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(XINHUA) |
Zheng Xiaoying, China's first female opera and symphony orchestra conductor, received the 2012 Chinese Culture Figure title alongside nine other contenders on December 12. She won the title for her contribution to conducting and music education.
Zheng attended the Central Conservatory of Music (CCM) where she followed courses in composition and conducting in 1952. She subsequently studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1960 to 1963. After returning to China, she first taught at the Conducting Department of the CCM, then went on to become the chief conductor of China National Opera House.
She has led world famous works such as Camen, Madama Butterfly and Le Nozze di Figaro with great success. Invited to conduct and lecture in over 20 countries, Zheng has won numerous awards at home and abroad, including the Honorary Medal of French Literature and Arts in 1985.
Although she is currently 83 years old, Zheng is still active on stage and keen to promote operas among the Chinese public.
More Chinese will emigrate overseas in the coming years, leaving behind potential risks to the country's economy, according to a report.
According to the Annual Report on Chinese International Migration 2012, jointly released by the Center for China and Globalization and the Beijing Institute of Technology on December 17, the main factors driving such emigration include a pursuit of better education, safer investment environments and improved quality of life.
According to the report, there were more than 45 million overseas Chinese in 2010, the world's greatest population of emigrants.
In 2011, a total of 150,000-plus Chinese gained permanent residency in major emigration destinations, with the United States, Canada and Australia as the top three countries of choice, said the report.
It noted that the trend is likely to bring losses to the country in terms of assets and talent, pose obstacles to China's supervision over non-performing assets and complicate the development of its economy.
The United States was the top destination for Chinese emigrants and some 87,000 permanent residence permits were granted in 2011. Of these, 3,340 were approved through investment.
China is one of the major sources of investment immigration for Canada, and Chinese applicants accounted for 75 percent of the North American country's investment immigration in the past three years, according to the report.
More Chinese cities saw home prices rise month on month in November amid government measures to cool the sector, the National Bureau of Statistics said on December 18.
In November, 53 out of a statistical pool of 70 major cities recorded higher new home prices month on month.
Prices in 10 cities declined in November, and those in the other seven were unchanged.
On a year-on-year basis, 25 cities saw rises in new home prices in November, up from 12 in October. Prices in 41 cities dropped year on year, down from 56 in October.
The property market has shown signs of warming up in recent months, after the central bank cut both interest rates and reserve requirement ratios twice earlier this year to buoy the economy.
The government will continue its property market controls next year, according to a statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference, held on December 15-16.
China's domestic rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd. announced on December 18 that it would maintain the local currency credit rating for the country at AA+.
It also decided to maintain China's foreign currency credit rating at AAA with a stable outlook, according to its report.
China's economy has turned toward comprehensive structural adjustments, with "clear growth prospects" in the mid- and long-term, Dagong said.
The agency said the financial risks following the country's large-scale credit expansion in 2009 have been gradually resolved.
In the short-term, China's macro-policies will focus on enhancing the quality of growth and digesting potential risks in the economy, the agency said.
It foresees the GDP growth this year at 7.8 percent and 8.5 percent in 2013 and annual growth rate for the 2011-20 period will average 8 percent.
Despite a rebound in farm exports over the past three months, China's top agricultural export province expects to register flat or negative growth for the whole year due to sluggish global demand and surging costs.
Exports of agricultural products from Shandong Province, which account for a quarter of the country's total exports, reached $13.6 billion in the first 11 months, down 2 percent year on year, according to the provincial department of agriculture on December 18.
Dwindling demand in major markets, soaring prices, market competition from Southeast Asian nations and mounting trade frictions have all weighed upon Shandong's agricultural exports, said Zhang Li, an official with the department.
"If the growth rate in December is flat from November, our total exports in 2012 will exceed $15 billion, roughly the same as last year," Zhang said. The fourth quarter is traditionally the hot season for agricultural exports, as market demand usually picks up between Christmas and the Spring Festival.
Meanwhile, national data indicate slow growth in China's farm exports this year. Such exports rose 4.5 percent year on year to $50.6 billion in the first 10 months, while imports surged 23.7 percent to $92.3 billion, said the Ministry of Agriculture.
In the first 11 months of this year, 12.02 million new jobs were created in China, surpassing the goal of 9 million, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on December 18.
The urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent at the end of September, below the annual target of 4.6 percent, said Minister Yin Weimin.
The employment situation has been better than expected this year amid the backdrop of a slowing global economic recovery and downward pressures weighing on the domestic market, Yin said while addressing a national human resources and social security work conference.
In the first half of 2012, employment in cities located in the country's central and western regions expanded 9 percent and 14 percent, respectively, according to the ministry.
Yin also said that in 2013 China would not abandon its goal to create at least 9 million new urban jobs and keep unemployment below 4.6 percent.
The focus of next year's work, according to Yin, will still be employment for college graduates, a growing population that has hit 6.8 million this year. | 
