ON PATROL

The, the largest maritime patrol ship in the Taiwan Straits, docks in Pingtan, Fujian Province on July 10.

The vessel, officially assigned to the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration on July 11, is the most advanced ship operated by the administration. It is designated to patrol and provide services in the Straits,including responding to emergencies.

Folk Dance

Villagers perform a water drum dance in Jianhe County of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, on July 8. The(water drum) folk dance of the Miao ethnic group is performed to pray for good weather and peace.

Relaxing Restrictions

China will relax restrictions on urban household registration in the 2021-25 period, according to a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on July 12. Currently, Chinese migrants must apply to register in their destination city to access public healthcare and some other benefits. Limits are placed on these new registrations in order to manage population growth in urban areas.

The country will lift all limits on household registration in cities with fewer than 3 million residents and ease those in cities with populations of 3-5 million.

The point-based household registration system will be streamlined for megacities with over 5 million residents. The plan also encourages these cities to scrap their annual residency quota.

China will likely see a steady rise in the urbanization rate by 2025, with urban public services accessible to residents with and without registered household status.

By then, the population capacities of city clusters nationwide will improve and the construction of major metropolitan areas will also progress.

China’s urbanization rate reached 64.72 percent in 2021,while the urban-rural income ratio narrowed to 2.5:1, official data showed.

Average Life Expectancy

Average life expectancy, a key gauge of the health level of a country’s residents, reached 78.2 years in China in 2021, statistics released by the National Health Commission (NHC) on July 12 showed. The figure is up from 77.93 years in 2020.

China saw its maternal mortality rate fall in 2021, dropping from 16.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 16.1 per 100,000, the commission said in its annual report on the country’s health development.

China’s infant mortality rate decreased from 5.4 per 1,000 in 2020 to 5 per 1,000 last year,the commission said.

The mortality rates of pregnant women, infants and children under 5 years of age in China all dropped to their lowest levels in history in 2021, said Song Li, Director of the maternal and child health department of the NHC.

Biodiversity Conservation

Authorities in Tibet Autonomous Region released 2.65 million fish, including six fish species endemic to the Lhasa River, as part of efforts to conserve local aquatic biodiversity.

Currently, 71 species of indigenous fish can be found in Tibet.Tsedrum, President of the Tibet Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, said that problems such as overfishing in some river basins, invasion by exotic fish and destruction of fish habitats have threatened Tibet’s indigenous fish species over the past decade.

This has prompted the region to carry out fish breeding and release activities since 2009.To date, Tibet has released more than 30 million fish, which has played a significant role in protecting local fish population.

“Compared with other places, Tibet’s fish resources are scarce, slow to grow and low in fertility. Breeding and release can effectively promote the protection and restoration of Tibet’s unique fish resources and help with aquatic biodiversity conservation,” said Wangchuk, Deputy Director of the Institute of Fishery Sciences under the academy.

New Botanical Garden

The South China National Botanical Garden was inaugurated in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, on July 11.The garden aims to strengthen the conservation and research of and public education on tropical and subtropical plants.

The garden has three research centers, one herbarium,two national-level field stations and three key laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.With a total planned area of 319 hectares, it conserves more than 20,000 plant species,including 6,000 economically significant plant species, across 38 specialized gardens.

As a country with some of the richest plant biodiversity around the world, China is home to more than 37,000 known higher plant species, accounting for about one tenth of the global total.

On April 18, the country also made another milestone move to strengthen its biodiversity protection by officially inaugurating the China National Botanical Garden in Beijing.

World Internet Conference

An inauguration ceremony for the World Internet Conference,an international organization headquartered in Beijing, was held in Beijing on July 12.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the organization for its inauguration, which was read out at the event by Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The establishment of the organization meets a global need for dialogue, consultation and cooperation in cyberspace,Huang said at the inauguration ceremony.

Huang expressed the hope that the international community will step up dialogue and exchanges; deepen practical cooperation; and jointly build a cyberspace that is fairer and more equitable, open, inclusive,secure, stable and vibrant to allow the Internet to better benefit people all over the world.Members of the World Internet Conference include Internet-related international organizations, enterprises, institutions, experts and scholars.

Ecological Improvement

China has made steady progress in environmental protection in the first half of the year as it pursues its green development path, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on July 9.

Air quality has improved,with the average concentration of hazardous airborne particles(PM2.5) decreasing 5.9 percent year on year to 32 micrograms per cubic meter during the first six months, according to the ministry.

The percentage of days with good air quality was 84.6 percent in cities at and above the prefecture level, up 0.3 percentage point from a year ago.

China also has cleaner surface water. The proportion of surface water with “fairly good” quality—at or above Grade III in the country’s five-tier water quality system—rose 4 percentage points year on year to 85.7 percent during the period, while that of surface water below Grade V, the lowest level,dropped 0.8 percentage point to 1.1 percent from a year ago,data showed. Water of Grade III or above is considered clean enough to drink.

Among its major river basins,both the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins reported better surface water quality, with the former seeing 97 percent of its surface water at or above Grade III.

Maritime Day

Pupils visit a patrol ship in Dalian, Liaoning Province, on July 11, China National Maritime Day.

Cooling Down

Customers of an underground café in Jiulongpo District of Chongqing Municipality seek respite from a heatwave that hit the region on July 11.

Foreign Trade

China’s foreign trade in goods jumped 9.4 percent year on year to 19.8 trillion yuan ($2.94 trillion) in the first half of the year,official data showed on July 13.

Exports rose 13.2 percent year on year to 11.14 trillion yuan($1.65 trillion), while imports increased 4.8 percent from a year ago to 8.66 trillion yuan ($1.28 trillion), according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The growth of the overall volume accelerated to 14.3 percent in June, compared with 9.5 percent in May and 0.1 percent in April.

In the January-June period,China’s trade with its top three trading partners—ASEAN, the EU and the U.S.—expanded by 10.6 percent, 7.5 percent and 11.7 percent from a year ago, respectively.

Its trade with other participants of the Belt and Road Initiative and other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership soared 17.8 percent and 5.6 percent year on year.

Imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products expanded 4.2 percent to account for 49.1 percent of the total.

Private enterprises’ import and export volume grew 13.6 percent year on year in the six months, outpacing the country’s overall growth.

Exports of labor-intensive products increased 13.5 percent to 1.99 trillion yuan ($295 billion),while imports of energy products including crude oil, natural gas and coal surged 53.1 percent,customs data showed.

Registered Trademarks

The number of valid registered trademarks in China exceeded 40 million at the end of June, up 20.9 percent year on year, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration.

By the end of June, market entities from over 200 countries or regions had registered trademarks in China, with those from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and the Republic of Korea topping the list, Hu Wenhui, deputy head of the administration, said at a press conference on July 12.Hu said China had approved 2,493 geographical indication(GI) products by the end of June.GI collective trademarks, certification trademarks and regional public brands can assist rural localities become recognized for the quality or special nature of their produce.

E-Commerce Logistics

The index tracking e-commerce logistics activities stood at 107.1 points in June, up 2.8 points from May. The index is based on a survey jointly conducted by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and e-commerce giant JD.com.

The survey attributed the faster expansion in June, which followed the recovery in the previous month, to accelerated economic rebound and significant improvements in logistical flow.It noted that during the mid-year online sales, major ecommerce platforms secured year-on-year transaction growth,with sales jumps in cellphones,home appliances and cosmetics.

All nine of the major subindices the survey used to measure e-commerce logistical activities in different fields recorded growth in the month, with those for business volume and rural business up 4.3 points and 9.1 points, respectively, from the previous month.

Interbank Bond Market

Non-financial institutions raised more funds through debt financing instruments in the interbank bond market in the first half of 2022, data from the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors showed.

During the period, debt financing instruments worth 4.73 trillion yuan ($703.8 billion)were issued in the market, up 6 percent year on year.

Net financing through debt financing instruments reached about 1.1 trillion yuan ($163.94 billion), an increase of 500 billion yuan ($74.4 billion) from the same period last year.

Debt financing instruments include short-term commercial papers, medium-term notes, private placement notes, and super short-term commercial papers.

Air Transport

The civil aviation sector handled nearly 118 million passenger air trips from January to June,data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)showed on July 12.

The number of passenger trips recorded in May and June jumped 53.2 percent and 82.2 percent,respectively, month on month,with the single-day passenger trips exceeding 1 million on June 29.

The number of trips in June was about 46.2 percent of the number recorded in the same period in 2019, indicating a steady recovery, the administration said.The volume of mail and cargo stood at about 3.08 million tons in the first half of the year, with the volume in June recovering to 89.7 percent of the number recorded in the same period in 2019.

In June, the volume of international air cargo increased 1.8 percent year on year, the CAAC said, pointing out the high market demand for civil aviation international cargo.

Auto Exports

China’s auto exports sustained their growth momentum in June,hitting a record high and soaring 57.4 percent year on year, industry data showed on July 11.

Auto companies exported a total of 249,000 vehicles in the month, climbing 1.8 percent from May, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Some 198,000 passenger cars were exported in June,jumping 65.6 percent year on year, and exports of commercial vehicles stood at 51,000 units,an increase of 32.4 percent, the association said.

In the first half of 2022,China’s auto exports rose 47.1 percent year on year to nearly 1.22 million units.

Exports of new-energy vehicles came in at 202,000 units in the first six months of the year,skyrocketing 130 percent year on year.

Some Chinese new-energy vehicle brands are entering the markets of developed countries,including many in Europe, with growing global recognition and increasing competitiveness, the association noted.

SME Activities

The performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)showed improvements in June as business operations resumed and supply chain disruptions have been gradually addressed amid a package of pro-growth policies, industry data showed.The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Index,calculated based on a survey of 3,000 SMEs, came in at 88.4 in June, up 0.2 points from May and ending a four-month streak of decline, the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises said.

The rebound of the index came after the world’s second largest economy showed a steady recovery momentum, with key economic indicators such as valueadded industrial output and foreign trade improving in May.

The sub-indexes for eight sectors all bounced back in June from a month earlier, with that of the accommodation and food and beverage sector logging the largest increase, according to the association.

Despite the overall trend of recovery, the association warned of increasingly complex external circumstances, weak market demand and difficulties in business operations, calling for further implementation of supportive measures to help SMEs shore up growth.

PAKISTAN People wade through deep water following torrential rains in the southern port city of Karachi on July 11. Around 20 people have lost their lives since the most recent monsoon hit the area one week ago

BELGIUM Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zdravko Mari? and European Central Bank(ECB) President Christine Lagarde attend a euro adoption ceremony in Brussels on July 12. Croatia will join the eurozone on January 1, 2023

REPUBLIC OF KOREA Passengers wearing face masks on a bus in Seoul on July 12. The country’s COVID-19 cases reached more than 18.56 million as of midnight on July 11

UNITED KINGDOM Prime Minister Boris Johnson departs 10 Downing Street to attend a weekly question and answer session at Parliament in London on July 13. Johnson announced his resignation on July 7,but will remain in his post until the governing Conservatives elect his successor in September

UNITED STATES Image released by NASA shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. NASA released James Webb Space Telescope’s frist full-color images of the universe and their spectroscopic data on July 12

CRYSTALLOGRAPHER DIES AT 88

Fan Haifu, physicist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), passed away from illness on July 8 in Beijing at the age of 88.

Fan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. He graduated from Peking University in 1956, where he majored in chemistry. He started his career at the Institute of Physics under CAS in Beijing and became a researcher in 1986.

His professional achievements contributed to global X-ray crystallography, the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, and electron microscopy. Throughout his lifetime,he received multiple national and global honors, including the TWAS award in physics in 1996. Together with British physicist Michael Woolfson, he published a book titled.

The phrase “China’s flexibly employed reaches 200 million” became one of the top searches on Weibo, China’s Twitter, in February. Recent analysis by AliResearch, a think tank of Alibaba Group,indicated that the number of China’s gig workers will hit 400 million by 2036.

It’s therefore safe to say the gig economy has a big stake in the overall Chinese economy.

Beyond ride-hailing and express delivery services, which are at the core of China’s gig economy, a growing number of young people armed with hi-tech knowledge, too, are becoming part of this rising economic force. The gig economy not only helps ease employment pressures, but also plays a big role in promoting high-quality economic growth and improving the public’s livelihoods.

Nevertheless, there’s still much work to be done to help those involved in the gig economy, such as the creation of a stronger social safety net. The Central Government is seeking better regulations to serve the rights of workers, foster new skills and startups and ensure healthy and balanced development in the job market.

“We need more than ever multilateralism. But not any kind of multilateralism… a networked multilateralism.”

António Guterres, UN Secretary General, ahead of the EU-UN High-Level Dialogue, on July 7

“The choice we make today determines where the path will take us from now on—openness or isolation, cooperation or confrontation, solidarity or division,progress or regression.”

Wang Yi, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, in a speech at the ASEAN Secretariat on July 11

This year’s JD.com 618 Shopping Festival, the second largest online sale in China that takes place every year on June 18, stood out for its whopping trade volume of domestic goods. Recent years have seen demand for domestic brands soar on ecommerce platforms, while nationallevel exhibitions continue to build the reputation of domestic goods.

Chinese brands seek to lift the manufacturing industry to a higher level of quality and services.

To satisfy consumers’ appetite for domestic goods, new local brands are sprouting ubiquitously. Chinadesigned goods empowered by the latest developments in science and technology and boasting advanced craftsmanship are particularly popular with younger consumers.

For domestic goods to keep riding the current wave of popularity, China’s manufacturing sector needs to create more world-famous,premium-quality brands, not only to sustain the local love for domestic brands, but also to secure a bigger share in the global market.

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In order to attract applicants, Yunnan Agricultural University recently released a short video, which has so far received 1.39 million likes. But despite the attractive picture of agricultural studies this video paints, young people still seem to be lacking enthusiasm to actually enroll.

In China, rarely do students apply to agricultural schools or take agriculture as a major in college. Chinese students have long been instilled with values that downplay agriculture and the countryside on the whole. Rural students are told their best choice is to leave their underdeveloped rural hometowns and attend university in China’s urbanized regions.

But if all students, particularly those from the countryside, shun majors related to agriculture and seek to leave their villages, who will vitalize China’s rural economy?

Nowadays, students in agricultural schools learn how to develop modern ecological and digital agriculture based on the latest developments in science and technology. They won’t be toiling away in the fields. Agricultural studies also delve into the relationships between the social, economic, political and environmental factors that affect the agricultural sector—from farm level production to international policy. An updated attitude toward agriculture is the key to fueling the young enthusiasm for agricultural studies.

FORMER MINISTER OF JUSTICE ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION

A public prosecution has been initiated against former Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua as he “traded power for personal gain and accepted huge amounts of bribes,” China’s top prosecuting authority said on July 11.

Fu allegedly abused his various positions as head of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security and head of the Ministry of Justice to benefit others. In return, he accepted extremely large bribes. He further stands accused of sheltering criminals.

Fu rose through the ranks of China’s public security and judicial systems, eventually becoming Beijing’s police chief and then minister of justice.

He was placed under investigation for suspected severe violations of discipline and law in October 2021. China’s anticorruption body said Fu had lost his “Party spirit and principles.”

“RCEP is the most ambitious regional free trade agreement in Asia in which China has played a vital role in converting Asian economy into a core economic polar...”

Kin Phea, Director General of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency

“New waves of the virus demonstrate once again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, at a news conference on July 13