News in review

Monday ____ September 12

New effort placed on developing new energy vehicle

China is to start a new, intensified phase of developing the new energy vehicle sector after the government exposed and punished dishonest subsidized manufacturers in a bid to clean up the chaotic sector.

The Ministry of Finance on Sept 8 made public five swindlers who illegally obtained $151.25 million in subsidies in 2015 from the central government after an investigation of 90 such manufacturers started in early 2016. Zhang Zhiyong, an independent auto analyst in Beijing, said some manufacturers had identified subsidies as a source of fast money from the very start and had no intention ofproducing competitive cars.

The central government started offering subsidies to stimulate the production of new energy vehicles in 2009.

The National Development and Reform Commission said that China is home to more than 200 manufacturers of new energy passenger vehicles, buses and special-use vehicles. (Photo 1)

New railway marks 20,000-km record

A new high-speed railway linking East and Central China has opened, pushing the total length of high-speed track in service to more than 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) in China, the most in the world.

The new 360-km (223-mile) line that opened on Sept 10 links Zhengzhou, Henan province, with Xuzhou, Jiangsu province.

The Xuzhou-Lanzhou railway is one of China's four mostimportant railways from east to west, which will link Asia and Europe and play a key role in the Belt and Road strategy, he added.

People can commute between Shanghai and Zhengzhou in four hours, cutting 2 hours and 47 minutes from the trip.Travel between Shanghai and Xi'an was also reduced to 6 hours. (Photo 2)

Tuesday ____ September 13

Global satellite network planned to boost internet

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation's largest missile developer, plans to build a space-based information network that will provide global coverage, called the Hongyun Project.

Liu Shiquan, deputy general manager of the state-owned space and defense giant, said the company will put 156 communications satellites into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 160 to 2,000 km (99 to 1,242 miles). Each satellite will be able to transmit 500 mega-bytes of data per second.

"We will launch a satellite this year to demonstrate the technologies for the Hongyun Project. Before 2019, four satellites will have been put into space to conduct trial operations. The rest will follow in 2019 and 2020, ensuring that the whole network will be built before 2021," he said at the Second China Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Mattel to build theme park in major cities

Mattel Inc, owner of such toy brands as Barbie and Fisher-Price, plans to build more Thomas &Friends Towns in major Chinese cities and will introduce the first Chinese character to its 70-year-old train story.

Hailey Wu Sullivan, senior director and head of Marketing for Mattel Asia-Pacific, said the company will open its first Thomas & Friends Town in Chongqing in Western China in October. The amusement park will cover an area of 1,200 square meters.

By the end of 2015, its five major brands Barbie, Fisher-Price, Thomas & Friends, Hot-Wheels and Mega had launched official stores on JD.com, and have seen a combined growth in sales of more than 150 percent, the company said. (Photo 3)

Wednesday ____ September 14

Vocational colleges get new major: e-sports

In good news for China's video game addicts and aficionados, hours spent playing video games could pay offafter all.

A new major is listed among 13 new ones at vocational schools in China: electronic competitive sports and management. It falls under the discipline of sports and education.

The e-sports major will be launched in vocational colleges nationwide starting in 2017. Other new majors include early childhood development and health care, public welfare, charity management and music communication.

In 2003, e-sports was officially recognized by China's General Administration of Sport as a legitimate event.

China, US look for tourism growth

China and the United States hope to reach a benchmark of 5 million tourist trips as soon as possible.

Last year, the number of trips between the nations surpassed 4.75 million, "which makes us confident to promote further cooperation with US partners in tourism insurance, tourism rescue, and tourism talent exchanges and cultivation," said Li Jinzao, chairman of the China National Tourism Administration.

He said that the 10-year visa policy, which came into effect in November, has triggered a boom in travel to the US, while trips from the US to China between January and June reached 1.12 million, up 8.4 percent year-on-year.

"We will protect the rights and interests of tourists from both sides by improving supervision in the tourism market," Li said.

Thursday ____ September 15

45 national legislators unseated for fraud

China's top legislature has disqualified 45 national legislators from Northeast China's Liaoning province for their involvement in unprecedented electoral fraud.

The 45 National People's Congress deputies were unseated for vote-buying and bribery during the election in 2013.

A total of 523 deputies to the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress were implicated in the election fraud and have either resigned or had their qualification as deputies terminated. No additional details, such as whether these deputies will face further punishment, were released.

Lawmakers also voted to set up a panel to prepare for a new session of the Liaoning provincial legislature.

"The Liaoning electoral fraud has been the first such case that ever happened at a provincial-level election since the founding of New China," Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said.

Ant Financial buys US biometric security startup

Ant Financial, Alibaba's finance arm, recently acquired US biometric authentication tech startup EyeVerify Inc to better secure consumers' data and transactions, said Ant Financial in a statement.

According to EyeVerify, which uses pictures of the human eyeball to unlock mobile services, it will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ant Financial and continue to be based in Kansas, Missouri.

"Ant Financial is paying about $70 million for the acquisition," said a Bloomberg report, citing a person familiar with the matter.

According to the report, as its first investment in the US, Ant plans to use the technology to upgrade its own security systems and could eventually apply it to a future US-targeted product.

Friday ____ September 16

China launches second space station

China has launched its second experimental space laboratory, part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.

The Tiangong 2 was carried into space atop a Long March 7 rocket on Thursday night from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China.

Plans call for the launch next month of the Shenzhou 11 spaceship with two astronauts to dock with the station and remain on board for a month. The station, whose name means "Heavenly Palace," is considered a stepping stone to a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

Government to boost integration with internet

China is stepping up improving government services via the Internet Plus and aims to set up a nationwide internet-based government service system by the end of 2020, according to a new State Council guideline.

Internet Plus, proposed by Premier Li Keqiang, refers to applying the internet and other information technology resources to conventional industries to foster new industries and businesses.

"The internet will not only provide people with more accessible public services, but will also help the government to improve its management via various ways," Li said.

The guideline sets the goal that central and regional departments will establish an open and integrated internet platform by the end of 2017 that is interconnected across administrative levels. It aims to build a nationwide Internet Plus Government Services System by the end of 2020.

Liang Zifu, 81, and his 77-year-old wife Li Suying have been living for the past 54 years in a cave near Nanchong, Southwest China's Sichuan province. The couple moved to the cave because they couldn't afford a house when they got married. The couple has declined to move, saying they have become used to their house. However, they said they sometimes get lonely as their four children have grown up and moved out. Photo / VCG

With the joining of two bridge sections from opposite sides of a gorge in Southwest China on Sept 10, the world got its highest bridge. The Beipanjiang Bridge in Guizhou province is expected to open to traffic by the end of the year. The 1,341-meter (4,399-foot) long structure, soaring 565 meters (1,853 feet) above a river, overtook the Sidu RiverBridge in Hubei province as the world’s highest, according transportation officials. The bridge's height is said to be equivalent to a 200-story building.

(China Daily USA 09/16/2016 page15)