THIS WEEK

KNOW YOUR CLASSICS!

Children recite the, or the-—one of the textbooks that formed the basis of elementary education in ancient China, during an event promoting traditional Chinese culture in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on June 15.

The event was part of the celebrations for the upcoming 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland on July 1.

Mega Project

The construction site of the Duohua Super Major Bridge in Longli County, Guizhou Province, on June 14.The bridge, 1,260 meters long, will shorten travel time between Longshan Township and Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, from 1.5 hours to half an hour by car, greatly facilitating travel for people from mountainous areas.

New Professions

China’s human resources authority is considering adding 18 new professions to the national reference book of occupational classifications to reflect the country’s occupational development and boost graduate employment and entrepreneurship.

The new professions, announced on June 14 to solicit opinions from the public, include robotics engineering technicians,data security engineers, digital solution designers, and energy efficiency and carbon neutral building consultants, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on its website.

The new professions reflect the country’s digitalization and carbon peaking and neutrality trends, read the statement.

The ministry will work with relevant departments to formulate new vocational standards and guide training institutions to carry out training in accordance with the standards, the statement said.

Education Development

China has seen more than 600,000 new graduates with doctoral degrees and 6.5 million new graduates with master’s degrees over the last 10 years, providing powerful talent support for the country’s development, the Ministry of Education said on June 14.

Apart from making steady progress in developing academic degree programs, China has stepped up its efforts in professional degree programs over recent years, noted Hong Dayong, head of the ministry’s Department of Degree Management and Postgraduate Education, at a press conference.

Recipients of professional master’s degrees accounted for 35 percent of the total of new master’s degree recipients in 2012, while the ratio rose to 58 percent in 2021, said Hong.

The ratio for professional doctoral degree recipients increased from 5.8 percent to 9 percent during the same period.

Climate-Resilient Society

China has detailed measures to boost its climate change monitoring and risk prevention capabilities, marking a significant step forward in the country’s efforts to enhance its climate resilience, Xinhua News Agency reported on June 14.

The country will seek to build a climate-resilient society by 2035, with significant improvements in its ability to adapt to climate change, according to the national climate change adaptation strategy 2035, jointly released by 17 departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

By 2035, the country’s climate change monitoring and early warning capability will reach a globally advanced level,while the climate risk management and prevention system will mature, according to the document.

It added that China will take measures to prevent and control major climate-related disaster risks in an effective manner, and further improve the technical and standard system for adapting to climate change.

China first issued a national climate change adaptation strategy in 2013, and for the first time made climate change adaptation a national strategy. Since then,the country has made positive results in improving adaptation to climate change in key regions and industries.

China will integrate climate change response with its territorial space planning efforts, and improve the climate resilience of its major strategic regions.

Highest Planetarium

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Tibet Planetarium was held in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, on June 12. The planetarium, scheduled to open to the public in 2024, will be the highest in the world.

“The planetarium has a gross floor area of 11,571 square meters, and its architectural style is inspired by a meteorite,” said Wang Junjie, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of Tibet.

The 1-meter-aperture optical telescope installed at the planetarium will be the largest refraction optical telescope in the world, and will serve the dual purposes of scientific research and science popularization, he said.

The Tibet Planetarium is an important member of the national networks of planetariums and astronomical observatories,and will play an important role in improving the popularization of astronomical science in Tibet and the ability of astronomical and space observation in China.

Diving Course

Learning to dive can be somewhat expensive, but students at a university in Jiangsu Province are now able to learn the skill for free, Xinhua News Agency reported on June 13.

With a total of 16 lessons in one semester, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, located in the city of Zhenjiang, has opened a diving class to boost its physical education program. It is the first university in Jiangsu to offer such a course.

“Diving is a little bit mysterious in China and students need to learn a lot of theory,” said Li Ming who teaches diving at the university, noting that before entering the water, students must first learn to swim.

The university provides each student of the class with a complete set of diving equipment which costs more than 3,000 yuan ($445). Students are currently training in a 2-meter-deep open-air swimming pool.

More and more universities in China have attempted to offer novel sports courses such as dragon boat racing, wrestling and martial arts, as to enhance students’ interest in sports and improve their physical fitness.

Ginseng Industry

Jilin Province has released a guideline to bolster the ginseng industry, aiming to increase its total output value to 80 billion yuan ($11.9 billion) in 2025 and 100 billion yuan ($14.9 billion) in 2030.

Support measures will be taken in major aspects such as ginseng planting, product development, brand cultivation,and fund seeking, according to the guideline on advancing the high-quality development of the ginseng industry, released by the General Office of the Jilin Provincial People’s Government.

Jilin is China’s leading production area for ginseng,a renowned herb believed to enhance wellbeing. The province is responsible for around 60 percent of the country’s total ginseng production and will strive to achieve new breakthroughs in key technologies involving the cultivation of new varieties,efficient planting and deep processing during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

Last year, the overall output value of the entire ginseng industrial chain in Jilin surpassed 60 billion yuan ($8.9 billion), up 5.2 percent year on year.

A Spectacle

Butterflies in the Honghe Butterfly Valley in Yunnan Province on

June 9. Hundreds of millions of butterflies emerged from chrysalises in the valley, creating a rare ecological spectacle.

Fishery Expo

A giant grouper, 2.4 meters long and weighing 150 kg, is on display at the China (Fuzhou) International Seafood and Fisheries Expo in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, on June 10.

Economy in May

China’s economy has gradually overcome the negative impacts of the pandemic, with main indicators showing marginal improvement in May, Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics,said on June 15.

Fixed assets investment rose 6.2 percent in the first five months,compared with a 6.8-percent gain in the first four months.

Industrial output grew 0.7 percent in May from a year earlier,after falling 2.9 percent in April.

Exports jumped 15.3 percent year on year in May, shattering expectations, as factories restarted and logistics snags eased.

The nationwide surveyed urban unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in May from 6.1 percent in April.

Retail sales fell 6.7 percent year on year in May, compared with an 11.1-percent decline in the previous month.

“Consumption is still recovering from the fallout of the pandemic and will continue the momentum with employment remaining stable,” Fu said.

The country is expected to register a reasonable economic growth in the second quarter if COVID-19 is effectively controlled at home and the pro-growth measures are taking effect, he concluded.

FDI Inflow

Paid-in foreign direct investment(FDI) into the Chinese mainland expanded 17.3 percent year on year to 564.2 billion yuan ($84 billion) in the first five months of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said on June 14.

In U.S. dollar terms, FDI volume went up 22.6 percent year on year.

The service industry saw capital inflow jump 10.8 percent year on year to 423.3 billion yuan($63 billion), while that of hi-tech industries surged 42.7 percent from a year earlier, data from the ministry showed.

FDI in hi-tech manufacturing rose 32.9 percent from the same period a year ago, while that in the hi-tech service sector soared 45.4 percent year on year.

During the period, investment from the Republic of Korea, the United States and Germany improved 52.8 percent, 27.1 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively.

In the January-May period,FDI flowing into the country’s central region reported a yearon-year increase of 35.6 percent,followed by 17.9 percent in the western region, and 16.1 percent in the eastern region.

General Aviation

A new plan unveiled by the Civil Aviation Administration of China,says the country will have 3,500 registered airplanes for general aviation by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.The number of registered airports for general aviation will top 500,and no fewer than 25 provinciallevel regions will provide general aviation emergency rescue services by end-2025.

The plan urges improving emergency rescue services, supporting innovation in the use of drones and further upgrading services in the agricultural and industrial sectors, among other measures.

General aviation refers to aircraft operations in civil aviation other than public air transport,such as services for agriculture,disaster relief and rescue, and recreation.

Official data showed 2,892 airplanes, 339 airports and about 517,000 drones had been registered for general aviation across the country by the end of 2020.

NEV Sales

Sales of new-energy vehicles(NEVs) in May came in at 360,000 units nationwide, surging 91.2 percent year on year, according to the China Passenger Car Association.On a monthly basis, the volume registered an increase of 26.9 percent.

In the first five months, NEV sales in the country skyrocketed 119.5 percent from a year ago to 1.71 million units.

Overall, China’s passenger vehicle sales rebounded in May from April, with a total of 1.35 million passenger vehicles sold, up 29.7 percent month on month.

As COVID-19 infections gradually waned and logistics disruptions were addressed throughout the country, the auto production capacity is expected to be fully released in June, the association said, forecasting an over 10-percent year-on-year growth in auto output and sales in the month.

SMEs Index

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development Index, based on a survey of 3,000 SMEs nationwide, edged down 0.1 point from the previous month to 88.2 in May, the latest industry data showed.

It was the fourth consecutive month of fall for the gauge, the lowest since 2021, but the index saw its decline narrow from the previous month, the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises said.

Severe COVID-19 resurgences in major cities, which choked industrial and supply chains, coupled with overseas uncertainties, had undermined the business prospects of SMEs,the association said.

The sub-indexes for capital and labor force stood in the expansion zone in May, while that for costs was in the contraction zone,indicating rising business costs for SMEs.

The survey showed more progress was made in business resumption in May but still was at a lower level. The share of enterprises operating at full capacity rose 2.2 percentage points compared with that in April.

Industrial Output

The industrial output logged an average annual growth of 6.3 percent in the 2012-21 period as China’s manufacturing sector gained strength,Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference on June 14.

The industrial value-added output rose from 20.9 trillion yuan ($3.1 trillion) to 37.3 trillion yuan ($5.55 trillion) during the past decade, Xin said.

The growth was well above the global average of about 2 percent for the period. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the average growth rate for 2020 and 2021 reached 6.1 percent,according to Xin.

China’s manufacturing valueadded output expanded from 16.98 trillion yuan ($2.5 trillion) in 2012 to 31.4 trillion yuan ($4.67 trillion) in 2021, he added. The country accounted for 30 percent of the global manufacturing output last year, marking an increase from 22.5 percent in 2012.

Cloud Expenditure

China continued to be the leading growth market for cloud infrastructure services expenditure in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by the technology market research firm Canalys.

Such expenditure on the Chinese mainland hit $7.3 billion in the first three months, up 21 percent from a year ago, Canalys said.

The country’s spending accounted for 13 percent of the global total, the report said.

The market leaders in China remained unchanged in the first quarter, with the top four cloud service vendors being Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud, according to the report.

Benefiting from China’s expansion of cloud use, the four providers accounted for 79 percent of total expenditure in the country, according to Canalys.

UNITED STATESFederal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell takes questions from reporters at a press conference in Washington, D.C., onJune 15 after the Fed decided to raise itsbenchmark interest rate by 75 basis points,marking the sharpest hike since 1994

SWITZERLAND Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addresses the opening ceremony of the organization’s 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva on June 12.The four-day meeting discussed key issues such as pandemic response,food security and the WTO’s reform

NEW HEAD OF NATIONAL RADIO AND TV ADMINISTRATION

Xu Lin recently was appointed as head of the National Radio and Television Administration, China’s broadcasting regulator, and no longer heads the State Council Information Office.

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Xu holds an MBA degree. He worked in Shanghai until June 2015, with a stint in Tibet Autonomous Region from May 1995 to May 1998.

From 2003 to 2007, Xu was head of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

Later, Xu also held positions in different departments, including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Cyberspace Administration of China. He was the minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China from June 2016 to July 2018.

Xu has been a deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee since June 2016, and minister of the State Council Information Office since August 2018.

In 2021, wages accounted for 70 percent of the incomes of people who newly rose out of absolute poverty. In this sense,having a stable job is key to prevent these people from slipping back into poverty.

Several obstacles stand between rural workers and stable jobs: Only a small fraction of them is equipped with useful labor skills. Although working close to home will reduce living costs compared to in other provinces, most of the local job opportunities are seasonal and their incomes fluctuate. Battered by COVID-19, the service and manufacturing sectors in rural areas, which absorb a large amount of labor, have shrunk sharply and cannot provide sufficient employment opportunities.

Governments at various levels have produced an array of polices to help businesses out of this predicament. In the long run, it’s important to strengthen the technical training of people who were recently escaped absolute poverty.Stronger working capabilities will help this group transition from physical laborers to technical workers, making it easier for them to find stable and betterpaid jobs.

“China has been playing a more important role in safeguarding global and regional peace and stability.”

Kin Phea, Director General of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, at the 19th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 12

“It’s important to respect the diversity of civilizations… and make exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations a powerful bond for maintaining world peace and promoting common development.”

Xiao Qian, Chinese Ambassador to Australia, at the national conference of the Australia-China Friendship Society on June 11

The key to food security lies in the nation’s production capacity for grain,which means enough grain is available when the demand arises. This requires China to maintain sufficient arable land and update its irrigation and water conservancy programs supported by modern agricultural machinery.

China’s 1.4 billion people consume 700,000 tons of grain, 98,000 tons of oil, 230,000 tons of meat and 1.92 million tons of vegetables every day. This huge demand for food suggests that the land for grain, oilseeds and vegetables must be kept at a minimum of approximately 2.4 billionor 160 million hectares. Even if some land can be repeatedly used in the same year, the bottom line is approximately 1.8 billionor 120 million hectares.

Currently, 95 percent of arable land is planted with seeds bred by China itself. Rising grain production in recent years is to large extent attributed to the development of improved crop varieties.

Sustainably stable grain production in recent years has ensured sufficient grain supply and grain stocks. China has managed to produce 95 percent of the grain need of its population.

Stable food supply and prices at a time of surging international grain prices act as a ballast in the country’s social stability and development. A high-quality food security system is taking shape, which will provide the Chinese with healthier and richer food choices.

The first vice principal in charge of food safety has recently taken office at a university in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Apart from conducting regular food safety reviews and training canteen workers on food safety, the vice principal will also invite parents to visit the school’s canteen and have meals there.To ensure all aspects of food safety for students, the vice principal will conduct regular assessments of canteen workers and the school’s food safety managers.

This is not a simple job. The vice principal must devote himself or herself to campus food safety, so as to win support from the students and their parents.The final goal is that all sides will participate in monitoring and ensuring food security on campus.

Food safety on campus affects the growth of the new generation and the lives of many families. A long-term mechanism to monitor and ensure campus food safety will be put in place and improved continuously to keep pace with the times.

PHOTOSENSITIVE MATERIALS SCIENTIST DIES AT 86

Zou Jing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), passed away in Tianjin on June 9, at the age of 86.

She had been engaged in the research of photosensitive materials and functional thin film materials for most of her life. Her research results made China the fourth country in the world to develop and produce color films independently in the 1980s, after the United States, Germany and Japan.

Zou was born in 1936. She earned a bachelor’s degree in production engineering in the Soviet Union in 1960, and then started her career at the Baoding Cinefilm Manufacturing Factory in Baoding, Hebei Province, now known as China Lucky Group Corp. Zou was the company’s chief engineer from 1985 to 2000.

In 1994, Zou was elected to be among the first CAE academicians. She had been a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University before passing away.

“The Digital Silk Road is well-positioned to help African nations deal with corruption through the use of artificial intelligence.”

Djamel Ghrib, Director of Economic Affairs at the African Union Commission (AUC), during the AUC-IMF High-Level Conference on June 14

“The only true path to energy security, stable power prices,prosperity and a livable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels.”

António Guterres, UN Secretary General, in his remarks delivered to the Austrian World Summit via video link on June 14