Briefly

Probe set to enter Mars orbit next month

China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe had traveled more than 400 million kilometers by Sunday morning and is set to enter Mars orbit next month, the China National Space Administration said. By 6 am on Sunday, the spacecraft had flown for 163 days on an Earth-Mars transfer trajectory and was about 8.3 million km from the red planet, the administration said in a statement, adding that it was in good condition. In February, the robotic probe is scheduled to decelerate as it approaches Mars. Tianwen 1, China's first independent Mars mission, was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23, opening the nation's planetary exploration program.

50 syndicates busted in tax offense crackdown

Chinese police investigated more than 12,900 tax-related cases involving roughly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) last year, the Ministry of Public Security said on Sunday. China launched a crackdown on tax-related offenses in over 100 major cities across the country in 2020, targeting illegal acts involving the fraudulent use of preferential tax policies and export tax rebates, among other violations. Police in 19 provincial-level regions busted 50 syndicates last year that were implicated in tax-related crimes perpetrated through the misuse of tax reduction and exemption policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, arresting over 790 suspects, the ministry said.

World's captive panda population hits 633

The number of giant pandas in captivity worldwide reached 633 last year, thanks to China's increasing panda breeding and conservation efforts, official data shows. In the first 11 months of last year, 44 panda cubs were born in captivity and survived, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said. The number of wild giant pandas in China has increased from 1,114 in the 1980s to 1,864, according to a survey. Meanwhile, the protected panda habitat area has almost doubled to 2.58 million hectares, protecting 66.8 percent of giant pandas living in the wild.

Xinhua - China Daily