IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Business

Libya expects Chinese companies to resume businesses

A high-level Chinese delegation arrived on March 5 in Libya's capital of Tripoli to discuss how Chinese companies will resume business in the country.

Both Libyan and Chinese officials agreed to study and assess the Chinese companies' losses caused during the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi's regime, said Li Xiaobing, deputy head of the West Asia and North Africa Department of the Ministry of Commerce.

Li also discussed with Libya's housing and utilities minister Ali al-Shareef on ways in which Chinese companies can resume operations in the country.

Policy

Central bank focuses on inflation

The priority for China's central bank is to guard against inflation, said Zhou Xiaochuan, the country's longest-serving central bank governor.

"We hope to stabilize prices and inflation by means of monetary policy and other measures," Zhou said in a news conference on March 12. He also reiterated his commitment to further reform of the capital markets.

The bank's 2013 growth target in money supply, set at 13 percent from last year, was an act of prudence, or a "neutral" stance, rather than the relatively loose monetary policy following the 2008-09 global financial crisis, Zhou said.

Security

US main source of cyberattacks

China was subject to an increasing number of cyberattacks in the first two months of this year, with more than half launched from the United States, China's Internet security watchdog said.

In the past two months, 6,747 overseas servers were found to use Trojans or botnets to control nearly 1.9 million mainframes in China. Among them, 2,194 servers located in the US had controlled 1.287 million mainframes, making it the largest point of origin for cyberattacks against China, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center said.

More than 11,000 Chinese websites were hacked by 5,324 overseas mainframe computers in January and February using the backdoor method, with more than 3,500 websites hacked by 1,959 mainframe computers in the US. Some 132 mainframe computers located in Japan tapped into 473 websites.

Ninety-six percent of phishing sites targeting Chinese e-commerce users were running on foreign servers, with US-based servers hosting 73.1 percent, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Science

Spacecraft tests for lunar mission

An experimental spacecraft will be launched before 2015 to conduct crucial re-entry tests on the capsule to be used in the Chang'e-5 lunar-sample mission, said Hu Hao, chief designer of the third phase of China's lunar exploration program.

Chang'e-5 is expected to be China's first lunar explorer to return to Earth. The mission will be carried out before 2020.

The experimental spacecraft will consist of the Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter base structure, as well as the return capsule that will be used by the Chang'e-5, Hu says.

China has launched two lunar probes, Chang'e-1 and 2, both having circled the moon. Chang'e-3 will blast off in the second half of this year to become the country's first lunar explorer to soft land on the moon.

Scientists map out genome

Chinese scientists have completed mapping the genome of Mongolians, a first for a Chinese ethnic minority, a biotechnology professor said.

The group genome samples came from 200 volunteers from four Mongolian tribes, said Zhou Huanmin, a professor at the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and the head of a key biotechnology lab.

The achievement will reveal the genome features, genetic variations and the evolution of the ethnic group, Zhou said. The map will help improve the health of the ethnic group in the future through personalized healthcare options.

Transport

Unsafe bridges renovated

More than 21,600 hazardous bridges in China have been renovated in the past 12 years and transportation authorities across the country are placing more importance to this issue, said the Ministry of Transport.

"Bridge construction and safety is an issue of public concern and one of the key tasks of transport departments across the country," said a statement published by the ministry.

A total of 43.9 billion yuan ($7.05 billion; 5.4 billion euros), including 17 billion yuan from the ministry, was invested in the renovation of 21,610 hazardous bridges from 2001 to 2012, curbing the high incidence of bridge accidents, according to the statement.

By the end of 2011, China had nearly 689,000 bridges, with almost 58,000 being large or ultra-large. The length of these two categories accounts for 51.8 percent of the total length of China's bridges.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/15/2013 page2)