XI HAILS VICTORY 7 DECADES AGO

President Xi Jinping hailed China's victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53)−a victory of justice, peace and the people−on Monday as he urged greater contributions to be made in safeguarding global peace and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Xi made the remark while reviewing an exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers forces entering the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to help in the war to resist US aggression at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the Party and government made a historic and resolute decision to resist US aggression, help the DPRK and defend the motherland 70 years ago.

The heroic CPV, upholding banners of justice and disregarding their own safety, fought dauntlessly in battles side by side with the DPRK people and army before winning a great victory and making huge contributions to the cause of international peace and human progress, he said.

The great spirit that was forged during the war is invaluable spiritual treasure that is set to motivate the Chinese people and nation to overcome all difficulties and obstacles and conquer all powerful enemies, he added.

Xi called for intensified steps to study and publicize the heroic stories of the CPV forces and to learn the history of the Party, the People's Republic of China, the country's reform and opening-up and socialist development.

It is important to spur the whole Party, the armed forces and the people of all ethnic groups to rally more closely around the CPC Central Committee, keep firmly in mind original inspirations and missions, firm up triumphalism, give play to fighting spirits and enhance fighting capacities, he said.

Xi was accompanied by other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Party's highest body, and Vice-President Wang Qishan while reviewing the exhibition.

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, spoke at the opening of the exhibition on Monday morning.

More than 540 photos, 1,900 cultural relics and a large number of videos and reconstructed scenes were displayed at the exhibition, which is divided into seven thematic sessions.

CHINA LOVES PEACE BUT WILL FIGHT AGGRESSION

The 70th anniversary of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), to be observed on Oct 25, once again underscores the importance of safeguarding national interests and fighting for global peace.

The United States intervened in the Korean War (1950-53), exploiting the Soviet Union's boycott of and the People's Republic of China's absence from the United Nations Security Council meeting in 1950 to form a UN Command against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Due to the US-led intervention, the contacts and supplies of the Korean People's Army of the DPRK were cut off, which changed the war situation and extended it to the border of China.

Moreover, Washington ignored Beijing's diplomatic message and warning that it would be forced to take part in the war if the US troops crossed the 38th parallel. Worse, the US sent the Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Straits, which was a direct interference in China's internal affairs.

On the appeal of the DPRK and to protect China's national interests, Beijing sent the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and turned the course of the Korean War, which changed from a civil war to the first localized regional and international war after World War .

n-depth studies, declassified documents and the memoirs of major players in the war show that China's involvement in the Korean War was passive. Since the PRC was making efforts to regain its legitimate seat in the UN despite Western countries' obstructions and help build an international order centered on the UN, there was no reason for China to challenge the world order and the UN by joining the Korean War as a belligerent party.

It is important to view the war from a historical perspective to really understand the events between 1950 and 1953. The CPVA was dispatched to the Korean Peninsula to ward off the security risks that Northeast China faced because of the Korean War and the threat of a nuclear strike by the US-led forces. Since the US was trying to root out communism from the Korean Peninsula, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a countermeasure against the US' imperialist designs and the West's ideological war against socialist societies.

China has always followed a defensive military policy, according the highest priority to peace. But as history shows, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea helped China to prevent the US-led forces from crossing the 38th parallel and advancing toward China.

DEVELOPMENT OF SPORTS FACILITIES PUSHED

The government has introduced new measures to boost the development of public fitness facilities as part of broader efforts to implement the Healthy China initiative and encourage greater public participation in sports programs.

On Oct 10, the General Office of the State Council published a guideline that outlined policy measures in 11 fields to meet the growing demand for fitness facilities.

Constructing more fitness facilities and enabling greater public participation in sports are necessary requirements of Healthy China 2030 and the National Public Fitness Program, the office said.

To provide more space, local authorities will be allowed to use idle land in urban areas to construct sports facilities, while private enterprises will be permitted to rent land for a maximum of 20 years if they intend to build fitness centers, the guideline said.

It called for local authorities to conduct surveys of existing facilities to identify their basic condition and weak links, as well as urban spaces such as unused land, green space in parks, factory grounds and rooftops that can be used for fitness purposes.

Governments in different areas must come up with five-year plans to strengthen the development of facilities, including multipurpose sports grounds, sports parks, trails and squares for fitness purposes and miniature soccer fields within a year, according to the document.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified the importance, necessity and urgency of bolstering the development of fitness facilities and grounds," Wang Ke, an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told a news conference on Oct 10.

Wang noted that fitness facilities easily accessible to the public are severely inadequate, and the government will accelerate the development of small and mini-sized grounds and facilities.

The guideline included a plan to construct or renovate 1,000 sports parks across the country during the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).

Stadiums and other large sports complexes will be encouraged to open for free or have a low admission charge, and the government will adopt the necessary incentive mechanisms to open facilities in schools and colleges to the general populace.

The document also highlighted the need for public sports grounds to establish sound mechanisms to allow visitors to reserve services via mobile applications, instant-messaging platforms, websites and phones, and to implement measures to ensure the traceability of users and avoid large gatherings.

The government will entrust specialized institutions with the development of community sports service systems that will integrate functions to allow people to search for and reserve facilities, consult sports coaches and register training sessions, the guideline said.

A stay-at-home fitness promotion program will be pushed forward as the Healthy China initiative is enforced, and local authorities will be encouraged to work with online fitness service platforms to open home fitness courses.

NATION MAKES ADVANCES IN RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

Clean energy accounted for 21.8 percent of total energy consumption in China's rural regions in 2018,8.6 percentage points higher than in 2012, Zhang Jianhua, head of the National Energy Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday. Electrification in China's rural regions has reached 18 percent, 7 percentage points higher than in 2012.

"Most regions in the northern parts of China are adopting natural gas and biofuel for winter heating, with more than 4.69 million households opting for clean fuel, including natural gas, for winter heating in China's northern regions," he said.

"The northern rural region's shift from coal to cleaner energy for heating has not only improved air quality but also boosted infrastructure construction in rural regions and improved local residents' quality of life."

According to Zhang, energy development and construction has not only brought greater access to power in poverty-stricken regions but has also created more employment opportunities.

Electric power development in rural regions has been the priority task in poverty alleviation, and it is necessary to transform its advantages in resources, including coal and natural gas, into favorable economic conditions, he said.

Li Chuangjun, head of the new energy department of the NEA, said compared with other options for poverty alleviation, the solar photovoltaic poverty alleviation project, which combines the development of clean energy with poverty alleviation, is more easily accessed and maintained.

As part of poverty alleviation efforts, the country has set up solar power stations with a total installed capacity reaching 26.36 million kilowatts that has benefited 4.15 million households in 60,000 villages. The annual power generation income has reached 18 billion yuan ($2.68 billion), which has also created 1.25 million jobs, he said.

Li Li, energy research director at ICIS China, a firm that tracks China's energy market, said poverty alleviation through solar power can obviously improve the electrification level in rural regions and the proportion of cleaner fuel in rural regions' energy mix.

NO 'FORCED LABOR' IN XINJIANG, REPORT FINDS

People of all ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region voluntarily choose their jobs and start their own businesses and so-called forced labor does not exist, according to an investigative report.

Some claims by Western think tanks of the use of forced labor in Xinjiang are false, and their arguments are baseless and unscientific, the report released on Tuesday said.

Although industries in the relatively less-developed south of Xinjiang have boomed, they still do not meet local people's employment needs, the report said.

An increasing number of surplus laborers from southern Xinjiang are seeking jobs in more developed cities in other parts of the country that offer higher wages and better living and working conditions, according to the report on the employment of people from ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

The Development Research Center of Xinjiang's investigation team made field visits to more than 70 enterprises, rural labor cooperatives and business startups in Ili Kazak and Kizilsu Kirgiz autonomous prefectures and Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu prefectures. The team also visited cities outside the region, including Beijing and Tianjin.

The investigators interviewed more than 800 company managers, employees, self-employed workers and ethnic minority employees. They also studied 26 government documents issued since 2016 and 48 academic papers published since 2005.

In the past, jobs that people in Xinjiang found for themselves were usually low quality, poorly paid and not stable. As a result, people from Xinjiang hoped that the government would actively organize and help them obtain employment, the report said.

After conducting interviews with Xinjiang people, the investigation team noted they had expectations that the government would help them find jobs.

A survey of 100 farmers in Kashgar and Hotan found the vast majority of respondents wanted the government to organize work for them, the report said.

People's willingness to be voluntarily employed has always been the premise for local governments organizing work for them, which is clearly stated in several government documents. The decisions of those unwilling to work for health or other reasons, are fully respected and they are never forced to sign up for training, the report said.

The majority of Xinjiang people who go to other parts of China to work follow the Islamic religion. To protect their right to freedom of religious belief and provide facilitates for worship, they are informed about the number and locations of mosques in a city.

Their religious activities, such as praying at the mosque and fasting during Ramadan, have not been interfered with by any organization or individual, the report said. Halal food is also made available in the workplaces of Muslim employees from Xinjiang.

The allegation of some Western think tanks that there is "large-scale forced labor" in Xinjiang is "profoundly untrue, unreasonable and untenable", the report said. The claim is slanderous lie with a political purpose that exposes the real faces of think tanks as lackeys of the United States and the West in their anti-China plots, it added.

AIRLINE'S REFUSAL OF PASSENGER SPARKS DEBATE

An accusation that an airline refused to allow a passenger being treated for depression to board one of its aircraft has triggered heated debate online, leading experts to call for more detailed regulations to serve passengers' special needs.

A netizen surnamed Yu said in a post on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, on Oct 14 that Shanghai-based budget carrier Spring Airlines refused to let his girlfriend, who is dealing with depression, board a plane in Weihai, Shandong province, on Oct 13 because of her illness.

Yu accused the airline of discriminating against people with depression. He also said the rejection might have caused his girlfriend to miss a doctor's appointment in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. He wrote that she had cried all night, which might have caused her condition to worsen.

He said she has been taking flights to Nanjing every month to see a doctor who specializes in treating depression, and her condition had been improving a lot.

According to China's civil aviation passenger transport regulations, airlines can refuse to board patients with infectious diseases and mental illnesses or passengers whose health may put themselves or other passengers at risk.

Spring Airlines responded to the controversy in a statement, saying that the passenger and her boyfriend became agitated when staff members asked her about her symptoms and recent flight history. During that conversation, the passenger's depression was mentioned. Her hands trembled and she screamed at the boarding gate, which caused other passengers to complain.

The company said its employees tried to comfort the passenger several times, but she would not calm down. For safety reasons, staff members refused to let the couple board and gave them a full refund.

Some netizens accused the airline of being unsympathetic to passengers with special needs, while others supported its decision, saying it needed to be responsible for other passengers' safety in accordance with regulations.

Zhang Qihuai, a senior lawyer who specializes in civil aviation, said it was not the only case in which a Chinese airline had refused to allow passengers with special needs to fly. He called for more detailed and practical regulations on permitting or refusing boarding for such passengers, adding that current civil aviation transport regulations are decades old.

Zhang said each airline has its own flight standards, as there is no universal one. "Universal regulations should be created, and airlines should ensure they are being carried out," he said.

In the latest case, Zhang said the company was not qualified to say the patient was not fit to fly. Medical professionals should make that determination, he said.

He also said medical institutions should establish a cooperative mechanism for such patients to obtain medical evidence that can show whether they are fit to use public transportation.

Patients and their families should also be aware of their symptoms and conditions and travel capabilities.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father goes forward, not backward. What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children. – Nancy Friday