THIS WEEK

YANGTZE RIVER DROUGHT

The mudflats of a section of the Yangtze River in Chaisang District of Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, are laid bare due to decreased water levels on August 24.

Since July, most areas of the Yangtze River basin have been experiencing high temperatures and there has been 45 percent less rainfall than usual, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

Local authorities have already implemented several drought relief measures, including cloud seeding.

Fish Farming

Ponds in an industrial aquaculture park in Weishan County, Shandong Province, on August 23.

Human Resources Website

China launched a human resources website for seniors on August 24, marking the first step in building a human resources information service platform for older citizens.

The website, launched by the China National Committee on Aging, offers content including human resources policies, human resources knowledge and employment information.

The website aims to build a platform to help older people with employment, and is of great significance to tackling the challenges of an aging population,said Wang Jianjun, head of the committee.

Based on the website, the committee will launch a new human resources database for seniors, and build a human resources service platform.

Low Water Levels

Dongting, China’s second largest freshwater lake, located in Hunan Province, has reported record low water levels due to sustained hot weather and low precipitation, according to local authorities on August 22.

The water level at the lake’s landmark Chenglingji hydrological station receded to 23.15 meters at 8 a.m. on August 22, 6.29 meters lower than the average for the same period in previous years, according to the provincial water resources department.

Monitoring data from provincial hydrological and meteorological departments shows that the cumulative precipitation in Hunan Province since July 8 is 70 millimeters,67.5 percent less than the average precipitation of the same period in previous years.

Over the past 30 days, the cumulative precipitation of 101 county-level regions in Hunan was over 40 percent less than the average for the same period in previous years.

Math Textbook Illustrations

China’s Ministry of Education(MOE) on August 22 announced the results of an investigation into problematic illustrations in math textbooks for primary school students published by the People’s Education Press (PEP).

According to an MOE statement, the illustrations of public concern failed to conform to the aesthetic preferences of the public in the overall painting style,and some of them did not meet high professional standards for illustration production. Certain illustrations featured errors and some other illustrations had the potential to cause misunderstandings.

A total of 27 people were held accountable for dereliction of duty, the ministry said.

The PEP has completed recreating the illustrations and is making all-out efforts to ensure that the new books will be available before the start of the new semester in September 2022.

Some other problematic illustrations circulated online,according to the MOE statement,were not from PEP primary school math textbooks, and they will also be rectified.

The MOE said it had launched an overhaul of illustrations and content in textbooks,supplementary materials, and extracurricular reading materials for primary and middle schools across the country.

Sci-Fi Prequel

The first trailer of, a much-anticipated prequel to China’s 2019 science-fiction blockbusterwas unveiled,with the movie’s release set for Chinese New Year in 2023,Xinhua News Agency reported on August 20.

The new film sees Guo Fan reprise the directorial role, and the original novel’s Hugo Awardwinning author Liu Cixin serve as the executive producer.

Wu Jing, who starred as the heroic Chinese taikonaut who sacrificed his life to save Earth in the original movie, will return in the prequel, with actors Andy Lau and Li Xuejian joining the cast.

Adapted from the Chinese novel of the same name,is set in the future and tells of an audacious attempt to save Earth, for the sun is about to expand into a red giant and devour the planet.

It is currently the all-time top-grossing sci-fi film in China,raking in around 4.69 billion yuan ($689 million), according to movie data platform Maoyan.

New Railway Station

Construction on Yichun West Station, China’s northernmost high-speed railway station, officially began on August 24 in Heilongjiang Province.

The station will be able to accommodate up to 1,500 passengers at a time, according to the China Railway Harbin Bureau Group Co. Ltd.

The station is on the Tieli-Yichun section of a high-speed rail line linking the provincial capital of Harbin with the city of Yichun. The section, the northernmost high-speed railway currently under construction in China, has a total length of 111.4 km and a designed maximum speed of 250 km per hour.

The line will reduce train travel time between Harbin and Yichun from seven hours to around two.

Weather Station

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)and China’s meteorological authorities have built a new meteorological station at an altitude of 5,200 meters in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,Xinhua News Agency reported on August 18.

The station, the highest meteorological station in the middle section of the Kunlun Mountains, can perform automatic data transmission using technology from the BeiDou satellites. Its successful launch is expected to fill the gap in meteorological observation data in the area, according to the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the CAS.

The researchers established the station during their recent scientific expedition to the Kunlun Mountains, which aimed to study climate change and the synergy of westerly winds and monsoon systems. Nearly 40 experts and scholars participated in the scientific expedition.

Despite extreme environmental conditions, the researchers installed weather monitoring equipment developed by China at the new station.The weather station is expected to provide valuable meteorological data for the study of weather phenomena of the high altitudes,climate change and unique precipitation characteristics of the Kunlun Mountains, with the help of ultraviolet radiation and low-temperature observation systems.

In recent years, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been getting significantly warmer and more humid, and the frequency of extreme weather in southern Xinjiang has also grown sharply.There is an urgent need to uncover the causes of these changes and their possible impacts, according to the researchers.

Bracing for Storms

Staff members install a waterproof barrier at a store in Macao Special Administrative Region on August 24 in preparation for typhoon-, the ninth of the year.

Rice Paddy Irrigation

Villagers and volunteers irrigate rice paddies in Xin’an Township, Deqing County, Huzhou City of Zhejiang Province, on August 23.

Digital Partnership

China is advancing negotiations on joining the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA),the Ministry of Commerce said on August 22.

DEPA is a new type of trade partnership agreement and the world’s first regional agreement on the digital economy, initiated by New Zealand, Singapore and Chile. China began its application to join the agreement in November 2021.

The ministry said China will be fully prepared to join the agreement, carrying out substantive negotiations with DEPA members and continuing to advance its accession process.

As the second largest digital economy in the world, China is speeding up its digital development and expanding institutional opening up in areas such as rules, regulations and standards.

In terms of the development of the global digital economy,China is willing to work with other countries to create an open and safe environment, share related benefits, and make further contributions, the ministry said.

Lending Rate Cut

The one-year loan prime rate(LPR) came in at 3.65 percent on August 22, down from 3.7 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.

The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, was lowered by 15 basis points to 4.3 percent.

The reduction followed the cut in the over-five-year rates in May.

The monthly-released data is a pricing reference rate for banks and is based on rates of the central bank’s open market operations, especially the mediumterm lending facility (MLF) rate.

The People’s Bank of China,the country’s central bank, cut the interest rates of its MLF loans by 10 basis points on August 15,the second such move this year.

The central bank has pledged to intensify the implementation of the prudent monetary policy and give full play to the functions of monetary policy tools.

Freight Train Trips

The number of China-Europe freight train trips in 2022 reached 10,000 on August 21, 10 days earlier than last year, data from the China State Railway Group Co. Ltd. (China Railway) showed.

The trains carried 972,000 twenty-foot equivalent units(TEUs) of containers, up 5 percent over a year ago, according to China Railway.

With 82 routes, the trains now reach 200 cities in 24 countries,forming a transport network covering the whole of Europe.The trains transport more than 50,000 types of goods across 53 categories, such as automobiles and parts, clothing and accessories, and grain and timber.China has made solid efforts to increase the transport capacity of the railway by upgrading domestic transport channels and coordinating infrastructure improvements with overseas railways.In 2022, the average daily freight volume on the eastern route for the China-Europe freight train services surged 41.3 percent from 2020, and that of the western and central routes rose 20.7 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively.

Container Throughput

During the January-July period, the volume of containers handled at China’s ports rose 4.2 percent year on year to 168.68 million TEUs, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The growth continued the uptrend during the first half of the year, during which over 140 million TEUs of containers were handled at the ports, rising 3 percent from one year ago.

Cargo throughput at the ports reached 8.92 billion tons in the same period, edging up 0.1 of a percentage point over one year earlier and bucking the trend of contraction in the January-June period, the data showed.

The total throughput of ports monitored by the China Ports and Harbors Association rose 8.4 percent year on year in July,with foreign trade climbing 6.3 percent, earlier data showed.

NEV Market

China’s new-energy vehicle (NEV)market is expected to reach 15.98 million units in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.1 percent during the 2022-26 period, a report from the global market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC)showed.

It predicted the compound annual growth rate for pure electric vehicles to stand at 37.5 percent,while that for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to hit 20.5 percent.

The penetration rate of new NEVs may surpass 50 percent in the Chinese market in 2026, the data showed.

Consumers believe that the current public charging and battery replacement facilities for NEVs can generally meet the demand for short-distance urban trips, according to a survey conducted by the IDC.

Futures Brokers

By the end of June, the total assets of Chinese futures companies expanded 14.5 percent from the level six months ago to 1.58 trillion yuan ($232.13 billion), while their net assets increased 8.61 percent to 175.3 billion yuan ($25.6 billion), data from the China Futures Association showed.

In the first six months of 2022,the companies’ revenue from brokerage services reached 12.17 billion yuan ($1.78 billion), while that from asset management services amounted to 519 million yuan ($75.9 million). The worth of their 1,848 asset management products reached 344.49 billion yuan ($50.4 billion).

The total trading turnover of China’s futures market stood at nearly 3.05 billion lots in the January-June period, with a total turnover of 257.48 trillion yuan($37.67 trillion), according to the association.

Renewable Energy

China’s installed capacity of renewable energy registered year-on-year growth in July,according to the National Energy Administration.

As of the end of the month,wind power capacity stood at around 340 million kW, a 17.2-percent increase year on year, while solar farms saw capacity hit 340 million kW,an increase of 26.7 percent, the administration said.

The country’s total installed power generation capacity stood at about 2.46 billion kW during the same period, up 8 percent from the previous year, the data showed.

According to an action plan released in 2021, it aims to increase the share of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent by 2030.

Fuel Car Sales Ban

According to the implementation plan for carbon peaking issued by the Hainan Provincial Government on August 22, all new and replacement vehicles in public and commercial services in Hainan will use clean energy by 2025, and sales of fuel vehicles will be banned by 2030.

The plan currently makes Hainan China’s first province to ban fuel car sales.

Under the plan, Hainan will provide preferential policies in areas including purchase taxes for new-energy vehicles and gradually advance the use of clean energy on other types of vehicles in the province.

The plan is part of the national effort to reach its carbon peaking and neutrality goals.China has announced that it aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

2022 FUTURE SCIENCE PRIZE WINNER

Li Wenhui, a professor at Tsinghua University, won the 2022 Future Science Prize in life sciences for discovering the hepatitis B and D virus receptor, a liver protein called sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide. The discovery can help develop more effective drugs to treat the diseases.

Born in Gansu Province in 1971, Li obtained his Ph.D. at Peking Union Medical College and is currently also active as a researcher with the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing. In 2020, he won the Baruch S. Blumberg Prize, the Hepatitis B Foundation’s highest honor.

Yang Xueming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ngaiming Mok, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, received awards in physical sciences and in mathematics and computer science, respectively.

Founded in 2016, the Future Science Prize is the first Chinese non-governmental science award jointly initiated by a collective of scientists and entrepreneurs.

China has reported several cases of children infected with swimming poolassociated human adenovirus in the past two months. Given this summer’s scorching heat, more people opted to go for a swim in public pools than before and the reported infections are bringing the hygiene of these pools under scrutiny.

In most cases, pool hygiene is undetectable without testing. Although the country already has issued regulations on swimming pool hygiene, their implementation remains patchy. Regular checks are usually a mere formality, and random water testing is rare. Numerous public pools are even completely unsupervised.

Despite more people trying to escape the heat by taking a dip this summer,pool operators apparently deemed it unnecessary to up their standards and services, consequently creating a potential health hazard.

Apart from a strict implementation of the existing rules, the country needs more scientific means of water quality monitoring and professional public pool management to ensure swimmers’ health.

“Our collective security demands we seize every moment to forge a common understanding of the threats and challenges before us—and most importantly, to shape united responses to them.”

António Guterres, UN Secretary General, at a Security Council briefing on August 22

“When certain politicians and media in the U.S. and some other Western countries hype up the so-called‘Chinese debt trap’ despite the facts,their real aim is to create a narrative trap to sow discord between China and other developing countries.”

Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, at a regular news briefing on August 18

In a bid to accelerate the modernization of the country’s national governance system and capability,the Chinese Government is urging the extensive application of digital technologies across government departments. Governments at all levels nationwide are constantly issuing new apps, thanks to digital support, making it much more convenient for the public to manage their affairs.

China’s development of digital government centers serves the people.Going along with the social and economic digitalization trend and ride the wave of digital reforms for the transformation of government functions will effectively enhance the capability of the government to adjust the economy,supervise the market, offer public services and protect the nation’s ecology.Major social issues and complaints pushed to the back of the line will also be solved more efficiently through digital government; all in all, the fruits of digitalization will benefit society at large.

As planned, by 2025, a top-level digital design that matches modernized governance will be further improved and a basic framework will be put in place—receiving another upgrade in a decade.

In recent years, the country and public have been paying more attention to energy conservation. But some forms of energy waste continue to slip under the radar, for example that of standby energy consumption. Recent surveys show that in some households, the television-set,air-conditioning and kitchen ventilation are always in standby mode, even when no one’s home.

Doing so seemingly doesn’t cost too much energy, but the accumulated amount is huge. Take a medium-sized city of 5 million people, for example.Electricity wasted in standby mode over a year amounts to 139 million kWh. This is not only a big utility bill on the part of individual families, but also a loss of public energy.

This summer, south China was hit by extreme heat, stretching local power supplies. In this context, controlling energy waste arising from standby mode becomes a very pressing matter.The public must become more aware of this issue so that electricity can be saved and used when and where it is most needed.

LAST MATRIARCH DIES AT 101

Maria Suo, chief of the Reindeer Ewenki tribe and the last matriarch in all of China, passed away at the age of 101 on August 20.

Suo lived with her tribe in Aoluguya Ewenki Ethnic Township, Genhe City in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. With more than 200 people, they are known as the country’s only tribe to preserve the culture of reindeer rearing. According to folk tradition, the Reindeer Ewenki have a cultural history dating back nearly 3,000 years.

Suo worked her entire life sustaining this unique reindeer culture in China. “The Ewenki people value their reindeer very much. Only with the reindeer, can we live at ease. Traditional Ewenki people only raise the reindeer and do not kill, let alone eat them, because they are our friends,” she said.

During her lifetime, Suo even inspired a novel and a musical.

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We should never allow the world to slide into a new Cold War.”

Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, at a UN Security Council meeting on the Ukraine conflict on August 24

“China is not here to exploit Africa,as the Western world perceives,because looking at the African infrastructure development side,the Belt and Road Initiative is helping Africa transform itself.”

Frederick Golooba Mutebi, a Ugandan independent researcher and analyst, in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency