XI: PRIORITIZE LIVELIHOODS, ECOLOGY

Local governments should make efforts to overcome the effects of COVID-19 and prioritize the work of bolstering employment and improving people's livelihoods, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

Xi spoke as he wrapped up a three-day inspection tour of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a less-developed inland region. About 37 percent of the population belongs to the Hui ethnic group.

He visited a village, a community, a section of the Yellow River, a rural ecotourism park and a vineyard to learn about work done in disease prevention, poverty reduction, environmental and ecological protection and ethnic unity.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, instructed local authorities to fully implement decisions of the CPC Central Committee and take tough steps to forestall and defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation and prevent and control pollution.

Local governments should uphold the people-centered development philosophy and help the people to address their problems, Xi said.

The president stressed the importance of securing jobs for major groups including laid-off workers, college graduates, migrant workers and veterans.

Xi instructed authorities to pursue high-quality growth, speed up industrial upgrading and promote economic development in quantity and quality. The government should take practical measures to ease the tax burden of enterprises, implement policies boosting domestic demand and help companies address problems in resuming production, he said.

Calling increases in domestic demand a strategic measure, Xi urged deepening of supply-side structural reform, promotion of innovation-driven development, building up of a modern agricultural system and boosting sales of Ningxia's agricultural products.

Xi instructed local authorities to further deepen reform in all areas, seize the great opportunities in building the Belt and Road and boost opening-up to pursue higher-quality growth.

He stressed the importance of poverty reduction, saying continuous efforts must be made to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty as scheduled. The government should help people relocated from poor areas secure a stable life and find ways to become better off, he said.

Xi reiterated the importance of upholding the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", saying that the government should focus on the protection of the environment and ecological restoration of the Yellow River.

The government should promote balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, Xi said. He also called for speeding up work on the public health system and carrying out extensive health campaigns.

The government should uphold the Party's basic principles on religion work and handle administration of religion issues in accordance with the law, he said, adding that authorities should promote implementation of the Civil Code.

Noting that firm belief is the source of strength for the Party to move forward, Xi called on all Party members to stay true to their original aspiration and keep their mission firmly in mind.

Bringing benefits to the people is the most important mission for officials, and the misbehavior of formalism and bureaucracy must be opposed, Xi said. He added that continuous anti-graft measures must be taken to create a clean environment for entrepreneurship.

While visiting the Yellow River in Wuzhong on Monday−the fourth time he visited the river in less than a year−Xi called it the mother river of the Chinese nation and a precious resource for the development of Chinese civilization.

CHINA BRACES FOR SEVERE FLOODS, STORM SURGES

With larger precipitation than normal years, the country will face a grim flood control situation this monsoon season as torrential rains wreak havoc in southern parts of the country, officials said on Thursday.

The accumulated precipitation so far this year has been 6 percent more than the same period in recent years. Following 19 rounds of rainfall, 148 rivers have been stricken by floods that have raised water above their warning levels, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The total rainfall, which has engulfed 12 provincial regions since June 2, has been the strongest. The areas that have received over 40 centimeters of precipitation have reached more than 24,000 square kilometers, said Tian Yitang, head of the ministry's flood and drought control and prevention department.

Longtan township in Huizhou, Guangdong province, has received precipitation of over 114 centimeters, he added at a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

"Forecast of meteorological department shows that there will be more precipitation in southern parts of the country this year. The flood control situation will be grim. We have to be prepared for major floods," he said.

Liu Zhiyu, head of the ministry's hydrological monitoring and forecast center, said major floods are expected in five river basins, including middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Xijiang River in the Pearl River basin. Meanwhile, storm surges may occur in Taihu Lake, Huaihe River and middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River.

Ye Jianchun, vice-minister of Water Resources, said the ministry has managed to repair over 99 percent of the about 99,600 water conservancy projects that were damaged by floods last year.

"Generally speaking, damaged projects in southern parts of the country have been repaired. Due to various reasons, including effect from the COVID-19 pandemic, only few damaged projects have yet to be repaired. We will ask local authorities to strictly implement flood control measures and ensure safety during the flood season," he said.

He said the ministry has dispatched six teams to five provincial regions to guide local flood control work. It will also enhance monitoring and issue warnings in a timely manner while intensifying coordination of water conservancy projects to help store floods to cope with the grim situation.

CHINESE CITIES ROLL OUT HOUSING SUBSIDY TO ATTRACT HIGH-END TALENTS

Some Chinese cities have started offering subsidy on housing purchase to attract talents, the Chinanews.com reported on Thursday.

Among these cities, Hangzhou, Suzhou's Industrial Park, Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area, Taizhou, Nanning and Jinan are providing subsidy worth millions of yuan.

In February, Hangzhou increased its housing subsidy to high-level talents working in the city to maximum of 8 million yuan to top-level talents, 2 million yuan to B-level, 1.5 million yuan to C-level and 1 million yuan to D-level.

The maximum subsidy to top-level talents in Suzhou's Industrial Park, Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area, Taizhou, Nanning and Jinan, is 5 million yuan, 3 million yuan, 3 million yuan, 2 million yuan and 1 million yuan, respectively.

Apart from giving quota for subsidizing housing purchase, others cities have issued subsidy based on housing price or deed tax.

Xingtai in Hebei province announced to give subsidy of 2 percent of the housing price to eligible talents such as people with bachelor's degree, senior technician, and senior engineer. Luzhou in Sichuan province will give subsidy of 3 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent of the housing price during March 2020 to February 2022, and the maximum will be 50,000 yuan.

In addition, Guilin, Hengyang, Chenzhou, Zhenjiang, Yulin, Qinzhou, Fuzhou and Zixing will implement subsidy based on deed tax of house purchase with the proportion from 30 percent to 100 percent.

Guilin said the medical workers who joined the front line battle against the COVID-19 will obtain 100 percent of deed tax return to buy new commodity housing. Zhenjiang will also give the same policy to the medical workers who joined the anti-epidemic fight in Hubei province.

However, Zhumadian in Henan province, Chifeng in Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Ningyang county in Shandong province have withdrawn their housing subsidy.

The three regions withdraw the policies means that the principle that "housing is for living in, not speculation" continues to play a role, said the Chinanews.com, citing Yan Yuejin, research director at E-house China R&D Institute.

MINISTRY OPPOSES US INTERFERENCE IN SAR

China urged the United States to correctly look at the national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and stop using it as an excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

Hua made the remark after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday called HSBC a "cautionary tale" and warned of businesses' overreliance on China after the bank last week published a photo of its Asia-Pacific CEO Peter Wong signing a petition backing the legislation.

"That show of fealty seems to have earned HSBC little respect in Beijing, which continues to use the bank's business in China as political leverage against London," Pompeo said in a statement.

Hua, speaking at a regular news conference in Beijing, said: "Hong Kong affairs are purely China's domestic affairs, which allow no foreign interference. We urge the US side to stop sowing discord and stoking fires."

She added that Washington should do things that are conducive to Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, instead of the opposite.

Hua stressed that the measures to improve the legal framework and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security in the HKSAR are aimed at ensuring lasting prosperity and stability in Hong Kong.

CHINA LAUNCHES MARINE OBSERVATION SATELLITE

China launched a marine observation satellite on Thursday to improve its oceanographic research capability, according to a joint statement from the China National Space Administration and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The HY-1D blasted off atop a Long March 2C carrier rocket at 2:31 am from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi province and was later placed in a sun-synchronous orbit, the statement said.

The satellite carries five scientific equipments and is expected to operate in the orbit for five years.

It will work with its predecessor – HY-1C that was launched in September 2018 – to set up a small network for scientific marine observation that will boost the research on global climate change.

Designed and built by China Spacesat, a satellite developer under the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, HY-1D's major structure is based on the CAST2000 platform.

China launched its first marine observation satellite, HY-1A, in May 2002, laying the foundation for an oceanographic monitoring system. The second in the series, HY-1B, was launched in April 2007.

MINISTRY AIMS TO CLOSE ADMISSION LOOPHOLES

The Ministry of Education wants universities to strictly confirm the nationalities of prospective international students to close loopholes in admissions.

The ministry issued a rule on Wednesday targeting students who acquired foreign nationality by birth but have studied at Chinese primary and secondary schools and have at least one parent who is of Chinese nationality.

Starting next year, such students should have lived in a foreign country for more than two of the past four years to be able to apply to study at Chinese universities as international students, the ministry said in a notice.

It said another option if they want to be admitted to a Chinese university is to take the highly competitive national college entrance exam, known as the gaokao.

The universities should check the nationality and travel records of such students with entry and exit authorities, it said.

Cases of such students attending Chinese universities as international students have attracted widespread public attention in recent years, it said.

The new overseas residency requirement for foreign-born students matches an existing requirement for students who have acquired foreign nationality through emigration.

To apply for Chinese universities as international students, those students need to have held their foreign nationality for at least four years and have lived overseas for more than two of the past four years, the ministry added.

Yu Minhong, founder of education consultancy New Oriental Education and Technology Group, said Chinese students have to pass the gaokao to enter Chinese universities, but international students have been admitted based on their test scores in high schools and the HSK exam, a Chinese language proficiency test.

That has prompted some parents to give birth to their children overseas so they can bypass the gaokao, he said.

In an effort to appear more international, some Chinese colleges and universities have indiscriminately expanded the number of foreign students without paying enough attention to their credentials and research abilities, he said.

He suggested the ministry further expand the time requirement for these students to live in a foreign country to truly qualify as international students.

"Authorities should strictly check the nationalities of such students and add personal statements, interviews and a referee system as part of the review process to make sure their identities hold water."

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said he agrees with the new rule as it ensures fairness in one of the most important tests for Chinese students.

As more than 10 million high school graduates will sit for the gaokao this year, and only a small portion of them can be admitted to top universities, the importance of making sure the exam is fair to every student and ruling out admission loopholes can never be underestimated.

"As gaokao is still the only way for college admission in the country and provides the chance for less-privileged students to make it to the top, it is crucial to make sure the exam is not rigged to favor those with money and resources."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not. - Maria Mitchell