IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Samsung woes may benefit local brands

Samsung is to recall its Galaxy Note 7 phones on the Chinese mainland, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on Oct 11. Users may replace their recalled phones with other Samsung smartphones or get a full refund, the administration said. There have been 20 cases involving overheating and fire related to the Note 7 on the Chinese mainland, it said. The recall is widely expected to benefit domestic high-end smartphone makers such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, which have speeded up efforts to launch new products, analysts said.

Book events set stage for Xi's Asian visit

China is working with Cambodia and Bangladesh to use book exhibitions and other events to draw the countries closer, ahead of President Xi Jinping's visits. The State Council Information Office and Chinese embassy in Bangladesh co-hosted a book exhibition in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Oct 11. The exhibition displayed more than 1,000 books, including Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, in languages including Chinese, English and French. A similar exhibition was held in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Oct 10. There, more than 170 representatives of government departments and media organizations attended.

100,000 expected for sports expo

Winter sports lovers will enjoy a four-day treat when Beijing hosts the first World Winter Sports Expo, beginning on Oct 19. The expo, co-hosted by the Beijing Olympic City Development Association and International Data Group, will feature four core exhibitions: winter sports, games and culture, outdoor and leisure, and interactions. More than 400 exhibitors and 100,000 visitors are expected.

Officials told to stop fake data

A meeting of a top Party reform group on Oct 11, chaired by President Xi Jinping, said officials must strengthen supervision over fraudulent data and ensure independent investigation and reporting over statistics, organizations and personnel. They must independently ensure that supervision authorities are not infringed upon, ensure that all types of cases of manufactured statistics are inspected in a timely and effective manner, and ensure statistics are truthful, accurate, complete and timely, the group told officials, according to Xinhua News Agency. The move was designed to prevent and punish counterfeit statistics according to law and Party discipline, it said without specifying the types of data or specific agencies.

New rules for swap of debt, equity

Debt-to-equity swap programs to lower China's corporate debt will not offer a free lunch to non-profitable companies, according to guidelines issued by the State Council on Oct 10. Unlike the previous government-led equity-for-debt program launched at the end of the 1990s, the new guidelines require that the program will be launched under market principles. The government will play a complementary role only, the guidelines said. It will not be responsible for choosing which companies qualify for the program and won't bear the losses during the swap process. In the meantime, fiscal policies and preferential policies will be provided to support debt-to-equity swap programs in the future, according to Dai Bohua, assistant finance minister.

Baidu hopes big data can improve care

Teaming up with healthcare professionals, China's internet search giant Baidu has launched "Medical Brain" to help patients and doctors by improving the equity and efficiency of the nation's healthcare system. It's an application in the healthcare field of artificial intelligence - a combination of big data, supercomputers and machine learning - according to Zhang Yaqin, president of Baidu. It now covers about 9,300 diseases.

Workplace deaths show a decline

The country saw 39,852 workplace accidents in the first three quarters of this year that resulted in 23,650 people either dying or going missing, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. The number of accidents dropped by 6.9 percent year-on-year, while the number of dead or missing decreased by 3.5 percent, the watchdog said at a work conference on Oct 11. The authority said ensuring the safety of coal mines and road transportation will be key targets for the fourth quarter.

Long March exhibit impresses foreign VIPs

General Abdoulaye Fall, Senegal's ambassador to China, said visiting the Long March exhibition at the China People's Revolution Military Museum on Oct 9 takes him back in time. Fall was among hundreds of people from over 90 countries, including 35 diplomats and 95 foreign experts, who visited the exhibit. It celebrates the Red Army's 9,000-kilometer trek across treacherous terrain over more than a year. The foreign visitors said they were impressed by paintings and sculptures, and actual items, including weapons, blankets and a half-eaten belt.

Supportive policies for Macao announced

Premier Li Keqiang announced on Oct 10 a number of supportive policies for Macao on his first visit to the special administrative region, including a planned renminbi clearing center to exchange currencies with Portuguese-speaking countries. The central government will support Macao in hosting the annual Global Tourism Economy Forum, building a series of exhibition brands with international renown, and setting up the headquarters for the China-Portuguese Speaking Countries Development Fund, the premier said.

Li vows anew to ease market access

Premier Li Keqiang vowed on Oct 12 to further lower the threshold to market access for business startups and innovative companies in a bid to create more jobs. More than 15,000 companies are registered every day around the nation, but only 70 percent of them are actively operating, Li said while meeting with managers of high-tech companies at the Global Entrepreneurial Leaders Forum in Shenzhen, an industrial hub in Guangdong province. Li said more than 9 million jobs were created in urban areas during the first nine months of the year, while more than 12 million graduates from colleges and vocational schools were expected to enter the job market this year.

Elderly will be getting top priority

On Oct 12, 25 ministries, including the China National Committee on Aging, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued a national guideline on how to improve the living environment to better meet the needs of the growing number of senior citizens. The guideline proposes building a "safe, convenient and comfortable" environment for seniors and to provide them with enhanced services in transportation, medicine and home care by 2025.

Mainland objects to foreign interference

The Chinese mainland strongly opposes foreign interference with regard to Taiwan's participation in the activities of international organizations, a mainland spokesman said on Oct 12. An Fengshan, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, made the comments in response to a question regarding Taiwan reportedly applying for participation in the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) General Assembly this year. The Taiwan question is China's domestic affair, and the mainland has always handled issues relating to Taiwan's participation in the activities of international organizations in line with the one-China principle, An said.

TV station focuses on Belt and Road

Beijing TV Station launched a news campaign on Oct 12 to concentrate on stories about the Belt and Road Initiative. The campaign will run from Oct 15 to Dec 31. More than 40 reporters involved in the campaign will be divided into five groups and travel to 33 countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road to report on the achievements of the past three years, current efforts and plans for coming years.

China ranks No 3 in top paper citations

China has risen to third globally in the number of highly-cited academic papers, according to a report released on Oct 12. During the past decade, 16,900 papers - 12.8 percent of the top group of those most often cited - were published by Chinese researchers, pushing China ahead of Germany.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/14/2016 page2)