Nuclear Check

来源 :Beijing Review | 被引量 : 0次 | 上传用户:daifei147
下载到本地 , 更方便阅读
声明 : 本文档内容版权归属内容提供方 , 如果您对本文有版权争议 , 可与客服联系进行内容授权或下架
论文部分内容阅读
  Nuclear Check
  The Ningde Nuclear Power Station in southeast China’s Fujian Province.
  China has continuously improved nuclear security, and the safety of its nuclear power plants can be assured, the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) said on May 11.
  The country has stepped up checks on nuclear facilities since Japan’s nuclear meltdown in 2011, when a massive quake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi reactor and left more than 18,000 people dead or missing. In 2012, a medium-term nuclear safety plan was passed, curbing nuclear pollution as well as raising security at nuclear facilities.
  China has 17 nuclear power stations in operation with a total installed capacity of 14.8 million kilowatts. A further 28 units are under construction.
   Elderly Homes
  Chinese authorities published a regulation on March 12 encouraging homes for the elderly to insure against risks in their services.
  The regulation, jointly issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China National Committee on Aging, pledged to promote liability insurance in the country’s nursing homes and create a risk-pooling mechanism in the sector.
  It will also help nursing homes strengthen their sense of responsibility as well as their internal management, better protecting senior citizens’ rights and interests, it said.
  According to the document, a floating premium rate system should be adopted to encourage the insured institutions to work hard in risk prevention.
  Moreover, the regulation said, allowances for the premium fees meted out by financial authorities as well as relevant costs of government-sponsored nursing homes will be earmarked in the public budget.
  Prior to the regulation, insurance projects for elderly care homes had already been launched in several Chinese regions including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
   Green Island
  China’s experiment in developing a
  green economy on Chongming Island in east China’s Shanghai has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a recommended model of green economic development.
  The UNEP published its evaluation report on the ecological status of Chongming on March 10. The island is the world’s largest alluvial island and the least developed district of Shanghai.
  Covering an area of 1,267 square km, Chongming was approved as a national development zone for sustainable development in 2010, and the UNEP was invited by the Chinese Government to evaluate the eco-island construction project.   Development on the island, which has a population of around 600,000, has effectively integrated social, environmental and economic perspectives, according to the UNEP’s evaluation.
  The UNEP suggested that the Chongming model be promoted in China as an example in developing a green economy for less developed regions.
   Organ Donation
  China has set up a special committee to supervise organ donations and transplants, the health authority announced on March 7.
  Jointly founded by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), the new committee is the result of a merger of the Organ Transplant Committee and the China Organ Donation Committee, the NHFPC revealed in a statement.
  The committee will be in charge of coordinating and guiding different systems including donation acquiring and distributing, clinical transplant services, postoperative registration, and transplant supervision.
  China has the world’s secondlargest demand for organ transplants. About 300,000 patients suffer from organ failure each year, but only around 10,000 organ transplants are performed due to a lack of donors.
  The country introduced an organ donation system in 2010, with the nongovernmental RCSC serving as an independent third party for supervising and facilitating donation procedures.
   Retirement Age
  China will introduce its plan on raising the retirement age before 2020, a senior official has pledged, as the government looks to push ahead with the overhaul so as to cope with a shrinking workforce and an aging society.
  “As raising the retirement age is among the major tasks that were outlined in the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee last November, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will definitely introduce the plan before 2020,” Minister Yin Weimin said on March 10.
  Yin pledged to carry out the reform in progressive and tiny steps, but he did not elaborate on policy details.
  China’s retirement age is 60 for men, 55 for female white-collar workers and 50 for female blue-collar employees.
  The latest official data showed China’s working-age population dropped by 2.44 million to 919.54 million in 2013, the second straight year of decline, while the number of those aged above 60 reached 202.43 million.
   Bird Flu Vaccine
  Vaccines for H7N9 bird flu could hit the market as early as May, a Chinese expert on infectious disease said on March 7.   The vaccine is currently being submitted to drug control authorities for tests, said Li Lanjuan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
  According to official statistics, H7N9 has infected more than 120 people in China and killed at least 36 of them so far this year.
  Li said there has not been any substantial evidence for consistent human-to-human infection of H7N9, adding that poultry markets remained the primary source of infection.
  Green Volunteers
  Volunteers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, plant trees along Fuchun River before China’s Tree Planting Day, which falls on March 12.
  Tree planting has helped China’s efforts to become greener with volunteers planting 2.52 billion saplings across the country in 2013, according to a report released by the National Afforestation Committee Office on March 11.
  The Chinese Government raised its subsidies for the promotion of better varieties of trees and forests last year to 9.13 billion yuan ($1.49 billion), up 482 million yuan ($78.52 million) from 2012, the report revealed.


  Rising From the Ashes
  Dukezong Ancient Town in Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, which was damaged by a fire in January, is expected to be reconstructed with a cost of 120 million yuan ($19.55 million), local authorities said. Dukezong, meaning “town of the moon,” was built 1,300 years ago and is one of the most renowned resorts in Shangri-la.
   Internet Museum
  China will build its first Internet museum to chronicle the development of the Internet in the increasingly wired country, China’s Internet network watchdog said on May 7.
  The museum will display the history and fruits of China’s Internet development, with a portion of the exhibition open to the public in early April, according to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), one of the museum’s major organizers.
  Many digital technologies will be used to color the show, including social networking platforms to interact with netizens, with the introduction of a mobile app to enable a virtual trip within the museum, said Li Xiaodong, Executive Director of CNNIC.
  China now has over 600 million netizens, with mobile Internet users having expanded to 500 million. E-commerce and gaming are booming as informatization becomes key to updating the economy.

   Trade Deficit
  China reported a large trade deficit in February mainly due to distortion related to the Chinese New Year holidays, marking the first deficit since April 2013.
  Last month, the trade deficit stood at $22.98 billion, compared with a surplus of $14.8 billion last February and$31.86 billion this January, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said in a statement.
  Total trade dropped by 4.8 percent year on year to $251.18 billion, with exports dropping 18.1 percent and imports up 10.1 percent, according to the statement.
  In January, foreign trade climbed 10.3 percent, with exports rising 10.6 percent and imports up by 10 percent, previous data showed.
  “The Spring Festival holiday(January 31 to February 6) factor contributed to large fluctuations in trade volume and the deficit last month,” the GAC said.
  Chinese companies followed their tradition of rushing to export before the holiday and prioritizing imports after it, the GAC added.
  The dramatic fluctuation in the monthly trade figure has caused some concerns about the health of the trade sector.
  However, GAC spokesman Zheng Yuesheng played down the fluctuation, saying that trade growth will likely return to normal after the holiday distortion goes away in March.
   Moderate Inflation
  China’s consumer price index (CPI), a
  main gauge of inflation, increased 2 percent year on year in February, marking easing inflationary pressure since the end of last year, official data showed.
  The growth rate was down from 2.5 percent in the previous month and appeared to be at its lowest level since February 2013, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 9.
  The slowed CPI increase, in line with market expectations, was mainly attributed to the mild growth of food prices, which account for nearly one third of the weighting in the calculation of China’s CPI.
  Analysts predicted mild inflation would be sustained for several months amid economic downward pressure and weak global commodity prices.
  Inflation has slowed in pace for four straight months in China, as the country’s economic growth decelerated amid industrial restructuring and furthering reform.
  The producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, contracted 2 percent year on year in February after a 1.6-percent decline in January, said the NBS.   China’s PPI has been in deflationary territory for 24 consecutive months, the longest-lasting drop since the 1990s, according to the bureau.


   China On Display
  Participants talk business at a pavilion featuring Chinese companies on March 11 during the CeBIT held in Hanover, Germany. CeBIT is the world’s largest and most international IT expo that is held annually in Hanover.
  This year, over 3,400 companies from over 70 countries participated in the event from March 10 to 14. China, with nearly 700 companies on display at the event, has become the largest participating country, second only to Germany.
   Private Banks
  China will set up five private banks on a trial basis before the practice is extended to more areas, the chief of the country’s banking regulator said on March 11.
  The first batch of five banks will be in Tianjin, Shanghai, as well as Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, according to Shang Fulin, Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).
  Ten private companies, including Internet firms Alibaba and Tencent, have been selected to take part in the preparation work for setting up the banks, Shang noted, adding that their eligibility as shareholders will be subject to further examination.
  Each of the banks will be cosponsored by at least two private capital providers, Shang said.
  Shang did not provide a timetable for the launch of the banks, saying that they will be approved when “conditions are ripe.”
  Setting up private banks in China was written into an ambitious reform package rolled out after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee in November 2013, representing further opening up of the country’s banking sector.


   Golden Waterway Takes Off
  Ships deliver goods via the Xijiang River in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 12.
  Since 2008, Guangxi has invested more than 22 billion yuan ($3.58 billion) in constructing the golden waterway of the Xijiang River. By the end of 2013, the throughput of the waterway had reached 107 million tons.
  Compared with existing commercial banks, private banks will be subject to the same regulation and supervision, according to the CBRC chief.
  But financial services of private banks will be oriented toward small and micro businesses as well as residential communities, Shang explained.   Risk monitoring will be strengthened and shareholders’ behaviors will be regulated, Shang added.
   Strong Combination
  Chinese Internet firm Tencent plans to buy a 15-percent stake in JD.com, a major online direct sales company in China, before the latter launches its initial public offering(IPO) in the United States.
  The purchase, representing 251,678,637 outstanding JD ordinary shares, will cost Tencent $214.6 million and its e-commerce branches, according to Tencent’s statement filed with Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 10.
  After the purchase, Tencent will continue to buy 5 percent of JD’s outstanding ordinary shares on a post-IPO basis, the statement said.
  In return, JD will take over Tencent’s business-to-consumer and consumerto-consumer platforms Wanggou.com and Paipai.com, with all capital, assets, liabilities transferred to JD. It will also gain a minor stake in Tencent’s other online shopping website Yixun.com and the right to buy the site’s remaining shares.
  The deal, dubbed the two companies’ overall business collaboration in the e-commerce business, aims to win leverage in the competition with another Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba,
  which owns and operates the country’s largest online purchase platform.
  In addition, Tencent will offer JD level-1 access points at WeChat and Mobile QQ, two of the most popular mobile messaging apps developed by Tencent, to boost the latter’s growth in physical goods e-commerce, the statement said.
  The two firms will also further ties in mobile apps and online payment solutions, with JD being regarded as Tencent’s preferred partner in certain business areas.
   Offshore RMB Index
  China’s most internationalized bank, Bank of China (BOC), rolled out its first offshore renminbi index (ORI) on March 11, in a move to push globalization of the currency.
  The bank’s ORI mainly tracks development of the yuan’s deposit scale, operation, use of financial tools and other aspects with five indicators reflecting performance in the international financial market.
  BOC rolled out a cross-border renminbi index (CRI) last year. The two indexes combined offer a comprehensive tracking system for the yuan’s internationalization progress, said Chen Siqing, President of BOC.
  The ORI increased from 0.32 percent at the end of 2011 to 0.91 percent at the end of 2013, indicating the growing scale of offshore renminbi deposits.   The index showed that Hong Kong is the leading offshore renminbi center while the markets in Africa, Middle East and America offer great potential.
  Compared with other major international currencies, the yuan enjoys a limited share in the global offshore market, but is accelerating its internationalization using Southeast Asia as a springboard.
   FTA Talks
  Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on March 10 that during his visit to China early next month, he will discuss the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Australia with Chinese leaders.
  When delivering the annual government work report to the National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 5, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China will accelerate negotiations for an FTA with Australia.
  Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said that Li’s comments were “most encouraging and highly welcomed.”
  “The world is acutely aware of the opportunities presented by China. So we need to do all we can to lock in our trading assessment relationship if we are to protect and grow our access to China in the years and the decades ahead,” Robb said.
  A deal with China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, is believed to be a boon for the Australia’s agricultural exports, such as beef and dairy.
  The FTA is also expected to open the lucrative Chinese market to Australia’s financial services, legal services, education and telecommunications, Robb said.
其他文献
Charity in China has been put under scrutiny again after a recent investigation by Zhou Xiaoyun, a netizen famous for exposing scandals in the field.  From January to February, Zhou posted several mes
期刊
Ma Weihua, former President of China Merchants Bank, just experienced a new taste of novelty by depositing thousands of yuan into his newly opened Yu’ebao account. “The emerging Internet finance produ
期刊
In 2013, China’s imports and exports totaled$4.16 trillion, with its trade in goods replacing that of the United States as number one in the world. Nonetheless, the country is still far lagging behind
期刊
More than one month ago, Japan’s Kyodo News reported that the United States has been pressing Japan to return 331 kg of mostly weapon-grade plutonium that was received from the United States and Brita
期刊
The young athlete had the prototypical build of a gymnast. He was small, with a low-center of gravity, but built entirely out of muscle. Broad shouldered, with a rippling six-pack and a steely look of
期刊
‘Honey, I’m boarding now!” Li Jie, 27, told her newlywed husband Zhang Zhiliang on the phone while at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport late on March 7. Li had just wrapped up a three-day busines
期刊
Located in central Guangdong Province, Qingyuan is called the “back garden” of the Pearl River Delta owing to its abundant tourist attractions and a beautiful natural environment.  Qingyuan has a conv
期刊
On March 1, eight terrorists, uniformly dressed and masked, wielded knives to hack innocent people at the Kunming Railway Station in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The attack left 29 dead and more
期刊
For the first time, cybersecurity has been included in the Chinese Government’s annual work agenda. “We will safeguard cybersecurity,” said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in his government work report to
期刊
China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long been criticized for their low efficiency, bureaucracy and even corruption.  Excessively preferential treatment from the government has put SOEs in a be
期刊