Anchorman Hosts Flood Heroes

(XINHUA)

Cui Yongyuan, a famous anchorman from China Central Television (CCTV), treated 154 migrant workers to dinner on the evening of July 30 to show respect for their heroic rescue of about 200 people trapped in a torrential downpour a week earlier. The migrant workers, who work for a water treatment factory in Fengtai District of Beijing, raced to move people stranded by floodwaters on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway when the heaviest rainfall in 61 years lashed Beijing on July 21.

The TV icon responded to an online campaign on Sohu Weibo, a popular micro-blogging site, to take the workers out for dinner after he read about the life-saving stories. The campaign, organized by three scholars in May, called for urban residents to treat migrant workers to dinner as a way to promote equality among different social groups and eliminate class discrimination. Cui toasted all the migrant workers seated around 18 tables. He paid 14,400 yuan ($2,250) for the dinner.

Cui, 49, won fame by hosting the CCTV talk show Tell It Like It Is, the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland. His humor has attracted many fans, and though a bout with depression forced his retirement from the show in 2002, he resumed his position several years later.

Widespread Labor Unions

About 3.44 million, or 82.73 percent, of private and foreign-funded companies in China had established labor unions as of the end of June, said Wang Yupu, Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, on July 30.

In the first half of the year, 99.29 million, or 72.95 percent, of the companies' staff joined labor unions.

Wang said that trade union organizations have been working on promoting collective salary negotiations between enterprises and workers, with the number of enterprises signing collective wage contracts increasing by 56.1 percent from 2010 to the current 1.74 million.

New Generals

The Central Military Commission conferred the rank of general on six senior military and police officers on July 30.

The senior officers include Deputy Director of the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Du Jincai, Political Commissar of the PLA National Defense University Liu Yazhou, Political Commissar of the Jinan Military Area Command Du Hengyan, Political Commissar of the Chengdu Military Area Command Tian Xiusi, and Commander Wang Jianping and Political Commissar Xu Yaoyuan of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force.

China began to confer military ranks on military officers in 1955 but abolished the practice in 1965. The military ranking system was resumed in 1988. Since then, 141 senior military officers and armed police officers have been promoted to the rank of general.

The PLA recognizes 10 military ranks for officers in active service: general, lieutenant general and major general; senior colonel, colonel, lieutenant colonel and major; captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant.

Free Cancer Tests

A program that includes free cervical and breast cancer screenings will be offered to more rural women over the next three years, according to a statement issued on July 27.

The Chinese Government has decided to expand the program until 2015, with plans to offer cervical cancer screenings for 10 million rural women and breast cancer tests for 1.2 million in 2012 alone, the statement said.

With 562 million yuan ($88.17 million) in government funding, the program has allowed 11.69 million rural women to receive free cervical cancer tests, as well as another 1.46 million women to undergo breast cancer tests, during a trial period that ran from 2009 to 2011 in about 200 counties nationwide.

China initiated the program as part of the country's ambitious 850-billion-yuan ($133.35 billion) health care reform plan.

Westward Bound

A total of 17,000 college graduates will be sent to west China to provide volunteer service and hold positions at the community level, according to a statement from a symposium held by the Central Committee of the China Communist Youth League on July 31.

At present, the plan of sending college graduates to serve in the west, jointly established by government bodies, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, in 2003, has dispatched more than 170,000 college graduates in 10 groups to serve at the community level in central and western regions for one to three years.

Moreover, more than 6,500 young volunteers have been sent in 14 groups to teach in poverty-stricken areas for one year since the first group of volunteer teachers was dispatched in 1999.

Plateau Lake Protection

China has approved a conservation program for an inland plateau lake in northwestern Qinghai Province, local environmental protection authorities said on July 31.

According to the program, 430 million yuan ($67.46 million) will be invested over three years to protect the environment of the Keluke Lake on the Qinghai Plateau.

The lake, located in the northeast of the Qaidam Basin, is a major water conservation area in Qinghai. It covers 57.4 square km and has been dubbed Lovers' Lake, as birds migrate there in spring and summer to mate.

Local industrial development, population growth and over-fishing in recent years have caused pollution in the lake as well as wetland degradation.

Tibetan Seeds

Chinese botanists have collected the seeds of more than 1,100 plant species found in Tibet Autonomous Region and preserved them in a national germplasm bank.

The seeds were gathered over the past five years mostly near the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and on the Qiangtang Grassland, according to researchers with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The samples were derived from plant species either native to Tibet or with considerable economic value, such as varieties of grass and traditional Tibetan herbs. They are being kept in the China Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, a leading bio-resource storage facility dubbed the Noah's Ark of the country's plant species.

Tibet has one of the most diverse gene pools in the world, with more than 9,600 wild plant species, including 855 unique to the region.

Tests on Rocket Engine

China on July 29 successfully conducted tests on its new 120-ton-thrust liquid oxygen and kerosene engine for its new generation carrier rocket, the Long March-5, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

The test was conducted in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province, according to the CASC's Sixth Research Institute.

The engine underwent a high rotational speed test of nearly 20,000 revolutions per minute and a high temperature test of 3,000 degrees Celsius that lasted for 200 seconds, national broadcaster CCTV reported.

The high-performance engine, which is the first kind of high-pressure staged combustion cycle engine for which China has proprietary intellectual property rights, is non-toxic, pollution-free and highly reliable, according to CCTV.

The engine is much more powerful than the 75-ton-thrust engines of the launch vehicles used in the already-launched Shenzhou spacecraft, the institute said.

China is the second country in the world, after Russia, to grasp the core technologies for a liquid oxygen/kerosene high-pressure staged combustion cycle rocket engine.