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China to deepen reform of judicial accountability system

(Xinhua)08:33, August 06, 2020

The Supreme Peoples Court (SPC) has issued a guideline on deepening the comprehensive and integrated reform of Chinas judicial accountability system.

The guideline covers five areas, including the political work of courts, the supervision of adjudication, frugality, reform of the personnel system and the allocation of resources, with 28 specific measures listed.

The guideline represents significant guidance for peoples courts to enforce judicial accountability in all respects over the coming period, according to the SPC.

It highlights a system for monthly reports on interventions in and inquiries about cases, as well as sounder protection and encouragement for those handling the cases for which foul interventions and inquiries are recorded.

It asks peoples courts at all levels to specify and modify their own adjudication powers and lists of responsibilities, based on the deep understanding of the relationship between enforcing judicial accountability and implementing democratic centralism.

In conditions where superior peoples courts fulfill their duties of guidance and supervision over lower courts, and where chief or presiding judges perform their duties of supervising adjudication within the powers of adjudication and list of responsibilities of their respective courts, it is not a violation of the regulations to intervene in and inquire about cases, the guideline reads.

The guideline also features measures on the personnel management of courts, such as furthering the dynamic management of the number of judges and improving the selection system and exit mechanism for judges.

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Wide BDS system application leads to better life

(Xinhua)09:11, August 06, 2020

With the commissioning of Chinas self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), the concept of BDS plus is catching on. The navigation systems wide application in agriculture, transportation, and environmental protection is leading ordinary Chinese people to a better life.

Over the past 10 years, the total output value of Chinas satellite navigation and location service industry has increased by more than 20 percent annually. The output value reached 345 billion yuan (about 49.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, and was expected to exceed 400 billion yuan in 2020.

In Beijing, tens of thousands of taxis have been equipped with BDS-enabled devices that can work together with ride-hailing platforms to raise efficiency and lower the empty-loading ratio. The device also enables traffic authorities to receive transport conditions in real-time, effectively improving urban traffic congestion and air pollution.

After years of market cultivation, the BDS has facilitated the informatization and modernization of Chinas transportation, and is significant in the establishment of a smooth, efficient, safe, and green transportation system.

The Ministry of Transport has released a roadmap to further promote the application of BDS in the countrys railway, highway, waterway, civil aviation, and postal services.

The BDS also has wide prospects in the agricultural and fishery sectors. It helps fishermen in Chinas coastal regions by providing services such as fishing boat navigation, early warning of marine disasters, and short message communication.

In sea areas without mobile communication signals, the BDS allows fishermen to report their safety to their families through its distinctive short message function.

Thanks to the high-accuracy positioning provided by the BDS, driverless farm machinery can carry out high-precision farming tasks such as ridging and sowing on a Nenjiang farm in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang Province.

The BDS-based navigation terminal used on the farm was developed by a company under the China Academy of Space Technology. The company also applies BDS in precision agriculture by integrating satellite remote sensing, 5G, and the Internet of Things to evaluate soil moisture content and crop growth.

Peng Tao, chairman of the company, said they will expand the use of BDS in more areas, such as forest ecology construction and conservation.

With the help of a BDS-based terminal, rangers in the Shennongjia Forestry District in Hubei Province can report their location and path to the command center when they are patrolling the forest.

The application of BDS has no boundaries, and more efforts will be made to develop new satellite navigation technologies to provide better navigation, positioning, and timing services for mankind, said Xie Jun, chief designer of the BDS-3 satellite system.

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Support squad training for Beijing Winter Olympics

(Xinhua)13:44, January 16, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — A team of support crew in the Yanqing competition zone of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games has been training during this winter.

Its a team composed of local skiers and ski lovers from various fields who will serve during the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Located in northern Beijing, more than 70 percent of Yanqing District is mountainous land. The region will play host to Alpine skiing, bobsleigh and luge competitions during the 2022 Games.

The support squad, established in January 2020, has 72 outstanding skiers selected after registration, preliminary inspection, strict tests and expert assessment, who came from various fields including medical, sports, and emergency departments of Yanqing district.

Some of them are members of the Yanqing District Ski Association, along with doctors, teachers, and emergency department staff, who have been tied together as a team for the Beijing 2022 support work, according to Ma Zhiyong, deputy director of the Sports Bureau of Yanqing District of Beijing.

I wish that after this training, our ski squad members can not only better serve the coming Winter Olympics, but also bring more people to love and experience winter sports, helping to develop winter sports and the ice-snow industry, Ma said.

To improve service capabilities, the local government organized a special training in this winter season, which is the last winter before the Games. The training mainly focuses on learning skills on snow fields according to the members profession, such as quickly checking the athletes injury and moving the injured to nearby hospitals, as well as how to use skiing skills and foreign languages to help their rescue work.

The China national team coaches and players of winter sports, the head of the Chinese branch of the Swiss National Ski School, and other experts were also invited to form a instruction team to guide the squad with their training.

I will continue to work hard, hoping to learn skiing skills solidly, and also use my professional knowledge to make a contribution to the Winter Olympics, said Wang Feipeng, a member of the Yanqing Winter Olympics ski squad.

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Hubbell, Donohue win third ice dance title at US Figure Skating Championships

(Xinhua)09:00, January 18, 2021

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) — Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won their third career national title at the 2021 US Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas Orleans Arena on Saturday night.

Were pretty thrilled to be here with this awesome opportunity that US Figure Skating set up for us, Donohue said. Were very grateful for this. It feels amazing to be back in Vegas and to get another US title.

Previously, Hubbell and Donohue were US champions in 2018 and 2019. They scored 134.90 points in their free dance for 224.56 total points. Both are US Championships records.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates earned the silver medal with 132.83 points in the free dance for 222.93 total points. Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean Luc Baker finished third with 212.55 total points.

Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won their first US title as a team in the pairs competition, earning 228.10 total points after their 150.64-point free skate.

Knierim won the US title in 2015 and 2020 with her husband and former partner Chris. Frazier won the US title in 2017 with his former partner Haven Denney. Chris has retired after winning the 2020 title.

We are elated with our performance, Knierim said. Very, very pleased with it. It was a fight for us out there. Were very proud of what we put out there, we worked very hard, and were excited for the future.

Knierim and Frazier set a new US Championships record in the short program, free skate and total score.

In the mens short program, Nathan Chen led the way with a US Championships record 113.92-point short program. Coming into this competition, Chen has won four straight US titles.

Im thrilled with the short program today, Chen said. I made a couple of little bobbles on the landings and I wish I had skated those a little bit cleaner. But overall Im really happy with the program, and just thrilled to be here. This whole season has just been crazy, and everything is just so unexpected. So the fact that were all here, that were all healthy, that were able to do this, is just incredible.

Vincent Zhou is close behind after earning 107.79 points. He has medaled in four straight US Championships. Jason Brown is third with 100.92 points.

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Australian PM tells disgruntled tennis players to follow the rules

(Xinhua)11:01, January 19, 2021

CANBERRA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) — Australias Prime Minister has told tennis players in quarantine ahead of the Australian Open to follow the rules.

The Department of Health and Human Services in the state of Victoria, where the Australian Open will be held from February 8 to 21, on Tuesday morning reported four new cases in hotel quarantine.

Tennis stars including world number one and eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic have reportedly expressed their dissatisfaction towards strict quarantine arrangements ahead of the Grand Slam event.

Responding to the topic for the first time on Monday afternoon, PM Scott Morrison told Nine Entertainment radio that players would be well paid for competing in the tournament.

I think its just time people follow the rules, do their quarantine, play tennis. Theyll get paid well for it and Im sure theyll put on a great spectacle and the Australian Open will go ahead, he said.

This is one of those things. Youre trying to keep the balance of keeping things going forward as normal as you can, but it obviously has to happen under some rather extraordinary rules and arrangements.

He refused to criticize the Victorian Government for its handling of the event and rejected commentary that tennis players were taking the place of Australians stranded overseas in hotel quarantine.

No one is being prevented from coming home from overseas because of the Australian Open, thats not happening, Morrison said.

More than 70 players have been confined to hard lockdown in their hotel rooms in the lead-up to the tournament after passengers on their flights to Australia tested positive for COVID-19.

Djokovic has reportedly issued a list of demands for players in quarantine including allowing players and coaches to visit each other and moving as many players as possible to private houses with tennis courts.

The demands have been rejected.

As of Monday afternoon, there had been 28,721 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the numbers of locally and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were zero and 13 respectively, according to the latest figures updated on Monday evening from the Department of Health.

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Chinas securities regulator seeks to improve quality of listed firms

(Xinhua)14:57, December 12, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — Chinas top securities watchdog launched a two-year campaign to enhance the corporate governance of listed firms on Friday, eyeing better governance structures and high-quality development of listed firms.

A key element of the campaign is self-examination and correction on the part of listed firms, requiring them to engage in rectification and reform, and effectively improving the system and rules of corporate governance, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said.

In response to the recent suspension of the initial public offering (IPO) registration of some enterprises, the CSRC said the decisions were made by the stock exchanges in accordance with laws and regulations, and there was no deliberate tightening of the IPO.

Supervision of the exit mechanism for listed companies will be strengthened, while the criteria for delisting will be fine-tuned, with the relevant procedures streamlined, said the CSRC.

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Chinese auto makers seek way out of chip shortage

(Xinhua)15:00, December 12, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — With the shortage of automobile chips expected to linger, some Chinese auto makers need to brace for a short-term disruption to production next year, according to a local industry association.

A rise in chip prices is also likely, resulting from an increase in advance purchasing by companies along the industry chain and the difficulties of increasing production capacity in the short run, said Li Shaohua, an official with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), in a recent interview with Auto Review magazine.

To navigate such a bottleneck, Chinese auto companies and chip makers need joint efforts in technological innovation and upgrading to stabilize production and bolster supply chains.

UNEXPECTED DEMAND

Computer chips are widely used in the automotive industry, being applied to crucial vehicle parts and functions, such as power systems, chassis control and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

However, the relatively conservative sentiments in global chip investment in recent years have triggered unbalanced supply and demand, while the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the cautiousness in capacity investment, said Li, stressing that the automotive chip shortage is a common challenge facing the auto industry worldwide.

Since the beginning of this month, a few automakers have been hit by chip shortages to varying degrees, including SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, both joint ventures between Chinese automakers and German auto giant Volkswagen AG.

Volkswagen Group China attributed the chip shortage in the auto industry to the uncertainties caused by COVID-19 and the full-speed recovery of Chinas auto market, according to an interview with the economic channel of the China Central Television.

Data from the CAAM shows that consumer demand saw a rapid rebound in the Chinese auto market in the second half of this year. Auto sales rose 12.6 percent year on year to 2.77 million in November, the seventh straight month to see double-digit growth.

Commenting on the unexpected surge in demand, Li said that the chip industry worldwide failed to adapt to the strong upturn in the countrys auto market in the second half, as COVID-19 has dealt a blow to major overseas chip suppliers.

In addition, the surging demand for chips for other purposes, such as those used in consumer electronics, also contributes to the shrinking production of automotive chips, Li added.

Chinas automakers heavily depend on chip imports for production. According to a report on Shanghai Securities News, 95 percent of the chips used in China-manufactured vehicles are imported from overseas.

Industry data also shows that chips for advanced sensors, in-vehicle networks, electric system, ADAS, automation and many other key car-manufacturing procedures are mostly imported, with self-made chips accounting for less than 10 percent.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

Despite the disruption to production triggered by the shortage, Chinese car makers are stepping up measures to counteract the impact.

The measures being taken include re-adjusting the pace of production, advancing chip-purchasing schedules, seeking more suppliers and optimizing the supply-chain structure, according to Li.

Stressing that delivery to customers is not currently affected, Volkswagen Group China said in the aforementioned interview that it is monitoring the situation closely and coordinating with its headquarters and suppliers to cope with the shortage.

Chinese carmaker BYD said in an interview with the newspaper Beijing Daily that it can produce chips by itself and therefore is not affected by the shortage.

In September, the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center initiated an innovation strategic union for the automotive chip industry. Gathering car manufacturers, chip suppliers, research institutes and industry organizations, the union aims to improve the industrys core competency and safeguard the stability of the industry chain through joint efforts.

International cooperation is also on track to boost auto-chip research and development in response to the global challenge. Imagination Technologies, a British semiconductor and software design company, has signed a joint-venture agreement with BAIC Group Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Chinese car maker BAIC Group, to establish an automotive semiconductor company for creating automotive chips.

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China lowers key parameter to rein in cross-border financing

(Xinhua)15:03, December 12, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — China on Friday lowered a key parameter in its macro-prudential management to rein in the ability of its financial companies to borrow foreign debt.

The macro-prudential adjustment parameter, a multiplier that decides the upper limit of outstanding cross-border financing an institution can have, has been revised to 1, down from 1.25 previously, according to a joint statement issued by the Peoples Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The downward revision aims to further improve the macro-prudential management of cross-border financing and guide financial institutions to adjust their foreign debt structure, the statement said.

Financial institutions should stick to a risk-neutral philosophy and better serve social and economic development, it added.

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China’s tourism industry comes back to life

(Peoples Daily Online)10:32, December 04, 2020

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 15, 2020 shows the view of Xiasi Ancient Town of Kaili in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest Chinas Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)

China’s tourism industry, once hit hard by COVID-19, has walked out of the shadow of the pandemic, statistics from major travelling information and service companies show, Economic Daily reported.

Online travel agency Tongcheng-Elong said it has 246 million monthly active users, a rise of 5 percent compared with the same period last year. It also claimed to have witnessed an increase in revenue during the first three quarters of the year.

Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency, saw a year-on-year increase of 20 percent in hotel bookings, and the profit margin of its operating revenue climbed by 24 percent, topping global listed travel companies.

Statistics also indicated that third- and fourth- tier cities have become major contributors to the recovery. Tongcheng-Elong said about 86.1 percent of its users were from smaller cities as of the end of September.

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Chinese city launches new China-Europe freight train route

(Xinhua)17:21, December 09, 2020

XIAN, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — A new China-Europe freight train route has been launched, linking the city of Ankang in northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province with Central Asian and European cities.

The first freight train on this route left Ankang Tuesday afternoon, carrying 43 TEUs of goods weighing more than 700 tonnes, including household appliances and natural slate.

The train first arrived in Shaanxis capital Xian, from where it is scheduled to reach Central Asia in eight days and Europe in 13 days via the Changan China-Europe freight route.

The Changan China-Europe freight train service saw more than 3,400 trips in the first 11 months of this year, almost double the figure for the same period last year.