Agricultural Modernization

China will step up reforms and innovation to speed up agricultural modernization in 2015, according to a key policy document released on February 1.

As the Chinese economy, under the "new normal," shifts from high-speed to medium-to-high-speed growth, continuing to consolidate the position of agriculture as the foundation of the economy and further increasing farmers' income have become priorities, said the document.

The No.1 Central Document refers to the first major policy document of each year released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council.

The document listed five aspects and 32 points for detailed government work on reforms and tasks related to the "three rural issues," agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

The document highlighted the challenges facing China's agricultural sector, including surging production costs, shortage of agricultural resources, excessive exploitation and worsening pollution.

According to the document, China will strive to transform the development model of agriculture, boost policies that benefit farmers, push forward the building of a new socialist countryside, deepen rural reforms and strengthen the rule of law regarding rural issues.

This year's document put more emphasis on "strengthening reform and innovation," compared to the 2014 one, Zhu Lizhi, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences told Xinhua News Agency.

Falling PMI

Chinese manufacturing activity continued to wane in January as a key index dropped below the 50-point mark for the first time since October 2012, marking increasing downward pressures on the economy, official data showed on February 1.

The manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), a key measure of factory activity in China, posted at 49.8 in January, down 0.3 percentage points from December 2014, according to the data jointly released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 represents contraction.

The reading, falling for four consecutive months, surprised the market as many institutions had forecast the PMI would rebound slightly.

In addition, China's service sector activity also dropped in January. The PMI for the non-manufacturing sector retreated to 53.7 in January from 54.1 in December, according to statistics from the NBS.

5G Technology

China Mobile, the country's largest 4G mobile network operator, has begun development on the next generation of mobile Internet following the success of 4G, a senior executive of the company said on January 31.

The move suggested the company is trying to maintain its leading position in an increasingly heated competition among the country's sole three telecom service providers.

China Mobile outperformed its two rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, in the 4G race after getting official approval to launch services based on TD-LTE standard by the end of 2013, nearly half a year ahead of the latter two.

China Mobile had 90 million 4G subscribers last year with 240 million cell phones sold and 700,000 base stations built, data from the company showed.

The other two operators did not release relevant data but media reports said even their combined figure cannot compete with China Mobile.