NEW PINGPONG QUEEN

NEW PINGPONG QUEEN

The worlds No.1 female table tennis player Chen Meng lived up to her reigning status by claiming the gold medal in the table tennis womens singles competition on July 29 at the Olympic Summer Games Tokyo 2020.

Chen， 27， started to play table tennis at the tender age of five and made it onto Chinas national table tennis team six years later.

Its another major title for top-ranked Chen， following her success at the Table Tennis World Cup in November last year.

Her teammate Sun Yingsha took home the Olympic silver. On the same day， Fan Zhendong and Ma Long made up an all-Chinese mens singles table tennis final， resulting in China securing both Olympic table tennis gold medals in the singles events.

Monetary Policy

Peoples Daily July 26

On July 15， the Peoples Bank of China（PBC）， the countrys central bank， lowered the reserve requirement ratio （RRR）， the amount of cash that banks need to hold as reserves， by 50 basis points， releasing about 1 trillion yuan （$154.3 billion） worth of long-term funds. The action reduced the weighted average RRR for financial institutions to 8.9 percent.

The RRR cut aims to improve the fund structure of financial institutions and boost their capabilities in terms of financial services to improve support of the real economy， the central bank said.

Financial institutions could use part of the released funds to repay the maturing medium-term lending facilities. Some funds will also fill the liquidity gap in the tax payment season coming up in late July. The reduction has lowered the fund costs for financial institutions by some 13 billion yuan （$2.03 billion） each year， according to the PBC calculation.

Rather than resorting to a “flood-like”stimulus， the PBC pledged to uphold a normal monetary policy while keeping it stable and effective to create a suitable monetary and financial environment.

Relishing Cultural Ties

China Newsweek July 19

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center in 1971， raising the international curtains on overseas unearthed historical relic exhibitions. From that moment onward， cultural ties have been promoted as a way to enhance people-to-people exchanges between China and the rest of the world.

On May 8， 1973， a first event， the Exhibition of Unearthed Chinese Cultural Relics， opened its doors to the public in Paris， France. The exhibition ran for four months and visitor numbers went up to 365，000.