In brief

Railways

Bullet trains told to reduce speed

China has decided to lower the operating speed for its bullet trains due to safety concerns amid an overhaul of the high-speed rail system.

The decision, made by an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao on Aug 10, came after a bullet train crash last month in which 40 people died and nearly 200 were injured.

According to the Ministry of Railways, during the initial stages, trains with a top design speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be lowered to 300 km/h, and the trains designed to run up to 250 km/h will operate at 200 km/h. The trains whose speed was previously raised to 200 km/h will be scaled down to 160 km/h. Ticket prices will also be reduced.

Data

China becoming even more male

Census figures show an increasingly imbalanced sex ratio at birth on the Chinese mainland, Deputy Health Minister Liu Qian said.

China's sex ratio at birth was 118 males for every 100 females last year. The number of males for every 100 females has risen steadily since 1982, when it was 108.

The government has taken steps to tackle the problem, including improving the social security system and cracking down on sex-selective abortions, Liu said.

Policy

Women seek larger role

The nation is striving to improve the political influence of women by ensuring more positions for them in the country's government departments, Song Xiuyan, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation and deputy director of the National Working Committee on Children and Women, said at a news conference on Aug 9 for a new 10-year working plan for women.

The 2011-2020 Outline for Chinese Women's Development stipulates that all local governments above the county level should have more than one female leader by the end of 2020.

More than 86 percent of local governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels had female leaders by the end of 2010, while 10 years ago only about 60 percent of the governments of the three levels offered policy-making positions to women.

Finance

AIDS fund manager is hard to find

The search by a non-profit group to help distribute funds it receives to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS in China could prove difficult because few seem qualified to handle the task, said Hao Yang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's disease prevention and control bureau.

Earlier this month, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention began an appeal for applications from grassroots organizations to handle a large portion of the money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In May the Geneva-based foundation suspended grants, saying China was not doing enough to involve community-based groups.

Environment

Better protection for pandas

New regulations have been framed to protect pandas loaned out for exhibitions in China, banning the collection of blood or semen, or loaning the pandas to a third party during the exhibition period.

Giant pandas can be exhibited for purposes such as raising public awareness of environmental protection or celebrating major events like the Olympic Games. Activities whose only aim is to make money would be prohibited under the new rules, which take effect on Sept 1.

Internet

Bribery websites up and running

Websites that reveal bribery staged a quiet comeback in China after ending a one-month limbo due to uncertainties about their legal status.

The websites, calling themselves various combinations of names to express the idea of "I-made-a-bribe", resumed online services quietly in mid-July after getting permission to register with the Internet regulatory authorities. Laws require all Internet content providers in China to register the websites they run with the local communication management bureaus. Those that fail to get permission from the authorities will be forced offline.

China Daily