HAPPY WEDDING: A group wedding is held on August 18 in Beijing's Yanqing County for college graduate village officials working in the capital (ZHANG YU)

Faster Visas

Highly skilled overseas professionals will benefit from a faster visa application process, said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on August 20.

The ministry said that various government departments and state-owned enterprises are able to apply for visas and residency permits via a priority procedure for particularly experienced workers or those with exceptionally valuable skills and knowledge, as well as permits for the families of such workers.

Meanwhile, high-value experts from overseas working in the country outside of these programs will also enjoy a faster application process if they meet relevant conditions, said the ministry.

Organ Bank Rules

Donor organs must be distributed automatically through a national system, according to a new regulation scheduled to take effect on September 1.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission published the Regulation on the Procurement and Distribution of Donated Human Organs, which lays out the new guidelines and procedures on the distribution of donor organs, on August 21.

Organs will be obtained by procurement organizations authorized by provincial health authorities, and distribution of these must be done through the China Organ Transplant Response System, according to the new rules.

Recipients waiting on donations will be sorted based on the urgency and nature of their emergency and their compatibility with transplant-ready organs.

China introduced an organ donation system in 2010 and has the world's second largest demand for organ transplants. About 300,000 patients suffer from organ failure each year, but only around 10,000 organ transplant operations are performed annually due to a lack of available organs.

Drug Cleanup

The Chinese Government on August 20 launched a five-month campaign to combat illegal online pharmaceutical sales.

The campaign will primarily focus on websites that have obtained Internet drug sale licenses, but were found to have been involved in the promotion or sale of fake products.

The campaign was jointly launched by the China Food and Drug Administration, the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

According to the statement released by the departments, both vendors who market drugs on the Internet without obtaining business licenses and those selling fake products will be targeted during the campaign.

Website Review

Chinese Internet companies offering cultural content have been urged to set up their own review systems, as part of efforts to ensure legitimacy of content.

Starting on December 10, the content of online music and game companies will no longer require to be reviewed and filed in advance, according to a Ministry of Culture statement on August 20.

Previously, such content was primarily reviewed or managed by relevant government departments.

The establishment of a self-review system for strengthening companies' capacity to judge content by themselves is the best option for authorities to regulate the cultural Internet market, the ministry said.