XI CALLS FOR ALL-OUT EFFORTS IN FLOOD RELIEF

President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of putting people and life first in an instruction given on the country's flood control and disaster relief work.

The National Meteorological Center issued an alert for rainstorms for the 27th straight day on Sunday as floods caused by continuous downpours have left at least 81 people missing or dead.

With downpours increasing in southern and southwestern China, many areas have been hit by flooding and geological disasters, Xi said. He required local governments at all levels and all related departments to make all-out efforts to prevent disasters and carry out emergency rescue work.

Noting that some areas hit severely by floods will enter the typhoon season, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, asked departments including the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters to strengthen coordination and guide the flood and typhoon prevention and relief work in relevant regions.

In the instruction released on Sunday, Xi said that governments and departments should make overall arrangements concerning the current COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures as well as flood control, clearly identify responsibilities and combine prevention work with emergency responses.

He also required efforts to strengthen monitoring over the flood situation, to identify potential risks in a timely manner, and to well organize rescue and relief work.

Xi noted that people affected by the disasters should receive appropriate resettlement and that top priority should be given to guaranteeing people's lives and safety.

The National Meteorological Center issued on Sunday a yellow alert, the second-lowest in the country's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, for rainstorms for the 24 hours starting from 2 pm on Sunday.

During that time, some areas in nine provincial regions, mostly located in southern parts of the country, will be engulfed by torrential rains. Among them, central and southern parts of Jiangsu province and northern parts of Shanghai will be the worst hit and receive precipitation of 10 to 20 centimeters, according to the center.

The center also issued a blue alert, the lowest in the warning system, for severe convective weather, which is characterized by strong winds, hail, thunderstorms and brief but heavy rainfall, for the same period. The greatest hourly precipitation in the affected areas will generally be between 3 and 5 centimeters but may exceed 7 centimeters in the most extreme circumstances, it said.

Some areas in Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces will be hit by thunderstorms and gales, it added.

PREMIER VOWS FINANCIAL BACKING FOR BUSINESSES

Premier Li Keqiang pledged stronger financial support to businesses on Sunday and greater efforts to protect smaller companies and labor-intensive enterprises to shore up China's foreign trade and foreign investment amid the global economic downturn.

Speaking at a symposium on stabilizing foreign trade and investment in Beijing, Li said the government will guide financial institutions to bolster financing support through credit, credit insurance and secured loans to alleviate liquidity problems faced by businesses.

He spoke via video link with six business executives from the foreign trade sector, learned about their orders, employment, funding and industry and supply chains in recent months and listened closely to their opinions on the market and government policies going forward.

Stabilizing the fundamentals in the foreign trade and investment sector is of paramount importance to stable economic performance and the job market, he said.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging globally and the global economy facing a severe recession, the external environment for China's foreign trade will remain challenging and complicated, he said.

China's foreign trade volume dipped by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 11.54 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion) in the first five months of this year, with exports down 4.7 percent and imports dropping 5.2 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Authorities should fully assess the difficulties going forward and stay adequately prepared, Li said.

The government is considering new measures to stabilize foreign trade and investment while working proactively to expand domestic demand, he said.

The premier underscored the need to help large foreign trading businesses solve their problems, a key measure to protect jobs. He said more work must be done to enable easier customs clearance and provide better services for businesses.

China will step up coordination and communication with relevant countries to ensure unimpeded international cargo transport and open more "fast lanes" that facilitate business exchanges between countries, he said.

In fostering new growth engines in foreign trade, Li called for steps to encourage the transformation of foreign trading firms and bolster the quality and added value of their exported products.

The country will make its central, western and northeastern regions more attractive to industrial transfers, he said.

CONSUMPTION COUPONS TO FUEL ECONOMY

In order to stimulate consumption and promote local economic growth, various local governments have distributed consumption vouchers among local residents, mainly through third-party mobile and online payment platforms such as Tencent, Alipay and Meituan.

The issuance of consumption coupons is a "trial operation" aimed at strengthening the new economy.

In the short term, consumption and new infrastructure can resonate with but cannot constitute a closed loop. Only in the medium and long term, after its construction is complete, new infrastructure will combine with consumption to form a closed loop. The industrial internet and service producers in new infrastructure are not directly related to end consumers, while the new information consumption market under new infrastructure is a broad field of service to end consumers.

From the perspective of big data, compared with paper consumption vouchers, digital consumption vouchers not only save printing and transportation costs but also break through regional restrictions; they are more efficient and convenient and can prevent people gathering in large, uncontrollable numbers. Also, the platforms issuing digital consumption coupons, thanks to their use of big data and algorithm, can track in real time the timeline, place and method of digital consumption coupon usage and thus help authorities optimize and adjust their consumption coupon policy.

Digital consumption vouchers also provide a scientific basis for local governments to make accurate decisions and adopt more targeted ways of issuing the vouchers. For big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and block chain technology groups, data are the most valuable asset and algorithm is an effective analysis and data mining tool, while power computing determines the potential of data and algorithms. Big data, algorithm and power computing, as platform-driven "three carriages", are "playing in concert" a symphony in the new economy where digital consumption coupons serve as a form of "currency".

HOLIDAY SEES FURTHER REVIVAL IN TOURISM

The domestic tourism market continued to recover over the just-completed Dragon Boat Festival holiday, although people remain wary of traveling after new clusters of COVID-19 infection were reported in Beijing.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said attractions around the country received over 48.8 million visitors during the three-day break from Thursday to Saturday−just over half the number in the same period last year.

Tourism-related revenue over the holiday totaled 12.3 billion yuan ($1.7 billion)−about 31.2 percent of that in 2019.

By comparison, tourist numbers nationwide were down more than 60 percent year-on year for the three-day Tomb Sweeping Day holiday in early April. The performance for the May Day holiday was better, with numbers down just over 40 percent, but it lasted five days this year and just four last year.

The five provinces that received the most tourists during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday were Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan, Shandong and Jiangsu, while the strongest recoveries in tourism were seen in the provinces of Hebei, Hainan and Sichuan.

Beijing, traditionally a popular destination for tourists, saw sharp declines in visitor numbers and tourism-related revenue due to enhanced pandemic control and prevention measures after cases of local transmission began to be reported on June 11.

Data from the capital's Culture and Tourism Bureau showed that attractions across the city received 1.35 million visitors, down 76.8 percent year-on-year, with revenue down 75.9 percent to 72.4 million yuan.

Strict COVID-19 control measures implemented nationwide during the holiday made reservations for visits common.

LEGAL CHANGES OFFER SENIORS NEW CARE MODEL

China's aging society has prompted a search for novel methods of elderly support. Wang Xiaoyu reports.

In December 2017, an online post sparked sympathy and provoked discussion about the hardships faced by a growing number of seniors in China.

A short video showed an 85-year-old man in Tianjin's Nankai district taping strips of paper to a bus station stand.

The strips read: "Lonely, strong-bodied man in his 80s. No chronic diseases. Can do housework. Retired from a research institute on a monthly pension of 6,000 yuan ($842). Not going to an elderly care home. Hope a kind-hearted person or family will adopt me and bury me when I die."

Having endured years of loneliness after his wife died and his son moved overseas, the senior had put himself up for adoption.

However, lawyers said that rather than looking for an adoption agreement−currently restricted to people age 14 and younger, but rising to 18 when the Civil Code comes into force next year−the man should have been seeking a legacy support agreement.

The Law of Succession of the People's Republic of China, which came into effect in October 1985, stipulates that a person may enter into a legacy support agreement with an individual who is not a legal heir or with an organization under collective ownership.

The cosignatory assumes the responsibility of supporting the senior and attending to the interment of their ashes after death in return for the right to inherit the deceased person's estate.

China has a rapidly aging population and a falling birth rate. That has resulted in a growing number of seniors considering various methods of elderly care beyond the tradition of depending on their children. Signing a legacy support agreement is increasingly one of the options.

The need for new approaches to senior care is reflected in the country's first Civil Code, which was adopted by the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, on May 28.

The code has broadened the categories of people who can offer support and care in exchange for the right to claim an inheritance. It states that such an agreement can be signed between a person and any organization or individual who is not a legal inheritor.

DUAL CREDIT PLAN WILL BOOST NEV DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

China is planning to raise the ratio of electric cars and plug-in hybrids in carmakers' lineups in coming years, which officials and analysts say will help foster the growth of the burgeoning new energy vehicle industry in the world's largest auto market.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last week that carmakers in the country will garner credits accounting for 14 percent of their deliveries in 2021, and the figure will grow to 16 percent in 2022 and 18 percent in 2023.

This is part of the amendment of the dual credit policy China promulgated in 2017, which assesses carmakers according to their efforts to cut fuel consumption and to produce new energy vehicles.

Carmakers can amass credits by producing gasoline vehicles with less emissions than the country's standards or by producing electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

The companies are allowed to offset deficits in gasoline vehicle credits with those accumulated by their sister companies, those from producing new energy vehicles or those bought from others.

When promulgated in 2017, the requirements were 8 percent of a carmaker's vehicle deliveries for 2018, 10 percent for 2019 and 12 percent for 2020.

Back then, a carmaker could earn up to five points for producing an electric vehicle and 2 points for producing a plug-in hybrid. Now they can fetch 3.4 points and 1.6 points, according to the amendment.

Officials at the ministry said the new requirements can basically ensure that by 2025 passenger vehicles' average fuel consumption will fall to 4.0 liters per 100 km and new energy vehicles will account for 20 percent of total vehicles in the year.

They said since the adoption of the dual credit policy, carmakers have increased their investment in research and development, rolled out more new energy vehicles and improved passenger vehicle fuel efficiency.

Statistics show that average fuel consumption stood at 5.5 liters per 100 km in 2019, down 10 percent from 2016. New energy vehicle sales in the year totaled 1.06 million, ranking first globally for five years in a row.

INDUSTRIAL FIRMS' MAY PROFITS GROW BY 6 PERCENT

The profit growth of Chinese industrial firms turned positive for the first time this year in May as cost pressure due to the COVID-19 epidemic eased, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

Analysts said the country should ramp up its efforts to revitalize domestic demand to sustain the improvement in industrial earnings amid mounting uncertainties.

The total profits of major industrial firms increased by 6 percent year-on-year to 582.34 billion yuan ($82.29 billion) last month, compared with a 4.3 percent fall year-on-year in April, the bureau said.

For the January-May period, industrial profit growth remained in negative territory but the decline narrowed for the third consecutive month to 19.3 percent year-on-year, recovering from a 27.4 percent plunge over the first four months.

Zhu Hong, a senior statistician at the NBS, cited the easing pressure from rising costs as a key reason for the improving industrial profits, with the cost-revenue ratio dropping to 84.77 percent for the first five months, versus 84.91 percent for the January-April period.

Zhu also attributed the industrial profit improvement to the deeper drop in industrial material prices compared with that of finished goods prices, the significant recovery in the profits of key industries such as petroleum processing, power, chemicals and steel, as well as higher investment returns by industrial firms.

"Although industrial profits achieved positive growth for the first time this year in May, market demand was still weak due to the impact of COVID-19. The sustainability of profit recovery remains to be seen," Zhu said.

CHINA'S TOP AIRLINES RECEIVE DOMESTICALLY MADE ARJ21 AIRCRAFT

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC) delivered to Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines their first ARJ21 regional jets on Sunday, the Yicai.com reported.

The event on the fourth anniversary for ARJ21 commercial use marked the Chinese-made jet officially taking a place in international mainstream airlines. As of June 28, 32 ARJ21 have been delivered to six Chinese airlines including Jiangxi Air, Chengdu Airlines and Genghis Khan Airlines.

The three major airlines plan to buy 35 ARJ21-700. This year, each of the airlines will receive three jets. With 90 economic-class seats on each plane, the three jets delivered this time belong to a model with an entirely economic-class layout with little difference from mainstream narrow-body aircraft flying operating on main routes.

According to Yicai.com, China Eastern Airlines aims to put the jet into commercial use as early as September. China Southern Airlines plans to conduct ARJ21's first commercial flight on July 15 from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport to JieyangChaoshan Airport. And Air China will hopefully see its ARJ21's first flight from Beijing to Xilinhot in early July.

ARJ21 is the first turbofan regional jet that China has developed and produced in accordance with international standards, and of which China owns intellectual property rights. With a cruise range spanning 2,225 to 3,700 kilometers and favorable performance, it meets operation requirements at airports in Central, West and North China.

COMAC plans to produce 30 ARJ21 this year. So far, the regional jet has flown on 55 flight courses, connecting 55 cities in North, Northeast and Southwest China, having transported 890,000 passengers.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Everyone wants answers until they get one they don't like. - Unknown