HIGH-TECH COMPANIES RESUME PRODUCTION IN CHINA

High-tech companies have resumed work and are turning the challenges brought by novel coronavirus pneumonia into new opportunities.

Although many companies have had to adjust their original business schedules, they have adapted new technology to fight against the epidemic, such as infrared temperature testing.

The number of diversified enterprises resuming work reached 8,200 in the Wuxi high-tech zone by Feb 24, including about 5,302 industrial enterprises.

KEY MEASURES SET TO SHORE UP ECONOMY

China will accelerate the implementation of flexible and targeted monetary policies in the coming months to shore up an economy hit by the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak while avoiding a potential surge of asset prices in the capital and property markets, economists said.

The country's top leadership has signaled that intention. At a recent top leadership meeting, President Xi Jinping said that the government will step up macroeconomic policy adjustments to prevent the economy from slipping out of the appropriate range.

Xi said that the country will exercise greater flexibility in its prudent monetary policy and focus on addressing pressing issues including corporate debts, cash flows and financing demand.

He also called for effectively implementing existing financial policies and adopting new supportive measures at the appropriate time.

Economists expect imminent accommodative measures to include the central bank further reducing the amount of cash that commercial lenders must put aside as reserves, offering more targeted relending to commercial banks and channeling more affordable funds into manufacturing, agricultural and trade sectors by boosting the role of State-owned policy banks.

On Wednesday, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, announced an additional 500 billion yuan ($71.2 billion) of relending and rediscounting — ways the central bank can boost lending through commercial banks. That is in addition to the existing 300 billion yuan of relending offered by the central bank to support businesses involved in fighting the epidemic.

The central bank will carry out "dynamic adjustment" in its policy for commercial banks' reserve requirement ratio in the targeted manner in the near future and will ensure financing to be more inclusive and supportive for smaller firms, Chen Yulu, a deputy governor of the PBOC, said on Monday.

There are also discussions among economists about the possibility of the central bank cutting the benchmark deposit rate, which has remained unchanged since 2015. Liu Guoqiang, another PBOC deputy governor, said recently that the central bank will consider adjusting the benchmark deposit rate based on economic growth and price level at an appropriate time.

Analysts said that the emphasis on flexibility and a targeted approach in monetary policy underscored the government's intention to inject more liquidity to support the epidemic-hit economy, while it remains very cautious about excessive easing that could lead to a steep rise of asset prices in the capital and property markets.

The recent strong rally of the stock market on the Chinese mainland has stoked such concerns but it is believed that China's financial authorities are closely monitoring the rise of the country's overall leverage ratio and the potential risk of asset bubbles.

CHINA'S LUNAR ROVER UNVEILS UNDERGROUND SECRETS ON FAR SIDE OF MOON

China's lunar rover Yutu 2, or Jade Rabbit 2, has helped scientists unveil the secrets buried deep under the surface on the far side of the moon, enriching human's understanding about the history of celestial collision and volcanic activities and shedding new light on the geological evolution on the moon.

China's Chang'e 4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the eastern floor of the Von Karman Crater within the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan 3, 2019. After its landing, the spacecraft immediately deployed its Yutu 2 rover, which uses Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) to investigate the underground it roams.

A study conducted by a research team led by Li Chunlai and Su Yan at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) reveals what lurks below the lunar surface.

As a result of the tidal locking effect, the moon's revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, and the same side always faces Earth.

The research team used the LPR on Yutu 2 to send radio signals deep into the surface of the moon, reaching a depth of 40 meters by the high-frequency channel of 500 MHz -- more than three times the depth previously reached by the Chang'e 3 lunar probe, which was sent to the near side of the moon at the end of 2013.

This data allowed the researchers to develop an image of the subsurface stratigraphy of the far side of the moon.

"We found that the signal penetration at the Chang'e 4 site is much deeper than that measured by the LPR at the landing site of the Chang'e 3 probe on the near side of the moon," said Li Chunlai, a research professor and deputy director-general of NAOC.

"The subsurface at the Chang'e 4 landing site is very complex, and this qualitative observation suggests a totally different geological context for the two landing sites," Li said.

"Despite the good quality of the radar image along the rover route at a distance of about 106 meters, the complexity of the spatial distribution and shape of the radar features make identification and interpretation of the geological structures and events that generated such features quite difficult," said Su Yan, another researcher from NAOC.

The scientists analyzed the radar image with tomographic technique, and the result shows that the subsurface is essentially made by highly porous granular materials embedding boulders of different sizes.

The study was published in the latest issue of Science Advances.