New Spokeswoman

Hua Chunying was appointed the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on November 16, becoming the ministry's fifth spokeswoman since the post was created in 1983.

Hua, 42, is also Deputy Director of the Information Department of the ministry. She and spokesman Hong Lei will rotate their duties to address the ministry's daily news conferences on weekdays.

Hua began her diplomatic career almost 20 years ago when she joined the former Department of West European Affairs of the Foreign Ministry in 1993. She worked for the ministry in the EU, Singapore and in the Department of European Affairs before joining the Information Department this year.

Hua is expected to balance and complement Beijing's customarily masculine tone in China's complicated diplomatic environment.

Climate Change Report

China on November 21 published a report outlining its plans to deal with global climate change.

The report, titled China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change (2012), outlines actions taken by the Chinese Government to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It also documents measures to promote the building of low-carbon communities and advance international negotiation and cooperation.

During the 2006-10 period, the aggregate energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of the GDP ($1,605) dropped 19.1 percent from that of 2005, which is equivalent to a reduction of 1.46 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This indicates that China has accomplished its energy conservation goals listed in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), according to the report.

By 2015, the nation aims to reduce energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of the GDP by 16 percent, cut CO2 emissions per unit of the GDP by 17 percent, and raise the proportion of non-fossil fuels in the overall primary energy mix to 11.4 percent, said the report.

In 2011, natural disasters caused by extreme weather and climate events affected 430 million people in the country and caused economic losses of 309.6 billion yuan ($49.7 billion).

New Entry Policy

A new plan for the college entrance exam policy for migrant children in Beijing will be worked out by the end of this year, the city's education authorities said on November 16.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education made the announcement in response to an application filed by migrant worker volunteers in October. The volunteers asked educational departments to publish the results of migrant children's college matriculation research and measures for balancing educational resources.

The commission said that the new plan will provide equal rights to education and entry opportunities for migrant children.

However, it did not give a clear answer on whether migrant students who take the national college entrance exam in June 2013 could stay in Beijing for the exam.

Under current policies, children of migrant workers are not free to attend senior high schools or take the national college entrance exam outside of their home provinces.

Figures provided by the commission show that about 400,000 migrant children were studying at primary and middle schools in Beijing in 2011.

Safety Facilities

China has picked up speed in constructing "international safe communities" in line with standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a leading Chinese association.

The country now has 64 such communities, according to a statement released by the China Occupational Safety and Health Association (COSHA) on November 21.

The WHO's safe community concept was formally launched at the First World Conference on Accident and Injury Prevention in Stockholm, Sweden in September 1989.

The Manifesto for Safe Communities states, "All human beings have an equal right to health and safety." Regarded as a costeffective way of injury prevention, a safe community can be a municipality, a county, a city or a district.

A total of 1,589 communities in 22 Chinese provinces have started efforts to build safe communities, according to the COSHA, covering a gross population of 120 million.

Safe community efforts in Chinese urban and rural districts, enterprises and campuses have led to fewer accidents in terms of production, traffic, fire and social safety, said Zhang Baoming, COSHA Chairman.

Corporate-NGO Guide

A guidebook on communications between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations was published in China and posted online on November 21.

The Corporate Communications Handbook for NGOs is the first guidebook in China written to direct local NGOs on how to work with corporations.

The handbook, jointly sponsored by the China Association for NGO Cooperation and the Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF), uses 37 examples from NGOs, corporations, private foundations and a public incubator to illustrate common communication problems and solutions.  The book also discusses NGOs' social responsibilities in supervising corporations.

Michael Busgen, head of the HBF China Office, said that the guidebook, like the Media Handbook for Grassroots NGOs published in 2008, is part of an NGO capacity-building book series provided for free to NGO workers and those interested in the public sector in China.

Returned Students

More than 72 percent of overseas Chinese students have returned to China after finishing education abroad since the late 1970s, according to a report from a government-backed agency.

From 1978 to 2011, about 818,400 Chinese students returned home after studying abroad, said the report issued on November 18 by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, which is administered by the Ministry of Education.

In 2011 alone, nearly 186,200 chose to return, nearly 40 percent higher than in the previous year, said the report, adding that the center had offered services to 110,000 students.

Rail Insurance

China's State Council, or cabinet, has decided to abolish a decades-long compulsory accident insurance regulation on railway transport in a bid to better protect passengers' interests.

According to a statement posted on the Central Government's website on November 16, the regulation, which enables railway operators to invariably charge all train passengers 2 percent of their ticket prices as accident insurance, will be annulled starting January 1, 2013.

The regulation, created in 1951 and amended in 1992, placed a cap on the insurance compensation at 20,000 yuan ($3,210) regardless of the classes of passenger seats.

The stipulation had been widely criticized as unfair and contradictory to the country's insurance law, which states that insurance contracts should be formed on a voluntary basis.

The country ended similar accident insurance for sea and air travelers in 1987 and 1989, respectively.

The statement also abrogated a provision in a railway accident emergency rescue regulation, which sets a maximum 150,000 yuan ($24,080) of compensation on accident casualties and 2,000 yuan ($321) on baggage losses for each passenger.

Road Safety Day

The Chinese Government has designated December 2 as the country's Road Safety Day.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, China had 238 million vehicles and 256 million drivers by the end of October, with an average annual increase of more than 16 million vehicles and 20 million drivers during the last five years.

More than 80 percent of the country's road accidents are caused by violations of traffic rules, it added.