News in review

A life-size robot that looks like Chinese basketball star Yao Ming shoots hoops during the 2017 World Robot Conference in Beijing on Wednesday. Provided to China Daily

Monday____August 21

COFCO unit partners with US-based co-op

China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp - the country's biggest food trader by sales revenue - confirmed that COFCO International Ltd, one of its subsidiaries, has formed a grain supply partnership with the Illinois-based farm cooperative Growmark Inc.

The deal was sealed at Bloomington, Illinois, on Aug 15. As part of the deal, they will jointly own and operate a truck, rail and barge terminal in Cahokia, Illinois, on the Mississippi River, the main pipeline that supplies exporters along the US Gulf Coast with corn and soybeans.

The facility can receive about 180,000 bushels (4572.24 metric tons) of corn per hour, delivered by truck and rail, and can load two river barges simultaneously at a rate of about 60,000 bushels per hour. (Photo 2)

European astronauts train in China for space

Two Europeans became the first foreign astronauts to take part in space-related training in China by completing a 17-day sea survival course.

Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy and Matthias Maurer of Germany, both from the European Space Agency, joined 16 Chinese astronauts in training exercises in waters off the coastal city of Yantai, Shandong province. The training concluded on Monday.

The group was divided into six teams during the training, which was designed to improve astronauts' sea survival, decision-making and emergency response capabilities, and to boost their team spirit and collaboration capacity.

The astronauts learned methods and procedures of exiting the re-entry capsule as it floated in the sea; familiarized themselves with sea survival skills and rescue preparations; and strengthened their ability to cooperate with each other and with rescuers. (Photo 3)

Tuesday____August 22

Shanghai tries to limit shared bikes

Shanghai is trying to rein in the excessive number of public bicycles on city streets and sidewalks by preventing companies from adding new ones.

The Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission said that tighter control is necessary, because bicycle-sharing companies have neglected maintenance and management while aggressively adding bikes into the market, seriously affecting public transportation and the city's image.

Shanghai can cope with up to 600,000 shared bicycles, the association estimated. However, there are at least 1.5 million at present. Although the city has confiscated 150,000 bicycles, there are still too many.

According to the Ministry of Transport, there are more than 30 registered bicycle-sharing companies that have put more than 10 million bicycles on streets around the country. (Photo 4)

Smartphone market begins to slow down

After years of booming sales, the smartphone market in China, the world's largest, is showing signs of saturation, according to a recent report showing that growth in the market slowed in the first half of this year.

The report, released by market researcher and consulting company GfK Retail and Technology China Co Ltd, estimated that the smartphone market in China will continue to see a slowdown in overall sales volume growth throughout 2017.

The growth in sales revenue of smartphones is much higher than the corresponding rate of sales volume, but that's because the average price of smartphones is rising this year, said the company.

In the first half of this year, sales of smartphones reached 232 million units, a year-on-year increase of only 0.4 percent, while revenue jumped by more than 10 percent compared with the same period last year, the company said.

Wednesday____August 23

Beijing court connects with litigants on WeChat

A court in Beijing has opened a WeChat account to allow litigants to chat with judges, get status updates on their cases and report rulebreakers.

The Haidian District People's Court started the service early this month to provide convenience in lawsuits and improve work efficiency. It is the first court in the capital to use WeChat to provide legal services, and a fresh step for Chinese judicial authorities who are pushing the courts to become more tech-friendly.

"Litigants and lawyers can connect their mobile phones with our platform after providing their identity on WeChat. When they want to know what cases will be heard or what part of the legal procedure the cases are in, they can just open their WeChat to search," said Mao Jinke, director of the court's enforcement office.

Social media to become main shopping channel

Social media is set to become a major gateway to shopping rather than a mere communications portal, as the younger generation is more inclined to make purchases while watching live-streaming shows, according to a survey.

Around 70 percent of those aged between 19 and 22 in China said they would place an order online via social networking sites, global consultancy Accenture discovered in a study based on 10,000 consumers in 13 countries, including China.

One-third of the respondents in China claimed they prefer video and live-streaming sites as avenues for shopping. This contrasts with just 12 percent from those between 23 to 29 years old and 8 percent from those in their 30s.

It came as a surprise that young consumers are equally embracing in-store shopping. Compared with virtual shopping, 31 percent reported they prefer brick-and-mortar stores but heavily rely on digital means, such as chat tools and social media reviews, to facilitate the purchase.

Thursday____August 24

Banks to raise billions for Belt and Road deals

China's major State-owned commercial banks are raising tens of billions of dollars to fund the country's Belt and Road investment push, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people said China Construction Bank Corp, the country's second-biggest bank by assets, was raising at least $15 billion for a fund to specifically finance Belt and Road investment.

The cash, raised via banks' private equity or other investment platforms, is part of a broader push sponsored by China's central bank to use onshore yuan capital for offshore investments, including Belt and Road deals, according to one of the people.

The people could not be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Shanghai phone booths to become mini-libraries

Shanghai has found a new use for its public phone booths - as mini-libraries.

Some 263 booths across the city's Xuhui district will be converted to hold books and tablet PCs offering access to a range of e-books and audio files.

There will be six kinds of mini-libraries, including one that will offer books and digital information on well-known figures who used to live in the area, according to the Xuhui cultural bureau.

"Residents will first need to apply for membership at Shanghai Library," said Wang Zhuojun, a spokeswoman at the bureau. "To access the booths, users will need to scan their library card and palm print." (Photo 5)

Friday____August 25

University to abolish mixed-gender dorm policy

A university in South China's Guangzhou city recently decided to remove its mixed-gender dorm arrangement, but not all students have welcomed the move.

The Southern Medical University will phase out in the next few years the mixed-gender accommodation rule, which allows male and female students from different majors to live on the same floors of a dorm building, according to the Beijing News.

The practice has been in place at the school for more than a decade. At most of China's higher education institutions, male and female students live in separate buildings.

The school said it canceled the mixed-gender arrangement to prevent noise made by male students playing video games late into the night from disturbing female students and also to provide more privacy to female students who want to open their doors for fresh air in summer months, according to the report.

A poll launched by students of the school suggested 82 percent of the 6,693 respondents don't want the mixed-gender arrangement to be abolished.

More Chinese babies born with birth defects

The China Disabled Persons' Federation has called for increased premarital medical checkups as about 900,000 babies are born with birth defects annually.

The incidence of birth defects in 1996 was 87.8 per 10,000 people, but it grew to 149.9 per 10,000 people in 2010 from 120 per 10,000 people in 2003, when China abolished compulsory premarital checkups, according to data released by health authorities.

In response to China's rapidly aging population, the country started allowing married couples to have two children in 2016, ending the one-child policy implemented decades ago to rein in a surging population.

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, 60 percent of women eligible to have a second child are age 35 or older. The number of older women becoming pregnant will exceed 3 million each year from 2017 to 2020. This has also resulted in an increased risk of birth defects.

As summer vacation comes to an end, many children of migrant workers in China who traveled to big cities to spend time with their parents must say goodbye. A boy looks out the window as he waits for a train to leave Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province on Monday. A girl looks out of a train window at Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, as she prepares to return home on Monday. provided to CHina Daily, Jin Zhenqiang / For China Daily

(China Daily USA 08/25/2017 page12)