BLOSSOM SEASON: Tourists view flowers at the Flower Birthday Festival, or Flower God Festival, which kicked off at the Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on April 2 (XU YU)

PX Controversy

The construction of a petrochemical plant in Maoming in south China's Guangdong Province will be halted if the majority of residents object to it, the municipal government has announced.

"We are at a stage of disseminating information relating to the paraxylene (PX) project," a municipal government spokesman told Xinhua News Agency on March 31 anonymously, adding that the local government would not go ahead with the project without consulting the public.

More than 1,000 locals staged protests on March 29 and 30 in front of the government building to express their objection to the project.

Since 2007, PX projects planned in Xiamen in Fujian Province, Dalian in Liaoning Province and Kunming in Yunnan Province have been shut down after residents protested, as they believed that the facilities would threaten the local environment. PX is a material used for making a number of polyester products.

Maoming is a major Chinese petrochemical production base. The PX project was approved in 2012 with an annual production capacity expected to meet 600,000 tons.

Carbon Trading

Central China's Hubei Province launched the country's sixth carbon trading scheme on April 2.

The scheme covers 138 companies in 12 high pollution industries, including power generation and steel, which have been given a combined carbon emission quota of 324 million tons for this year, the Hubei Carbon Trade Exchange said in a statement.

Under the trading program, those which emit below their quotas can sell their excess to other enterprises or investors for profit. Hebei is the first place where the government has sold reserve quotas. About 2 million tons of carbon have been sold at a price of 20 yuan ($3.22) per ton.

The exchange also signed carbon trading agreements with other provinces including Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangdong.

The scheme is a big step forward for China in building a nationwide carbon trading market, with an expectation of 40- to 45-percent reductions of 2005's emissions slated for 2020.

Terrorists Arrested

Four suspects from the Kunming terror attack have been arrested for the crimes of organizing, leading, taking part in a terrorist attack and intentional homicide, the Yunnan provincial procuratorate said on March 29.

A group of knife-wielding assailants attacked civilians at a railway station in Kunming, the provincial capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, on the evening of March 1, causing 29 deaths and injuring another 143.

Police shot and killed four of the attackers at the station. The other four were captured and detained by police on March 3.

Care for Elderly

China on March 28 established its first government-sponsored national fund specially designed for aged parents who have lost their only child.

The fund, which has raised donations worth more than 10 million yuan ($1.61 million), will be under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

It will offer life assistance and psychological counseling to these elderly with financial difficulties by giving aid directly or through communities and nursing homes, according to Han Xuechen, director of the fund.

The fund is currently sponsoring pilot programs in cooperation with a sub-district in Beijing and the earthquake-hit Beichuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to Han.

If successful, the plan is for the program to be gradually expanded.

China is undergoing a fast transformation and 202 million, or 14.9 percent of the total population, were aged 60 or above at the end of 2013, said Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Dou Yupei.

This number is expected to exceed 300 million by 2025, and a large number of them will also lack children and need special care from society, according to Dou.