MENG WANZHOU RETURNS HOME

Meng Wanzhou， technology giant Huaweis Chief Financial Officer， arrives in Shenzhen， Guangdong Province， on September 25， after having been detained in Canada illegally for nearly three years on a U.S. extradition request.

Meng did not plead guilty or pay any fines. She thanked all relevant departments for their support. “They have firmly safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese corporations and citizens，” Meng said.

Celebrating Harvest

Farmers dry peppers in Wuji， a township in Hengyang， Hunan Province， on September 22， ahead of the fourth Farmers Harvest Festival， which fell on September 23.

Cultural Expo

The Fifth China Silk Road（Dunhuang） International Cultural Expo and the 10th Dunhuang Tour-Silk Road International Tourism Festival kicked off on September 24 in Dunhuang， a major hub of the ancient Silk Road in Gansu Province. The three-day Expo and Festival featured summit conferences， cultural fora， exhibitions and art performances.

Zhang Xu， Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism， said at the opening ceremony that by holding these two events， China hopes to further strengthen both official and non-governmental cooperation on people-to-people exchanges between countries along the Belt and Road， so as to contribute to building a community of shared future.

More than 200 officials， diplomats and experts， representing countries and regions， as well as international organizations， attended the events online or in person. This years guest country of honor was the Republic of Korea.

Synthesized Starch

In a global first， Chinese scientists have developed an artificial method of synthesizing starch from carbon dioxide.

The study， conducted by the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences， was published in Science journal on September 24.

Many studies have been carried out globally on starch synthesis， but little progress had been made before.

The structure of the synthetic starch was proved to be the same as that of natural starch， according to Ma Yanhe， Director General of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology， who is also the corresponding author of the study.

According to Ma， preliminary tests show that the new method is about 8.5 times more efficient in producing starch than conventional agriculture.