Xi: Reform of PLA calls for 'all-out efforts'

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, urged "all-out efforts" on July 24 to deepen national defense and military reform at a key meeting held ahead of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army. Xi said the national defense and military reform has achieved "historic outcomes" in the past five years. Through the reform, the PLA has become smaller but more capable, with better structure and a more scientific composition, Xi said, adding that the country's military structure, which has relied on land forces for a long time, has been changed fundamentally.

FM says standoff with India can be easily fixed

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Bangkok on July 24 that it is easy to solve the standoff along the China-India border - Indian troops should withdraw from Doklam. In a Foreign Ministry statement, Wang said it is very clear who is right and who is wrong in the standoff in Doklam, and that even senior Indian officials have publicly said that Chinese troops have not intruded into Indian territory. "In other words, India admitted that it has entered Chinese territory. The solution to this issue is simple, which is that they behave themselves and withdraw," Wang said. Wang is the most senior Chinese official to have commented on the Indian troops' incursion.

VR panda 'paradise' coming to Chengdu

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province is preparing to turn the first and second floors of its museum into a virtual reality panda-themed attraction. It is expected to open next year. The center will work with a high-tech company in Beijing to provide the VR technology, according to Chen Cheng, information officer at the center. In the panda "paradise", there will be pictures of pandas and bamboo forests. When visitors put on VR eyeglasses, it will all seem real. People will be able to feel and hold the virtual pandas as they would in real life, Chen said.

Birds used to fight plague of locusts

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has mobilized an army of birds as an effective and environmentally friendly way to combat clouds of locusts along the China-Kazakhstan border. The voracious locusts have infested more than 392,000 hectares of pasture in Tacheng prefecture along the border that already have been hit by a continuing drought and scorching heat in recent months, according to the local bureau of animal husbandry. Since mid-June, the bureau has set up nesting areas made of brick in mountainous areas and grasslands to attract more than 50,000 migrating rosy starlings, a bird that preys on locusts and grasshoppers.

Couriers could face fines for data leaks

Express delivery companies could face fines of up to 100,000 yuan ($14,800; 12,700 euros; ￡11,370), or could even be shut down, for leaking customers' personal data, according to a draft regulation that aims to make the industry more secure. Companies would also be required to store waybills and any electronic data in a suitable management system and destroy them after a set period of time. Fines of up to 20,000 yuan would be assessed for illegal activities that challenge the security, interests or rights of the country or its citizens, or for actions such as opening or hiding people's packages. The draft regulation, released for public feedback by the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office, says that compensation should be paid to customers for delayed, lost or damaged parcels.

Public Security Ministry targets pyramid schemes

The Ministry of Public Security will conduct a campaign against financial crimes that raise money from the public, including pyramid schemes, in a bid to safeguard economic security and social stability. The campaign, which was launched on July 25, will last until the end of this year, the ministry said. The action comes on the heels of a series of pyramid schemes and other financial crimes nationwide that resulted in great financial losses and sparked demonstrations that aroused attention from the public and media at home and abroad.

More grads choose to work in 2nd-tier cities

Rather than swarming into megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, more students want to start their careers in second-tier cities, including provincial capitals and coastal cities, according to a recent survey conducted by Zhaopin.com, one of China's leading recruitment websites. The survey found that 37.5 percent of new college graduates this year wanted to work in second-tier cities, while 29.9 percent preferred top-tier cities. The number of college graduates in China is expected to reach 7.95 million this year, an increase of 300,000 over last year, according to the Ministry of Education.

Ex-official's illicit gains confiscated

The illicit gains of Ren Runhou, the former vice-governor of Shanxi province who died of an illness, will be confiscated, a court in Yangzhou ruled on July 25. The gains include more than $3.2 million (2.7 million euros; ￡2.5 million) in a combination of yuan, dollars and euros, as well as 135 physical items, Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court said. Ren was accused of accepting bribes and embezzling public funds between 2001 and 2013, when he worked as president of a State-owned mineral company and was vice-governor of Shanxi. He died of an illness one month after he was put under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in August 2014.

14 held in online gambling case

Police have cracked a case in which they say suspects used instant messaging service WeChat to organize gambling. Police in Changsha, Hunan province, detained 14 suspects in a case involving more than 13 million yuan ($1.92 million; 1.7 million euros; ￡1.5 million), police said on July 25.

Panda power is new face of solar

A solar power station shaped like giant pandas opened to the public on July 25 in Datong, Shanxi province, and its owner says similar plants are planned in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Engineers used different kinds of silicon solar cells in black and grayish white to present an image of two baby pandas when seen from above. The project's first stage is operating and was connected to the grid on June 29 with a capacity of 50 megawatts, meaning its average daily output could supply 120 average Chinese households with electricity for a year. The project incorporates eight industry-leading technologies, according to Wang Jingchao, technical engineer of the power station. "With the new technologies, our plant is estimated to achieve 1,600 hours of full power operation annually," Wang says.

Central SOEs' reform continues

The State Council announced on July 26 that China will include all central State-owned enterprises that have not been reformed in a modern corporate system by making them legal persons by the end of the year. The exception will be those in the financial and cultural sectors. The move is expected to help clear away institutional barriers for further SOE reform. It is part of the implementation plan for company system reform for central SOEs, which refers to those directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the country's top SOE regulator.

Gaming companies find treasure overseas

Online games have become a new driver for Chinese companies' growth in overseas markets, as exports advance by leaps and bounds. The overseas revenues of online games independently developed by Chinese companies surged by 57.7 percent to reach $3.99 billion in the first half of the year, according to a report jointly released on July 26 by the Beijing-based Game Publishing Commission and market consultancies CNG and IDC. Online strategy, cards, music and dance games developed by Chinese companies also are reaping good results in other overseas markets, the report says.

City will seek to improve services to foreigners

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and the southern gateway to the country, should study and explore a new employment guarantee system for the city's foreigners, indicating that those who invite and employ foreigners must take all responsibility for them, according to Cai Guoqiang, head of the committee of overseas Chinese, foreign, ethnic and religious affairs of the Guangzhou People's Congress. According to the city's exit and entry department, Guangzhou now has a transient foreign population of about 80,000, more than 60 percent of them from Asian countries.

Public hospitals to be nonprofit by 2020

Public hospitals in China will operate under a new system not driven by profits by 2020, according to a guideline from the State Council, China's Cabinet, released on July 26. China should establish a "modern hospital management system" that adheres to putting people's health at the center and adheres to the nonprofit nature of public hospitals and putting the public's interest as a priority, the guideline says. By 2020, it says, the new system will ensure that nonprofit, higher-efficiency and sustainable development has been established.

Jiangsu shares education with US

Jiangsu province, the economic powerhouse of China, launched an international education agency on July 26 in Pasadena, California - its fourth overseas education base after those in the UK, Canada and Australia. The Jiangsu-California International Education Center, an affiliate of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, will promote the bilateral relationship between China and the United States through education, professional training and business development. "Jiangsu has been focusing on its economic and trade relationship with California," Chen Zhenning, vice-governor of Jiangsu, told guests at the launch reception. "The establishment of the center means the province and the state will start comprehensive cooperation, especially in cultural and educational exchange."

Thousands of people evacuated from Shaanxi

At least 20,000 people were evacuated after downpours resulted in the worst flooding in decades in Shaanxi province, flood control authorities says. The northern part of the province was hit by heavy rain from July 25 to July 26, with precipitation of up to 23.4 centimeters. The rainfall pushed water in the Wuding River, a tributary of the Yellow River, to its highest level since 1975. The situation was even worse along the Dali River, a tributary of the Wuding, which saw its highest water level since 1960, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on July 26.

Cigarette sales tick downward in Beijing

The number of cigarettes sold in Beijing last year decreased by 8 percent year-on-year, the biggest decline in recent years, according to a report on population health released by the Beijing municipal government. Among people age 15 or older in Beijing, the percentage who smoke decreased to 22.3 percent last year, a drop of 4.7 percent from 2014. The total number of smokers decreased by about 200,000, the report said. The number of cigarettes sold in Beijing last year reached 93.8 billion, the report said, citing the Beijing Bureau of Statistics.

(China Daily European Weekly 07/28/2017 page2)