News in review

Monday____Dec 2

China's movie box office receipts in 2016 were the lowest in the last decade, edging up just 3.73 per cent to 45.7 billion yuan, compared with an astonishing 48 per cent expansion in 2015.

China's market had expanded more than three-fold between 2010 and 2015. Many analysts and industry observers had predicted that China would overtake North America as the world's largest big-screen market in 2016 with ticket sales tipped to top 60 billion yuan. But North American movie theatre receipts dwarfed China's at $11.4 billion (79.3 billion yuan), according to box office tracker comScore.

The December debuts of The Great Wall, the $150 million Chinese-American co-production featuring Matt Damon and a raft of top local action stars, Jackie Chan's The Railroad Tigers and Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's See You Tomorrow loomed as potential blockbusters to rescue a worsening year. Instead, the films underwhelmed critics and fans, underscoring the rising selectivity of China's moviegoers.

Measures announced to ease foreign IPOs

China will support foreign companies in launching initial public offerings on its stock markets, issuing bonds and broadening their financing channels to create a high-level marketplace in which the country can find new growth momentum, an official from the nation's top economic planner said.

"The access of foreign investment in financial service industries, including banking, securities, insurance and futures trading will be further relaxed," said Ning Jizhe, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Tuesday____Dec 3

Pediatrician shortage put at nearly 90,000

China is short of nearly 90,000 pediatricians, according to a white paper released by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, which has warned that the universal two-child policy could pile on even more pressure.

With just one pediatrician per 1,800 children, the nation currently lags behind many developed countries, according to the report, which is based on a survey of 13,000 medical institutions nationwide. Earlier last year, the central government set a target of making it one pediatrician per 1,450 children by 2020.

To accomplish that, authorities will need to reverse a trend that has seen 14,310, or more than 10 percent of pediatricians in China, leave for other professions between 2011 and 2014, according to research by the association.

Yang Qiuli, a doctor at a children's hospital in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, said the chief complaints are the low salaries on offer, the heavy workload and the growing risk of conflicts with patients. (Photo 1)

Subsidies for electric vehicles to be cut

China will impose stricter standards for new-energy vehicle manufacturers and cut the subsidies for pure electric cars in a move aimed at weeding out companies that lack the ability to provide quality products.

The government has raised the technology threshold for makers of new-energy vehicles - comprising electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars - by setting standards on energy consumption and driving distance on a single charge, according to a statement posted by the Ministry of Finance on its website. Subsidies on pure electric as well as hybrid plug-in passenger cars will decline by 20 percent from Jan 1, and a cap has been placed on the subsidies at local-government levels, the ministry said. (Photo 2)

Wednesday____Dec 4

Beijing saw 'good air' days, but smog returns

Beijing had 12 more blue-sky days last year compared with 2015 and saw a 9.9 percent drop in the average concentration of hazardous particulate matter, according to the city's environmental protection bureau.

Northern parts of Beijing, such as Yanqing, experienced blue sky and good air quality on Monday morning, but air pollution returned to hazardous levels in the capital, said the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Smog is expected to last until Sunday in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, as well as other neighboring regions.

Authorities said they have found many factories producing and discharging pollutants in violation of government restrictions, warning that they would be punished severely. (Photo 3)

Foreign currency loophole closed

Chinese residents now need to fill an application form indicating the purpose of foreign exchange purchases, reflecting strengthened scrutiny from the nation's top currency regulator amid renewed pressure from capital flight.

The application form includes 11 purposes residents can check, including travel and medical care.

The form specifies that residents will not be approved to purchase foreign currency if theyhope to make overseas purchases not yet open to domestic individuals, such as overseas housing and insurance with investment returns.

China's new rules on cash transactions and overseas transfers are not capital control, an economist with the central bank said, dismissing concerns about tightening restrictions on capital outflows.

Banks will be required to report all yuan-denominated cash transactions exceeding 50,000 yuan (around $7,100) to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), down from the current level of 200,000 yuan. Cross-border transfers more than 200,000 yuan by individuals will also be subject to the report process.

Thursday____Dec 5

Railroads forecast to top 3 billion trips in 2017

China's railways are forecast to handle 3.025 billion passenger trips in 2017, according to China Railway Corp (CRC). That would put the railroads at more than 3 billion trips for the first time.

In 2016, 2.77 billion trips were made on China's railways, including 1.44 billion trips by high-speed trains, which is more than 52 percent of the total, said CRC, the nation's railway operator.

The record for a single day was 14.43 million trips, during October's Golden Week holiday travel rush. In 2016, more than 60 percent of tickets were sold online, and more than 40 percent were bought via mobile phones.

This year, China will add 2,100 kilometers (1,304 miles) of track. (Photo 4)

UK schools remain a Chinese favorite

The number of Chinese students seeking education in the UK in 2016 continued to grow, with academic reputation and a safe environment the biggest attractions of for Chinese students and their parents, according to a report.

Nearly 73,000 students from the Chinese mainland obtained student visas from the UK by the end of September, a 9 percent jump from the same period in 2015, according to figures released at a news conference in Beijing by the British Council, the UK's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Most Chinese students in the UK receive higher education, and their number has increased by 50 percent over the past five years.

In 2015, the US hosted 975,000 international students at colleges and universities, and of that total, more than 300,000 were from China, representing nearly one-third of all foreign students. (Photo 5)

Friday____Dec 6

Limit placed on betrothal gifts: 60,000 yuan

A county in Henan province recently issued a guideline on arranging weddings and funerals, in which it stated that the total amount of money a man gives his fiancee's family should not exceed 60,000 yuan ($8,645).

Betrothal gifts are a tradition deeply rooted in Chinese culture and have long existed in the country, especially in rural areas.

The guideline, issued by the Taiqian county government, stated that a wedding banquet should serve no more than 10 tables of guests and the total number of vehicles used should be six or fewer. Those who don't follow the rules will be punished, according to the guideline.

"The guideline is aimed at promoting a new attitude toward weddings by simplifying premarital proceedings and marriage ceremonies in the county," said Li Hongwei, an official in the county.

He added that the families of fiancees generally ask for larger betrothal gifts as a way of showing off among fellow villagers and partly because of the unbalanced sex ratio, which has brought a lot of pressure on the families of the bridegrooms-to-be.

16 million illegal publications seized

Law enforcers confiscated more than 16 million illegal publications last year, and shut down or banned more than 14,000 websites disseminating "harmful information".

The figures werereleased by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

In 2016, the office disposed of more than 4.5 million items of online pornography as well as other harmful information, handling more than 600 criminal cases with more than 1,300 people criminally penalized.

(China Daily USA 01/06/2017 page12)