FRONTRUNNER IN RACE FOR TOP HK POST

On March 1， Carrie Lam， former Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region （SAR）， became one of the three candidates qualifi ed to stand for election as Hong Kong SARs next chief executive.

The nomination period for the election began on February 14. The 59-year-old Lam secured 572 of the Election Committees 1，200 votes—just 29 votes shy of the 601 needed to win the jo b. The Hong Kong SAR chief executive election will be held on March 26， when the 1，200-member election committee will cast their votes.

After graduating from University of Hong Kong， Lam joined the civil service in 1980 and has since served in various bureaus and departments. She was appointed secretary for development in 2007 and chief secretary for administration in 2012.

Under Hong Kong SARs Basic Law， to be eligible for nomination， candidates must be a Chinese citizen of not less than 40 years of age who is a permanent resident of the SAR with no right of abode in any foreign country and has ordinarily resided there for a continuous period of not less than 20 years.

Price Hike to Discourage Smoking

Nanfang Daily March 7

Top political advisor Liu Wenwei suggested during this years Two Sessions that the state should set the lowest price for any pack of cigarettes at 10 yuan （$1.4） to discourage adolescents from smoking.

According to a survey by Peking Universitys Institute of Child and Adolescent Health， in Tianjin， Shandong， Chongqing and Guangdong， 32.5 percent of boys and 13 percent of girls aged between 13 and 15 have smoked cigarettes.

There are many reasons behind this increasing number， such as adolescent rebellion and the cool images of movie stars smoking on the screen. However， one neglected fact is the low price of cigarettes， making them easily accessible to adolescents. Liu highlighted a research result： Every 10-percent price hike leads to a 4-percent drop in cigarette consumption in developed countries and an 8-percent drop in developing countries. If cigarettes are more expensive， the desire of adolescents without stable incomes for this product will effectively be curbed. Although Chinas laws forbid selling alcohol and cigarettes to adolescents， in real life， vendors still sell cigarettes to them at low prices.

To protect their health， there must be effective measures to keep them away from cigarettes. While low prices are a factor， schools should do more to persuade students not to smoke， and the ban on selling cigarettes to underage young people should be strictly implemented.

Development of Center Cities

Oriental Outlook March 9

To some extent， the development of cities around the world is urban development surrounding big metropolises， for example， the city cluster along North Americas Atlantic Ocean coast with New York at the center， and Chinas Yangtze River Delta with Shanghai as the focal point. The prosperity of such center cities is thus crucial to the world as well as to these countries.

In February 2010， Chinas Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for the first time listed five big cities as the nations center cities， namely， Beijing， Shanghai， Guangzhou， Tianjin and Chongqing. “National center cities” have again become the focus of attention. The National Development and Reform Commission points out that Chengdu， capital of southwest Chinas Sichuan Province， should develop itself into a center city and Wuhan and Zhengzhou in central China should also be classed as center cities.

The selection of these three cities as potential center cities shows the nations development strategy. Chongqing and Chengdu will become two supporting points for developing the west region， while the rise of Wuhan， a transport hub on the Yangtze， will boost the economy along the river， and Zhengzhou， capital of Henan Province， will aid growth of the whole central region.

In recent years， the global economy has been in recession and experiencing waves of anti-globalization. The kind of globalization based on big coastal cities is desperately in need of new driving forces. In this sense， the strategic arrangement of national center cities is expected to inject vita lity into globalization.

English Learning Still Important

Qianjiang Evening News March 7

Li Guangyu， a deputy to the National Peoples Congress， suggested during this years Two Sessions that English should be removed as a college entrance examination （gaokao） discipline， and in primary and middle school， it should be downgraded from a compulsory subject to an optional one. Li put forward this proposal based on the fact that students in China are spending too much time on English learning.

The examination-oriented English teaching results in many students being unable to successfully communicate in English， although they might do well in English tests. However， even if English is eliminated from the gaokao， it will not retreat from the overall education system. English is the language most used in the world and an important tool to obtain knowledge. If it is removed from school education， people will turn to social education institutions to learn English. Many parents demand their children take English training classes in social institutions after school， not only for a higher test score， but also for better communication skills.

Chinas frequent contact with the outside world means English learning will become only more important rather than the opposite. The huge investment of time and money into English learning is not a reasonable excuse to play down English learning or even delist English from the gaokao. To give up English learning amounts to closing the window on knowledge about the outside world.

INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY SCIENTIST AWARDED

Teng Gaojun， President of Southeast Universitys Zhongda Hospital in Nanjing， Jiangsu Province， was awarded the SIR Gold Medal， the highest honor bestowed by the Society of Interventional Radiology （SIR）， along with two U.S. experts in Washington， D.C.， on March 5. Teng is the fi rst scientist from the Chinese mainland to have received the honor.

As a pioneer in interventional radiology （IR）， Teng had been nominated for the award for his major contributions over the past 30 years to practice standardization， education and research in the fi eld as well as relations between the Chinese Society of Interventional Radiology and foreign institutions.

Teng has performed over 20，000 IR surgeries and established or improved over 10 new IR treatment methods during his career， making great contribution to promoting Chinas IR technologies to take the lead worldwide.

He was awarded distinguished fellow of CIRSE （The Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe） 2015. The practice of IR in China， which began in the 1980s， is among the nations most rapidly developed medical fi elds.

“According to our experience， each 1 percentage point of GDP growth will help create about 1.7 million jobs.”

He Lifeng， Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission， underlining the correlation between economic growth and job creation at a press conference on March 6

“Despite uncertainties， the business outlook of corporate executives in China is improving， and the country remains one of the worlds most attractive investment destinations.”

David Wu， senior partner at accounting firm PwC China， in response to a recent PwC survey showing around one third of surveyed corporate executives in China are “very confident” about revenue increases in the next 12 months， up from 25 percent a year ago

“The rate of counties falling into poverty again， after poverty alleviation through tourism， is very low.”

Peng Decheng， Director of the Planning and Finance Department of the China National Tourism Administration， in response to Chinas plan to lift 12 million people out of poverty by 2020 through developing rural tourism

“Huawei is making an effort to build a totally connected and ‘cloudifiedworld through 5G.”

Yang Chaobin， President of technology giant Huaweis 5G product line， speaking about the fifth-generation（5G） networks the company envisioned together with China Mobile， Deutsche Telecom and Volkswagen in a recently published book