Category: Society

(Xinhua)09:33, June 25, 2019

PEORIA, the United States, June 24 (Xinhua) — Brendt Christensen, a former University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) doctoral student, was found guilty Monday of kidnapping and killing Zhang Yingying, a visiting Chinese scholar at UIUC in 2017.

A 12-member jury at a federal court of Peoria in the U.S. state of Illinois unanimously ruled that Christensen was guilty on all three counts of charge against him, namely kidnapping resulting in death of Zhang in 2017; and two counts of making false statements to FBI.

It took less than two hours for the jury to make the decision after the prosecutor and the defense finished their closing statements on Monday morning.

In a following press conference outside the courtroom, Zhang Ronggao, father of Zhang Yingying, told Xinhua he was satisfied with the verdict, and further hoped the justice will be done in the upcoming penalty sentence, which is scheduled on July 8 when the same jury will decide whether Christensen deserves the death penalty.

Zhangs mother broke into tears standing beside Zhangs father.

Zhang, a 26-year-old visiting Chinese scholar, went missing on June 9, 2017, after getting into a black Saturn Astra about five blocks from where she got off a bus on her way to an apartment complex to sign a lease.

Christensen was arrested on June 30, 2017, after being caught on tape pointing out people he described as ideal victims during a vigil in Zhangs honor. But he pleaded not guilty.

(China Daily)11:24, June 25, 2019

Producers and sellers of fake or substandard vaccines will be subject to heavier punishment, including increased fines, according to a draft law.

The draft vaccine administration law is under third reading at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress, China鈥檚 top legislative body, on Tuesday.

Companies will face fines of up to 50 times the value of the produced or sold fake vaccines, the latest draft said. The previous draft, released in April, stipulated a fine of up to 30 times for such offenses.

In addition, companies that produce or sell fake vaccines will face confiscation of illegal proceeds, raw materials, packaging materials and equipment, according to the draft. They may face revocation of production licenses.

The draft also stipulates a fine of up to 30 times the value of the produced or sold substandard vaccines, compared with a fine of up to 20 times stipulated in the previous draft.

Criminal suspects involving vaccines will receive heavier punishment according to law, according to the draft.

The draft law was first submitted to the top legislature for review in December.

(Xinhua)14:19, June 25, 2019

ZHENGZHOU, June 25 (Xinhua) — Senior Chinese archaeologists have evaluated astronomical relics discovered in central Chinas Henan Province as the countrys earliest evidence for observing the images and giving time, advancing history by nearly 1,000 years.

Archaeologists found the Big Dipper Nine Stars marker at the 5,000-year-old Qingtai Ruins in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. The size of the nine objects is basically the same as the actual brightness of the celestial body.

More than 30 astronomers, historians and archaeologists from the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of History of Natural Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the National Palace Museum were invited to the site to give their evaluations of the ruins last week.

They believe the astronomical relics and the surrounding sacrificial remains constitute a whole, which is consistent with the records of the Winter Solstice Sacrifice in ancient Chinese documents. It is of great significance to the study of early Chinese astronomy and the origin of Chinese civilization.

The experts said the relic indicates that the ancestors of Qingtai had some astronomical knowledge, and the worship of the celestial body may have formed a grand sacrificial ceremony for observing the solar terms and praying for a good harvest.

Gu Wanfa, president of the Zhengzhou Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that Qingtai is a large-scale trench settlement in the Yangshao Culture period, with a total area of about 310,000 square meters.

He said nine pottery pots were arranged in the Big Dipper Nine Stars pattern. They were surrounded by urn coffins of the same period, tombs, mortars and sacrificial pits of different periods and other related relics.

Previous to Qingtai, the Taosi Observatory in Xiangfen County, northern Chinas Shanxi Province, of 4,200 years ago, represented the earliest evidence in the study of the astronomical calendar in ancient China.

The experts suggested researching the relationship between the two astronomical relics and functions of the relics.

(Peoples Daily Online)14:48, June 25, 2019

Megacities in China have enacted laws to encourage citizens to recycle, and waste sorting is soon to be compulsory in many Chinese cities.

(Photo/Chinanews.com)

Shanghai passed a law on household garbage control in January. The law, to come into effect on July 1, clearly defines four types of household waste, namely recyclable, hazardous, dry and wet waste.

Anyone who mixes garbage will be liable to a maximum fine of 200 yuan, and companies that break the law may face a maximum penalty of 50,000 yuan.

Beijing adopted new garbage sorting regulations in March 2012. This May, the city made several amendments to the law, punishing violations of garbage classification regulations.

Wu Xiangyang, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said that garbage classification in Beijing didnt reach satisfactory results in the past, mostly because of the lack of legislative force. Now that anyone who disobeys the rules could face a penalty, more people will voluntarily sort out their own waste.

The law stipulates that schools, hospitals, office buildings and hotels in Beijing have to sort out waste; if not, they will be punished. In the future, the regulation will also be applied to residents, said Wu.

Starting from 2019, the garbage classification campaign will begin in county-level cities and above. By the end of 2025, all county-level cities and above will have developed a waste sorting system, according to relevant legal provisions.

To achieve this goal, it is essential for megacities to set a good example. However, megacities are still faced with challenges in garbage classification, such as residents reluctance to participate in garbage classification and relatively weak classification processing capabilities.

Behavior is what matters most. Compulsory classification is the first step towards dealing with the problem. Of course, supervision and punishment are also necessary, Wu said.

(Xinhua)16:33, June 25, 2019

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) — Procuratorial organs across China have helped deal a severe blow to narcotics crimes through performing duties of approving arrests of and prosecuting criminal suspects, according to the Supreme Peoples Procuratorate (SPP) Tuesday.

From 2018 to May 2019, procuratorial organs nationwide approved arrests of a total of 139,084 individuals in drug-related criminal cases, which accounted for 9.45 percent of all the arrests in criminal cases, down 9.69 percent year on year, said Chen Guoqing, deputy procurator-general of the SPP, at a press conference.

A total of 164,494 individuals in narcotics criminal cases were prosecuted during the same period, accounting for 7.07 percent of all those prosecuted in criminal cases, down 9.63 percent year on year, Chen added.

China has witnessed a drop in both the number of arrests approved by procuratorial organs in drug-related criminal cases and the number of such cases prosecuted since last year, Chen said, noting that the high incidence of drug-related crimes has been curbed.

Drug-related crimes rank third in the total number of criminal cases in China, following dangerous driving and theft, data from the SPP show.

(Xinhua)16:36, June 25, 2019

CHENGDU, June 25 (Xinhua) — A female giant panda released into the wild more than two years ago was spotted in southwest Chinas Sichuan Province, sources with a local nature reserve said on Tuesday.

The giant panda was spotted by a villager in Shimian county in the city of Yaan. Researchers in Liziping Nature Reserve identified it as the giant panda named Zhang Meng they released in Oct. 2016 and found her to be in good physical condition through examining her feces.

According to Shi Xu, a staff with the reserve, the collar that they put on Zhang Meng when she was released fell off in May 2017. Researchers have only been able to track her by searching for panda feces since then.

The panda ran away after she saw humans approaching her, according to the villager who spotted her.

It is a good thing that she ran away from humans. It indicates that she became wilder, said Shi. She was not so afraid of people when we found her last time in Shimian county in 2017.

The panda was born on July 7, 2014. She was released into the wild in the Liziping Nature Reserve on Oct. 20, 2016 following two years of wilderness training.

(Peoples Daily Online)14:06, June 26, 2019

A smart garbage sorting system in a community in Shanghai. (Photo/Chinanew.com)

Citizens in east China鈥檚 Shanghai are searching for trash cans on and offline as the city鈥檚 legislation on household garbage sorting and recycling is set to go into effect on July 1, National Business Daily reported via its app on Tuesday.

According to the regulations on household garbage sorting and recycling, which was adopted by Shanghai鈥檚 municipal legislature on Jan. 31, Shanghai will enforce a four-category garbage sorting rule from July 1, which requires citizens to dispose of garbage in categories of recyclable, hazardous, wet, and dry trash.

Before the new regulations, household garbage in Shanghai was classified as glass, hazardous, recyclable, and other waste, meaning citizens would put dry and wet garbage in the same trash can. Recently, in response to the new rule, people have started to buy trash cans that have separate containers for wet and dry waste.

The new requirements have boosted sales of various trash cans and garbage disposal units.

According to local media, even though shops have replenished stock, trash can supplies have still fallen short of demand, with one shop owner disclosing that sales of trash cans with markings to indicate garbage categories have been the most popular.

While regular trash cans can be bought for less than 10 yuan (about $1.45), new ones that have separate compartments for dry and wet waste have been found for as much as 188 yuan each.

The hottest trash can online is a Japanese double-decker trash can, selling for 198 yuan. Though much more expensive than a regular bin, sales have exceeded 10,000, with the majority of buyers living in Shanghai, according to local media.

As it鈥檚 not easy to sort kitchen waste into dry and wet waste, some people have decided to buy a garbage disposal unit which claims that it can pulverize kitchen waste into flour and dispose of it through the sewer system.

(China Daily)14:14, June 26, 2019

A portion of the drugs seized by Guangdong police on display at a Guangzhou news conference on Tuesday. [Photo by Zheng Caixiong/chinadaily.com.cn]

Traffickers from major overseas drug-producing regions have stepped up efforts to infiltrate China in recent years, a senior anti-drug official said.

Police have found illegal drugs from the Golden Triangle, Golden Crescent and some South American countries being smuggled into the country through increasingly diverse routes and more covert means, Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls on Wednesday.

The Golden Triangle, which straddles Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, accounts for nearly 85 percent of the drugs illegally consumed in China, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Last year, Chinese police seized 29.6 metric tons of drugs from the Golden Triangle, up 17.6 percent year-on-year, the commission said.

The haul included 4.6 tons of crystal methamphetamine, more than four times as much as in 2017, and 1.4 tons of ketamine, 35 times more than the previous year.

Domestic drug manufacturing was hit hard last year and the traditional sources of drug production in key provinces, including Guangdong, were greatly curbed, causing an imbalance between drug supply and demand, and higher prices for drugs nationwide, Liu said.

The ministry said police uncovered 412 illegal drug manufacturing cases nationwide last year, down 30.8 percent year-on-year, and authorities destroyed 268 facilities where drugs were manufactured, down 15.5 percent.

Some 14.7 tons of synthetic drugs were seized, a drop of 37 percent.

Illegal drug production in Guangdong, long the largest domestic source, declined sharply. The ministry said police uncovered 42 drug production cases last year, down 70 percent compared with 2017, smashed 28 production dens, a fall of 56 percent, and seized 1.65 tons of drugs, down 71 percent.

Driven by huge profits, a rising number of synthetic drugs were smuggled into China through illegal channels from the Golden Triangle, Liu said.

In November, Chinese police handed Vietnamese drug trafficker Nong Van Khoi over to Vietnamese police in Pingxiang in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Khoi, the main suspect in a drug-trafficking ring, was accused of organizing the gangs members to traffic more than 100 kilograms of heroin into China, said Yan Qiwei, head of the narcotics control department in Guangxi.

Vietnamese police uncovered a major cross-border drug-trafficking case in February last year, and seized 100.8 kg of heroin, which the suspects were planning to traffic into China from Laos via a border crossing in Vietnam. Khoi escaped to China, Yan said, but was detained in Huizhou, Guangdong, in October.

In order to curb drug smuggling from the Golden Triangle, China has tightened management in border areas and strengthened law enforcement cooperation with Laos, Myanmar and Thailand on intelligence sharing and the control of chemicals used in the production of drugs.

Between October and December, the National Narcotics Control Commission coordinated a special operation in 14 provinces and regions, including Yunnan province, Guangxi and Guangdong, targeting drug trafficking in border areas, the ministry said.

During the three-month operation, police uncovered 5,669 drug-related cases, detained 7,930 suspects and confiscated 12.5 tons of drugs, it said.

Liu said China has signed a four-year action plan agreement, running from 2019 through 2022, with Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to conduct joint operations to eradicate the drug trade in border areas.

Under the plan, police from the six countries will focus on collecting evidence, launching joint investigations and conducting unified operations to root out cross-border drug-trafficking rings.

(Peoples Daily)15:57, June 26, 2019

Workers are pouring wet waste into special equipment for oil-water separation. (Photo: People’s Daily app)

An environmental experience center was launched in Hongmei Street, Xuhui District, Shanghai on Tuesday, in response to Shanghais first regulation on domestic waste management which will take effect next month.

The 350-square-meter building is the first science center in Shanghai that includes both wet waste management and community environmental education, which shows the whole process of waste management from classification, centralized treatment to resource utilization.

Hongmei Street has 22 residential quarters and about 300,000 residents, as well as 3,000 enterprises and about 280,000 workers in its development zone. The street has implemented a series of waste classification projects since 2016, including hardware improvement of garbage bins, fixed-point and timed disposal system, wet waste separation, volunteers’ on-site demonstration and supervision and other support measures.

Residents gradually developed the habit of sorting waste, making the street one of the 18 waste classification model streets in Shanghai.

To further innovate wet waste recycling, the street also cooperated with an ecological and environmental enterprise. Wet waste and food waste could be transported to the environmental experience center and three other centralized disposal points, and then be put into a special equipment for 15 minutes to extract recycled water, which can be used as grease for biodiesel processing or compost material rich in biological strains.

Hongmei Street has reached the goal that the whole process of wet waste treatment should be done within the community—from disposal and transportation, to final treatment.

The street handles nearly 25 tons of kitchen waste a day, solving the waste leakage problem during the long-distance transportation and transit, reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of resources localization.