PRIZE-WINNING BRIDGE ENGINEER

Chinas top bridge engineer Xu Gongyi won the John A. Roebling Medal at the 35th International Bridge Conference in the United States on June 12. The award is a lifetime achievement equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the world of bridge engineering.

Xu is the first Chinese and the youngest person to receive the medal since it was launched 31 years ago.

Xu， born in 1963， is the chief designer of more than 50 bridges， including the Shantou Bay Bridge， Chinas first modern suspension bridge. He also designed the Xiling Yangtze River Bridge， the first bridge to span the Yangtze without a pier standing in the river.

Xu graduated from the School of Civil Engineering at Southwest Jiaotong University in 1984. He is considered a pioneer in the development of suspension bridge technology in China， and is an expert in long-span cable-stay bridges and double-deck highway bridge technology.

Curbing Overseas Medical Malpractice

Legal Daily June 13

In recent years more and more Chinese customers have gone overseas for medical treatment. However， they are facing huge risks as the sector is ill-regulated.

In a recent case a woman from Zhuzhou City in central Chinas Hunan Province was cheated out of more than 600，000 yuan （$92，590） by an intermediary company for overseas medical treatment.

The woman surnamed Ma was given a free physical checkup at a Malaysian hospital during a free tour offered by the company. Ma was diagnosed with lung and breast cancer and paid for treatment at the hospital.

She became suspicious after returning to China and discovering at a local hospital that she had no cancer at all.

More needs to be done in order to crack down on malpractice in overseas medical treatment.

Domestic medical treatment should first be improved because many patients are seeking medical treatment overseas due to insufficiencies at home.

A lack of cancer medication is another factor in patients going abroad for treatment. China is trying to lower tariffs on imported cancer medication to make the treatment more affordable for patients.

Tourism and health authorities should work together to regulate the sector and special trade associations should be established to strengthen the sectors self-discipline.

Moreover， international collaboration should be enhanced to enable patients to receive treatment directly at overseas medical institutions or attract foreign hospitals to set up branches in China to provide services for domestic patients. In the meantime， patients should try to avoid the risks associated with overseas medical treatment by equipping themselves with basic legal and medical knowledge.

Fighting Poverty

Oriental Outlook June 18

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012， poverty alleviation has been one of the top priorities of both the Party and government. China has made substantial progress in poverty reduction in the period through creative government-led measures such as targeted poverty reduction.

Chinas population of impoverished people was reduced from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 30.46 million by the end of last year.

However， in order to fulfill the target of eliminating extreme poverty by 2020， China still faces a number of challenges.

Extremely impoverished areas in places with poor natural conditions are particularly difficult to transform. In addition to measures such as the relocation of impoverished populations and the development of local industries， more educational campaigns should be carried out to improve local residents capacity for selfdevelopment.

Another difficulty is helping those who have sunk into poverty as a result of disease or disability. West Chinas Shaanxi Province has provided a template for other places in this regard. The province selected over 1，000 medical workers from large public hospitals to provide paired assistance to more than 100 hospitals in impoverished counties and prevent people from falling into poverty as a result of illness.

Formalism， bureaucracy and corruption in government are also hindering the progress of poverty alleviation. For instance， there are still cases involv-ing corruption in the use of poverty relief funds and false reports on the income of impoverished families by local governments.

According to Liu Yongfu， Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development， the Central Government will carry out a series of campaigns targeting corruption and other malpractice in poverty reduction across the country from 2018 to 2020 to improve the efficiency of the battle against poverty.

Downsizing Television Dramas

Guangming Daily June 13

Television dramas have become ever longer in recent years. Nowadays， a drama of 70 to 80 episodes is commonplace while they could be told in 20 episodes. As a result， audience satisfaction with television dramas has decreased.

As producers face higher production costs caused by higher wage demands from actors and actresses， they attempt to recuperate lost profi t by extending the shows run since television channels pay for a drama according to its number of episodes. The channels themselves also want longer productions as they rely on product placement to generate their own profi ts. The longer the drama， the more space they have to place an advertisement.

It should be made clear what the purpose of a television drama is. Television dramas are designed to satisfy the publics aesthetic and spiritual needs， and producers need take this into consideration when creating a show. Long， crudely made productions solely aimed at profi t not only undermine the art itself but can also have a negative social effect.

Supervision of the television drama sector should be strengthened to make the length of dramas more compatible with their content. Plotlines， themes and the sincerity of producers are more important. As entertainment platforms become increasingly diversifi ed， will audiences be patient enough to watch an excessively long drama on the television？ It is time for producers and television channels to carefully think about this question.

RECORD-BREAKING SPRINTER

Sprinter Xie Zhenye produced a 9.97-second winning time in the mens 100-meter event at the Meeting de Montreuil in Paris on June 19.

Twenty-four-year-old Xie， the 200-meter gold medalist at the 2010 Youth Olympics and a two-time 60-meter fourth-place finisher at the World Indoor Championships of the International Association of Athletics Federations （IAAF）， outraced Akani Simbine of South Africa to notch his landmark victory with a 0.9-meter-per-second tailwind.

He broke Chinas national record set by star sprinter Su Bingtian at the Eugene leg in the 2015 IAAF Diamond League in Oregon， becoming the second Chinese to dip under the 10-second barrier.

Xies previous career best came last year at the Chinese National Games when he registered a winning time of 10.04 seconds. He now holds both the 100-meter and 200-meter national records.

Born in Shaoxing City in east Chinas Zhejiang Province， Xie graduated from the Department of Physical Education at Zhejiang University in 2016.

“People need to understand that the new classification doesnt mean every child who spends hours in their room playing games is an addict， otherwise medical professionals are going to be flooded with requests for help. The conditions need to become so bad that you have failed at school or lost your job.”

Liu Huaqing， clinic psychologist at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital， in response to the WHOs addition of compulsive video game playing to its section on addictive disorders in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases released on June 18

“There is a lot of interest from some Eastern European countries in building nuclear facilities and China could be one of the countries that bids for nuclear projects.”

Joseph Jacobelli， a senior analyst of Asian utilities at Bloomberg， commenting on nuclear energy cooperation between China General Nuclear Power Corp. and Eastern European countries

“Before， Deinonychus footprints were usually made by one dinosaur， making experts question films such as Jurassic World that depict Deinonychus living in groups. But the new discovery at Lizhuang Village appears to put an end to the question.”

Xing Lida， a dinosaur expert at China University of Geosciences in a recent interview with China Daily， talking about four parallel paths of dinosaur footprints found at a 6，000-square-meter site near Lizhuang Village in east Chinas Shandong Province which provide the first evidence that the creatures lived in groups

“Now more professional and well-educated， online celebrities are offering more diversified， personalized and professional content.”

Cao Zenghui， Vice President of Chinas leading microblogging platform Sina Weibo， commenting on the 2018 China Online Celebrity Economic Development Insight report jointly published by market research consulting firm iResearch and Sina Weibo on June 19