CHINA URGES INT'L COMMUNITY TO CONTINUE ADHERING TO ONE-CHINA PRINCIPLE

The foreign ministry on Sunday urged the international community to continue abiding by the one-China principle after the Taiwan leadership election.

"We hope and believe that the international community will continue adhering to the one-China principle, understand and support the just cause of Chinese people to oppose the secessionist activities for 'Taiwan independence' and realize national reunification," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said when responding to queries about Taiwan-related diplomatic situation in the future.

Tsai Ing-wen, candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and her running mate Lai Ching-te won Taiwan's leadership election Saturday, according to the island's election commission.

Geng said the spokesperson for the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council had already released a statement on the result.

The Taiwan question is China's internal affairs, said Geng.

No matter what happens in Taiwan, the fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change, said the spokesperson.

The Chinese government will not change its stance that it sticks to the one-China principle and opposes "Taiwan independence," "two Chinas," and "one China, one Taiwan," he said, adding that the universal consensus of the international community adhering to the one-China principle will not change either.

CHINA'S FIRST TYPE 055 DESTROYER NANCHANG COMMISSIONED

The Nanchang, China's first Type 055 guided missile destroyer, was commissioned in the People's Liberation Army Navy on Sunday morning in the port city of Qingdao, East China's Shandong province.

The 10,000 tonne-class destroyer officially debuted at the multinational naval parade in celebration of the Chinese navy's 70th founding anniversary on April 23, 2019.

CHINA'S NEW SECURITIES LAW TO MAKE ONSHORE IPO 1ST CHOICE

The recent revision of China's Securities Law by its top legislature has the correct positioning of various stakeholders and the law's implementation will make initial public offering (IPO) on Chinese bourses the first choice for Chinese companies, according to an expert in this regard.

The revised Securities Law passed on Dec. 28, 2019 by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee has profound implications for the Chinese capital market with similarity of U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, said Henry Huang, professor of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

The revision puts the regulator, listed companies, investors, courts and other players into correct positions with clear-cut roles, said Huang, an expert on securities law.

The liberalization of IPO mechanism in the new securities law would allow some good and even top-class companies to be listed on Chinese stock exchanges, Huang said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

China shall encourage the companies floated on overseas exchanges, especially those high-tech companies, to return to onshore bourses, and China needs to drop some restrictions on the listing of foreign-funded companies, said Huang.

If the implementation of the new Securities Law goes smooth, Chinese companies' first choice should be getting listed on Chinese stock exchanges, Huang said.

China also needs to foster more quality companies to be listed on its bourses, and listed companies shall not be encouraged to have many connected parties. Professionals like accountants, analysts and lawyers will play an increasingly important role on China's capital market, said Huang.

To be effective on March 1, 2020, the revised Securities Law has 14 chapters, outlining regulation details in securities issuance and trading, the takeover of listed companies, information disclosure as well as investor protection.

In April 2015, the draft revision to the law was submitted to the top legislature for the first reading. The second, third and fourth readings were conducted in April 2017, April 2019 and December 2019, respectively.

BEIJING GARBAGE SORTING REGULATION TO BE ENFORCED THIS YEAR: MAYOR

Beijing will enforce the newly-revised garbage sorting regulation this year to guide citizens to better participate in garbage classification, according to a government report delivered by Mayor Chen Jining on Sunday.

He made the remarks at the opening ceremony during the third session of the 15th Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

"The capital will play a leading role in guiding municipal government organs to promote various departments to implement mandatory garbage classification," said Chen. "Garbage sorting in neighborhoods will also be carried out this year to complete the whole process of garbage disposal, collection and transport."

Of all the streets, villages and towns in Beijing, 90 percent plan to set up waste classification pilot areas this year, he said.

The transport of mixed garbage will be forbidden and domestic garbage sorting will be strictly controlled from its source.

Construction of garbage disposal facilities will speed up this year to better regulate construction waste and improve the reuse of construction materials, Chen said.

APPLE'S NEW SPRING FESTIVAL FILM 'DAUGHTER' TOUCHES CHINESE NETIZENS

As China gets ready to celebrate Spring Festival, its most important holiday for family reunion, US tech giant Apple Inc looks to better resonate with local people in a new short film for the holiday.

Titled Daughter, the film was shot on an iPhone11 Pro. It is about three generations of Chinese women coming together at Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan 25 this year.

The film was directed by Theodore Melfi, a US producer and film director, and the cinematography was done by Lawrence Sher. It also stars Zhou Xun, one of China's leading actresses. In the film, Zhou is a taxi driver. To take care of her daughter, Zhou has to let the girl ride in the taxi's backseat while she is at work.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, posted the short film on Weibo, a Chinese social networking platform, on Saturday, with a line that "there is nothing more special and enduring than the strength and love of family".

Melfi said at the film's launch event in Shanghai that the iPhone11 Pro is a fantastic tool for storytelling, which has helped him discover new possibilities.

The film triggered hot discussion online. A netizen nicknamed "libin" said she was deeply moved and touched by the short movie, because she once met a similar woman taxi driver who has no other choice but to bring her daughter to work. "Life is hard, but the taxi driver did not complain," she recalled.

Another netizen said, "I will support my daughter to follow her own will and be herself, just as Zhou does in the movie."

Daughter is the third film in Apple's Shot on iPhone series. Last year it partnered with director and screenwriter Jia Zhangke to create movie The Bucket. In 2018, it teamed up with director Peter Chan to shoot the short movie Three Minutes, which also was warmly received by Chinese netizens.

Daughter came as Apple is working hard to help Chinese consumers better use technology to cherish cultural traditions. The company will offer a string of courses under its Today at Apple initiative, to help people learn more photography skills, and how to make Chinese New Year cards that combine both tradition and modernity, and to learn how to draw New Year paintings.

CHINA RESORT ISLAND RECEIVES OVER 83 MLN TOURISTS IN 2019

More than 83 million tourists from home and abroad visited southern China's tropical island province of Hainan in 2019, up nine percent year on year, local authorities said Thursday.

Hainan's tourism revenue went up 11 percent over the previous year to 105 billion yuan (about $15 billion) last year, according to the provincial department of tourism, culture, radio, television and sports.

Last year, Hainan received 1.42 million overseas tourists, up 12.4 percent year on year.

Eight large tourism enterprises including the China Duty Free Group and China Tourism Group set up their headquarters or regional headquarters in Hainan last year.

China plans to build Hainan into an international tourism and consumption center by 2025 and globally influential tourism and consumption destination by 2035.

BEIJING'S GDP UP 6.1-6.2 PCT IN 2019

Preliminary statistics show that Beijing achieved a GDP growth of around 6.1 percent to 6.2 percent in 2019.

The figure was released in the government work report delivered Sunday at the third Session of the 15th Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

The report also said Beijing increased the general public budget revenue by 0.5 percent last year, while the consumer prices rose by 2.3 percent.

In addition, urban surveyed unemployment rate was kept within 4.4 percent in 2019 and resident's per capita disposable income increased by around 6.3 percent in real terms.

CHINESE COMPANIES SHINE AT CES 2020 WITH LEADING-EDGE PRODUCTS

Chinese companies shone at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held here with a multitude of leading edge products: The world's first 5G personal computer (PC), electric SUV with stunning entertainment functions, 8K TV and wallpaper-thin OLED TV, smart home devices, fitness home studio and others.

To describe Chinese companies exhibiting at the CES 2020, "innovation" is a must keyword when viewing their exhibits -- large as an SUV and small as a U-shaped tooth brush, all with surprising innovative elements.

"Chinese companies are increasingly innovative," said Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the CES organizer.

WORLD'S LARGEST RADIO TELESCOPE STARTS FORMAL OPERATION

China completed commissioning of the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope on Saturday, putting it into formal operation after a productive three-year trial.

The telescope will gradually open to astronomers around the globe, providing them with a powerful tool to uncover the mysteries surrounding the genesis and evolutions of the universe.

All technical indicators of the telescope have reached or exceeded the planned level, and its performance is world-leading, Shen Zhulin, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a commissioning meeting Saturday.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a single-dish telescope with a diameter of half a kilometer and a receiving area equivalent to about 30 football fields. It is located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

After its commissioning, FAST can now be used for observation at full capacity and is expected to make a number of major scientific discoveries in the coming two or three years, said Jiang Peng, the chief engineer of the telescope.

In over two years, FAST has identified 102 new pulsars, more than the total number of pulsars discovered by research teams in Europe and the United States during the same period.

It has also improved the timing accuracy of pulsars to about 50 times the previous level, making it possible for humans to detect extremely low-frequency Nahertz gravitational waves for the first time.

Dubbed "China Sky Eye," FAST is about 2.5 times as sensitive as the second-largest telescope in the world and capable of receiving a maximum of 38 gigabytes of information per second.

FAST has expanded four times the volume of the space range that radio telescopes can effectively explore, which means that scientists can discover more unknown stars, cosmic phenomena and laws of the universe, or even detect extraterrestrial life, said Li Kejia, a scientist at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University.

Carl Heiles, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, said FAST has provided revolutionary opportunities to astronomy, especially in identifying pulsars and observing interstellar clouds.

With a cost of nearly 1.2-billion-yuan (around $170 million), FAST was completed in September 2016, over 20 years after it was proposed by Chinese astronomers.

Yan Jun, former director of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and project manager of FAST, said with growing economic strength and increasing investment in basic scientific research, China is poised to make greater contributions to the common cause of mankind.

Nearly 10 scientists from the United States, Britain and Pakistan have worked at FAST. More global collaborations are expected in areas such as gravitational wave detection and very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) following its formal operation.

To ensure FAST's performance, about 7,000 residents living in the vicinity were relocated, before moving back to a town 10 km away from the telescope. An astronomy-themed park has been built around the site of FAST, drawing a large number of visitors and tourists.

Nan Rendong, who had worked as the chief scientist of a team who selected the site for FAST and oversaw its construction, died in 2017 due to sickness at the age of 72. China honored him with several posthumous titles, including the "role model of our times."