IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Beijing welcomes trans-Pacific pact

The Ministry of Commerce on Oct 6 said China welcomes the agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact and hopes it can facilitate talks on other regional free trade deals to push economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The comments came after the trade ministers of the United States and 11 other countries in the Pacific Rim reached an agreement on the TPP in Atlanta on Oct 5, even though the final ratification of this ambitious deal in the member nations is far from certain.

After more than five years of negotiations, the agreement was signed by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam, which together account for 40 percent of the world's economy.

The ministry's representative said this agreement is one of the most important free trade deals in the Asia-Pacific region, and that China takes an open attitude toward efforts and actions that promote regional economic integration and system development in the Asia-Pacific region under the rules of the World Trade Organization.

Population to peak in 2025

A lower-than-expected fertility rate means China's population will peak in 2025, something the country's leadership will have to seriously consider when drawing up its forthcoming national development blueprint, said Zhang Juwei, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said China's population is expected to peak at 1.41 billion in 2025 and the total population in 2050 will be much lower than it is today.

"These projections are part of the background reports we submitted for China's leadership to consider when it designs its new national five-year plan," he said.

At the end of 2014, China's population was 1.37 billion. After it peaks in 2025 it is expected to decline to 1.3 billion in 2050, according to Zhang.

Nobel winner's home becomes attraction

China's admiration of outstanding scholars has turned the well-preserved childhood home of Tu Youyou, the Chinese pharmacologist who won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, into a popular tourist destination.

Since it was announced on Oct 5 that 84-year-old Tu had become the first Chinese citizen to win a Nobel prize in science, her former home in the old town of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has attracted visitors, especially parents and their children - even though it is not open to the public.

The house, which is for sale, is part of a complex of 37 traditional buildings, including several city-and district-level cultural relic preservation sites, that have been transformed into a high-end art and commercial zone.

IMF confident about GDP growth

The International Monetary Fund is confident about its GDP growth expectations for China in the range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent in 2015, according to the organization's latest World Economic Outlook, released on Oct 6.

China's fiscal measures and infrastructure investments are the main reasons for economic growth this year, according to the report.

China's economic transformation, the fall in commodity prices and the approaching normalization of the United States' monetary policy are the three main forces currently affecting the global economy, leading global growth to hit only 3.1 percent in 2015, said Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF economic counselor.

Typhoon Mujigae hits South China

At least 15 people have died or remain missing and more than 200 others have been injured since the powerful typhoon Mujigae made a surprise landing in southern China on Oct 4.

In Guangdong, three people drowned and four others went missing after two fishing boats sank on Oct 4, while another person was killed by a collapsed structure, according to the provincial civil affairs department on Oct 5.

In addition, tornadoes triggered by the typhoon damaged houses and destroyed other infrastructure in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and Foshan, killing six people.

In the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, one person was killed after being hit by a falling tree in Nanning, the region's capital city.

The typhoon has affected 3.16 million residents in 25 counties of Guangdong, forcing the evacuation of nearly 150,000 people.

Inflicting a direct economic loss of 12.5 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), it destroyed more than 2,800 rooms and damaged nearly 196,000 hectares of farmland in the province.

The provincial civil affairs department has allocated 20 million yuan to a disaster relief fund for the worst-hit areas.

Guangxi has evacuated 66,300 people, with the disaster affecting about 1.4 million residents in 22 counties. It caused direct economic losses of 175 million yuan for the region.

Call to combat corruption in prisons

A senior discipline inspector, Han Henglin, has asked officials to fight corruption and other illegal conduct in China's prison system.

Han, chief of discipline inspection at the Ministry of Justice, which oversees prisons, told his subordinates that the prison system faces "a severe and complicated situation" in the fight against corruption, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Oct 5.

Abiding by the rules must be incorporated into daily administration, education and promotion of officials in the prison system, Han was quoted as saying.

Since the incumbent leadership took office in late 2012, the Party has been engaged in a fierce anti-corruption campaign, taking down both senior leaders and minor bureaucrats. Last year, discipline inspection agencies nationwide investigated about 50,000 cases of minor violations and punished more than 20,000 officials.

Navy fleet pays visit to Poland

A Chinese Navy destroyer, a frigate and a supply vessel entered Poland's naval port in Gdynia on Oct 7. It was the first such visit and marks 66 years of diplomatic relations. The Chinese embassy's website said Poland is the sixth stop for the vessels on what it said was a "worldwide visit". The anti-aircraft destroyer Jinan 152, the Yiyang 548 frigate and the Qiandaohu 886 will remain in Gdynia until Oct 11.

Pregnant panda's fetus appears dead

Hong Kong Ocean Park announced on Oct 7 that, based on ultrasound scans performed in recent days, pregnant giant panda Ying Ying's fetus is no longer viable.

Ocean Park said at a news conference that since the confirmation of Ying Ying's pregnancy through ultrasound scans in late September, specialists from the park and the Chinese mainland have been closely monitoring her condition on a 24-hour basis for signs of labor.

Remote-sensing satellites launched

China launched a group of four satellites on Oct 7 for commercial remote-sensing services, an important step in the development of remote-sensing space technology. The Jilin-1 satellites, launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, include one optical remote-sensing satellite, two satellites for video imaging and another for imaging technique testing, according to an announcement from the launch center. All four satellites were developed and produced by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co.

Railways report record daily passenger volume

China Railway Corp said passengers made around 12.54 million train journeys on Oct 1, China's National Day and the first day of a weeklong holiday.

The figure reached a record high, up 6.9 percent year-on-year, thanks to the fast development of China's high-speed rail, it said.

On Oct 2, the Chinese railway operator dispatched 244 more trains to guarantee that all passengers reached their destinations.

China has 17,000 kilometers of high-speed rail covering much of the country.

Police crack down on driving along shoulder

Traffic authorities have tightened up the monitoring of drivers using the shoulder on freeways, hoping to ease congestion.

The Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign targeting the issue, which is commonplace across China, during the holiday, which led to police dealing with 60,000 cases nationwide.

Among the violations, more than 53,000 were for driving on shoulders illegally, and more than 7,000 were for parking on them, according to the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

Drivers using emergency lanes or shoulders illegally have six points deducted from their license and are fined 200 yuan ($31). Bus drivers will lose 12 points, which means they lose their license.

More support for cultural industries

The Ministry of Finance has earmarked 5 billion yuan ($785 million) to help support cultural industries.

This year, 850 cultural projects have received financial support, up 6.25 percent from last year, according to a statement by the ministry.

The funding was mainly used to help integrate new media with traditional media, the ministry said, adding that financial support will be made available to more important areas, such as film and television, bookstores and foreign cultural trade.

The ministry has provided 24.2 billion yuan in funding since the initiative began supporting more than 4,000 cultural projects. The money has played an important role in restructuring and developing the cultural industries.

Illustrated Harry Potterbook arrives in China

Book one of the illustrated full-color edition of Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, arrived on bookshelves in China on Oct 6, the same day as its global launch.

The book would be available at Xinhua Bookstores as well as online bookstores, the People's Literature Publishing House, the series' sole publisher on the Chinese mainland, announced Oct 5.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, illustrated by British award-winning artist Jim Kay, is the first book of the full-color series. The rest of the series will be presented annually.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the introduction of Harry Potter into China. The book is immensely popular in the country.

Nature reservesare flourishing

The ecological systems in China's natural reserves are stable, with numbers of some endangered animals and plant species growing, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

Nature reserves at various levels are providing protection to more than 85 percent of rare species, it said.

China has 428 natural reserves at national level, covering more than 96 million hectares. The population of endangered and rare species, such as golden monkeys, Asian elephants and dawn redwood trees, have been growing in these areas.

China has more than 60 natural reserves for giant pandas. The number of wild giant pandas has risen from about 1,100 in 2000 to about 1,600.

Efforts to protect the crested ibis and its habitat have helped the population grow from only seven in 1981 to about 1,000 today.

Vessel returns afterepic Arctic journey

The Chinese vessel Yong Sheng has finished a record-setting round trip from Europe to North China docking at Tianjin port on Oct 4.

The cargo ship, operated by China Ocean Shipping (Group) , the country's top shipping line, is the first Chinese merchant ship to sail from Europe to China via the Northeast Passage, an icy path across the top of Russia and Scandinavia that is believed to alter the way commodities flow to Asia and goods return to Europe.

Yong Sheng sailed nearly 20,000 nautical miles (37,040 kilometers) during the 55-day voyage, a shortcut compared with the route passing through Malacca Strait and the Suez Canal, the shipping company said.

Premier opens armsto foreign talent

Premier Li Keqiang has said China welcomes foreign talent to start their own ventures in the country.

He made the remark when meeting foreign experts who this year won the Chinese government's Friendship Award at the Great Hall of the People.

Li said China is driving growth with innovation and that the government is encouraging people to set up businesses and engage in innovation, mobilizing enthusiasm and creativity of all sections of society, so as to transform China from dependence on natural to human resources.

After the meeting, the award-winning foreign experts and their families attended a reception to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the founding of New China.

Biggest fall in 20 years hits forex reserves

China's foreign exchange reserves shrank by $180 billion in the third quarter - the largest fall in two decades - following the central bank's move to hold the yuan's value through selling US dollars.

However, the reserves fell by $43 billion in September after an unprecedented drop of $94 billion in August, suggesting that depreciation pressure on the yuan is easing.

The figures, released by the People's Bank of China on Oct 7, also showed that by the end of September the foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.51 trillion - still the world's largest.

Declines in the reserves in recent months have sparked fears among investors about their sufficiency, liquidity and usability. Another question being raised is whether the squeezed reserves can cover the nation's foreign debt.

Tsinghua ranked world's best in engineering

Tsinghua University overtook the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to become the world's No 1 university for engineering research, according to the newly published 2016 Best Global Universities Rankings by US News and World Report.

US News has been ranking US universities since 1983. The company began publishing global rankings last year, listing the world's top 750 universities overall, as well as by region and country. A school's research influence by academic subject is the benchmark for its rank.

Although Tsinghua University ranked 59th in the global list - compared with MIT's No 2 and Peking University's No 41 - the university exceeded all of its competitors in the field of engineering research.

Tsinghua was No 1 in publications, total citations and the number of publications among the 10 percent most-cited papers in engineering.

Thailand a major drawfor Chinese tourists

Nearly two million Chinese are expected to visit Thailand in the last three months of this year.

The Thai Farmers Bank's Research Center said an estimated 1.8 million Chinese will visit Thailand from October, which usually marks the beginning of the tourist high season, until the end of the year.

As many as 6 million Chinese have been expected to visit Thailand throughout this year, the country's tourism authority said, compared with about 4.3 million last year.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily European Weekly 10/09/2015 page2)