PRESIDENT CONFIDENT OF ACHIEVING POVERTY RELIEF GOAL

Despite the influence of the novel coronavirus pandemic on the country's economy, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he was confident of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty in China by the end of this year.

While visiting a community in the town of Laoxian in Shaanxi province's Pingli county, Xi instructed local officials to make substantial efforts to promote employment so that the people will have a stable life.

"I am confident of largely achieving the goal of poverty eradication this year. What concerns me more is whether the situation can be stabilized after this year, or whether there is a long-term mechanism," Xi said.

Xi's trip to the region started on Monday with ecological preservation and poverty alleviation on top of the agenda.

Only through stable employment can locals live a prosperous life, Xi told the family of Wang Xianping. Wang's family is among 1,346 households in the community that have been relocated from hilly areas prone to geological disasters or poverty-stricken areas.

Xi stressed down-to-earth efforts facilitating employment, warning against any practice of formalism.

"The Chinese Communists are truth-seeking and pragmatic, and they make sure that the people can obtain real benefits," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The places Xi visited are located in the Qinling-Bashan mountainous region, one of China's 14 contiguous areas of extreme poverty, which are the "hardest nut to crack" in the final rush for poverty relief.

Across China, more than 9.6 million poor people have been relocated to more habitable areas over the past few years as part of the country's poverty alleviation efforts.

According to the agenda set by Xi, China will lift all rural residents living below the current poverty line out of poverty by the end of this year.

While presiding over a symposium on securing the decisive victory in poverty alleviation last month, Xi instructed the country's officials to work hard to overcome the influences of the pandemic and strive for the fulfillment of the poverty elimination goal.

While visiting a tea plantation in Pingli county, Xi told the farmers that tea is the way for them to achieve prosperity and they should "do well in the industry".

He also went to a primary school in the county, where he told the students to become psychologically and physically strong.

OVER 1,300 PROJECTS RESUME WORK IN WUHAN

About 1,326 projects worth over 100 million yuan ($14.12 million) have resumed work in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, Sina Finance reported on Thursday.

Over 600 staff members have started to work since April 8 at the Cyber Security Academy of National Cyber Security Talent and Innovation Base to ensure the project can be delivered on time.

The goals of the project have not changed, although the project has been delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak and staff are working at full speed to deliver the project on June 10 as scheduled to ensure it can accommodate students in September, according to an unnamed representative from Wuhan Construction.

Work resumption rate reached 100 percent at the construction site of the Nanhu water environment improvement project, contracted by Airport Development Group.

About 570 million yuan in production has been completed and about 1.1 billion yuan in targeted production value is expected to be achieved this year. The aim remains the same for the Nanhu project, which will be completed for final acceptance of construction by the end of December, said Yang Xin, deputy general manager of municipal group of the Airport Development Group.

The artificial intelligence science and technology park, the first major construction project to resume work in Wuhan development zone, has resumed work for one month. This project is an artificial intelligence technology innovation base, which focuses on "next generation automobiles" and industrial upgrading.

The project is expected to complete in September, and after completion it will become a national-level artificial intelligence industrial cluster and mass entrepreneurial base.

Major projects are managed on service lists, with leaders' point-to-point contacts and holistic aid to tackle the challenges of resuming work, transportation and material supply in Wuhan.

To ensure work can be resumed smoothly at the Wuhan National Aerospace Industry Base, about 120 million yuan in financial aid has been provided and about 826 people recruited in a short time to meet the employment gap.

The resumption of work in the country's manufacturing sector has been increasing rapidly, and the country will resolve any issues companies face amid the fight against the novel coronavirus, China's top industrial regulator said.

About 99 percent of China's major industrial enterprises have resumed production, and 94 percent of employees have returned to work nationwide by April 14 in China, according to Xu Kemin, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

CSA: SUN YANG NOT IN CHINA'S OLYMPICS PREPARATION TEAM

The Chinese Swimming Association invalidated a previous decision of including Sun Yang into Chinese Olympics preparation team, as the three-time freestyle Olympic champion is still facing an eight-year ban from competition.

Beijing Youth Daily reported on Wednesday that Sun will join Chinese national swimming team's training camp for Olympics preparation from April to June. The report came with a photo of a "No 49" document of the CSA, which showed that Sun and his coach should report to the Zhejiang Sports Bureau on April 1.

"Based on World Anti-Doping Code, Sun Yang has been banned from competition after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) made the decision," read a CSA announcement on Thursday.

"That won't change during Sun's appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal against the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision. The previous No 49 document is therefore invalid."

The CSA's announcement dashed fans' hope of witnessing Sun return to the pool, although the country's swimming governing body has backed the star swimmer's appeal.

Sun was given an eight-year suspension from competition in February by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It said Sun was in violation of doping control rules by rejecting a random drug test conducted by International Doping Test and Management on Sept 4, 2018, in his home city Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Sun believed in his innocence saying in a social media post that he had only refused to take the test due to questions about the testers' eligibility, and he is ready to appeal to a higher court.

Nonetheless, Sun is likely to miss the Tokyo Olympics that's postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic to 2021, and the 28-year-old celebrated career could end due to the ban.

BEIJING TO PUNISH UNCOUTH BEHAVIOR

The capital's top lawmaking body reviewed a decision on Thursday to revise a local regulation concerning the city's appearance and environmental upkeep, and it raised the fine for some uncouth, or uncivilized, behavior to 200 yuan ($28).

Sun Li, deputy chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of Beijing's municipal People's Congress, said people in the capital find certain behaviors deeply disgusting, such as spitting and littering.

"Harsher punishments are urgently needed," Sun said. "We decided to raise the penalty to 50 yuan for any violation, but for especially severe behavior a violator can face a fine up to 200 yuan."

The Standing Committee of the lawmaking body had twice before reviewed drafts to promote civilized behavior - in November and March.

The final version is expected to pass on Friday.

BEIJING COURT VOWS TO CONTINUE IP PROTECTION WORK

The Beijing Internet Court said it will continue its strong protection efforts related to intellectual property rights and encourage innovations in rulings after witnessing a large number of online copyright disputes over the past two years.

From Sept 9, 2018 to March 31, the court filed 54,844 internet-related cases, 42,121 of which were related to online IP rights, according to a report issued by the court on Wednesday.

Among the IP cases, those related to online copyrights accounted for more than 99 percent, and they were mainly caused by the use of photographs, it said.

"The main plaintiffs were picture companies, while defendants were usually news websites, Weibo, WeChat and accounts on social media platforms," said Lu Zhengxin, presiding judge of the court's No 1 division.

"While protecting copyrights of the picture makers or owners to keep their works from being infringed upon during the cases, we also paid a lot of attention to preventing the protection from being too strict so that it would not affect innovation in cyberspace," he added.

For example, if the originality and creativity of a photo is outstanding and has obviously been infringed upon by others, "we would give full legal protection to support owners of the works," he said, noting a recent ruling in which a defendant was ordered to pay 5,000 yuan ($706), the maximum compensation so far, for copyright infringement.

"But if a picture is not special enough, or if improperly used by internet users without bad intention, the compensation will be lowered," he explained.

Because some people have been found to have infringed on copyrights carelessly, the judge suggested netizens, especially those writing articles on social platforms, not download online pictures to use freely, calling for them to use original works.

Liu Bin, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said the surge in such disputes is mainly attributed to the fast development of cyberspace and the difficulty in figuring out who the original authors of the works are online.

"Everyone can quickly comment or post articles in the internet era, but if they don't clarify that they are the owners of the works or disclose their copyright registration at government agencies, it'll be a challenge for others to find out where the works are originally from, let alone get authorization after contacting the authors," Liu said.

"So it is easy to see someone taking advantage of this to copy others' photos, paintings or stories online without authorization," he added.

In addition, copyright owners sometimes also find it hard to protect their works and obtain higher compensation because collecting evidence on the internet where information can be easily removed or falsified is not an easy job, according to Liu.

While enhancing awareness of copyright protection, he called for people to add special logos or watermarks on their photos and clarify their rights when posting their works online.

The Beijing Internet Court is a special court responsible for handling 11 kinds of internet-related cases, including online loans, online shopping contracts and online IP infringement. All legal procedures, such as case filings, hearings and delivery of rulings, can be conducted online in the court.

DEEP-SEA FISHING FIRMS URGED TO BOOST OVERSIGHT

Deep-sea fishing companies must intensify supervision over their vessels and monitor them 24 hours a day to ensure they are operating legally, according to a notice released amid the restoration of the domestic ocean fishing industry.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also urged such vessels to follow international rules and regulations when operating in deep waters and warned of severe punishment for them if international disputes arise due to their illegal operations, according to a recent notice released by the ministry.

"With improving situations in COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control domestically, deep-sea fishing companies are restoring operations, and signs of production against regulations have started to appear recently," said the notice, released to fishery authorities and enterprises across China.

The notice is aimed at further enhancing safety management of deep-sea fishing and preventing major international incidents−such as fishing across boundaries−from occurring during the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry said.

Deep-sea vessels should avoid operating in disputed waters and take intensified security measures when passing high-risk areas such as those prone to pirates.

They should cooperate when approached by law enforcement vessels of other countries for boarding and inspection while also taking proper epidemic control and prevention measures, the notice said, adding that evading or resisting such inspections with violence or dangerous means is prohibited.

However, they should report to domestic fishing authorities if they encounter improper confrontational behavior from law enforcement officers from other countries, according to the notice.

The notice also said domestic vessels fishing in public waters must stay at least 1 nautical mile (1.85 kilometers) away from the boundary of 200 nautical mile special economic zones of other countries to prevent illegal fishing and to maintain the lawful interests of domestic vessels.

Lin Guangji, president of Fujian Provincial Association on Ocean and Fishery Economy, said stricter supervision over the deep-sea fishing industry is necessary to ensure safety and legal operation.

"Due to various reasons, such as imprecise location and movements of sea currents, incidents such as domestic fishing vessels entering special economic zones have occurred before, which has resulted in disputes or even violence," he said.

Despite requirements by law and regulations, some Chinese vessels fishing in public seas, especially those owned by small private companies, may choose to turn off the contact devices on their ships from time to time so authorities cannot trace them, he said.

"Ensuring 24-hour monitoring over all such vessels will greatly reduce the chances of vessels fishing across boundaries driven by economic benefits and prevent related diplomatic incidents from occurring," Lin said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

It is the quest for honor that makes one honorable. - Jedi Proverb