XI PRAISES ACHIEVEMENTS OF MACAO

President Xi Jinping spoke highly on Wednesday of Macao's implementation of the "one country, two systems" policy and praised the achievements of Macao in the past 20 years.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a speech upon his arrival at the airport.

The president planned to attend a gathering on Friday marking the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland. He was also to be present at the inauguration ceremony for the fifth-term government of the Macao Special Administrative Region and inspect the SAR.

Xi extended warm congratulations and best wishes to Macao compatriots on the occasion.

The people of the whole nation and the central government are proud of Macao's achievements in the past two decades, Xi said. "It is worthwhile to sum up the experience and characteristics of Macao in faithfully implementing 'one country, two systems'," he said.

The president expressed willingness to communicate with people from all walks of life during his stay in the SAR.

In his speech, Xi recalled some of his previous visits to Macao, starting as early as June 2000, saying that he is not a stranger to city. This is Xi's sixth visit since Macao returned to the motherland.

Noting that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xi said that the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland is a big event for all Chinese people.

Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, received a warm welcome from hundreds of students at the airport.

On Wednesday afternoon, Xi met with Chui Sai-on, chief executive of the Macao SAR, and praised his diligent work in the position over the past 10 years.

Xi said that under Chui's leadership, the Macao SAR government has fully and accurately implemented the "one country, two systems" policy and acted strictly in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law.

The SAR government has made great achievements in fields such as safeguarding national security, maintaining social stability, promoting economic development, improving the people's lives and enhancing exchanges with the mainland.

Xi said that the prosperity and stability of Macao have been consolidated and developed, and he added that the central government fully acknow¬ledges the efforts made by Chui.

Xi encouraged Chui to continue his care for the development of the country and Macao, support the incoming chief executive of the Macao SAR and the new SAR government to administer the region in line with the law, and make more contributions to the practice of the "one country, two systems" policy.

On behalf of the Macao SAR government and Macao people, Chui expressed a warm welcome to Xi and Peng.

Chui expressed gratitude for the support of Xi and the central government for Macao and himself.

With the support of the central authorities, the Macao SAR government and people have made positive efforts to promote Macao's prosperity and stability as well as the diversification of Macao's economy, he said.

NAVY: NEW CARRIER REPRESENTS MAJOR ADVANCE

CNS Shandong, the People's Liberation Army Navy's new aircraft carrier, has better combat and logistic capabilities than its predecessor, CNS Liaoning, according to a Navy spokesman.

Senior Captain Cheng Dewei was quoted in a Navy statement as saying on Wednesday that the Shandong was wholly designed and built by Chinese researchers and engineers, and the program enabled them to gain knowledge and expertise in the carrier's overall design, construction and propulsion.

The new carrier boasts stronger capabilities in "comprehensive combat effectiveness and integrated logistic capacity", he said.

As for the ship's name, Cheng said that under naval vessels' naming rules, cruisers, amphibious assault ships and larger vessels are named after Chinese provinces or municipalities. He said the name was decided upon in accordance with the rules and was based on consideration of various factors including applications made by provinces and municipalities.

He also said that Sanya, Hainan province, was chosen as the site for the Shandong's commissioning ceremony after the Navy considered several aspects in the new carrier's program schedule. He did not elaborate.

The PLA Navy commissioned CNS Shandong — its second aircraft carrier and the first such ship wholly designed and built domestically — on Tuesday at a naval base in Sanya.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, took part in the ceremony for the Type 002 class vessel.

Before Tuesday, the Navy had a sole carrier — the Liaoning, a Soviet-era vessel extensively refitted at a Dalian shipyard in Liaoning province. The Liaoning entered service in September 2012 and has executed several long-range operations.

The Shandong is the largest and most sophisticated naval ship ever developed and built in China.

AVAYA: 5G WILL TRANSFORM CHINA'S DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

5G is a very exciting technology and will be a powerful enabler of China's digital transformation, said Fu Lili, managing director of Avaya Greater China.

"With its low latency and high speed, 5G will change a lot of application scenarios and bring a disruptive change to the communications industry," Fu said in an interview with China Daily website in Beijing.

In June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted commercial 5G licenses to the nation's major three telecom carriers and China Broadcasting Network Corp, making a crucial step for next-generation 5G commercial use.

The commercialization of 5G will be beneficial to both consumers and enterprises. Because internet of things, which is based on 5G, is one of the several channel innovations in the process of digital transformation, Fu said.

"5G will enable IoT, which will make enterprises closer to end users, and AR and VR will make the user experience more impressive."

"Empowered by 5G, users may access the working system through many intelligently connected devices at all times. Coupled with VR, we can virtually walk into the same office, open the same file, and write on the same whiteboard when maybe you are in Dubai, I am in Beijing or Shanghai, and we are working on a project together. This has become a reality. "

Edge computing and 5G will spur new growth in China, said an earlier study by International Data Corporation, a global market intelligence company on 2020 China ICT market predictions.

By 2023, more than 40 percent of China's new enterprise infrastructure deployed will be at the edge rather than corporate data centers, up from less than 10 percent today. By 2024, the number of applications at the edge will increase 700 percent, the study said.

The key to digital transformation is that information and communications technology has become an important production factor, and the ability of communications is everywhere, including affecting the business processes, Fu said. "Data has become the core asset of an enterprise, and it has become an important source of enterprise innovation."

Digital transformation is a relatively special challenge for Chinese enterprises as the market is huge and the technology is developing rapidly, Fu said.

According to IDC, over 70 percent of China's top 1,000 major companies have taken digital transformation as their strategic core as of 2018, and 65 percent of China's GDP will be related to data by 2022, while world's GDP connected to data will reach 60 percent.

"China is the most happening place in the world for digital transformation, and also the most enthusiastic place for the rise and promotion of emerging technologies," Fu said. "The government has vowed to further open up and more policies will be introduced to support the digital economy and emerging technologies. I personally think that the environment is very good."

NYSE-listed Avaya is a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services. It reported revenue of $726 million in the last quarter of 2019 financial year.

GUARDS ENDURE EXTREMES TO KEEP BORDER SAFE

Residents of Beiji township, Heilongjiang province, believe visitors come to their town for three main reasons: to say they have set foot on China's most northerly point; to experience the extreme cold; and to see the certified "Santa Claus" from Finland, who is stationed there as a tourist attraction during the Christmas holiday season.

But for National Immigration Administration officers at the local border control station, the very things that draw people to Beiji-literately "north pole" in Mandarin-are the biggest obstacles to keeping their 2,798-square-kilometer stretch of the 173-kilometer border with Russia free from trouble.

"Inspecting Santa's documents is a piece of cake, because the administration's latest mobile phone app means it only takes a few minutes to make sure he's here legally," said officer Zhang Chunmao, while inspecting a vehicle entering a village, also named Beiji, where the station is located.

The settlement-population 2,204, and the best place in China to observe the Northern Lights-is surrounded by pine forests of the Greater Khingan Range on three sides and the Heilongjiang River, which acts as the border, on the other.

According to the China Meteorology Administration, the annual average temperature in the village is-5 C, but it can fall to-50 C or lower.

"When the Heilongjiang River becomes completely frozen at the end of November, people can easily cross the centerline, which forms the actual border, so that's when we start patrolling on foot," Zhang said.

A sparsely populated, frost-covered forested area of Russia lies on the other side of the river, and a lonely outpost marks the presence of the Russian border control force.

"No protective gear can save us from the gales on the frozen river in extremely cold temperatures, but it's our duty to be there," Zhang, 27, said, noting that -38 C is the lowest temperature recorded in the village so far this year.

Cao Youfeng, deputy head of the Mohe Public Security Bureau's Border Control Brigade, said: "When the river freezes, the surface is not as flat as many people assume. Actually, it's very uneven, and the wind is unbearable. The officers can only patrol about 8 km in a day. That's how difficult it is."

Zhu Fuchao, the officer in charge of Beihong, a village about 100 km east of Beiji, said the officers have learned enough tricks to ensure their daily routines are not affected by the extreme weather.

"In winter, you must wear gloves at all times to touch the door handles of the patrol car. Trust me, it is extremely unpleasant to have the skin of your hands freeze to a handle," he said. "Giving the door a good kick before opening it is another thing we've become used to, because it freezes to the frame overnight."

Cao said the station uses the latest technology, such as an integrated border surveillance system and drone patrols, to improve the efficiency of law enforcement in extreme weather.

"Although Beiji station is on the border, the law enforcement technologies we use are just as advanced as those in big cities," he added.

CHINESE SCIENTIST NAMED AMONG MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN SCIENCE

British science journal Nature has picked Deng Hongkui, a professor at Peking University's school of life sciences, as one of the 10 most influential people in science in 2019, due to his contributions in the gene editing system to fight against HIV.

The Nature called Deng as CRISPR translator -- "a Chinese scientist shows that CRISPR gene editing can be used safely in adults with HIV." Its Wednesday article also narrated the clinical trial of Deng and his team and the research results.

To recapitulate the success of a Berlin patient cleared of the HIV virus after a bone-marrow transplant in 2008, Deng's team took the gene-editing way to create cells disables CCR5, a protein that HIV uses to infect immune cells.

"He took immunologically matched blood-forming stem cells from the bone marrow of a donor, edited them with CRISPR–Cas9 and then transplanted them into a person with leukaemia and HIV," the article said.

For safety's sake, and the difficulty to edit cells, a mixture of about 18 percent modified cells was used in the transplant. About two years later, the patient's HIV infection remained and some edited cells remained in the patient's blood today.

On Sept 12, the New England Journal of Medicine, a weekly general medical journal, reported the achievements from Deng and his team that the transplant of gene-edited stem cells was positive to a person with leukemia and HIV.

Deng said in September that the first step of the trial showed that the edited cells could persist and be safe in people's blood. "The team will improve the efficiency of gene editing and adjust the treatment plan to achieve the goal of cure," he said.

CHINA LOOKS TO STANDARDIZE TRANSPARENCY

China will comprehensively promote the standardization of transparency in primary-level government affairs as part of its effort to build a services-oriented government to better meet the needs of businesses and the people.

A host of steps in this respect were adopted on Wednesday during the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

"Government affairs at the primary level are closest to the daily lives of the people," Li said. "We must do a better job in making primary-level government affairs open by promoting the standardization of the practice, making sure that the disclosure of decision-making information will be the norm, and the lack of it, the exception."

Attendees of the meeting decided that building on the pilot reform, standardization will be further promoted for the transparency of affairs covering all government services in counties and city districts as well as at the township and community levels. No government information that should be made public will be withheld.

More public involvement will be encouraged, the attendees further decided. Primary-level governments will clearly define the scope and format for public involvement in administrative decision-making and disclose this information to the public. They must promptly respond to and address any public concerns about policy implementation and project development.

"There must be sufficient public involvement as we promote government affairs transparency. The views and suggestions of the people must be fully heeded through public hearings and discussions when it comes to issues that involve the vital interests of the public," Li said, "Our effort in promoting government affairs transparency should be compatible with the self-governance of villagers and community residents."

By the end of 2020, primary-level governments will be expected to have formulated a catalog of government affairs to be made public. Governments at the primary level will release their service items as well as guidelines and processes for accessing these services both online and offline.

To make it easier for businesses and people to access government services, county-level governments will open unified online portals for accessing government services, attendees decided.

"In promoting the standardization of transparency in primary-level government services, we must follow a realistic approach in light of local conditions," Li said. "Given the size of our country and how much regions vary from each other, we must take into full account the realities on the ground. This will help ensure that work on this front achieves its desired results."