Rumor Spreader Sentenced
Internet rumormonger Qin Zhihui, known by the handle Qinhuohuo online, is sentenced to two years on defamation charges and a further year for disturbing the peace
International Recognition
Chinese actor Ge You receives the Chevalier medal in the Order of Arts and Letters of France in Beijing

"HSBC's latest survey shows that parents from the Chinese mainland devote 37 percent of their economic support to children on educational expenses. About 97 percent of parents expect their children to receive higher education and 74 percent expect their children to enter postgraduate programs. This is higher than global averages."

Wang Haojing, a senior executive of the retail banking and wealth management department of HSBC Bank (China)

"Good writers are thinkers, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was an excellent storyteller and shared his own way of looking at life."

Renowned writer Liu Zhenyun at a forum at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, commenting on the death of Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"China intends to approach World Bank's standard for high-income countries or even become one by the end of 2020."

Xu Lin, Director of the Development Planning Department of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

"The reform of the country's household registration system will focus more on former farmers in urban areas with better basic services. Urban residents without local household registrations will also be provided with improved social welfare and public services."

Xu Shaoshi, Minister of the NDRC, addressing a forum on China's urbanization in Shanghai on April 19

"The patent application structure was further improved in the first quarter of 2014, as nearly 40 percent of applications were for inventions."

Shen Changyu, head of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO)

"Since the government is unlikely to roll out consumption stimulus policies this year, economic growth will mainly come from the demand for better quality of living brought by an income growth and a population increase triggered by the easing of the one-child policy."

Zhao Ping, Deputy Director of the Department of Consumption Economics at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation

Tap Water Woes

Oriental Outlook
April 24

Compared to decades ago, water contaminants have changed greatly. The major contaminants in China are inorganic and organic matter. Of them, the organic contaminants are worth special notice. In the past few decades, human beings have created millions of organics. As a double-blade sword, these organics have brought both benefits and caused lasting contamination.

Faced with this new situation, upgraded treatment of tap water is needed. However, most water suppliers are still using the traditional water treatment technology, which is unable to remove the new soluble contaminants and ammonia nitrogen from the water.

Reading Habits

People.com.cn
April 23

Recently, the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication released the 2013 national reading survey, which showed Chinese children read more than before outside class. According to the survey, the average number of books that children read in 2013 was 6.97, up by 1.48 compared to that in 2012.

Specifically, the group aged 14-17 read the most, on average 8.97 books in the year; the group aged 9-13 about 8.26 books, and the group aged 0-8 about 5.25 books, all more than adults. This is really good news for the country. Children's reading is the starting point of the whole nation's reading.

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Longer Life Women from Xiamacheng Community in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, walk around the West Lake (JU HUANZONG)
Green Oasis Fengshuiliang Town, which was built in the Kubuqi Desert in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has grown itself into an island of green amongst the sands (ZOU JIANPU)
Water Pollution
Nearly 60 percent of areas in China that were surveyed are found to have a "very poor" or "relatively poor" quality of underground water last year
More Patents
China's State Intellectual Property Office says the country accepted a larger proportion of invention patent applications in 2013
Less Poverty
The number of impoverished people in rural areas of ethnic minority-inhabited regions decreases by 5.59 million in 2013
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Revitalizing the Silk Road Loaded with electronic products, a Wuhan-Xinjiang-Europe freight train sets off from Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province (XIAO YIJIU)
Invigorating Investment An introductory event is jointly held in Beijing for the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade by the Ministry of Commerce and the organizing committee (WEI YAO)
Reserve Ratio Cut
China's central bank cuts the reserve requirement ratio for county-level rural commercial banks and rural credit cooperative unions
More Autonomy
China will reduce the government's power in terms of administrative approval for companies' investment projects
Private Capital
China announces 80 major public infrastructure projects, experimenting with wider access for private and overseas investors
more>>
Zhang Monan
Associate research fellow at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges

China's interest rate policies will be affected by future adjustment of monetary policies by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Fed will increase interest rate three times from now to the end of 2015. Monetary tightening by the Fed will deal the heaviest blow to the Chinese economy in 2015 and 2016.

 
  • JAPAN
    Citizens of Tokyo walk to a district court to initiate legal proceedings against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 21, urging the court to declare Abe’s December 2013 visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine unconstitutional and stop him from making further visits (MA PING)
  • GERMANY
    A roughly 10-day-old baby giraffe named Madiba (center) stands next to his mother Etosha (left) and another giraffe at Hamburg Zoo on April 16 (XINHUA/AFP)
  • GUATEMALA
    People walk in Guatemala City on April 17 beside a 2,012-meter-long carpet of flowers and colored sawdust, made by municipal employees and volunteers, setting a new Guinness world record (XINHUA/AFP)
  • SOUTH KOREA
    Lee Joon Seok (center), captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized off the country’s southwest coast, walks out of a courtroom in Mokpo on April 19. Lee has been accused of abandoning the ship when it sank with more than 470 people on board three days earlier (XINHUA/AFP)
  • THE UNITED STATES
    U.S. Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at Florida’s Cape Canaveral on April 18, carrying its Dragon CRS3 spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station (XINHUA/AFP)
  • IRAN
    Soldiers march during the annual Army Day military parade on April 18 in Tehran (XINHUA/AFP)
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