IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Leaders' wives see HIV prevention efforts

Wives of the leaders of nations in town for the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen and related meetings, accompanied Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, on Sept 5 at an event to educate college students about AIDS. At Xiamen University, the guests visited an exhibition on HIV/AIDS prevention and control and listened to a briefing on efforts made by the Chinese government and universities. Peng, often greeted by Chinese children as "Mother Peng", has long been active in HIV/AIDS prevention and other health matters. She was appointed as a World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in 2011. In China, she became the health ambassador for HIV/AIDS prevention for the Ministry of Health in 2006. China will deepen cooperation on HIV/AIDS prevention with BRICS nations and developing countries, she says.

Li: Make way for new growth drivers

Premier Li Keqiang promised more incentives to boost high-end manufacturing in China during a visit to Huaxiang Group, a private steel-casting company in Linfen, Shanxi province - part of a visit to the area on Sept 4. The company's moves to retain top-level professional engineers have brought success, turning it into a major supplier to a number of overseas automobile companies. Huaxiang provides an annual salary of 3 million yuan ($456,000; 383,810 euros; ￡349,710) to some of its top craftsmen, four times that of the company's CEO. Li spoke warmly about the approach as he talked with some of the craftsmen from whom young workers have learned, noting that providing better incentives to lure talent to high-end manufacturing is also a key strategy for the country as it seeks to shift from old economic drivers to new ones. "We should pass on the spirit of craftsmanship from one generation to another, so that the idea of Made in China will be competitive not only in terms of prices but also in quality," Li said.

Mozambique media professionals trained

Chinese media professionals will help to train their counterparts from Mozambique, a senior official said on Sept 5. While meeting a media delegation from the African country in Beijing, Jiang Jianguo, minister of the State Council Information Office, said the visiting group provided a great opportunity for the two countries to strengthen cooperation. As economic cooperation has increased between China and Mozambique, the need for more news media communication about best practices has followed, Jiang said. "We kept a positive attitude toward the news professionals and tried to broaden the cooperation with Mozambique in the media industry. Through exchanges, workers in the industry will gain firsthand experience."

Circus in Guangzhou resists shutdown effort

The Guangzhou Zoo in Guangdong province will seek help from law enforcement agencies, local industries and commerce authorities to shut down performances by a long-established circus troupe on its premises after the troupe's operator refused to stop. The zoo informed the troupe in July that it would not renew its contract when it expired at the end of August, the zoo said in a statement. It plans to use the circus venue to build a scientific exhibition center. But the circus operator continued to sell tickets for shows. The venue was leased to the circus operator in 1993. Shows have been performed six times a day for more than 24 years. Huang Yingzhi of Anhui province, who heads the circus, said the troupe received notice on Aug 14 to close the show. "We are still discussing our future with the zoo. The zoo has offered to help transport the animals," Huang was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

As a test, young bullies educated in Beijing

Beijing's Tongzhou District People's Court has been testing a way to educate and correct young bullies, in a move to help them return to school. The courses began on Sept 4 with 14 girls, 15 to 17 years old, who had been punished for bullying on campus. One of the participants had been given a suspended prison sentence of a year and 10 months. It's the first time a court has tried to educate young offenders through training, although prosecutors elsewhere have tried similar approaches. The course was running until Sept 8. If the program is successful, it will be expanded to young people who have committed other offenses.

Ministry to protect kids' right to school

China's education authority vowed on Sept 5 to protect the right of all children to receive nine years of education. The move is designed to prevent incidents such as the recent case in which children were "adopted" by a club and taught to fight rather than go to school. A video showing two 14-year-olds in a boxing ring went viral on the internet in July. The two boys, along with other teenagers, had been trained in wrestling and mixed martial arts by a club in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and they performed in commercial fights. All of the children were orphans or "left-behind" children whose parents work outside their poor and isolated home villages in the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture and Aba Tibetan autonomous prefecture. "The principle guarantees that those children will receive and finish compulsory education," says Wang Dai, an official from the Ministry of Education's basic education department. "We will correct such cases immediately when we find them."

Mawar rains more misery on Guangdong

Guangdong province was battered by its third typhoon in 12 days on Sept 4, with torrential rain again flooding urban areas in several cities. Typhoon Mawar, the 16th typhoon formed in the northwest Pacific this year, made landfall in Lufeng at 9:30 pm on Sept 3, bringing winds of up to 72 kilometers per hour. Although weaker than the previous two typhoons in recent weeks, Hato and Pakhar, authorities issued red alerts for rainstorms, while kindergartens and primary and middle schools were closed in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Shanwei, Shantou, Chaozhou and Guangzhou. Many roads in Zhuhai and Shenzhen were flooded, cutting off traffic. More than 20 bus services were suspended in Zhuhai, a city that felt the full force of Typhoon Hato on Aug 23.

President praises 'friends' at Arab expo

President Xi Jinping described the Arab states as "good friends" and important partners in constructing the Belt and Road in his letter of congratulation to the 2017 China-Arab States Expo. The expo, which brings together Chinese and Arab business leaders to cooperate on science, finance, energy, agriculture, healthcare, tourism and culture, opened on Sept 6 in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. The president also hailed cooperation and achievements between the two sides. Xi said the Arab world actively responded to and widely supported his proposal that the Belt and Road should be built as a road of peace, prosperity, opening-up as well as innovation, and one that connects different civilizations, during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May.

Regulation of online drama tightened

China has banned the streaming of drama productions that do not have a government permit, with online dramas now subject to the same regulation as regular TV shows. The creation and planning of major internet dramas should be subject to archival administration, according to a circular on TV drama published on Sept 4. The oversight of the ideological and artistic merit of content must be strengthened before a drama is streamed online, according to the circular issued jointly by five government departments. The government will encourage good TV production institutions to work with internet dramas to improve their quality.

Ministry releases list of charity groups

China has publicized information on 2,134 charitable organizations at cishan.chinanpo.gov.cn, a platform launched by the Ministry of Civil Affairs ahead of the second annual Charity Day, which falls on Sept 5. In all, 517 of the organizations are qualified to raise money publicly, according to the platform, which also lists 38 charity trusts with contracts totaling almost 860 million yuan ($132 million; 110.8 million euros; ￡101.2 million).

Air Force set on long-range mission

The Chinese Air Force will continue to transform from a territorial air defense unit into an extended arm capable of protecting national interests wherever they exist, according to its new commander, Lieutenant General Ding Laihang. Ding says that as China becomes stronger and security challenges continue to emerge, the military is striving to ensure it can safeguard national interests anywhere in the world. "In the past, our strategies and guidelines focused on territorial air defense. Now we have been shifting our attention to honing our ability in terms of long-range strategic projection and long-range strike," he says. "A strategic force must go out. We will continue to carry out long-distance training over oceans."

Beijing opens hospital helipad

A helipad for transferring patients in emergency cases was put into service on Aug 29 at a top hospital in downtown Beijing, which is often affected by traffic congestion. The helicopter apron, which is atop a newly built four-story parking garage at China-Japan Friendship Hospital, is the only one specially for medical services in the capital's urban area that integrates aviation and land rescue. Using the facility, the hospital will be able to cooperate much more frequently with emergency rescue centers to treat patients in critical condition from more than 500 kilometers away, says Wang Chen, president of the hospital. The helipad, which has a diameter of 20 meters, is designed to handle helicopters up to 17 meters in length and with a maximum takeoff weight of 8 metric tons.

No radiation found after nuclear test

The nuclear test on Sept 3 conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has not harmed the environment or public health in China, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Sept 6. The ministry will continue to monitor for radiation in China-DPRK border areas; intensify sampling and analysis of air, water and soil; and post public monitoring data on its website on a regular basis, the ministry says.

Voices rise for painless childbirth

The suicide of a pregnant woman after her plea for a cesarean section was rejected has sparked a public outcry across China, with people calling for the promotion of pain-free delivery options. Ma Rongrong, 26, who was a week from her due date, jumped from the fifth floor of an inpatient building at First Hospital of Yulin in Shaanxi province because she was in unbearable pain and she died on Aug 31, according to a statement from the hospital. The hospital and Yan Zhuangzhuang, Ma's husband, are now blaming each other for rejecting Ma's repeated pleas for a C-section instead of a natural birth after she was moved to a delivery room.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/08/2017 page2)