A SHOT IN THE ARM

Government officials and business representatives take a group photo at a ceremony in Macao Special Administrative Region （SAR） to hand over novel coronavirus disease （COVID-19） vaccines made in the mainland to Macao SAR Health Bureau on February 6. Macao received 100，000 doses of inactivated vaccines that day， its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines， the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center of Macao said.

Welcoming Spring

A folk activity in Beijing on February 2 to mark Lichun， literally the beginning of spring. Falling on the next day this year， it is the first solar term on the Chinese lunar calendar.

Less Flight Delay

The civil aviation sector will enhance its on-time performance， tackling the issue of flight delays， according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China （CAAC）， Xinhua News Agency reported on February 3.

In 2021， CAAC will strive to maintain an on-time performance rate of more than 80 percent for domestic passenger airlines， it said in its 2021 targets.

CAAC has also proposed an 85-percent target for the average on-time performance rate in major airports， with an annual passenger throughput of more than 10 million.

In addition to on-time performance， CAAC will also improve smart civil aviation， flight safety， as well as operational efficiency and service quality.

In 2020， the on-time performance rate of flights reached 88.52 percent， 20 percentage points higher than the figure recorded by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan （2011-15） period， CAAC statistics showed.

Panda Cubs

Ten panda cubs posed for a Chinese New Year photograph on the morning of February 3 at a breeding base in the city of Chengdu， Sichuan Province in southwest China.

The cubs， all born at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in 2020， were in the arms of their keepers whilst posing for the camera to convey their Chinese New Year greetings to the world.

Age-wise， the cubs averaged about 6 months， with the youngest roughly 4 months old.

“Our center successfully bred 25 cubs last year， and all were born after natural mating，”Zhang Guiquan， an expert at the center， said.

In spite of the pandemic， experts at the center communicated with their overseas peers through cloud communication and four baby pandas were successfully born overseas last year.

Today， over 330 giant pandas live in captivity at the center， accounting for more than half of the global giant panda population.

Green Zones

Beijings green area has increased in the past five years， Xinhua News Agency reported on February 4.

Beijing added some 76，667 hectares of new forestation grounds during this period and 3，773 hectares of urban green zones. The forest coverage rate rose from 25 percent to 30.4 percent in plain areas， according to statistics released by the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau.

Beijing authorities stepped up their efforts to green the city through forestation projects， with 54，867 hectares of forests planted across bare land during the 13th Five-Year Plan （2016-20） period. A total of 24，667 hectares of forests were established across important plain areas such as the Beijing Daxing International Airport and the citys eastern suburban district of Tongzhou.

The capital city additionally built more than 700 parks in the past five years， bringing the total number to 1，090.

Short Video Boom

The number of Chinas online short video users reached 873 million by the end of last year， surging by 100 million from March 2020 and accounting for 88 percent of the Internet-using population， a report on Chinas Internet development released on February 3 read.

The report， issued by the China Internet Network Information Center， notes the quality improvement of online video programs.

Chinas streaming platforms have been refining their business models and continue to invest in short video content to bring audiences more quality content. At the same time， short video platforms are presenting trial projects， such as mini dramas， before gradually landing in the field of long videos.

Ensuring Supply

A farmer picks cucumber inside a greenhouse in Laoting， a county in Hebei Province in north China. The county has been promoting growing vegetables for the Beijing and Tianjin markets.

Ecological Jobs

Qinghai Province in northwest China， dubbed “the water tower of China，” has created 145，100 public posts in ecological conservation， authorities said on February 2.

The posts have been set up for protecting the grasslands， forests and wetlands of the province， home to the Sanjiangyuan （Three-RiverSource） National Park， head of the provincial forestry and grassland bureau Li Xiaonan told a press conference during the provinces legislative and political advisory sessions.

The annual average per capita income of 17，200 ecological guards has reached 21，600 yuan（$3，350）， Li said.

He said the province paid farmers and herders a total of 1.87 billion yuan （$289 million） in compensation for the losses incurred due to ecological protection in 2020， with many of them taking on jobs as ecological guards.

The Sanjiangyuan area is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze River， Chinas longest stream； the Yellow River， the second longest in the country； and the Lancang River （known as the Mekong River after it flows out of China）.

Piracy Crackdown

Chinese police have arrested 14 suspects accused of having ties to the pirated-video platform YYeTs.com， which allows millions of users to stream and download pirated copies of movies and TV shows.

The Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau announced on February 3 they had nabbed the suspects over a piracy case involving more than 16 million yuan （$2.5 million）， in cooperation with police in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the provinces of Shandong and Hubei.

In September 2020， Shanghai police found that YYeTs.com was providing online streaming and download services of pirated videos on its website and app.

The ensuing police investigation showed that since 2018， the suspects had founded several companies and set up servers both inside and outside China to develop and operate the website and app of YYeTs.com. They downloaded videos from foreign pirated-video websites， translated these into Chinese and uploaded the subtitled videos to their servers for distribution， without authorization from the copyright owners.

The police have taken measures against the suspects， and a supplementary investigation is underway.

Fully Prepared

Farmers clear weeds and apply fertilizer at a tea plantation in Zigui， a county in Hubei Province in central China， to prepare for the annual spring tea picking.

Board Merger

The main and SME boards of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange （SZSE） will be combined， the national securities regulator announced on February 5.

According to Pi Liuyi， an official with the China Securities Regulatory Commission， the process will follow the general principles of unifying business rules and operation supervision modes. Issuance and listing conditions， investor thresholds， trading mechanisms， and stock codes and abbreviations will remain unchanged， he said.

An SZSE spokesperson said the merger would only involve adjustments to parts of business rules， market products， technical systems issuance arrangements and listing arrangements， and it would have little impact on market operation and investorstrading in general. Moreover， fixed income products， futures and options products would be mostly unaffected. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect program would also not be affected.

After the merger， relevant indexes involving the SME board need to be adjusted. But the spokesperson said as index compiling methods will not be changed substantially， it would not lead to investment target adjustments of fund products tracking relevant indexes.

By the end of January， the main and the SME boards of the SZSE housed 1，468 listed companies， accounting for 35 percent of the yuan-denominated A-share market.

The market value of these companies amounted to 23.39 trillion yuan （$3.61 trillion）， accounting for 29 percent of the total.

NUMBERS

Service Trade

Chinas service trade fell in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and other factors， but the trade deficit continued to narrow sharply， according to the Ministry of Commerce（MOFCOM） on February 4.

The overall trade volume reached over 4.56 trillion yuan（$704.9 billion） last year， down 15.7 percent year on year， MOFCOM spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press conference.

But the service trade deficit narrowed 53.9 percent over the previous year to 692.93 billion yuan （$107 billion）， he added.

The trade of knowledgeintensive services increased 8.3 percent year on year in the period， accounting for 44.5 percent of the overall volume.

Sectors such as telecommunications， computer and information services saw rapid increases in both exports and imports.

Tourism services worldwide were still significantly impacted by the pandemic， which was the main reason behind the drop in the service trade. Last year， the tourism service trade volume slumped 48.3 percent to 1.02 trillion yuan （$157 billion）.

Excluding the tourism sector， the countrys service trade in 2020 expanded 2.9 percent year on year， Gao said.

Trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation， tourism， telecommunications， construction， advertising， computing and accounting.

Ballast Stone

The central bank said on February 4 that the benchmark deposit interest rate， the “ballast stone” of the entire interest rates system， will be retained for the long term.

In a statement released after a teleconference on deposit management， the Peoples Bank of China （PBC） stressed the externalities of deposit rate pricing， noting that the competition order in the deposit market is closely related to the vital interests of the people.

Deposit management by the PBC has yielded positive results in recent years by pushing the self-discipline mechanism for market interest rate pricing， as well as regulating the innovative products.

The PBC urged further efforts to improve deposit management， strengthen the regulation of nonstandard innovative products and maintain the competition order in the market.

Tesla Plant

Tesla Chinas supercharger manufacturing factory in Shanghai was put into production on February 3， less than half a year after the project was officially launched in August 2020.

With an investment of 42 million yuan （$6.49 million）， the 5，000-square-meter plant has an annual capacity of 10，000 superchargers， mainly the V3 model， at the initial stage. The company claimed a V3 supercharger can add 250 km of range by charging for 15 minutes.

Previously， Teslas superchargers used in China were imported from the United States.

The company said the opening of its supercharger plant in China will contribute to the popularization of its V3 supercharger in the country.

Tesla has opened more than 730 supercharging stations across China.

Appealing Bonds

Overseas investors raised their holdings of Chinese bonds for the 26th month in a row in January， fueled by faster-thanexpected economic recovery and a strengthening yuan.

They held 3.06 trillion yuan（$473 billion） of Chinese bonds in the month， surging 62.09 percent year on year， data from China Central Depository & Clearing Co. Ltd. showed. The volume marked an increase of 5.96 percent from the end of 2020.

Market transactions were also robust， with trading volumes amounting to 588.3 billion yuan（$90.95 billion） in January.

The growing appetite among global investors since 2020 stemmed from Chinas stable economic recovery， widening spread of Chinese 10-year government bonds over their U.S. counterparts， as well as a firming yuan， according to Zheng Kuifang， an analyst with the China Construction Bank.

Overseas investors will likely plow 1.2 trillion yuan （$185 billion） into Chinas bond market in 2021， according to Liu Linan， head of Greater China Macro Strategy at Deutsche Bank.

By the end of 2021， the share of foreign holdings in yuandenominated bonds will increase to 3.3 percent from the current 2.9 percent， while the share of foreign holdings in Chinas treasury bonds will rise to 12 percent from the current 9 percent， he predicted.

Subsidies Ended

The National Intellectual Property Administration plans to end all patent subsidies as part of its efforts to boost the countrys innovation and high-quality intellectual property （IP） services.

By the end of June， subsidies for patent applications at all levels will be canceled.

Financial aid provided by local governments for patent licensing will be reduced during the 14th Five-Year Plan （2021-25） period， and phased out before 2025.

The change aims to eliminate improper behavior in patent applications that do not protect innovation， and to shift the focus from improving IP quantity to quality， sources with the administration said on February 5.