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2017-05-22 Special English
This is Special English. I’m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
China will boost the development of online media by encouraging eligible websites to go public and create new mainstream media groups.
A government blueprint has been issued by the Party authority and the State Council, China’s Cabinet. The document on cultural development and reform vowed to gradually set up a modern communication system by 2020.
This is a major project to "build public opinion fronts" online. Efforts will be made to improve the communication abilities of major news websites and online radio and TV stations. It also aims to develop a system for communication on the mobile Internet.
Eligible websites will be encouraged to go public.
The authorities will give support to mainstream media institutions in developing their websites and new media. Efforts will be stepped up to guide and standardize investment in the Internet cultural sector with both state and private funds.
Meanwhile, existing laws and regulations on news and publishing will be extended to cover the management of online media.
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A butt joint weighing 6,000 metric tons has been lowered into the Pearl River, bringing work on an underwater tunnel linked to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge a step closer to completion.
A chief engineer at the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said favorable weather conditions made it suitable for connecting the butt joint, which involved 160 welders.
The tunnel is the final component of the long-awaited bridge which is scheduled to open to traffic later this year.
The Y-shaped cross-sear bridge is estimated to cost more than 10 billion yuan, roughly 1.5 billion US dollars. It is expected to play a significant role in the economic development of the area comprising Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao.
Construction started in 2009, and the bridge is part of China's planned national highway network, linking the eastern and western banks of the Pearl River.
The bridge includes a 7-kilometer underwater tunnel and a 23-km overwater bridge, making it the longest cross-sea bridge in the world.
The service life of the bridge is expected to reach more than 120 years.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China's manned submarine Jiaolong has explored submarine turbidity currents in the South China Sea.
With a depth of 2,980 meters, Jiaolong was underwater for almost 10 hours in the ocean scientific expedition.
Three crew members in the submarine collected samples and measured environmental parameters in the ocean. They brought back sediment and seawater near the seabed as well as high-definition photos and video footage.
Scientists say China started the research on submarine turbidity currents relatively late, compared with other countries. This study is a major challenge in geoscience.
The dive helped scientists to obtain evidence of the topographic features in northeastern South China Sea. It enriched scientific understanding of canyon turbidity current in the region and provided key data and technical support for future research.
The oceanic scientific expedition started in early February. The team will conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench later in the year.
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China's new-generation training vessel has set sail on its maiden voyage from the port city of Dalian in northeast China to South Africa.
The 340-million-yuan, roughly 50 million US dollar-ocean-going vessel is China's most advanced cruise training ship.
The 200-meter long ship, "Yupeng", is owned by the Dalian Maritime University.
During its maiden voyage, 87 graduating students joined the crew to undergo training. It was also loaded with four locomotives and other equipment for customers in South Africa.
Founded in 1909, Dalian Maritime University is one of China's largest maritime universities. It already owns and operates another ocean-going training vessel that boasts more than a 10,000 deadweight tonnage.
The new ship has a carrying load of 30,000 tonnes and can be used for training, scientific research and shipping.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Scientists say they have switched on the world’s biggest X-ray laser, designed to capture images of structures and processes at the atomic level.
The DESY research center near Hamburg in Germany said bringing the laser to life for the first time "marks a new era of research in Europe".
Operators say the first laser pulse lasted one second. This frequency will be increased to 27,000 flashes per second by the start of September when it officially opens for research.
Scientists hope the European X-ray laser project will open up new areas of research, including mapping the molecular structure of new drugs and seeing biochemical reactions in real time.
Institutions from Germany, France, Italy and other countries are involved in the project.
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China has conducted a maiden flight of its dual-seat FC-1B trainer/fighter jet, aiming to seize a bigger share of the global military aircraft market.
The flight took place at an airport of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, a State-owned aircraft giant and the manufacturer of the plane. The flight was witnessed by executives from the Aviation Industry of China, guests from other countries and journalists.
The aircraft is capable of training pilots and engaging in aerial combat as well as striking ground targets.
Officials say the new aircraft is one of the best trainer fighter jets in the international market. It is able to carry beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and precision land-attack ammunition.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
More than 20,000 authors from universities and research institutions across China have joined a project to write an authoritative online Chinese encyclopedia in an effort to promote China's historical heritage and soft power.
The digital encyclopedia is the third edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia. It will feature more than 300,000 entries, each with an average length of 1,000 words. It will be twice as large as the Encyclopedia Britannica. The online encyclopedia will cover more than 100 disciplines and be put into use in 2018.
The project's editor-in-chief Yang Muzhi said China faces challenges from every corner of cyberspace, so it should have its own online encyclopedia to lead public opinion."
According to Yang, the new encyclopedia's top rival is Wikipedia. The goal of the project is to surpass Wikipedia rather than play catch-up with it.
Yang said people think Wikipedia is correct and authoritative, while it claims to be a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. He said the idea is alluring, but China has the world's largest group of authors, so they can do better.
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The Palace Museum in Beijing plans to stop selling paper tickets from its box office, probably by later this year.
An official from the museum says an Internet-based system will be set up to better coordinate the number of visitors for different hours of the day.
He said the new plan is preliminarily scheduled to be launched in an "appropriate time in late October", but it still depends on whether conditions are ripe. Starting in July, the museum will gradually decrease the percentage of tickets available at traditional box offices.
The Palace Museum opened its online ticket system in 2011. Almost half the tickets are sold via the internet. The tickets sold at the box office in the first quarter of this year decreased by 10 percent from the same period a year earlier.
The Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, was China's former royal palace from 1420 to 1911. It is one of the most visited museums in the world. The Forbidden City received more than 16 million visitors last year.
The Palace Museum set a daily quota of 80,000 visitors in 2015 due to safety concerns caused by overcrowding. The new move is another step to handle the crowds.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
It is critical and important for children in the United States and Europe to learn Chinese. Education experts say a booming Chinese economy provides great opportunities for foreigners who can speak both English and Chinese.
That was the consensus among teachers, students and experts who gathered to mark the Experience China Day in the United States.
The event was held by the Chinese Consulate General in New York City. It attracted more than 200 American teachers, students and parents to the Chinese Consulate General for the event. Various activities were held for people to experience traditional Chinese culture, including calligraphy and traditional Chinese musical instruments.
Acting Consul General Cheng Lei said the event aims to motivate young people' interests in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture.
American students entertained the crowd by playing the Kongzhu, also known as the Chinese yo-yo. They also staged a short drama in both English and Chinese.
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Zambia will host the first-ever Africa Cup Wushu Tournament next year. Wushu is a Chinese martial art.
The tournament has attracted kung fu experiments from around 20 countries to participate. T competition has been tentatively set for June or August.
The event is organized by the Zambia Wushu Association. Officials say the tournament is a milestone for Zambia in promoting the Chinese martial art.
Preparations for the event have already started. As a host country, Zambia will pick its final team from among many martial art athletes. Organizers say they hope the event will encourage more local people to learn Chinese kung fu.
Formed in 2013, the Zambia Wushu Association has trained 600 martial art learners in the capital and a nearby province.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A Minor Planet has been named after Chinese aerospace scientist Ye Peijian at a ceremony in Beijing.
Ye is active in the country's lunar probe and deep space missions, and an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The minor planet, No. 456677, was discovered by a Chinese team at the Purple Mountain Observatory in east China's Nanjing city in 2007.
The naming suggestion was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in January.
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Renowned Chinese mathematician Wu Wenjun has died in Beijing at the age of 98.
Wu became well known in the field of mathematics in the late 1940s for his contribution to research on topology, one of the major areas of mathematics.
Later, Wu devoted his attention to research on mechanical geometry theorem proof, using computers to prove complicated and time-consuming geometrical theorems.
His work has been described by mathematicians as pioneering, and some of his theories have been included in textbooks. The Wu formula and Minor Planet No.7683 were named after him.
He was the winner of China's top science and technology award in 2000.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A photo competition on giant panda conservation and research is being held in Sichuan province in southwest China. The event lasts from May till early November.
The competition is jointly organized by the China Conservation and Research Center for the giant panda and Jiuzhaigou, a scenic attraction in the province. A total of 200,000 yuan, roughly 30,000 U.S. dollars will be offered as prizes to the winners.
Award-winning works will be displayed overseas in locations including the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.
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This is Special English. I’m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
The C919, China&`&s first homegrown large passenger plane, has made its debut flight in Shanghai, a breakthrough in the country&`&s innovation and manufacturing drive and a change to the landscape of the global civil aviation market.
The successful test flight of the C919 comes only nine days after the country debuted its first homegrown aircraft carrier in Dalian in northeast China. The development showed the world China’s manufacturing prowess, development of advanced technology and the national ambition to regain past glory.
The flight lasted around 80 minutes at an altitude of 3,000 meters and an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour. Then the plane returned to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, from which it had taken off.
In a letter of congratulation to the C919 project, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said the successful maiden flight of the C919 marks a milestone for China&`&s aviation industry. The project carries great weight and importance to the country&`&s innovation drive and manufacturing upgrade push.
The letter said it is also a shot in the arm for the ongoing supply-side reform.
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It’ll be free. It’ll be uniquely Chinese. It’ll be an online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia, but without the participation of the public. And don’t expect certain entries to come up in your searches, either.
Scholars and experts hand-picked by Beijing to work on the project say only they will be able to make entries, the latest example of the Chinese government’s efforts to control information available on the internet.
The scholars say truth is their guiding light, and their editing and review process is a rigorous one. If there is a difference of opinion, a committee should figure it out.
A chief editor of the history of science and technology section told The Associated Press that "Of course, science does not come from democratic votes, to convince others you will have to present the most convincing proof".
The effort to compile 300,000 entries that span science, literature, politics and history is being led by the Communist Party of China’s Central Propaganda Department. It guides public opinion through instructions to China’s media, internet companies and publishing industry as well as overseeing the education sector. It has instructed the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, known for its offline Chinese Encyclopedia, to produce it.
Currently, the Chinese Wikipedia is inaccessible on the mainland.

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2017-05-09 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
China is expected to establish a national emergency and coordination committee to deal with nuclear accidents.
The draft law on nuclear safety states that the committee is responsible for organizing a response to nuclear accident. The draft was first read among legislators in November.
The latest draft highlights the need for transparency of nuclear information. It requires government departments in charge of nuclear safety supervision to publish information about nuclear accidents and other nuclear-related data.
In addition, the draft clarifies the importance of disposing of radioactive waste. Data on the source, amount, character and location of such waste should be recorded and stored permanently.
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China's conversion of coal into natural gas could prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. But there's a catch. Researchers say as China shifts its use of vast coal reserves to send less smog-inducing chemicals into the air, the move threatens to undermine efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
The environmental trade-off points to the difficult choices confronting leaders of the world's second largest economy as they struggle to balance public health and financial growth with international climate change commitments.
Between 20,000 and 41,000 premature deaths annually could be prevented by converting low-quality coal in the country's western provinces into synthetic natural gas for residential use.
The findings by researchers from the United States and China have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers said that if the gas were used for industrial purposes, fewer deaths would be averted and they would carry a steeper price - a dramatic increase in carbon dioxide emissions.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
U.S. Space Agency NASA's Cassini spacecraft has survived an unprecedented trip between Saturn and its rings, and has amazing pictures to show for it.
Flight controls regained contact with Cassini, one day after it became the first craft to cross this hazardous region. The rings are made up of countless icy particles, any of which could have smacked Cassini. The spacecraft's big dish antenna served as a shield as it hurtled through the narrow gap, temporarily cutting off communications.
Cassini skimmed 3,100 kilometers above Saturn's cloud tops, closer than ever before. It came within 320 kilometers of the innermost visible ring.
Scientists say Saturn continues to surprise them, after 13 years of Cassini orbiting the planet. The pictures show details never seen before. For example, there's an incredible close-up of a gigantic swirling hurricane at Saturn's North Pole.
Given their importance, data from the crossing are being sent to Earth twice, to make certain nothing is lost. It takes more than an hour for the signals to travel the 1.6 billion kilometer distance between Saturn and Earth.
Cassini was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and reached Saturn in 2004.
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Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the U.S. record recently for the most time in space and talked up Mars during a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump.
The International Space Station's commander surpassed the record of 534 days, two hours and 48 minutes for most accumulated time in space by an American.
Trump said that it is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight. His daughter and close adviser Ivanka Trump also offered congratulations to Whitson from the Oval Office.
Whitson said it's a huge honor for her to break such a record. She said it's an exciting time", as NASA prepares for human expeditions to Mars in the 2030s. The program has been included in new legislation signed by Trump last month. Whitson called the space station "a key bridge" between living on Earth and traveling into deep space. She singled out the station's recycling system that transforms astronauts' urine into drinking water.
Whitson was already the world's most experienced spacewoman and female spacewalker, as well as the oldest woman in space, at 57 years old. By the time she returns to Earth in September, she'll have logged 666 days in orbit over three flights.
The world record is 879 days. It is held by Russian Gennady Padalka. Whitson broke the NASA cumulative record set last year by astronaut Jeffrey Williams. Scott Kelly holds the U.S. record for consecutive days in space, at 340.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Three African countries have been chosen to test the world's first malaria vaccine.
Ghana, Kenya and Malawi will be piloting the injectable vaccine next year with hundreds of thousands of young children, who have been at the highest risk of death.
The World Health Organization said the vaccine has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives if used with existing measures. The challenge is whether impoverished countries can deliver the required four doses of the vaccine for each child.
Malaria remains one of the world's most stubborn health challenges. It infects more than 200 million people every year and kills about half a million. Most of the victims are children in Africa. Bed netting and insecticides are the chief protection.
Sub-Saharan Africa is hardest hit by this disease. The area had around 90 percent of the world's cases in 2015. Malaria spreads when a mosquito bites someone already infected, sucks up blood and parasites, and then bites another person.
The World Health Organization says a global effort to counter malaria has led to 62 percent cut in deaths between 2000 and 2015.
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The White House says President Donald Trump is appointing the former president of a leading anti-abortion organization to a senior position at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Charmaine Yoest, who actively supported Trump in his campaign, will serve as assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. From 2008 until February 2016, she was president of Americans United for Life, which campaigned at the federal and state level for tough restrictions on abortion.
Among the many state bills backed by the group under Yoest's leadership were measures that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. These measures require women seeking abortions to undergo a sonogram and impose tough regulations on abortion clinics that could lead to their closure.
The appointment was assailed by abortion-rights groups.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said Charmaine Yoest has spent her whole professional life opposing access to birth control and a woman's right to safe, legal abortion.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
Increasingly strict government controls on genetic information have resulted in longer, slower registration procedures for new and developing drugs. However, experts say the procedures could pose a threat to the people's privacy.
An expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences says that rather than providing extra safeguards, the precautions are actually making genetic information less secure. He urged greater streamlining of the procedures to the bottleneck and shorten the registration process.
In late 2015, China issued a statement outlining extra application and approval procedures for clinical drug trials conducted in collaboration with foreign pharmaceutical companies. The document also cover drug trials by research institutions funded by investment from overseas. The same rules apply if projects are overseen by foreign nationals.
The measures require tests to be conducted on a greater number of people. This has resulted in a substantial rise in the amount of personal information being collected and stored.
Scientists are saying the stricter procedures have had a negative effect on many new potential treatments in China. Many companies have reported six to nine months extra waiting time, which has seriously slowed down the approval process for badly needed new drugs.
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Global warming's milder winters will likely nudge Americans off the couch more in the future, which is a rare, small benefit of climate change.
A new study finds that with less chilly winters, Americans will be more likely to get outdoors, increasing their physical activity by as much as 2.5 percent by the end of the century.
Areas including North Dakota, Minnesota and Maine are likely to see the most dramatic increases, usually the result of more walking. The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
But this good global warming side effect is not likely to extend to the Deep South and especially the desert southwest, where hotter summer days keep people inside. The study found that Arizona, southern Nevada and southeastern California are likely to see activity drop off the most by the year 2099.
A lead author of the study said it is a small little tiny silver lining amid a series of very bad and very unfortunate events that are likely to occur. The scientist added that global warming "almost certainly will be very costly for humanity".
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
U.S. marine scientists say collisions of whales and boats off of the New England coast may be more common than previously thought.
The scientists focused on the humpback whale population in the southern Gulf of Maine, a body of water off of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. They found that almost 15 percent of the whales had injuries or scarring consistent with at least one vessel strike. The wales come to New England to feed every spring.
The researchers published their findings in the March issue of the journal Marine Mammal Science. The study shows that the occurrence of such strikes is most likely underestimated. The figure is likely low because it does not account for whales that are killed in ship strikes.
A lead author of the study said vessel strikes are a significant risk to both whales and to boaters. Long term studies can help people figure out if the outreach programs to boaters are effective.
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When Logan Snyder got hooked on pills after a prescription to treat pain from a kidney stone, she joined the millions already swept up in the nation's grim wave of addiction to opioid painkillers. She was just 14.
Youth is a drawback when it comes to kicking drugs. Only half of U.S. treatment centers accept teenagers and even fewer offer teen-focused groups or programs. After treatment, adolescents find little structured support. They are outnumbered by adults at self-help meetings. Sober youth drop-in centers are rare. Returning to school means resisting offers to get high with old friends.
But Snyder is lucky. Her slide ended when her father got her into a residential drug treatment program. Now 17 years old and clean, she credits her continued success to Hope Academy in Indianapolis, a tuition-free recovery school where she is enrolled as a junior.
The opioid epidemic is the worst addiction crisis in U.S. history. It has mostly ensnared adults, especially those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. But teens have not been spared. Each day, 1,100 start misusing pain pills. Federal data show that opioids killed 521 teens in 2015.
Not enough is known about opioids and teen brains. But getting hooked early is trouble. The vast majority of adults in treatment reports say they started using as teenagers.
This is the end of this edition of Special English. To freshen up your memory, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed. Please listen carefully.
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2017-05-08 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Tianzhou 1, China's first cargo spacecraft, has completed the country's first in-orbit refueling test with the unmanned Tiangong II space laboratory.
The China Manned Space Agency has called the mission a success.
The space agency said the refueling test was a major technology breakthrough and has paved the way for China to assemble and operate a space station.
The agency said China has become the third nation to complete in-orbit refueling technology, following Russia and the United States.
As the first of the planned three such tests for the cargo spacecraft, the in-orbit refueling took five days. Making sure there is no leakage of fuel is crucial.
The agency said that after the first test, the two spacecraft will stay connected as they orbit Earth for around two months. The second in-orbit refueling test will be conducted in June.
After that, the two spacecraft will undock. The cargo vessel will make sophisticated, automated maneuvers to circle the space lab, and docking with the lab at a different site.
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China is to extend the current nine-year compulsory education to encompass high school students nationwide by 2020.
A Guideline for Popularizing High School Education has been released by the Ministry of Education and another three ministries.
The guideline aims to raise the gross enrolment ratio for high schools to above 90 percent on average nationwide. The rates in central and western China will be substantially improved.
Last year, China's overall gross enrollment ratio was 87 percent for high schools, representing a tendency of a rise of 3 percent in the next four years.
The ratio is a statistical measurement to show the number of enrolled students to those who qualify for certain grades, ranging from primary school to middle and high school periods. Over the past few decades, China required children to attend primary and middle schools, while high school was not obligatory.
The new document is also to bridge the gap for regional disparity of high school education, as the central and western regions lag far behind eastern China.
For example, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southwest China still has an insufficient number of high school teachers, demanding 13,000 more to reach the national average ratio of teachers to students. What's worse is that the region's high schools have debts worth 2 billion yuan, roughly 290 million US dollars.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Police have opened a new front in the war on drugs by targeting traffickers who recruit disabled people as couriers.
Drug gangs target people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, as well as pregnant or lactating women, because Chinese laws contain a number of clauses allowing these "vulnerable people" to avoid prison. That, plus the offer of "easy money", is often enough for those from the poorest sections of society to run the risks associated with the trade.
Last year, more than 5,300 such people were detained while transporting narcotics. Among them, 780 were foreign nationals, and a large number were from Myanmar. That's according to a report released recently by China's top anti-drug authority, the Office of National Narcotics Control Commission.
In August, an 18-year-old pregnant woman from Myanmar was caught with almost 3 kilograms of methamphetamine stashed in 80 moon-cakes, a traditional Chinese delicacy.
The couriers had been hired to carry the narcotics from Myanmar to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. The woman was caught as she was about to deliver the food to the buyer. In her confession, she said she was due to receive 5,000 yuan, roughly 730 US dollars, when the deal was closed.
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China's health authorities are installing vendor machines selling home HIV test kits on university campuses. The move aims to help raise awareness and fight HIV/AIDS, as the epidemic begins to hit more young people in China.
To date, 10 universities across China have joined the initiative, which many call "progressive". Sex remains largely a taboo subject in many parts of the country, and systematic sex education is still lacking.
The initiative is led by the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control. The association says it cannot wait to take action, but it's hard to do so, especially on university campuses.
An official from the association says more universities are planning to join the move to install such machines on campus as an alternative option for students seeking HIV testing.
The official says many students are reluctant to visit HIV testing clinics run by health authorities, even though the visit is free of charge. Privacy concerns and fear of being discriminated against are largely the seasons they stay away.
China has seen a rapid increase in HIV cases in recent years, particularly among young students aged between 15 and 24.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Construction has begun on China's first commercial space industry center in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.
The Wuhan National Space Industry Base aims to attract at least 100 enterprises involved in the space industry before 2020. It plans to generate 30 billion yuan, roughly 4 billion US dollars, in annual gross product by then.
The main investor is the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The center will occupy 70 square kilometers of land area.
"Expace Technology" is a subsidiary of the corporation. It will invest 1.7 billion yuan to build production and assembly plants for solid-fuel carrier rockets for commercial launches. The company plans to produce 20 rockets at the center each year.
In China, a commercial launch usually means a space launch financed by an entity other than a Chinese government or military agency.
The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation will invest 300 million yuan to construct a research, development and manufacturing complex at the center to make small satellites. The corporation will launch 156 small communications satellites into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 160 to 2,000 kilometers, before the end of 2025. They would form a network capable of global coverage.
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A specialized Chinese university has launched a nationwide search for students with the passion and talent to study the languages used in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.
Beijing Foreign Studies University has kicked off an independent recruitment program to find candidates for 22 language majors that will be offered in the next academic year.
The languages are Portuguese, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Lao, Thai, Indonesian and Hausa. They are found along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which make up the Chinese initiative aimed at boosting connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa.
Applicants must have an outstanding high school record in Chinese and foreign language studies and will need to pass several rounds of interviews to test their commitment and potential.
The university says it hopes to ensure students recruited through the program have a strong interest in studying Belt and Road languages and have the ability to study well.
The program was launched last year to nurture talent in linguistics and regional research, and to provide intellectual support for the initiative.
The standards are strict. Of more than 2,700 applicants for 15 majors, only 270 students were admitted. The number of students admitted this year will not increase much, as the university wants to guarantee quality.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
The National Copyright Administration of China has launched its English website to enhance international communication on copyright protection.
The website has been launched to mark the 2017 World Intellectual Property Day. The website is en.ncac.gov.cn. It features news, law and regulation, as well as other subjects.
Officials say the next step is to provide more information at the website. China's intellectual property rights have made great progress in the past decade.
An annual crackdown campaign initiated by the National Copyright Administration has focused on pirated music, videos, games, animation and software for 12 consecutive years to create a good online copyright system.
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The face-lift of a section of the Sanlitun area of Beijing is underway. Demolitions raised mixed feelings among foreigners and locals as the decades-old bar street will likely disappear.
Heavy equipment was used to knock down dozens of illegal building additions that stretched from residential buildings to shopping malls.
Beijing has been targeting illegal constructions since the beginning of the year. Illegally constructed extensions associated with several thousand units in the city will be removed. Missing walls, windows and other elements will be restored according to their original designs.
The bar street is home to a variety of nail salons, foot massage parlors and restaurants. It has become increasingly popular in recent decades because of an influx of foreigners and diplomatic personnel.
Frank Hansen from Denmark said the special charm of the street will be gone when all the extended rooms have been removed. He used to have weekend gatherings with friends on the street. He said they will probably not go back to the new bars after the demolition.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Bike-sharing fever has spread to Tibet, with 500 shared two-wheelers appearing on the plateau.
Bright yellow Ofo bikes have been placed in over 20 spots in Xigaze, the second largest city in Tibet.
A local sponsor of the project says it hopes to make shared bikes a major means of transport for the local people in Tibet and tourists alike. The company's next target is Lhasa, the capital of the Autonomous Region.
The bike-sharing business took off in big cities in China last year. It allows riders to hire bikes for as little as one yuan, roughly 15 U.S. cents, per hour via a mobile app. Riders can drop the bikes off anywhere for the next user.
The bikes on the busy streets of Xigaze have attracted curious users. A local resident in the city, Cering says it's cheap for a short ride. He and his friends rented bikes just for fun.
Backed by two-digit economic growth for over 20 years, car sales in Tibet have been booming. The under-populated region now has 300,000 vehicles, with half of them in Lhasa. The four-wheelers have led to traffic congestion and parking problems in downtown Lhasa.
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The water levels of the Pacific Ocean off California may rise more than previously thought. Storms and high tides may hit harder than previously estimated.
California's Ocean Protection Council revised upward its predictions for how much water off California will rise as a result of globing warming. The forecast helps agencies in the nation's most populous state plan for climate change. Rising water is seeping toward low-lying airports, highways and communities, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Discoveries that ice sheets are melting increasingly fast in Antarctica largely spurred the change. Antarctica holds almost 90 percent of the world's ice.
Fossil-fuel emissions warm the Earth's atmosphere. The melting ice is expected to raise the water off California's 1,770 kilometers of coastline even more than for the world as a whole.
Officials say state agencies take climate change into account in planning and budgeting.
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2017-05-02 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
An international medical journal's retraction of 107 research papers from China, many of them by clinical doctors, has reignited concerns over academic credibility in the country.
Tumor Biology, a journal published by Springer Nature, announced a couple weeks ago that it had retracted the papers after an investigation showed the peer review process had been compromised.
Peter Butler, editorial director for cell biology and biochemistry at Springer Nature, said the articles were submitted with reviewer suggestions, which had real researcher names but fabricated email addresses.
Butler told Shanghai-based news website The Paper that the editors thought the articles were being sent to genuine reviewers in the discipline. Following investigation and communication with the real reviewers, they confirmed they did not conduct the peer review.
Peer review is an evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to those who produce the work, which helps validate research.
The online notice about the retraction lists all 107 articles and 524 authors, nearly all of whom are clinical cancer specialists from China. The hospitals named are all top public institutions.
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Chinese citizens' personal information and the country's important data collected by Internet service providers may need evaluation and permission before being shared with non-domestic entities.
A draft guideline has been released for public opinion by the Cyberspace Administration of China. According to the guideline, Chinese citizens' personal information should be kept within the country and be subject to security assessment before being provided to anyone outside China.
The document says that to sell someone else's personal information, one must get permission from this individual.
For data related to national security, the economy or public interest, the seller should coordinate a security evaluation with the authorities. The evaluation will ensure online data is managed legally.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
China's air quality monitoring network is to be expanded to cover a wider area, especially at the grassroots level, to facilitate scientific and effective control of airborne pollution.
By March, more than 5,000 monitoring stations had been built across China. They are managed by the environmental monitoring authorities at four levels, namely State, provincial, city and county levels.
The China National Environmental Monitoring Center operates 1,500 State-level monitoring stations nationwide. The center ensures that the data collected are independent of local government oversight to prevent interference and guaranteeing accuracy and authenticity.
The 5,000-plus monitoring stations test for six "criteria" of airborne pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10 and sulfur dioxide, across different regions and locations.
This is Special English.
China imposes some of the world's toughest driving restrictions for cars, and now the checks and controls are expanding to the bicycle-sharing industry.
Police in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province have clearly said they are considering restrictions on the use of shared bikes, especially during the holidays, to prevent road congestion and public disorder.
Police said that around 520,000 bikes have been put on the streets in the city in the year since bike sharing began.
A growing number of people are taking the colorful two-wheelers to work or using them for recreation, which has brought some challenges. For example, over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday last month, paths at a local park became seriously clogged with bikes, while careless parking of the bikes often blocks traffic as well.
The police are partnering with bike-sharing companies to monitor the number of bikes in designated areas. Under the plan, if the accumulation of bikes in an area hits a certain number, a warning system will be activated that prohibits bikes from entering. Cyclists will be notified at the same time via a mobile app.
A limit on the number of bikes will also be enforced, along with temporary bans in certain public areas during peak seasons.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Australian researchers have compiled an unparalleled database detailing the almost 6 trillion tonnes of global fishing since 1950.
The database was created by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. It was based on more than 800 million fishing records from 1950 to 2014.
During the 65 years covered by the records, fishers from 193 countries caught almost 6 trillion tonnes of fish of 1,400 different species. Among them, 900 million tonnes have been taken illegally.
Reginald Watson, who collated the data, said the database illustrated that the global fish population was finite.
Watson said the database brings together every major international statistical collection of fisheries data since comprehensive records began, providing unique insights into the industry.
He said more than 860 million fishing records have been compiled into a single harmonized view and mapped down to tiny spatial cells, so people can see where fishing has been happening and how it's changed over time.
Watson said despite a plateau in recent years, the annual rate of fishing has grown from 27 million tonnes of fish taken in 1950 to 120 million tonnes in 2014.
Since 1950, fisheries have moved further offshore and greatly intensified. People now have more vessels of a greater size and larger storage capacity. They are spending longer time at sea and fishing in deeper waters.
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A new study suggests that the system of grid cells, known as the brain's global positioning system, is more complicated than anyone had thought before.
While the brain needs some basic navigational instruments to get around, just like a driver in a car, researchers have found that brain cells are similar to speedometers, compasses, GPS and even collision warning systems.
However, researchers with Stanford University in the United States report that human brains map out the world in a more complex way. Some of the neurons in the internal navigation systems look a lot like speedometers or compasses. Many others operate flexibly, each one encoding a dynamic mix of navigational variables, like a compass that somehow transforms into a GPS when driving downtown.
The project began in 2014, when scientists got a Bio-X seed grant to take a closer look at how the brain finds its way around. The same year, a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of grid cells, which are specialized neurons that help animals keeping track of where they are in their environments.
The findings of that time said that while some neurons fell within the ballpark of how a grid cell was supposed to behave, most provided only noisy, error-prone navigation, like a GPS on the fritz. That led the researchers to wonder whether the brain had a way to correct those errors. In 2015, they reported that the brain does have a way: boundary cells, so named because they fire when nearing walls and other landmarks.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
Car models supporting autonomous driving and Internet-based services are bright spots at the 2017 Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition.
A total of 113 models of car made their global debut at the auto show, which has attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors from 18 countries and regions. The 1,400 complete vehicle exhibitions included 160 new energy vehicles and 56 concept cars.
The theme of this year's show is "Committed to a Better Life".
The Shanghai-based electric vehicle startup Nio made its much-awaited domestic debut at the show. The company brought a model of its concept driverless car EVE, whose interior space is designed as a living room.
Li Bin, founder of Nio, said that when humans are freed from driving, the car would be transformed into a space for relaxation and entertainment.
Domestic auto maker Roewe unveiled its new model i6 16T, featuring a smart operation system that has access to mobile payment tool Alipay.
When the driver gets on the car, the system tells them to bring an umbrella if it is going to rain. It can select routes based on real-time road conditions and the driver's habits, and can even help order and pay for take-away coffee.
Another model of the carmaker, the RX5, carries a similar system. Sales of the new model have exceeded 140,000 since it was released eight months ago.
German manufacturer BMW also brought new models to the show. The new models feature intelligent driving.
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Beijing is taking steps to improve its vehicle parking management by encouraging the construction of parking facilities and imposing stricter penalties for illegal parking.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation released a draft of its new parking regulations recently. The document is available for public comment until May 10.
A shortage of parking lots has become a serious problem in Beijing, as the number of cars in the city continues to grow. Researchers say it requires integrated efforts in planning and management to improve the situation.
According to the draft regulations, police will set up parking areas along secondary roads near communities that have a shortage of parking lots.
For residential communities and government buildings that can sufficiently meet their own parking demand, the authority encourages them to open their parking facilities to the public and charge fees.
For existing parking areas, the government should work on raising their efficiency by improving charging systems and making full use of parking spaces in residential communities and commercial areas, as well as office buildings.
Beijing's planning and transportation departments should work together to make use of spare land by building more parking facilities, especially multi-level garages, and install smart parking systems.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Cameras captured images of a panda in a nature reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province three years after it has been released into the wild.
The pictures and videos of the panda were taken at a nature reserve in the Yi Autonomous Prefecture in late February.
Researchers identified the panda as one they released into the wild in 2013 and its name is Zhangxiang. The panda is living in a suitable environment where it can find enough bamboo. After further investigation, researchers revealed that the panda was in a normal physical condition.
The findings also prove that the panda has moved from one group to another. This marks another success in releasing pandas into the wilderness in China.
Zhangxiang is a female giant panda born in 2011. It was released in 2013 following two years of wilderness training.
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Almost 20 years after being stolen, a 1,300-year-old stone Buddhist pagoda has been returned to its home of Shanxi province in northern China with help from pilgrims across the Taiwan Straits.
The almost 2-meter-high item is part of a 3-meter-high pagoda. Based on inscriptions, scientists say the pagoda was built in 720 AD. It was included in the province's first list of key protection cultural relics in 1965. However, the top part of the relic was stolen away in 1996, and the rest became missing two years later. Only the foundation and certain parts were left at the site.
The facade of the pagoda were carved with Buddhist scriptures and decorated with colorful paintings.
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2017-05-01 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
More than 3,100 government officials have been held to account for the poor implementation of pollution control measures. Environmental problems have been uncovered in all seven provincial level regions included in the environmental inspections by the central authorities.
Inspectors have conducted their month-long reviews in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities as well as in other provinces since late November. The performance audits exposed more than 15,000 violations.
The inspection reports featured the complaint that governments have not focused enough attention on the environment. The failure has resulted in worsening air and water quality in some areas.
In one case, Gansu province in northwest China made plans to control air pollution, but inspectors found that it had not fully implemented the measures. The province has failed to meet its air pollution reduction targets for 2014 and 2015.
Inspectors also found a lack of assessment in Beijing, where seven districts failed to meet targets for 2014. The municipality did not release information or punish the officials responsible.
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China's manned submarine Jiaolong has gone through a dive simulation in Hainan Province to prepare for a deep descent in the South China Sea.
The submarine stayed underwater for 18 minutes in the drill before returning to its support ship. The crew completed tasks including underwater training, practical operation and emergency escape.
The ship's forthcoming South China Sea dive is part of the second stage of China's 38th ocean scientific expedition. The expedition will last for around four months.
Officials say the drill was necessary to test the equipment and personnel. Currently the Jiaolong's "technological status" is stable and the cooperation among various departments is smooth.
The submarine completed a deep-sea operation in the northwestern Indian Ocean earlier this year. It will also conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench.
Named after a mythical dragon, the Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China has begun a series of changes to the rules regarding permanent residence for foreign nationals in the country.
A plan has been issued by the Ministry of Public Security. The "foreigner's permanent residence card" will be renamed as the "foreigner's permanent residence identity card".
Similar to the identity cards used by Chinese citizens, foreigners' identity information will be embedded in the chips on the machine-readable cards. The information will be shared by railways, airlines, insurance agencies, hotels and banks.
The old version cannot be read by machines, and foreigners often face difficulty in identity authentication. The reform aims to provide foreigners with easier access to public services.
The new card can be obtained at the original registration authority, while the old version can still be used until the expiry date. Related technical work is expected to be finished by June, and then foreigners can apply for the new cards.
Last year, 1,600 foreign nationals became permanent residents of China, an increase of 160 percent over the previous year.
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China is aiming to increase the scale of its cloud computing industry by more than 2.5 times from 2015 levels by 2019.
According to a new government plan, the scale of the cloud computing industry will be expanded to 430 billion yuan, roughly 62 billion U.S. dollars, by 2019. The action plan was issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Other targets include making breakthroughs in core technology, increasing cloud computing in manufacturing and government affairs, and strengthening the global influence of Chinese cloud computing companies.
The ministry expects that two to three Chinese cloud computing companies will lead the global market within three years. It says cloud computing should be a strong support for China's manufacturing and Internet industries and help other social and economic sectors.
The ministry pledged to enhance cloud computing network security and improve security regulation and relevant laws, as many users from key industries are still hesitating due to safety concerns.
In the next three years, China will help boost cloud computing technology and encourage local governments to work with leading cloud computing companies to build public service platforms.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Chinese search engine Baidu has succeeded in using artificial intelligence to reconnect a man with his family 27 years after he was abducted.
The company is working with a charity group dedicated to connecting missing children and their families. Baidu uses its cross-age facial recognition program to analyze pictures of abducted children and identifies potential matches through the comparison of selected facial features. The missing children's pictures were uploaded by the victims and their birth families.
Thirty-three-year-old victim Fu Gui was born in Chongqing Municipality in western China. He was abducted in 1990 and later transferred to Fujian Province in southeastern China. He registered in 2009, and his birth family did the same in early 2017.
Baidu's facial recognition program was able to draw up a short list of potential identities for the man from pictures uploaded to the site, and a DNA test later verified the correct match.
Baidu has around 200 million sample pictures that it uses to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of its facial recognition program, which can be over 99 percent accurate.
Baidu's founder and CEO Robin Li says artificial intelligence systems, including facial recognition, could be used to help find missing children. The company has suggested that there should be a central database with missing children's information installed.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
Psychologists at the University of Manchester in Britain have revealed that they have come up with a new way of helping people overcome their fear of spiders.
Dr. Warren Mansell says rather than encouraging arachnophobias to face their spider fears, which is the current approach of many therapists, giving people control over how much they approach or avoid what they are afraid of is more likely to help.
Mansell based his findings on a theory known as Perceptual Control Theory. The study was published in Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
People with a fear of spiders sat in front of a screen and they themselves were able to control how close or distant the spider would appear.
He said Perceptual Control Theory predicts that it is vital for a client to have control over their experience of important elements of the environment including the sources of threat. He said control itself is pivotal for health and well-being.
The team recruited a large sample of people with high levels of spider fear and asked them to list their reasons for avoiding spiders but also their reasons for approaching spiders.
After completing a simple task, people reported avoiding spiders less in their everyday lives two weeks later, despite their fear, and without any prompting to do so.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A new study suggests that when Coffea arabica plants were subjected to even short-duration heat waves, they became unable to produce flowers and fruit. This means there would be no coffee beans and no coffee to drink.
Researchers from the United States investigated how leaf age and heat duration affected Coffea arabica's recovery from heat stress during greenhouse testing.
The study found that the younger "expanding" leaves were particularly slow to recover compared to mature leaves, and that none of the plants that endured the simulated heat waves produced any flowers or fruit.
Coffea arabica is the dominant coffee-plant species on the globe. It grows in 80 countries in four continents in the tropics, accounting for 65 percent of the commercial production of the 9 billion kilograms of coffee consumed globally each year.
The findings emphasized how sensitive Coffea arabica is to temperature. The leaf temperature is higher than the surrounding air temperature, which is a realistic result of global climate change.
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A British researcher says governments worldwide should invest in global approaches to learn how carbon capture and storage works, which is a realistic way of reducing carbon emissions. That's according to a commentary published online recently by the journal Nature Energy.
David Reiner from the University of Cambridge, author of the commentary, said that like many new technologies, it is only possible to learn what works and what doesn't by building and testing demonstration projects at scale. He argues that by giving up on carbon capture and storage instead of working together to develop a global "portfolio" of projects, countries are turning their backs on a key part of a low-carbon future.
Reiner says carbon capture and storage works by separating the carbon dioxide emitted by coal and gas power plants, transporting it and then storing it underground so that the carbon dioxide cannot escape into the atmosphere.
However, the technologies have fallen out of favor with private and public sector funders in recent years. Corporations and governments worldwide, including most recently the UK, are abandoning the same technology they championed just a few years ago.
The researcher says there are several reasons why carbon capture and storage seems to have fallen out of favor with both private and public sector funders, including costs, commercial pressure and timescales, as well as a lack of international cooperation.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A special edition of the "Ukraine-China" magazine has been launched to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Ukraine.
The magazine features celebration remarks by the leaders of the two countries, as well as expert opinions on the historical path and the current state of China-Ukraine friendly relations.
The publications highlight topics including the strategic partnership between China and Ukraine, interregional cooperation, trade and economic relations, as well as collaboration in science and education.
The "Ukraine-China" magazine was first published in 1999 by the Kiev-based Institute of Oriental Studies. It was previously issued on an irregular basis, and became a periodical this year.
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An exhibition featuring conventional craftsmanship in Anhui Province has opened to the public at Beijing's Palace Museum.
The exhibition showcases 85 works by 20 successors of national intangible cultural heritage from the eastern Chinese Province. The items on display include ink stones, ink and brush pens, lacquer ware and bamboo carvings.
In ancient times, most calligraphy supplies used by Chinese emperors came from Huangshan city in the province. The Palace Museum and the city government launched a workshop last year, aiming to promote the craftsmanship and tourism development in the city.
Mount Huangshan is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. It is known for its elegant architecture and high-quality green and black tea.
That is the end of this edition of Special English. To freshen up your memory, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed. Please listen carefully.
（全文见周六微信。）

This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

The central government and local authorities will accelerate planning for the Xiong&`&an New Area.

China&`&s top economic planner said that in addition, those governments will provide policy and financial support for key projects and budgeting.

The National Development and Reform Commission said a master blueprint of the new area, as well as overall and detailed blueprints of the initial area are among the first plans to be mapped out.

The commission will guide the Hebei provincial government and authorities as they draft the plans to ensure they meet the high standards of quality needed for the project.

Apart from having world-class urban planning, the architecture in the new area will also showcase Chinese cultural characteristics.

The central government will also give support to major transportation, ecology, water conservation, energy, and public service projects in the new area.

China announced a historic decision to establish the Xiong&`&an New Area in Hebei province as part of measures to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

The new area is similar to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area. It is of national significance and "crucial for the millennium to come".

This is Special English.

China&`&s environmental watchdog has sent inspection teams to 7 cities to cope with a new round of severe smog.

The inspection teams have been sent by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. They went to cities including Beijing and Tianjin, in northern China.

Inspectors discovered factories fabricating pollutant data in some cities. A steel mill in a city was found to have shut down a pollutant detector. Those responsible have been detained by local police.

The inspection team found that smog emergency plans have been poorly implemented in Tianjin. Several cement producers in another city were found to have continued operations when they should have been suspended.

In Beijing, a ceramics producer and a paper maker cheated inspectors regarding the use of purifying equipment. A furniture plant in Hebei Province refused inspectors who were attempting to conduct inspections.

A new round of air pollution continues in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with some cities issuing orange alerts, the second-highest in China&`&s four-tier warning system.

China has been under growing pressure to address air pollution as smog frequently smothers the country.

You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

2017-04-25 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
Chinese central authorities have released a detailed 10-year youth development plan, vowing better education, employment and healthcare for the nation's youth.
"Youth" in the context of the plan released by the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council refers to those aged from 14 to 35.
The Middle-and Long-term Youth Development Plan covers the period between 2016 and 2025. It sets a general goal for establishing a "youth development policy system and work mechanism" by 2020 and improving the system by 2025.
Specifically, the plan sets educational goals of an average 14 years of education for the newly added labor force and a gross higher education enrollment rate of over 50 percent within 10 years. It aims for 90 percent of the groups to meet physical standards and give them more accesses to mental and physical care.
Authorities will strengthen educational campaigns targeting different ages within the group to champion patriotism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, making the "Chinese dream" a common goal for them.
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The preparatory committee of the Xiong'an New Area in north China's Hebei Province has said to control illegal land and housing purchase as well as construction.
China has announced to establish the Xiong'an New Area, a landmark new economic zone near Beijing designed to integrate the capital with its surrounding areas.
The announcement attracted investors to swarm into the area, and drove up housing prices.
The committee warned all forms of illegal trade of properties are not protected by law, and vowed to crack down on illegal construction and trading of second-hand houses.
The committee said it will strictly implement the central authorities' guidelines that say "homes are for living in, not for speculating with".
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
China's top quality watchdog said more than 40 percent of consumer goods exported to China last year through e-commerce platforms fell short of standards.
Last year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine conducted random quality inspections on 1,000 batches of the products. The items were consumer goods including toys, diapers, clothing and kitchenware. Four hundred items were found to be substandard, accounting for 41 percent of all sampled products.
In addition to meeting quality standards, imported products must be correctly labeled in Chinese.
The quality of consumer goods imported through the channels other than e-commerce proved to be higher, with only 29 percent falling short of standards.
The authority organized two large-scale inspections last year, involving more than 5,300 batches of imported consumer goods, including air purifiers, car brake blocks, household electrical appliances and clothes. More than 1,500 were found to be substandard.
Last year, quality supervision authorities across China handled 36,000 cases relating to violations of laws on quality standards, involving 2 billion yuan's, roughly 330 million U.S. dollars' worth of goods.
Quality supervision authorities at all levels have been urged to intensify quality supervision and keep cracking down on law violations to improve the quality of products and protect consumer rights.
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China has started the construction of one of the world's largest and most sensitive cosmic-ray facilities.
The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory will attempt to search for the origin of high energy cosmic rays. It aims to study the evolution of the universe and high energy celestial bodies, as well as to push forward the frontier of new physics.
The observatory is located at 4,400 meters above sea level in an mountainous area in Southwest China's Sichuan province. The total investment is 1.2 billion yuan, roughly 180 million U.S. dollars.
The construction of the project is set for completion in January 2021. It will be a key frontier project for cosmic ray research in the world.
Cosmic rays are particles that originate in outer space and are accelerated to energies higher than those that can be achieved in even the largest man-made particle accelerators. The origin of the cosmic rays has remained a mystery since they were first spotted some 100 years ago.
The observatory will be mankind's first attempt to hunt for the highest-energy Gamma ray, which is the burst of radiation thought to be produced alongside cosmic rays in the Galaxy.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
The United Nations' intellectual property agency says China is showing "quite extraordinary" growth in international patent applications, putting Chinese applicants on track to outpace their U.S. counterparts within two to three years.
Francis Gurry, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, says China posted nearly 45-percent growth in such patent applications last year, saying "the country continues its journey from "Made in China" to "Created in China".
Overall, the United States was first for the 39th straight year and accounted for nearly 56,600 applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, followed by Japan at over 45,200 and China at nearly 43,200.
China's state-owned ZTE Corporation in Shenzhen, one of the world's biggest suppliers of network switching gear, was the No. 1 applicant last year, topping crosstown rival Huawei. U.S.-based Qualcomm.
This is Special English.
In Shaanxi province in southwest China, a farmer's rent-a-chicken business has helped hundreds of rural families cast off poverty. Zhang Chunpu's program is a free loan of chickens to farmers who then make money by selling the free-range eggs back to Zhang's cooperative businesses.
Over the past decade, rent-a-chicken has helped more than 800 households in Yanchang County, who previously survived on an annual per capita income of less than 2,300 yuan, roughly 335 U.S. dollars.
The idea came to Zhang by accident. In 2003, he saw profits from selling healthy eggs and acquired 6,000 chickens.
It wasn't always easy. Zhang recalled the time that the chickens nearly ate up all the grass on the nearby mountain, as well as fought with each other and didn't lay eggs. He was nearly bankrupt, but he couldn't see the birds starve to death. He started giving the birds to the villagers.
The birds he rents to farmers roam free in yards and on hillsides, eating pumpkins, cabbage and worms.
Zhang's cooperative earns 0.1 yuan from each egg, while farmers can earn 0.15 yuan. However, the real profit comes from the chickens.
Each farmer earns about 100 yuan per year per chicken, enabling them to get away from poverty.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
A group of Swedish university students who raised 1.2 million euros, roughly 1.3 million U.S. dollars, in crowd funding for their startup to build electric cars has caught the attention of German industrial heavyweight Siemens.
The two sides said they were starting a partnership that will see them create 50,000 lightweight city cars annually starting next year.
The twin-seat vehicles, called L7e, have 15 kilowatt engines with a maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour. They weigh 400 kilograms each and have a 150 kilometer range.
The cars are made from sustainable composite materials and will be unveiled in late 2017. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2019. The first high-end vehicle has a target price of 200,000 kronor, roughly 22,300 U.S. dollars. The price for an electric Smart Car in Sweden is at least 210,000 kronor, roughly 23,400 U.S. dollars.
The vehicle's steering system resembles a Wii controller more than a traditional car's steering wheel.
Lewis Horne, the CEO of the startup, called Uniti Sweden, says the deal gives his company "the opportunity to not only develop a sustainable car, but also manufacture it in a sustainable way at a large scale."
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Matt Garlock has trouble making out what his friends say in loud bars, but when he got a hearing test, the result was normal. Recent research may have found an explanation for problems like his, something called "hidden hearing loss".
Scientists have been finding evidence that loud noise, from rock concerts, leaf blowers, power tools and the like, damages our hearing in a previously unexpected way. It may not be immediately noticeable, and it does not show in standard hearing tests.
But over time, Harvard researcher M. Charles Liberman says, it can rob our ability to understand conversation in a noisy setting. It may also help explain why people have more trouble doing that as they age. And it may lead to persistent ringing in the ears.
Liberman says the bottom line is "noise is more dangerous than we thought."
His work has been done almost exclusively in animals. Nobody knows how much it explains hearing loss in people or how widespread it may be in the population. But he and others are already working on potential treatments.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
The Gulf of Oman turns green twice a year, when an algae bloom the size of Mexico spreads across the Arabian Sea all the way to India.
Scientists who study the algae say the microscopic organisms are thriving in new conditions brought about by climate change, and displacing the zooplankton that underpin the local food chain, threatening the entire marine ecosystem.
A marine biologist at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, wrinkles his nose as the research vessel nears the bloom. He says "Sea stench", referring to the algae's ammonia secretions.
He signals the boat to stop as it speeds up beneath a gigantic rock arch off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman, an arid sultanate on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The captain kills the engine and drops anchor into a slick of bright green muck surrounded by crystal-clear blue water.
The swarms of microscopic creatures beneath the surface of the Gulf of Oman were all but invisible 30 years ago. Now they form giant, murky shapes that can be seen from satellites.
Across the planet, blooms have wrecked local ecosystems. Algae can paralyze fish, clog their gills, and absorb enough oxygen to suffocate them. Whales, turtles, dolphins and manatees have died, poisoned by algal toxins, in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These toxins have infiltrated whole marine food chains and have, in rare cases, killed people.
This is Special English.
China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will build more kindergartens and hire more bilingual teachers to improve its three-year bilingual pre-school education.
A total of 4,400 bilingual kindergartens will be built or expanded in 2017 across the region. And 10,000 bilingual teachers will be hired this year, 6,500 more compared with previous years.
The education department announced that Xinjiang will also provide more training courses for bilingual teachers and encourage more college graduates to work as bilingual teachers.
From 2011 to 2015, Xinjiang built 2,500 new bilingual kindergartens in rural areas, bringing the region's pre-school education penetration rate to 77 percent, or 480,000 pre-schoolers.
With funds from the central government, Xinjiang plans to offer three years of bilingual pre-school education, instead of the current two years, in its rural areas in the next four years.
This is the end of this edition of Special English. To freshen up your memory, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed. Please listen carefully.
This is the end of today's program. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing, and I hope you can join us every day, to learn English and learn about the world.

2017-04-24 Special English
This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Beijing has put a new medical care reform plan into effect, bringing an end to medicine price markups.
More than 3,600 medical institutions are involved in the reform and all of them have abolished the medicine price markups. That's according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.
It is estimated that the cost of treatment per outpatient will be reduced by around 5 percent on average thanks to cuts in medicine prices. There will be an average cost increase of 2.5 percent for inpatient treatment due to the growth of certain service charges.
Community hospitals and medical institutions have been given the same access to the medicines usually prescribed in higher-level hospitals, so that patients can have more choices.
Marking up medicine prices is a practice that has been adopted by most public hospitals in China since the 1950s. It allows hospitals to sell drugs with markups usually at a rate of 15 percent above the drugs' tag prices.
The reform aims to effectively motivate medical staff to pay more attention to the medical service they are providing, and further improve the doctor-patient relationship.
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China has launched its largest operation to control air pollution in the northern regions. The operation has sent more than 5,600 inspectors to push the areas to meet ambitious pollution reduction targets.
Unlike the nationwide inspections conducted last year, the yearlong, intensified inspection is being led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The inspectors will keep a spotlight on governments and companies in 28 major cities which are susceptible to heavy smog.
Inspectors will check important areas including governments' implementation of air pollution control efforts. They will also shut down small plants with high emissions.
Through the inspection, the ministry will push the governments and companies to fully implement measures to tackle air pollution.
The ministry will closely watch the regions with pollution problems and stick with them until all the pollution issues are resolved.
During a separate inspection, officials checked 450 companies and government departments. The inspection team found 280 violations, including companies that falsified monitoring data or discharged excessive pollutants.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A recent cooperation deal between China and Kenya has become an important step for China's nuclear power technology to go global.
The China General Nuclear Power Corporation announced recently that the company has signed a nuclear power training cooperation framework agreement with the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board.
Under the deal, China's Hualong One reactor is expected to be applied in Africa.
The 1,000-megawatt water reactor was developed by the China General Nuclear Power Corporation and the China National Nuclear Corporation. It has reached the highest international safety standards to prevent leakage of radioactive materials and resist earthquakes.
The China General Nuclear Power Corporation has formed a joint venture with Electricite de France SA to develop the Bradwell nuclear power plant in the UK, as well as to fund and design the reactor.
The British government started an assessment of the reactor design in January. The process is expected to take around five years.
Observers say there is a high possibility that the reactor design will pass the UK's approval process.
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Chinese scientists have extracted a medicinal compound from a natural herb called thunder god vine, which targets cell metabolism and could help tackle obesity.
Celastrol, extracted from thunder god vine, and artemisinin, developed from sweet wormwood, are among five herbal compounds believed to have the most potential to treat illnesses where no cure has been discovered, including cancer.
The discovery of artemisinin won Chinese scientist Tu Youyou a Nobel Prize in 2015.
The research team was led by Zhang Xiaokun, professor with the College of Medicine at Xiamen University. It found that celastrol from the thunder god vine can alleviate inflammation.
The team carried out the research on mice. The study found that celastrol could effectively control weight increases in mice feeding on high fat food.
The research paper was published in science journal Molecular Cell on April 6.
Scientists will continue to study how celastrol regulates metabolism to explore new drugs, with low toxicity and high efficiency, to help people lose weight.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has earmarked 10 million yuan, roughly 1.4 million U.S. dollars, for the research and development of an advanced artificial intelligence processor.
The deep learning processor chip, the "Cambrian", is expected to become the world's first processor that simulates human nerve cells to conduct deep learning.
The program is named after the Cambrian Period, which marked a rapid diversification of life forms on earth. Scientists expect that the processor will spearhead a new era in artificial intelligence.
The investment will be used in basic research areas to explore the structure and algorithm for the next generation of artificial intelligence. The project also aims to lay a foundation for China's ambition in the global chip market.
The funds will also be used to promote and publicize the research.
Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo needs huge power and large servers to operate. The Cambrian aims to perform at the same level but using only one watt of power. The processor will have the size of a smartphone or a watch.
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Industry insiders say the planned Xiong-an New Area in Hebei province is expected to bring tourism opportunities to a large wetland area and to the province as a whole.
China announced a decision to set up the new area to boost coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.
Over the following three days, during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, the Baiyangdian Lake tourist area received 18,000 visitors. Tourism income reached 16 million yuan, roughly 2.4 million US dollars. Both figures represented a 260 percent increase compared with last year.
The lake is one of North China's largest freshwater wetlands. It is located in Anxin County, which is part of the new area.
An online travel service provider said the new area has the basic infrastructure for attracting tourists. It has adequate tourism resources and easy transport. The plan of the new area has attracted the attention of people from across the country to go for a visit.
Bookings on the website during the holiday tripled that of last year. Tourists mainly came from neighboring Beijing and Shandong province. There are also people from farther afield, including Shanghai and Guangdong Province.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
A woman from the Philippines has become the first person to receive a residence permit designed for foreigners providing housekeeping service in Shanghai.
The event occurred in Shanghai's Pudong district, which houses more than 300 Fortune 500 companies and is home to the Pilot Free Trade Zone in the country.
Liu Chen is a Chinese American and president of the Shanghai Affinity Biopharmaceutical Company. Liu applied for the one-year residence permit on March 14 for the housemaid he hired. Two weeks later, she obtained the permit.
More than 20 foreign housemaids have received their residence permits in Shanghai. Liu's was the only case that has been made public.
The permission for foreign housemaids is one of the measures Shanghai has unveiled since July 2015 to attract talented foreigners as the city tries to build itself into a global technological innovation hub by 2030.
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Education experts say Children should have more opportunities to participate in study tours or other outdoor activities only if their safety is guaranteed.
In developed countries, including the United States and Japan, study tours such as summer camps are key activities and are always the source of unforgettable memories. That's according to Sun Yunxiao, chief expert of the China Youth and Children Research Center.
Sun says that in China, young people are having less opportunity to enjoy such activities because schools and parents are cutting down on them for security concerns.
In recent years, accidents in which children were killed or injured while participating in school outdoor activities have been reported by the media. The events raised concerns among parents.
A vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Education said a test-oriented education is also part of the reason for the shrinking number of study tours.
Another expert says student workloads are heavy, leaving them little time for traveling.
In December, 11 ministries in China jointly released a guideline, stating that study tours will become part of the curriculum system in primary and middle schools nationwide.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A new system is being introduced in southern China's Guangdong that gives parents and students more of a say over the designs of school uniforms.
The move was put forward in a document jointly published by the province's education department, the industry and commerce administration, as well as the quality and technology administration.
Manufacturers will be invited to showcase their wares in schools, but the final decision on which uniform should be adopted will be decided by a poll.
Students and parents can also offer suggestions on how manufacturers can further improve their designs and the materials used for the uniforms.
The price, design and materials used in school uniforms are decided by local education departments alone. The new plan allows different schools to have different styles of uniform.
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Macao has officially started its application for a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Gastronomy.
Macao has officially applied to become one of the most popular choices for food and restaurants, which will add another reputation to the city.
Macao's Tourism Office listed the application as one of four major goals in 2017. It even set up a special committee in charge of the issue.
Officials say that if Macao is successfully designated as a UNESCO gastronomy city, it will add a significant international brand for Macao with far-reaching significance. It will also serve as a powerful impetus to the sustainable development of Macao's economy.
Macao held an "International Gastronomy Forum" in November as a warm-up before it officially applies for the branding.
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Spanning 1,100 meters across a river in southwest China's Sichuan Province, a main cable backstay bridge has been successfully installed. The bridge, on the Luding River, is part of an expressway linking two cities in the province.
This is the first suspension bridge in the province that has been built in a highly active seismic zone with complicated wind field and a large span. Around 34,000 steel cables will be used in the construction. The total length will reach 60,000 kilometers if all the cables are laid together in a single line, which is equivalent to 1.5 times of the circumference of the earth.
The bridge has dual carriage way with four lanes of traffic in each direction, allowing vehicles to travel at 80 kilometers per hour.
A drone was also used during the construction of the bridge.
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