000 to 2007. Chen has been the minister of health since 2007.

SAFETY FIRST An assembly line of school buses of Yutong Bus Co. Ltd. in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a plan on March 2 to recycle 7 billion tons of industrial solid waste during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), in an effort to help ease the country’s environmental deterioration. The amount is nearly double that of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

By 2015, around 1.6 billion tons of industrial waste will be recycled annually, with a utilization ratio of 50 percent, according to the plan.

In addition, the country will reclaim a total of 350,000mu(23,333 hectares) of land previously occupied by industrial waste, a move expected to significantly improve the country’s ecological environment, during the 2011-15 period.

Boom to Gloom

Passenger vehicle sales in China totaled 2.26 million units in the first two months of 2011, a decline of 1.4 percent from a year ago, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Passenger vehicles include cars, sportutility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans.

“The market demand weakened as policymakers rolled back some incentives,” said Rao Da, secretary general of the association.“The continued increase in fuel prices also mounted pressures on potential buyers.”

Working With Boeing

The Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. and Boeing on March 6 signed an agreement to jointly promote energy saving and emission reduction in the civil aviation industry.

According to the deal the two sides will together establish a technology center in Beijing to focus on research of improving fuel burning efficiency and cutting down greenhouse gas emissions in the global airline industry.

The two companies will also cooperate with China’s research institutes and universities in fields including sustainable bio-fuel and telecommunication infrastructure for the airline industry.

LNG Terminal

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) is building the nation’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal to help handle the increasing imports of the cleanerburning fuel.

The project, located in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, costs 5.7 billion yuan ($905 million). The first phase of the project will be capable of receiving 2.2 million tons of LNG a year when operation starts next year, said CNOOC in a statement.

The second phase will be land-based, with an annual capacity of no less than 6 million tons, and is scheduled to be operational by 2015.

Rich List

Five Chinese businessmen, including four from Hong Kong and one from the mainland, ranked on the Hurun Global Rich List 2012, which listed 83 global wealthy individuals with personal fortunes of at least $10 billion.

Li Ka-Shing, President of Hong Kong Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., ranked the 13th on the list, making him the richest Chinese individual with a personal fortune of $24 billion.

Zong Qinghou, General Manager of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. Ltd., ranked 78th with a personal fortune of $10.5 billion, making him the richest man on the Chinese mainland.

Globally, Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim topped the list with wealth of $55 billion.

Fake Deal

Lin Chunping, a Chinese businessman in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, came under scrutiny for his alleged $60-million acquisition of the Atlantic Bank of America. Lin said his bank had commenced trial operation in November 2011, and had taken deposits of around $180 million.

But the news has proven untrue. According to a recent report of Xinhua News Agency, Lin registered a company in the state of Delaware of the United States in December 2011, but the company was not allowed to conduct banking businesses.

Lin admitted to his lies.

Retail Property Thrives

Retail property rentals and prices will see double-digit growth this year in major Chinese cities, fuelled by a burgeoning retail sector, according to a latest report jointly released by the U.S. real estate agents network Knight Frank and Beijing Holdways Information & Technology Co. Ltd.

“Tightening measures to rein in housing speculation have prompted investors to shift to the retail property sector, which is expected to outperform the office and residential segments,” said Thomas Lam, head of China research at Knight Frank. “Meanwhile, international brands are continuing to expand their presence across the country, in both first- and second-tier cities.”

Clothing chain H&M, for instance, will open most of its new global stores this year in China and its store portfolio on the Chinese mainland is expected to triple over the next three years.

Devoted Village Teacher

The story of Zeng Zhaofu, who has been a teacher in a mountainous area for 33 years, touches many Chinese.

Zeng, 51, gave up the chance of being a village head after graduating from senior high school in 1978 and has been a teacher at a primary school in a village of central China's Jiangxi Province since then.

Besides teaching, Zeng takes good care of his students. Many of his students live far away from the school, and Zeng has voluntarily picked them up everyday for 33 years. In 2001, one of his students was about to drop out of school due to poverty. Zeng persuaded the student's family to give up the idea and has helped to pay all the school fees for the student.

Among his students, 15 of them were admitted to universities and two are post-graduate students, an outstanding accomplishment for the poverty-stricken area. Zeng was conferred with the National Outstanding Teacher Award by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2009.

TECH MANIA A visitor looks at the latest router products of TP-LINK, a Chinese manufacturer of network products, at the 2012 International Information and Communication Technology Fair held in Hanover, Germany on March 6-10

WANG YIOU

THE UNITED STATES

Protesters hold banners outside the White House on March 5, urging the United States not to support a potential Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington, D.C.

Brazzaville residents salvage their belongings from the debris on March 5, a day after a catastrophic ammunition explosion struck the capital city, killing at least 300 people and injuring more than 1,000

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

GERMANY

Police officers take part in an antiterror drill in Seoul on March 6, which was held as part of the preparations for the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit scheduled for March 26-27

SOUTH KOREA

FRANCE

Women standing on the doorstep of their houses look at the water level of a street in Steenwerck on March 6. Floods following heavy rain and snow interrupted power supply and traffic in north France

AFGHANISTAN

A policeman stands guard as illegal narcotics are burned in Lashkar Gah in south Afghanistan on March 3