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Emissions goals canbe met, official says

A recent climate agreement with the United States is a win for both sides and will inject positive energy into the upcoming global climate change negotiations in Lima, Peru, in December, a top climate official says.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China is confident of meeting its 2030 goals for a peak in carbon dioxide emissions and lifting the share of non-fossil fuel to about 20 percent of energy use.

China will make the goals legally binding by incorporating them into the next three Five-Year Plans, Xie said on Nov 25.

China aims to cut its 2020 carbon intensity, the amount of carbon dioxide produced per unit of GDP, by 45 percent from the 2005 level, he said.

China's emissions goal was announced in a US-China agreement during a visit to Beijing in November by US President Barack Obama, who set a target at the same time for the US to cut its emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.

Men spend moreon facial care

A growing awareness of male grooming, a stressful urban lifestyle and environmental concerns are fueling the growth in the male personal care market in China, a report says.

Currently, only 4 percent of facial care products in China are for men, but they have become a new engine of growth for the whole market, said a report issued by the the research firm Mintel Group of Britain.

From 2009 to 2014, men's facial care products in China grew at a compound annual rate of 20.1 percent, almost double that of the market for women's products, the report said. It is expected to nearly double to 15.4 billion yuan ($2.5 billion; 2 billion euros) by 2019, the report said.

The three most popular men's toiletry products are shampoo, facial cleansers and shower products.

Water projects pushedas economy slows

The Chinese government is ready to approve more water conservancy projects and speed up construction already going on with major pro-growth investment policies to shore up economic expansion next year.

Public-private partnership financing as well as build-operate-transfer and transfer-operate-transfer financing will be encouraged to introduce social capital in these projects.

Construction on 44 water conservancy projects is expected to start by the end of next year, totaling 253 billion yuan. Eighty-eight other water projects are to be researched and initiated by the end of 2020.

Of the 44 projects, 14 are already under construction, with total investment of 38 billion yuan from the central government, and are expected to bring another 28.5 billion yuan of local funding when completed.

By 2020 China will build 172 water conservancy projects in the country, especially in areas with water shortages, irrigating more than 5.2 million hectares.

Juvenile justicesystem advances

China has been upgrading juvenile justice since the first tribunal for minors was established 30 years ago, in an effort to provide better protection for young offenders and their victims, the top court says.

The number of juvenile tribunals has risen to 2,253 since October 1984, when the first one was built in the Changning district of Shanghai, the Supreme People's Court said.

These juvenile courts have punished more than 1.5 million young offenders, and the recidivism rate has been kept to about 2 percent since 2002, the court said.

Shanghai juvenile tribunals have meted out punishments to more than 33,000 offenders over the past 30 years, the municipal high people's court says. The figure fell to 1,045 last year from 2,682 in 2007, it says.

Research's globalstatus on the rise

Chinese institutions have become a rising power in scientific research, a new global indicator of high-quality science showed.

According to the Nature Index 2014 Global, Chinese institutions, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have increasingly contributed to global science. The index ranked institutions based on the number of papers published last year.

The academy, which published 165 articles, ranked No 6 worldwide and led the Asia-Pacific region, followed by the University of Tokyo, which ranked No 8.

Harvard University topped the list with 387 articles published, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford in second and third slots.

Nine Chinese institutions were placed in the top 200, compared with three last year.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences surpassed the University of Tokyo as the top institution in the Asia-Pacific region, with the number of articles published on science and nature doubling from the previous year.

The Nature Index is a supplement to Nature, the prominent weekly interdisciplinary journal.

Chinese pop songwins big US award

The Chinese Internet pop sensation the Chopsticks Brothers, whose viral hit Little Apple has been viewed more than 1 billion times on China's popular video websites, won the International Song Award at the American Music Awards on Nov 23.

The duo, Xiao Yang and Wang Taili, also performed the song at the gala. Chinese singer Zhang Jie shared the stage and won the International Artist Award.

High-speed rail'snext stop: India

China is said to be in talks with India to help it build the world's second-longest high-speed railway, costing 200 billion yuan ($32.6 billion), its latest efforts to push for a bigger share of the overseas high-speed market.

Trains on the Delhi-Chennai high-speed rail corridor, covering up to 1,754 kilometers, would run at 300 km/h.

The plan is to develop the line jointly with China, home to the world's longest high-speed rail line, between Beijing and Guangzhou, several Indian media organizations reported, citing senior officials with India's Ministry of Railways.

Security checks onwebsites stepped up

China has strengthened security checks of government websites, hoping to clean up those that are not up to standard by the end of next year, officials of the country's top Internet watchdog say.

Security checks of government websites is a key task for the country, as their data and information are sensitive and relate to state security, said Zhao Zeliang, director of the Cybersecurity Coordination Bureau at the Cyberspace Administration of China.

"Government departments should pool more resources to speed up the security of their websites. It's also their duty to guide social websites to improve their online security and be their model," said Zhao at the opening ceremony of the first China Cybersecurity Week, which ran from Nov 24-30.

Forbidden City becomes less forbidding

The 600-year-old Forbidden City is seeking innovative ways to cater to the younger generation and reshape its public image.

On Nov 23 the Palace Museum introduced new mascots based on the traditional Chinese symbols of the dragon and the phoenix. They are named Zhuangzhuang and Meimei, meaning strong and beautiful.

Feng Hui, head of the cultural service center of the museum, said it is hoped the mascots will be well received by the public and spread Chinese culture to the world.

Designing the mascots took more than 10 months. Their costumes are from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and in the future it is expected more mascots will wear costumes from other dynasties.

Other eye-catching products the museum has promoted include stereo earphones that look like a string of beads and jewels indicating the rank of officials during the Qing Dynasty.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/28/2014 page2)