Nation's greatest scientist receives top honor

In the summer of 2014, during an outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone, West Africa, four Chinese healthcare professionals spent days in a stiflingly hot biosafety lab the size of two shipping containers checking blood samples for evidence of the virus, one of the deadliest pathogens in history.

The country's need is my command

Hou Yunde, director of the State Key Laboratory of Viral Genetic Engineering and an award-winning virologist.

TALENT KEY TO BASIC RESEARCH AND ORIGINAL INNOVATION

As the world's second-largest economy's innovation-driven strategy proceeds for high-quality development, China has decided to introduce more high-end expertise from overseas to help improve the country's basic research and original innovation.

Internet and lake management are main topics

Over the past week, a number of ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Water Resources, answered questions from the public concerning a variety of topics. These covered the canceling of internet accounts on mobile facilities and the government's new guideline on lake responsibility mechanisms.

Policy digest

Guideline issued to promote safe urban development

Beijing residents face new fines for exceeding quota

Couples in Beijing who have a third child without permission will face fines as much as three times the average disposable income the previous year, according to a regulation issued by the municipal government in July.

Science is revolutionizing the art of embalming

Technological advancements are changing the way practitioners use their traditional skills

Businessman builds boat to collect trash

A businessman who once made a living from the ocean now spends his time and money on scooping trash from its waters.

Around China

Jiangsu

The Maldives pursues closer cooperation

Talks better than giving each other cold shoulder

The decision of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea to reopen a communication channel has sent a long-awaited encouraging signal that talks can be resumed and peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula restored. After two years' long resistance and feisty rhetoric, inter-Korean relations seem to be returning to the right track.

Diplomacy in the new era full of vitality

At the recent Foreign Ministry's annual meeting in Beijing, which was attended by a group of Chinese diplomats posted abroad, President Xi Jinping elaborated on "major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era" and how to advance it.