PRIORITIES KEY TO VICTORY OVER BIG CHALLENGES

China is facing large challenges unprecedented in recent times given the grave situation of global disease prevention and the slowdown of the world economy, according to a key Party meeting on Friday.

During the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, participants discussed the draft of the Government Work Report to be submitted to the Third Session of the 13th National People's Congress. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The report will be deliberated and approved by the country's lawmakers during the annual session that will start on Friday.

According to the meeting, the government should fulfill its duties under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core, and implement the Party's strategic deployments regarding national development, so as to better face up the challenges.

The meeting stressed the importance of coordinating disease prevention and economic development with a focus on this year's task of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The government should push forward supply-side structural reform and promote high-quality development driven by reform and opening-up while making regular disease prevention and control measures a priority, according to the meeting.

More efforts should be made to ensure priorities in the areas of employment, people's livelihoods, the development of market entities and food and energy security, according to the meeting.

The strategy of expanding domestic demand should be further implemented to maintain economic development and social stability and fulfill the goal of eradicating poverty across the country, the meeting said.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, the CPC Central Committee has made disease prevention a top priority, and Xi has personally commanded the battle against the disease and put the people's health in first place, according to a statement released after the meeting.

With strenuous efforts, the battle to defend Wuhan and Hubei province has seen decisive outcomes, and great strategic progress has been made in disease prevention, the statement said.

The government will remain alert on disease prevention and control, especially during the rest of the year, and it will create more positive fiscal policies and more flexible monetary policies, according to the meeting.

The employment-first policy should be further implemented, with more macro policies taken to stabilize enterprises and secure employment, according to the meeting.

The meeting also stressed the importance of increasing farmers' incomes, promoting a higher level of opening-up, stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, improving people's lives and fighting against formalism and a bureaucratic work style.

XI CALLS FOR MORE HELP IN AFRICA'S STRUGGLE WITH VIRUS

China called on the international community to increase support to Africa to boost the continent's fight against the novel coronavirus, President Xi Jinping said on Friday.

Xi made the remark in a phone conversation with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the evening.

Noting that the spread of the disease is speeding up in Africa, Xi said that the South African government has taken many measures and made progress in disease prevention and control.

Xi said that China will continue to offer help within its capacity to South Africa and enhance health cooperation with the country.

China would like to maintain regular communications with South Africa and enhance coordination on multilateral platforms including BRICS, the G20 and the United Nations, Xi said, adding that the two countries should join hands to support the interests of developing nations.

Calling African countries good friends, partners and brothers, Xi said China understands the great pressure that African countries are facing in fighting the disease and dealing with the economic slowdown at the same time.

China has offered a great number of materials for the African Union and African countries to fight the disease, dispatched medical teams to Africa and initiated technological exchanges without any reservation, Xi said.

China called on the international community to increase support for Africa's efforts to fight the disease and participate in the G20's proposal of postponing debts to be paid by African countries, Xi said.

Ramaphosa said that South Africa supports China's stance on issues related to the core interests of China, including the Taiwan question.

South Africa would like to enhance cooperation with China and safeguard the interests of both nations, he said.

He said he appreciated the help and support that China has offered African countries to battle COVID-19, saying that China is a true friend of African countries and a trustworthy partner in difficult times.

In another phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday evening, Xi said that China firmly supports the Hungarian people's efforts to fight the disease and will continue to offer help for the country.

China would like to make joint efforts with all countries including Hungary to battle the disease, enhance macro policy coordination and face the challenges brought by the virus to the global economy, Xi said.

The two countries should enhance cooperation in traditional areas such as economics, trade and investment and expand cooperation in new areas including the digital economy and artificial intelligence, Xi said.

Orban offered his congratulations on China's progress in disease prevention and control, saying that the Hungarian people will not forget the help that China has offered to the country's battle against the novel coronavirus.

Hungary would like to enhance cooperation with China in such areas as economics, trade and finance and it will continue to support and participate in Central and Eastern European Countries-China cooperation, he said.

CHINA TO ADJUST ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION ARRANGEMENTS

China's top legislature will adjust its arrangements for the upcoming annual legislative session to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic and safeguard public health, a senior member of the legislature said Friday.

The third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is scheduled to open in Beijing on May 22, said Zhang Yesui, chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NPC, in an interview with Xinhua.

The duration of the session will be appropriately shortened, Zhang said, adding that the agenda and schedule will need to be approved at meetings before the session.

Some of the Chinese and foreign journalists in Beijing will be invited to cover the session but journalists who are overseas will not be invited to come to Beijing for reporting, Zhang added.

News conferences, briefings and other interview activities will be appropriately streamlined and conducted in innovative forms such as by video link, he said.

Zhang said the session's news center has received applications from more than 3,000 Chinese and foreign reporters to cover the event, expressing his gratitude to their attention to China's economic and social development and the legislative session itself.

He also said when the session holds plenary meetings; foreign envoys will be invited to observe the meetings. Some of the Chinese and foreign journalists in Beijing will be invited to cover the meetings in the Great Hall of the People.

No open-day activities or other group interviews will be held by various delegations, Zhang said. But spokespersons will be appointed by delegations, press liaison officers will assist press interviews, and studios will be set up at the hotels the delegations stay to encourage deputies to be interviewed, he added.

Information as well as main documents in Chinese and foreign languages will be posted on the website of the session's press center in a timely manner, Zhang said.

The session is committed to being open and transparent to provide services to Chinese and foreign journalists for news reporting, he said.

2022 GAMES ON TRACK DESPITE VIRUS

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Beijing's preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics keep gaining momentum, with its launch of a plan to host the event sustainably earning recognition from the International Olympic Committee.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games released its official Sustainability Plan on Friday, pledging that the winter sports extravaganza will be held to benefit the long-term sports, environmental and regional developments in the country.

According to the organizing committee, the plan consists of 12 actions facilitated by 119 measures, which are expected to guide the preparation for and operation of the Games in a sustainable approach that will have a positive environmental impact, boost development of the region and improve people's lives after the Games.

The 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be held in February and March respectively in 2022 in three zones-Beijing downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host city Zhangjiakou in Hebei province-connected by a high-speed railway, which began operating at the end of December.

With some of the measures already adopted by organizers in multiple aspects of the preparatory work, the plan has taken effect to address issues, such as air pollution prevention, water conservation at mountain venue clusters, carbon neutrality at competition venues, post-Games venue operation and improvement of livelihood for local residents.

"The IOC welcomes the publication of the Beijing 2022 Sustainability Plan as it provides a comprehensive framework for the overall sustainability vision of the Olympic Games Beijing 2022," said Juan Antonio Samaranch, an IOC vice-president and chair of IOC's Beijing 2022 Coordination Commission.

According to the plan, all the 2022 venues will be powered 100 percent by green electricity from renewable sources, such as solar and wind energies. For the first time in the Games' history, carbon dioxide will be used as refrigerants to make and maintain ice surface at multiple 2022 venues, such as the National Speed Skating Oval for long-track speed skating, to replace the traditional use of the environmentally harmful substance Freon.

The ongoing promotion of a campaign to involve 300 million people in winter sports and related leisure activities will boost public consumption in the winter sports sector and tourism to help new facilities and venues maintain commercial operation beyond 2022, organizers envisioned.

"Beijing 2022 puts sustainability high on its agenda and regards it as an indispensable element of staging a 'green, inclusive, open and clean' Games," said Zhang Jiandong, executive vice-president of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee and vice-mayor of Beijing.

WHO REPRESENTATIVE'S LETTER TO WUHAN STUDENTS PRAISED

A letter to Wuhan middle school students by the World Health Organization representative in China has moved many people in China.

But it was not just the sentiments expressed by Gauden Galea, a doctor originally from Malta, but also his penmanship, as seen in the four-page response to the students written in Chinese.

The story starts with a letter from students at Xuguang Middle School in the capital of Hubei province, which also was the Chinese city hardest-hit city by the COVID-19 outbreak.

On May 5, students from the school sent a letter to Galea, telling him how they felt and what they were seeing in Wuhan as people's lives were gradually returning to more normality in a new phase in the battle against the virus.

Their letter, which began with greetings to "Uncle Galea", also called on young people around the world to come together to help people in need.

"No one is isolated in the epidemic. The virus is the enemy of all people," said the letter. "We are the future of the world and should take the responsibility of safeguarding its future."

The students also expressed their willingness to donate money to the WHO they've earned by recycling bottles.

On Monday, when Galea replied, WHO released a video on its Sina Weibo account showing how the public health doctor carefully wrote each character and signed his name in English.

"Thank you for your warm letter. Your letter is a symbol of the hope and solidarity the world so badly needs in its fight against this global pandemic," Galea wrote.

"The fight against the virus is a challenge to us. But it also helps us to know more about the Chinese people, their tenacity, compassion and willingness to help, the same as what I can see from all of you."

The video had been viewed more than 3.5 million times as of Friday. Many of those who saw it said in comments that Galea's letter was very touching and his calligraphy also nice.

"This is a letter that carries love. It truly moved me. Mr Galea, your written Chinese is excellent," said a netizen called Bositang.

Through the WHO's microblog, Galea also replied to comments on Monday. He showed gratitude toward the praise for his calligraphy, which he said will encourage him to learn the Chinese language better.

The WHO said on its microblog that through their letter, "we can feel the Wuhan students' love for life, and their concern about the global pandemic and the entire human race. Every word in this letter has touched the hearts of Dr Galea and all his colleagues in the WHO China office."

According to the WHO, it was the first time that Galea had been called Uncle Galea. When he learned of what the letter said, he insisted on replying in Chinese. Galea has worked for the WHO since 1998. He has been in China for two years and became the WHO's representative in China in May 2018.

VISION CHINA EVENT FOCUSES ON ROLE OF SCIENCE IN COVID-19 FIGHT

Public health and innovation experts will discuss the role science and technology have played in stemming the COVID-19 pandemic and consolidating international efforts to battle the disease at a Vision China event to be broadcast by China Daily on Sunday.

With the theme "Fighting COVID-19: The Beacon of Science", the event will be livestreamed on multiple social media platforms. It will feature four prominent speakers: Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, assistant director-general for natural sciences at UNESCO; Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Denis Depoux, global managing director of Roland Berger; and Sunney Xie, director of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG), Peking University.

They will share their personal accounts of how China and the international community have been fighting the pandemic with a global audience and offer insights on how to give better play to the role of science and technology in handling public health emergencies.

Launched in 2018, Vision China invites renowned political, business and academic speakers to tell China's story from global perspectives and discuss major China-related topics of international interest.

It aims to become a broad platform to ensure China's voice is better heard, as well as to build a new channel for responding to global concerns on hot China-related issues.

Sunday's event, organized by China Daily in cooperation with Wuhan No 1 Hospital and Yiling Pharmaceutical, will be the 12th Vision China event.

It is also the third Vision China event related to the fight against COVID-19, after one with the theme "Fighting COVID-19: We are all Together" on March 31 and one with the theme "Young Voices: Shared Future & Better Tomorrow" on April 16.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. - German Proverb