TOURISM BOOM: Sightseers crowd an ancient street in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, on May 2. The southeastern province recorded more than 3.56 million tourist visits during the May Day holiday (WEI PEIQUAN)

Food Safety

A total of 53 officials who were responsible for recent scandals involving the sale of melamine-tainted milk have been punished.

Seventeen were dismissed and others faced penalties ranging from demotions to demerits and warnings, said Xinhua News Agency on May 2.

The move follows the sentencing of 14 people convicted of producing or selling tainted milk powder in Shanxi and Hebei provinces on April 29.

Among the 14 involved in the four recent cases, two were sentenced to life imprisonment and four received 10 to 15 years in jail.

China launched a renewed crackdown against illegal food additives in April.

Tougher Punishments

The newly amended Road Traffic Safety Law took effect on May 1, which imposes harsher punishments on drunk drivers, including life bans on driving.

In China, drivers are legally considered drunk provided they have 80 mg of alcohol or more for each 100 milliliters of blood.

The new amendment says anyone caught drunk driving will face detention for one to six months and have their driver's license revoked. These people have to wait five years before they may apply for a new license.

Anyone whose drunk driving leads to a death or the injury of two persons or above will be banned from driving for life.

Under the previous law, the maximum penalty on drunk driving was to revoke the offenders' driver's license for six months. Only in cases in which their misconduct resulted in deaths would they be held criminally accountable.

Internet Management

The Chinese Government announced on May 4 the setting up of the State Internet Information Office.

The office will lead, coordinate and supervise online content management and handle administrative approval of businesses related to online news reporting. It will also lead the development of online gaming, online video and online publication industries, says a statement of the State Council.

Other responsibilities of the office include promoting construction of major news websites, managing online publicity work of the government and investigating and punishing websites violating laws and regulations.

It will also oversee telecom service providers in their efforts to improve the management of registration of domain names, distribution of IP addresses, registration of websites and Internet access.

Tibetan Population

According to figures from the sixth national census conducted last November, the number of permanent residents in Tibet Autonomous Region has reached 3,002,166, up 14.75 percent from the previous census in 2000, the Tibet Regional Bureau of Statistics said on May 4.

It represents an annual 1.4-percent growth rate, higher than the national average of 0.57 percent.

The 2.716 million Tibetans make up about 90.48 percent of Tibet's total population, whereas the Han, China's most populous ethnic group, account for 8.17 percent and other ethnic groups make up 1.35 percent.

Tibet is China's least-populated provincial-level region. Its population was 1.23 million in 1959.