Briefly

Regions to unify high school entrance exams

All provincial-level regions should aim to adopt unified tests for the high school entrance exam this year as the test papers used by some localities are either too difficult or too easy, or they focus too much on rote memory, the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday. For regions that will have difficulty implementing unified test papers this year, they should make specific plans so they will be able to do so by 2024, the ministry said in a notice. Currently, within a city the same tests for the high school entrance exam are held, but that standardization only exists for each particular city and has not been rolled out province-wide in many areas. The tests should strictly follow the national curriculum for primary and middle schools, the ministry said. They should not contain any high-school level knowledge, knowledge from academic competitions or extracurricular tutoring.

China opposes US arms sales to Taiwan

A mainland spokesman on Wednesday voiced strong opposition after the United States approved a sale of up to $95 million worth of training and equipment to Taiwan to boost its "air defense", calling for the US to stop playing with fire on the Taiwan question. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks after the US State Department approved the sale to Taiwan of equipment, training and other items to support its Patriot Air Defense System on Tuesday. Ma said the sale of arms to China's Taiwan region by the US severely violated the one-China policy and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique. The US should immediately correct its act of selling arms to Taiwan and stop playing with fire on Taiwan question, he said.