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All set for Nanjing Youth Olympics

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to join President Xi Xinping at the opening ceremony of the 12-day Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Aug 16.

Also expected to attend at Xi's invitation will be Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza, Fiji President Epeli Nailatikau, Maldives President Abdulla Yameen, Montenegro President Filip Vujanovic, Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Vanuatu Prime Minister Joe Natuman, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

The Youth Olympic Games, the brainchild of former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, are for athletes age 14 to 18.

Nationwide legal aid for inmates

A program that enables detention center inmates awaiting trial to consult a lawyer is set to expand across China by the end of the year, according to the author of a human rights report.

The lawyers visit centers to inform inmates of their rights, provide legal aid and help them to understand the law.

The system is already operating in some areas, said the report in the 2014 Blue Book of China's Human Rights.

"These lawyers are required to have a face-to-face talk with suspects, explaining what crimes they are accused of and providing legal aid for those who have difficulties finding an attorney," said Ding Peng, a law researcher at Wuhan University who co-wrote the report.

"Previously, suspects were handed a piece of paper or asked to look at a notice to learn about their rights in a detention center, but now lawyers must inform them orally.

"Not everyone can understand written legal articles, and some information posted on notices is out of date."

Chinese film fans mourn Williams

Tributes poured in from Chinese film lovers on Aug 12 after the death of US actor and comedian Robin Williams at his home in California. The 63-year-old committed suicide.

On Sina Weibo alone, 30 million comments had been made.

Due to the language barrier, Williams was not well-known in China for his signature rapid-fire and manic delivery of comedy.

Even though Good Morning, Vietnam and Mrs. Doubtfire are widely available in the country, it is his dramatic roles in Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting that endeared him to Chinese filmgoers.

On Chinese social networks, "O Captain! My captain!" a reference to the Walt Whitman poem that Williams' character uses in Dead Poets Society became the theme for shared mourning.

Need for more consular services

Diplomats and specialists at a seminar in Beijing have called for greater investment in consular services rather than solely depending on the Foreign Ministry to protect Chinese overseas.

The seminar was held against the backdrop of high-profile evacuations of Chinese citizens from places facing civil strife, including transporting nearly 4,000 people from Vietnam in May and more than 1,200 from Iraq in June.

The limited number of consular officials can hardly meet the soaring needs of overseas Chinese as global links deepen, Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao said at the seminar.

People from the mainland made 98.2 million trips overseas in 2013, Liu said. More than 20,000 Chinese enterprises are operating and are present in almost every country, and more than 6.9 million Chinese workers in various fields have been sent overseas.

Coal use falls 7% in first half

The Beijing government cut the city's coal consumption by 7 percent in the first half of 2014 as part of its efforts to tackle smog, the city's environmental protection bureau said.

Beijing is at the front line of a "war on pollution" declared by the central government earlier this year in a bid to head off public unrest about the growing environmental costs of economic development.

The city has already started to close or relocate hundreds of factories and industrial plants. It will also raise vehicle fuel standards and is mulling the introduction of a congestion charge.

To reduce coal consumption, it is in the process of shutting down all of its aging coal-fired power plants and replacing them with cleaner natural gas-fired capacity or with power delivered via the grid.

Based on last year's coal consumption level of 19 million metric tons, the 7 percent cut would amount to around 1.33 million tons per year.

Beijing has said previously that it plans to reduce total coal use by 2.6 million tons in 2014, and aims to slash consumption to less than 10 million tons per year by 2017.

UK launches 'super' visa service

Britain has introduced a Super Priority visa service in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - but it comes at a cost.

Applicants can apply in the morning and receive their visas within 24 hours. The move is part of a UK plan to attract more Chinese tourists and business travelers by simplifying the visa process.

The priority visas will cost 683 pounds ($1,146), comprising a visa fee of 83 pounds and service fee of 600 pounds.

John Gallagher, communications counselor at the British embassy, said on the its first day, it had five applicants in Beijing and three in Shanghai for the new service, and had a number of appointments booked for later in the week, adding he expected the service to be popular.

The new visas are available to all business, general and family visitors with evidence of travel to Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or Schengen countries within the past five years, those wanting to apply for general and intra-company transfer employment visas, sportspeople and entertainers.

Police target emigrants still holding hukou

Those who have obtained residency permits or citizenship abroad but have not cancelled their Chinese household registrations especially if they face allegations of corruption are to be targeted by police investigations, in the latest measure in the fight against graft, the Ministry of Public Security said.

"If evidence is uncovered, they may face departure restrictions if they return to China to visit family members," a senior official from the ministry, who requested anonymity, told China Daily.

Police will examine bank accounts and financial transactions as well as input from the public, he said.

It is mandatory for Chinese citizens who settle in other countries to cancel their household registrations, or hukou, before emigrating.

There has been a rise in emigrants obtaining permanent residence overseas, especially in the United States and Canada, but many did not give up their local hukou that allow them to benefit from welfare services, such as medical insurance, pensions and children's education.

According to the US government, 35,387 Chinese people opted to become US citizens last year, an increase of 11 percent over 2012.

150 Chinese economic fugitives at large in US

More than 150 economic fugitives from China, most of whom are corrupt officials or face allegations of corruption, remain at large in the United States, according to an official from the Ministry of Public Security.

"The US has become the top destination for Chinese fugitives fleeing the law," said Liao Jinrong, director general of the International Cooperation Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security.

Figures from the ministry show that during the past decade, Chinese police have brought only two fugitives home to stand trial. One of those was the high-profile fugitive Yu Zhendong, former head of the Bank of China branch in Kaiping, Guangdong province.

(China Daily European Weekly 08/15/2014 page2)