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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

Chinese officials and scientists have said that as a country with the world's largest number of scientific researchers, China is benefiting and will continue to benefit from scientific exchanges and cooperation with other G20 members, particularly in exchanges of talent and young research staff.

A senior official of the China Science and Technology Exchange Center said the G20 is the largest and most important group in technological innovation worldwide. Cooperation and innovation under the G20 framework will not only benefit the members, but also is of great importance to the sustainable development of the world.

According to the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report, which was released by the ministry last year, China's human resources in this area exceeded 71 million people as of 2013, ranking it No 1 in the world.

Meanwhile, the latest statistics from the World Bank Group and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization showed that the research and development investment of 19 G20 members, excluding the European Union, accounts for 87 percent of the world total.

The academic papers that these members publish account for 76 percent of the world total and applications for patents from these members account for 97 percent.

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Silk products are synonymous with Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou first exported silk 2,000 years ago. Today, the exquisite craftsmanship of silk continues to be the source of justifiable pride.

It should come as no surprise that guests at the B20 and G20 summits will find silk forming an integral part of their experience there.

To symbolize the city's attachment to the fine material, a gift package for the B20 Summit guests contains a pure silk scarf. More than 800 participants at the B20 Summit received such scarves.

Each of the silk scarves is printed and dyed around 20 times, and it takes six weeks for the process of platemaking, printing and dyeing to be completed.

China played a major role in developing sericulture, or silk farming, and one of its origins is located in northern Zhejiang province.

Archaeological digs there have unearthed silk thread, ribbons and silk from more than 4,000 years ago. After laboratory testing, they were confirmed to have come from domesticated silkworms.

Globally, the Japanese use the most silk products, and French brands like Hermes use silk for signature products. Italy is a well-known center for silk goods, and Brazil is a large silk manufacturer.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

China's quantum communication satellite, which was launched in August, is in good shape; and scientific experiments can begin this month.

A chief scientist of the project said all equipment carried by the satellite and all ground equipment are working well.

Satellite-to-earth links have been established between the satellite and five ground stations across China, laying the technical foundation for distributing quantum keys.

Scientists are confident that the project will fulfill its tasks.

China successfully launched the world's first quantum satellite on Aug. 16.

The satellite will explore "hack-proof" quantum communications by transmitting "unhackable" keys from space, and provide insight into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics, quantum entanglement.

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The voyage taken by the research ship "Tan Suo Yi Hao" to the Marianas Trench from late June until Aug 12 made a series of breakthroughs in deep-sea scientific exploration, both domestically and internationally.

According to scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the breakthroughs include a successful nitrogen cycle experiment conducted by the "on-site experiment" deep-sea elevator. The elevator is a research device that is lowered with an anchor and was developed by the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering of the academy.

A scientist in the academy who headed the expedition said it made history among similar devices internationally.

According to the scientist, the Tianya deep-sea lander, another device taken on the voyage, also made history. It collected deep-sea water samples of more than 100 liters for the first time, much more than its counterparts from other countries did.

During the voyage, China's unmanned submarine, the Haidou, dived for the first time to a depth of more than 10,000 meters, reaching 10,767 meters.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

China will establish several national ecological experimental zones to explore reforms ranging from natural resource balance sheets to ecological performance evaluation of officials.

An official guideline has been released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, aiming at carrying out reforms on "ecological civilization system".

According to targets set in the guideline, major progress shall be achieved by 2017; and fully-fledged ecological civilization systems shall be established by 2020, with best practices replicable across the country.

Main experiments will include establishing a natural resource property right system, compiling natural resource balance sheet, optimizing land and space planning, and incorporating ecological performance into officials' evaluation.

The provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Guizhou have been selected as the first batch of experimental zones, because they have "relatively optimal ecological foundation, and relatively strong environmental and resource capacity".

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Chinese universities will have the autonomy in transferring the intellectual property from scientific research and shall keep all the earnings.

A government document released by the Ministries of education and science and technology, said no less than half of the net earnings from transfers shall be rewarded to researchers.

The circular said major contributing researchers and faculty members should take no less than 50 percent of the total rewards.

China has created a series of policies to encourage scientists to translate their research into commercial products.

The State Council in March issued a regulation that provides detailed measures for academics and inventors on how to commercially exploit their work, as the country pushes for innovation-driven development.

Authorities are also encouraging research institutions and technical personnel to transfer or licensing their achievements or to invest with them as trade-ins.

According to the policies, performance in translating scientific outcomes to products will be considered in the overall evaluation of research and higher learning institutions.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Tsinghua University and Peking University have for the first time broken through the top 100 global ranking of universities.

According to the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities released recently, Tsinghua occupies the 58th spot and Peking University is at 71. A total of 41 Chinese mainland universities are among the top 500, nine more than in 2015.

Starting from 2003, Academic Ranking of World Universities has been presenting the world top 500 universities annually based on transparent methodology and third-party data. More than 1,200 universities are included every year.

Harvard University retains its crown for the 14th year, followed by Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tokyo University in Japan is ranked 20 this year, the sole Asian university to be among top 20 in worldwide.

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Quarantine dogs were first employed in the Nanjing airport in 2002, after their implementation in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

After training for four months, quarantine dog Daxiong started work in 2009. Daxiong was good at sniffing out plant products, and its biggest discovery was 17 boxes of forbidden fruit totaling 180 kilograms.

At nine years old, Daxiong is the equivalent in dog years to a 60-year-old man, but he is nevertheless as excitable as ever when it comes to food. Daxiong is so sensitive to forbidden goods, especially meat products and fruit, that his trainer rewards his good behavior with snacks.

Quarantine dogs usually work three to four hours a day, taking a rest every half an hour. This keeps them alert and accurate.

From 2014, the department began to seek an adopter for Daxiong in preparation for his retirement. His trainer Yan Han explaines that the adopting family had to love dogs and have some experience raising them. Additionally, Yan hoped that the whole family would get on well with the dog. By this metric, a local resident surnamed Zhi became Daxiong's adopter.

To prove that Daxiong is living a happy and healthy life with his new family, Zhi provides periodic photos and videos to the dog's former handlers.

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A new technical manual in Shandong province encourages the use of humane methods to slaughter chickens. Supporters say the methods also promote better meat quality.

The manual was prepared by a research team at Qingdao Agricultural University and has been approved by the Shandong provincial government's quality watchdog. It sets standards to reduce the animals' suffering.

A professor of food science at the university says that complying with the humane slaughter manual is not only about showing human compassion for the animal but also could improve the quality of the meat.

The standards "ensure that suffering at slaughter can be avoided so the animals experience minimal negative feelings.

Shandong Province raises 20 percent of China's broiler chickens, and chicken accounts for 40 percent of the province's meat production.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

An Australian who raised enough money to take a stray dog that followed him during an extreme marathon in China back to his home in the UK was almost heartbroken.

Gobi, who accompanied Dion Leonard during the event in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, had disappeared and for quite some time, there was no sign of her.

Leonard had raised enough to take the animal back to Edinburgh in Scotland.

He said it was such a shock and hard to believe when he was told Gobi had gone missing.

Leonard said he was very heartbroken and saddened about it. He returned to Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, to look for the small brown animal.

Forty-one-year-old Leonard said he and Gobi formed such a strong bond during the 250-km race, and it broke his heart thinking that they might not be spending more time together. These remarks came after a couple of days of searching for Gobi with volunteers.

During this time, there have been sightings of dogs that look like Gobi, but all these signs have ended in disappointment.

The dog had been due to arrive in Beijing to start a four-month process of medical checks before being flown to the UK in time for Christmas.

Gobi ran alongside Leonard in June during the Gobi March, a 7-day race across mountainous and desert terrain in Hami prefecture, when temperatures of up to 52 degrees Celsius were recorded. They even cuddled together during the night.

At one point, Leonard had to cross a river during the race. Instead of thinking about beating others, he stopped and carried Gobi across. After the race, Leonard decided to take her home to Scotland.

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

The world's largest radio telescope will be completed and in use in late September, accompanied by regulations to protect the facility.

The construction of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, has entered its final phase in the mountainous southwestern province of Guizhou.

With a dish the size of 30 football pitches, the telescope, which measures 500 meters in diameter, dwarfs Puerto Rico's 300-meter Arecibo Observatory.

The provincial legislature passed a rule to guarantee the safe operation of the facility. The rule will come into effect later this month.

Under the regulation, the telescope requires radio silence within a 10-kilometer radius.

Construction of irrelevant projects will be prohibited in the core area and violators will be fined up to 100,000 yuan, roughly 15,000 U.S. dollars.

The regulation also bans activities including hunting, wood gathering or land reclamation in the core area, and underscores forest fire prevention work.

The rule sets Sept. 25 as the prefecture's astronomical science day.

Construction of the telescope began in March 2011 at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan.

Some 8,000 people in the core area will be relocated.

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China's top legal authorities have for the first time clearly stipulated that victims of miscarriages of justice have the right to compensation for mental anguish.

The Supreme People's Court has revealed a judicial explanation saying that compensation applications can be filed in non-criminal cases where people have been wrongfully subjected to law enforcement.

To redress judicial infringement, the court and its staff should eliminate ill effects, rehabilitate reputations and extend formal apologies to victims.

For mishandled cases which result in serious harm, the judiciary should apologize and pay compensation for mental suffering.

Those who have had their assets illegally frozen or sold off by the court can also ask for compensation.

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China is moving quickly to implement the anti-corruption consensus reached at the Group of 20 Summit by setting up the group's first anti-graft research center in Beijing.

The center will provide intelligence support in the hunt for economic fugitives and confiscation of their ill-gotten assets.

The center is based at Beijing Normal University and will officially begin operations in a few months.

Dozens of experts and professionals who specialize in graft-related studies from China and other G20 economies will be recruited.

The country's top discipline watchdog said the establishment of such a center will lay a solid foundation for studies of cross-border corruption crimes and offer intelligence support to fight corruption globally.

The center will conduct in-depth research among G20 members on corruption crimes, including comparing domestic and foreign laws, procedures for confiscating illegal assets and extradition and judicial assistance. Transnational commercial bribery will also be studied.

The center will also set up a database of experts and lawyers from G20 members with knowledge of anti-corruption law enforcement, criminal law and asset recovery. These experts will conduct research and training and will share their experiences in tackling such problems.

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

Authorities and experts have warned of the risks of the Zika virus spreading in China and are urging precautionary measures, as the number of cases in Southeast Asia increases.

Authorities responsible for entry and exit inspection and quarantine across China are urged to intensify monitoring and cooperation in the prevention and control of the virus.

Visitors to countries and regions with a Zika outbreak should take precautionary measures, including wearing long-sleeve clothes and long trousers, and should see doctors quickly if they are bitten by mosquitoes and display symptoms such as fever and rash.

Those who plan to return from such countries should make declarations to the exit-entry inspection and quarantine authorities.

Southeast Asian countries including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, and many South American countries, have reported Zika cases.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 2 billion people living in Asia, Africa and the Pacific could be at risk.

The risks for China will depend on importation of the disease, the presence of a suitable host and the country's capacity to detect and respond to its spread.

The Zika virus is primarily spread through mosquitoes, and around 20 percent of those infected could display symptoms including fever, rash or headache. Death may occur in rare cases.

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A 144-hour visa-free entry policy, which allows greater flexibility for foreigners who go to Shanghai and nearby provinces, has boosted the number of inbound tourists in the Yangtze River Delta.

The Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection said that as of Sept 1, more than 18,000 foreign tourists had taken advantage of the policy to enter Shanghai for a short stay. That's 60 percent more than in 2015.

Since Jan 30, when China enacted the expanded visa-free policy, eligible visitors or businesspeople traveling in the Yangtze River Delta area, including Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing, automatically qualify for 144 hours for business or simply to explore the region. Visitors from 51 countries can enjoy the policy, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

In the past, Shanghai and other important mainland tourism destinations only offered a 72-hour visa-free stay for inbound foreign visitors. Travel industry insiders say the average stay of foreign visitors is around 102 hours.

Industry insiders all attribute the growth to a rebound in inbound tourism in China. In the first half of this year, almost 68 million visits were paid by overseas visitors, a jump of 4 percent year-on-year. Visits by foreigners reached 13 million, a 9 percent increase.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum hopes that documents about Jewish refugees' life experience in Shanghai during World War II will eventually be listed in China's national legacy archives.

The museum said it will continue enriching and improving its collection of historical materials and make the material part of the national legacy archives, and then global archives.

It revealed the plan at the third Jewish Studies Youth Forum.

At least 20,000 Jewish people sought shelter in Shanghai during the war, or used the city as a jumping-off point for other safe destinations.

Documents related to Jewish refugees' lives in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s were listed in the municipality's legacy archives last year.

The museum has registered 550 items documenting the Jewish experience so far, including tickets for the voyage from Europe to Shanghai, certificates for job applications, as well as audio and video recordings of interviews with former refugees.

The Hongkou district was Shanghai's Jewish quarter in the 1940s, when a large number of Jewish refugees poured from Europe into the open harbor of Shanghai, which didn't require a visa for entrance.

Shanghai had a Jewish community as early as the late 19th century. The Jews there engaged in various businesses including running cafés and photo studios.

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

Chinese researchers at Stanford University have developed a plastic-based textile that can cool the human body and may someday reduce demand for air conditioning.

The material cools by not only taking away sweat like ordinary fabrics do but also by allowing the heat that the body emits as infrared radiation to pass through, which makes the wearers feel cooler than they would when wearing cotton clothes.

The researchers' study was recently published in the journal Science.

The lead author of the study, Yi Cui, is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford. He said by cooling the person rather than an entire building, a substantial impact could be made on global energy use.

The human body emits mid-infrared radiation, an invisible and benign wavelength of light. That contributes to more than 50 percent of the total body-heat loss in a typical indoor setting like an office. However, traditional textiles are not designed for infrared radiation control.

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The Bruce Lee Club in Hong Kong founded by fans of the legendary kung fu star has closed, after 15 years of operation due to rising rent in one of the world's most expensive property markets.

This mini-museum and souvenir shop in Kowloon has action figures, toys, films and memorabilia related to the martial arts icon.

It held an auction of its collection on Sept. 3 including a rare porcelain figure of Bruce Lee with an estimated market value of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, roughly 13,000 U.S. dollars. Income from the auction will be used to cover expenses and for redundancy pay.

The club said it aimed to bring members from around the world together to express and exchange their feelings towards Bruce Lee and to promote martial arts, philosophy and arts films.

The shop had already cut its space by half to reduce costs, but was still unable to cover the rising rent.

Chairman W Wong said the shop was in operation for 15 years, and it was more like a venue for fans to meet rather than a profit-making business.

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Preliminary competitions are going on for the first ever national contest of the traditional Chinese poker game "The Landlord", or Dou Di Zhu in mandarin. The competition, entitled "Two-Against-One Poker Championships" was co-sponsored by China's General Administration of Sport.

The winner will be rewarded with five million yuan, and all players can cumulate their master points that will be the basis for a national ranking of Landlord poker players.

Online registrations are open and free of charge. Preliminary matches will be held online and last until June next year. More than 2,000 players will be selected for the final competition.

A deputy director from the administration said she is confident that the competition will become a popular event. The administration is expected to see a total of more than 100 million people enrolling online.

The event came after the administration granted official status to the poker game in the "card and chess category" for the national games earlier this year.

The authority also published a set of rules and regulations for the poker game and an assessment system for points and ranking.

"The Landlord" normally consists of at least three players: one being the landlord and the other two, the uprising peasants. The peasants play in a team against the landlord. Any player who feels confident about his or her cards can claim to be the Landlord at the beginning and receive three extra cards.

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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

The gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, is winning more recognition as a way for universities overseas to evaluate Chinese students.

Stanley Nel, vice-president of international relations at the University of San Francisco in the United States, said they have had several inquiries from US universities about how to recruit Chinese students on the basis of their gaokao scores. Nel is responsible for the university's admissions from China.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Scholastic Aptitude Test have long been two musts for students from other countries, including China, to apply to study in the US.

USF, a private university in California, started a pilot program to accept Chinese students based on their gaokao scores in 2015.

The idea came from USF President Paul Fitzgerald's belief that standardized tests like the SAT are not very good predictors of how well students will do at the university.

He said they are aware of many criticisms that have been made of the gaokao, but it has the advantage of being what educational experts call a 'criterion-referenced' exam. It tests whether students are able to master a given body of knowledge, as well as their ability to work hard and consistently.

Currently, at least four higher education institutions in the US are recruiting Chinese students based on their gaokao performances. The Illinois Institute of Technology, a private institution in Chicago, started the practice first, in 2009.

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China has more than 15 million full-time teachers nationwide.

The Ministry of Education said there are more than 15 million teachers working in the country's schools, colleges and universities last year, marking an increase of 300,000 teachers since 2014.

Among these teachers, a total of 2 million work in preschool education, almost 2 million are college or university teachers, and 50,000 are special education teachers.

The ministry has launched a series of campaigns to improve the professional quality and treatment of teachers in rural areas, with the central government earmarking 3 billion yuan, roughly 450 million U.S. dollars, in subsidies for them this year.

A pilot program for qualification exams and registration of teachers is also being launched.

Last year, almost 2 million people applied to register as first-time teachers, with almost all of them being approved.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

The State Council has reviewed a draft film law with a key focus on making sure that people working in film industry maintain professional ethics.

According to the draft, people working in the film industry should strive for "excellence in both professional skills and moral integrity", and build a positive public image.

The past few years have seen a string of high-profile arrests of film celebrities involved in drug abuse and prostitution.

In 2014, China's media watchdog banned screenings involving anybody who had engaged in criminal activity. It is establishing a professional ethics committee, aiming to guide organizations and people in the media to practice core socialist values.

Works featuring "tainted artists" will be ineligible for awards.

The revisions add clarity regarding domestic movie screenings, stating that cinemas should properly arrange screenings and time slots of films made by domestic organizations. Homegrown films should take up at least two thirds of the total movie run time.

The draft also stressed that film distribution companies and cinemas should not fabricate movie ticket sales or engage in improper methods.

Those involved in illegal activity will be liable for administrative punishments, including fines up to 500,000 yuan, roughly 75,000 U.S. dollars, business suspensions or outright bans.

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China's State Forestry Administration has said it is too early to downgrade the giant panda's conservation status after an international group reclassified them from "endangered" to "vulnerable".

The International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the change in a report, after reviewing the results of conservation efforts that have boosted the panda's population.

The administration has insisted that the pandas remain classed as endangered. It stressed that there are still threats to the animal's survival.

The wild giant panda population is fragmented into 33 isolated groups, with some having fewer than 10 animals, which limits the gene pool for reproduction.

Meanwhile, climate change is predicted to wipe out more than one third of the panda's bamboo habitat, a situation that will only be exacerbated by insufficient funding and technical support.

Over the years, China has implemented a series of environmental initiatives, including the establishment of nature reserves, to increase the giant panda's population.

China has almost 2,000 giant pandas in the wild, increasing from 1,000 in the year 2000, and there were 420 in captivity.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

From artificial intelligence to smog control, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has unveiled 60 major science and technology breakthroughs China aspires to make in the next five years.

The academy said it will strive to occupy the international high ground in strategic hotspot fields and blaze the trail in cutting-edge and cross-discipline areas.

It also vowed to achieve a series of major original achievements, technology and products. The academy made the announcement while unveiling its new five-year plan spanning from 2016 to 2020.

Key projects on its bucket list include organ repair and reconstruction, water pollution control, research on Moon samples, a low-frequency radio telescope on the far side of the Moon and the development of a ground application system for the Mars mission.

China recently released images of a Mars probe and rover which the country plans to send to the Red Planet within five years.

The projects span the fields of life and health, resources and environment, new generation materials, energy, oceans, information, and space.

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China will establish a rehabilitation university before 2020 to help disabled people.

The China Disabled Persons' Federation said an estimated 85 million disabled people live in China, and around 26 million of them are registered.

The federation said it aims to provide high quality rehab services; and the current main problem is the lack of trained professionals.

Under the current system, fewer than 8,000 rehab students graduate every year, and 70 percent of them are from two-year colleges, far from meeting the demand for such services.

Last year, only 30 percent of registered disabled people received any kind of rehabilitation services.

According to the federation, China had 7,000 rehab centers as of last year, with 230,000 employees.

Establishment of more rehab programs was written into the country's national Five-Year-Plan spanning 2016 to 2020.

You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Science-fiction author Hao Jingfang has become the first female in China to win a Hugo Award, beating best-selling horror and fantasy writer Stephen King in the best novelette category.

The 32-year-old from Tianjin received the prize for Folding Beijing, in which she depicts the Chinese capital as a city divided by social class.

Hao said her story suggests a possibility for the future and also proposes a solution. She made the remarks when accepting her award at the Kansas City Convention Center Grand Ballroom. She said that in her story, the future is brighter than people thought, and she hopes it is even better.

Hao said she was not confident about winning and joked that she had been planning to attend the Hugo losers' party after the ceremony. She added that "sci-fi writers always consider all possibilities".

Her win comes a year after Liu Cixin won a Hugo for his novel "The Three-Body Problem". He was the first Chinese author to win the prize.

In Folding Beijing, the city is separated into three areas, and the residents of the First Space see the extra soil as part of their privilege. Hao's story, which was translated by Ken Liu and published last year by "Uncanny" magazine.

At an earlier book event in Beijing, Hao said the story is about the societal and wealth gaps that she has observed in her own life.

Last year's Hugo winner Liu told China Daily that he thinks Hao's stories convey warmth and a unique color like "golden sunlight".

He believes the growing global acceptance of Chinese sci-fi stories is thanks to experienced translators like Ken Liu, who promote Chinese works, and the stronger presence of Chinese culture as a whole.

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China's e-commerce giant JD.com has announced that its first-ever driverless delivery vehicle is undergoing road test and will be put into trial soon.

The company formed a partnership with a robots company earlier this year to automate its logistic network and develop delivery drones and driverless vehicles.

The autonomous scooter launched by the company is 1 meter long, 80 centimeters wide and 60 centimeters tall. It has six different sized compartments to carry the deliveries.

Equipped with an advanced navigation system, along with multiple radar-based sensors, the vehicle can calculate the shortest route to the costumer, as well as how to avoid traffic jams.

While in motion, it can identify the potential obstacles as well as traffic lights to change its route if needed.

When it reaches its destination, it can automatically send the customer a passcode via an app or text message that allows the customer to unlock the right compartment.

The application of driverless vehicles is confined to temporary deliveries as of now, and the traditional delivery method will be replaced gradually. That's according to JD's X Lab, a business unit dedicated to adopting cutting-edge technology in logistics and delivery.

The company will start the trial run in October and the automatic delivery method is expected to be put into wide use next year.

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

Chinese officials and scientists have said that as a country with the world's largest number of scientific researchers, China is benefiting and will continue to benefit from scientific exchanges and cooperation with other G20 members, particularly in exchanges of talent and young research staff.

A senior official of the China Science and Technology Exchange Center said the G20 is the largest and most important group in technological innovation worldwide. Cooperation and innovation under the G20 framework will not only benefit the members, but will also be of great importance to the sustainable development of the world.

According to the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report, which was released by the ministry last year, China's human resources in this area exceeded 71 million people as of 2013, ranking it No 1 in the world.

Meanwhile, the latest statistics from the World Bank Group and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization showed that the research and development investment of 19 G20 members, excluding the European Union, accounts for 87 percent of the world total.

The academic papers that these members publish account for 76 percent of the world total and applications for patents from these members account for 97 percent.

This is Special English.

Silk products are synonymous with Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou first exported silk 2,000 years ago. Today, the exquisite craftsmanship of silk continues to be the source of justifiable pride.

It should come as no surprise that guests at the B20 and G20 summits will find silk forming an integral part of their experience there.

To symbolize the city's attachment to the fine material, a gift package for the B20 Summit guests contains a pure silk scarf. More than 800 participants at the B20 Summit received such scarves.

Each of the silk scarves is printed and dyed around 20 times, and it takes six weeks for the process of platemaking, printing and dyeing to be completed.

China played a major role in developing sericulture, or silk farming, and one of its origins is located in northern Zhejiang province.

Archaeological digs there have unearthed silk thread, ribbons and silk from more than 4,000 years ago. After laboratory testing, they were confirmed to have come from domesticated silkworms.

Globally, the Japanese use the most silk products, and French brands like Hermes use silk for signature products. Italy is a well-known center for silk goods, and Brazil is a large silk manufacturer.

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

China's quantum communication satellite, which was launched in August, is in good shape; and scientific experiments can begin this month.

A chief scientist of the project said all equipment carried by the satellite and all ground equipment is working well.

Satellite-to-earth links have been established between the satellite and five ground stations across China, laying the technical foundation for distributing quantum keys.

Scientists are confident that the project will fulfill its tasks.

China successfully launched the world's first quantum satellite on Aug. 16.

The satellite will explore "hack-proof" quantum communications by transmitting "unhackable" keys from space, and provide insight into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics, quantum entanglement.

This is Special English.

The voyage taken by the research ship "Tan Suo Yi Hao" to the Marianas Trench from late June until Aug 12 made a series of breakthroughs in deep-sea scientific exploration, both domestically and internationally.

According to scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the breakthroughs include a successful nitrogen cycle experiment conducted by the "on-site experiment" deep-sea elevator. The elevator is a research device that is lowered with an anchor and was developed by the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering of the academy.

A scientist in the academy who headed the expedition said it made history among similar devices internationally.

According to the scientist, the Tianya deep-sea lander, another device taken on the voyage, also made history. It collected deep-sea water samples of more than 100 liters for the first time, much more than its counterparts from other countries have done.

During the voyage, China's unmanned submarine, the Haidou, dived for the first time to a depth of more than 10,000 meters, reaching 10,767 meters.

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

China will establish several national ecological experimental zones to explore reforms ranging from natural resource balance sheets to the ecological performance evaluation of officials.

An official guideline has been released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, aimed at carrying out reforms on the "ecological civilization system".

According to targets set in the guideline, major progress shall be achieved by 2017; and fully-fledged ecological civilization systems shall be established by 2020, with best practices replicable across the country.

The main experiments will include establishing a natural resource property right system, compiling a natural resource balance sheet, optimizing land and space planning, and incorporating ecological performance into officials' evaluation.

The provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Guizhou have been selected as the first batch of experimental zones, because they have "relatively optimal ecological foundations, and relatively strong environmental and resource capacity".

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Chinese universities will have the autonomy in transferring the intellectual property from scientific research and shall keep all the earnings.

A government document released by the Ministries of education and science and technology, said no less than half of the net earnings from transfers shall be rewarded to researchers.

The circular said major contributing researchers and faculty members should take no less than 50 percent of the total rewards.

China has created a series of policies to encourage scientists to translate their research into commercial products.

In March, the State Council issued a regulation that provides detailed measures for academics and inventors on how to commercially exploit their work, as the country pushes for innovation-driven development.

The authorities are also encouraging research institutions and technical personnel to transfer or licensing their achievements or to invest with them as trade-ins.

According to the policies, performance in translating scientific outcomes to products will be considered in the overall evaluation of research and higher learning institutions.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Tsinghua University and Peking University have for the first time broken through the top 100 global ranking of universities.

According to the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities released recently, Tsinghua occupies the 58th spot and Peking University is at 71. A total of 41 Chinese mainland universities are among the top 500, nine more than in 2015.

Starting from 2003, Academic Ranking of World Universities has been presenting the world top 500 universities annually based on transparent methodology and third-party data. More than 1,200 universities are included every year.

Harvard University retains its crown for the 14th year, followed by Stanford, the University of California Berkeley, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tokyo University in Japan is ranked 20 this year, the sole Asian university to be among the top 20 worldwide.

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Quarantine dogs were first employed at Nanjing airport in 2002, after their implementation in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

After training for four months, quarantine dog Daxiong started work in 2009. Daxiong was good at sniffing out plant products, and its biggest discovery was 17 boxes of forbidden fruit totaling 180 kilograms.

At nine years old, Daxiong is the equivalent in dog years to a 60-year-old man, but he is nevertheless as excitable as ever when it comes to food. Daxiong is so sensitive to forbidden goods, especially meat products and fruit, that his trainer rewards his good behavior with snacks.

Quarantine dogs usually work three to four hours a day, taking a rest every half hour. This keeps them alert and accurate.

From 2014, the department began to seek an adopter for Daxiong in preparation for his retirement. His trainer Yan Han explaines that the adopting family had to love dogs and have some experience of looking after them. Additionally, Yan hoped that the whole family would get on well with the dog. By this metric, a local resident surnamed Zhi became Daxiong's adopter.

To prove that Daxiong is living a happy and healthy life with his new family, Zhi provides periodic photos and videos to the dog's former handlers.

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用声音，在一起

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

Following the implementation in January of harsher rules against bribes and gifts, provincial governments are abolishing special accounts that have been misused by officials to hide ill-gotten gains.

In August, the Guizhou government joined at least three other provinces in canceling a special bank account that officials had used to deposit money and remain under the radar of graft investigators.

The first "clean governance accounts" were established in the 1990s to reduce corruption while protecting the privacy of officials. Over a dozen provincial-level governments had established such accounts. The provinces of Sichuan and Gansu, as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, recently eliminated them.

Usually, the accounts are managed by the local discipline inspection authorities and banks. The names of the depositor and the sum are not disclosed, and the money is turned over to the local treasury.

Zhuang Deshui, a professor at Peking University, explained that the accounts were designed as an outlet for officials who are remorseful.

However, some officials have misused the service. Many use the account as an umbrella or safe haven. For example, some corrupt officials only deposit bribes when they face an investigation.

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This year will witness 7.6 million students graduating from universities and colleges across China. This summer is also the first employment season after the universal two-child policy came into effect. As a result, female graduates are facing more severe competition and pressure in job hunting.

Overt and covert gender discrimination floods recruitment notices. Examples of more explicit discrimination include "only male", "male preferred", "married mother preferred", "higher educational background for female candidates", "appearance and height required" and "obligations of no marriage and no reproduction in certain years".

However, even covert discrimination can be quite obvious, such as when employers inquire about female applicants' marital status and thoughts on family planning, or stress that the position requires frequent overtime and is therefore more suitable for men.

According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Women's Studies Institute of China, WSIC, 86 percent of female graduates in Beijing, Hebei and Shandong say they have experienced gender discrimination while job hunting.

Marriage, childbearing and employment are all women's rights, and are protected by law, explained Ma Yan, a researcher with WSIC. However, Ma said, childbearing does increase costs to employers. For example, in the wake of the universal two-child policy, many local governments have extended mandated maternity from one month to three.

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

China has launched a new high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province.

The Gaofen-3 satellite was launched off the back of a Long March 4C rocket. It was the 233rd flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.

This is China's first Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging satellite that is accurate to one meter in distance. It covers the globe with an all-weather, 24-hour observation service and will be used for disaster warning, weather forecasting, water resource assessments, and the protection of maritime rights.

With 12 imaging modes, the high-definition observation satellite is capable of taking wide pictures of earth and photographing detailed scenarios of specific areas.

Gaofen-3 is also China's first low orbit remote sensing satellite that has a lifespan of eight years. It is able to provide high-definition remote sensing data for its users over long periods of time.

Since the inception of the Gaofen project in 2013, China has had an increasingly clear view of the planet.

Launched in April 2013, Gaofen-1 can cover the globe in just four days.

Gaofen-2 was sent into space in August 2014 and is accurate to 0.8 of a meter in full color and can collect multispectral images of objects 3 meters or longer in length.

Gaofen-4, launched late last year, is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated.

The Gaofen-3 and the Long March 4C rocket were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, under the guidance of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

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China's military is likely to deploy the Type-96B tank as the pillar of its tank fleet, replacing most of its old models.

Military observers say the excellent capabilities of the Type-96B qualified it to be the backbone of China's tank force.

The Type-96B is the strongest variant of the Type-96 family and is truly an advanced, third-generation main battle tank. The army will use it to replace the old tanks including the Type-59 and Type-69 models.

The latest developments came as the Type-96B delivered impressive performances in the Masters of Automobile and Tank Hardware competition, also known as the Tank Biathlon, held recently in Moscow.

China sent several Type-96B tanks to take part in the tank competition, the most watched part of the Russia-hosted International Army Games. The eight-day individual part of the competition involved 54 teams from 17 countries, with the Chinese delegation scoring the highest.

The Chinese military had more than 7,000 tanks in active service by the end of last year, and the majority of the armored force is still equipped with tanks made several decades ago.

However, experts say it is unrealistic for the Chinese military to purchase and deploy the new tanks on a large scale due to their high price and limited production capacity.

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

A Chinese woman has received 1.7 million yuan, roughly 260,000 U.S dollars, for a wrongful murder conviction that put her behind bars for 13 years.

The court in Yunnan Province ruled that Qian Renfeng's confession was made under duress and that she was not guilty of the murder charge she was convicted for in 2002.

Qian was working at a nursery where a toddler died of food poisoning and two other children were hospitalized.

Qian, who had prepared the children's meals that day, was forced into confessing that she had mixed rat poison into the food. It was on the basis of this forced confession that she was found guilty of murder.

In 2013, procurators in the province reopened her case. The investigation took almost two years. Last year, the procurators ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the conviction, and advised the provincial higher court to rehear the case.

In December last year, the higher court quashed the sentence, ruling that it lacked sufficient evidence to determine guilt beyond reasonable doubt. She was exonerated and released.

Qian had filed for up to 9 million yuan, roughly 1.5 million U.S. dollars, in damages.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

The designer of the tall, lane-straddling bus Song Youzhou has said the bus can run smoothly despite doubts raised in some quarters. The bus, known as the Transit Elevated Bus, allows cars to pass beneath.

The feasibility of the vehicle was questioned after a test run last month in Hebei Province.

The bus is 22 meters long, 8 meters wide and 5 meters tall. It is designed with a passenger area high above the ground, with a capacity of 300 people.

The legs of the bus reach over lanes of ordinary traffic, creating a sort of moving tunnel. Vehicles less than 2 meters high can pass beneath it.

The bus was designed to relieve traffic pressure on roads. But media and internet users have questioned whether the bus will work as expected, because some vehicles are taller than two meters and the huge vehicle can face many challenges on the road.

According to Song, more than 90 percent of the vehicles in cities are salon cars and SUVs which are within 2 meters in height. He said most of them can run under the bus, thus helping to improve the utilization rate of roads.

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Though tipping is not widely practiced on the Chinese mainland, some restaurants in the economic powerhouse of Shanghai are now facilitating rewards for waiters through scanning a QR code, usually for 3 to 5 yuan, roughly 45 to 75 US cents.

Using a loudspeaker, a barbecue store in Shanghai suggests that customers are welcome to tip through online payment platforms including WeChat, in recognition of the good service they receive.

At the entrance to another restaurant, an eye-catching poster pledges a 10 yuan coupon to those who have given tips of up to 3 yuan.

Another store, which is part of a restaurant chain, also joined the trend in encouraging tipping, as a means to improve service.

A restaurant worker said she received as many as 60 tips a day for her excellent service, which brings her 3,600 yuan extra a month. She said she felt a sense of self-worth through the tips.

But one customer said she was embarrassed to give 4 yuan in cash to a waiter but was happy to scan a QR code to transfer the money via her cellphone. But there are also customers who are clearly not ready for the practice simply because tipping is not a must in China.

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

A college student from East China says her dream is to see more Chinese women succeed in their ambition to become entrepreneurs.

Twenty-one-year-old Hong Xinyu was China's representative at the Girls-20 Summit in Beijing. She told the international gathering that her plan is to open a workshop to help women who are unable to go to college get training in management.

Hong said Chinese women still don't have enough opportunities to achieve career success. One important reason is that many of them lack management ability and entrepreneurship.

Twenty-four young women joined this year's Girls 20 summit. They were chosen for their experience, ambition and learning ability among more than 1,700 applicants from G20 member countries.

The Girls20 was established in 2009. It is an organization based in Canada that is devoted to promoting greater female participation in the workforce around the world.

The head of Girls 20, Farah Mohamed, said China stands out internationally for producing impressive examples of women who are in power, particularly in business.

Eight of the world's top-10 richest self-made women are from China, compared with two from the United States.

Zhou Qunfei, who heads touch-screen maker Lens Technology, stormed to the top of the list with her 8 billion U.S.-dollar fortune.

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

Chinese scientists are working on a new type of aerospace vehicle that will allow passengers to travel in space without any pre-training and at much lower cost.

China Central Television reports that scientists from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation have started work on the new vehicle integrating different kinds of engine technology.

The vehicle will use different air-breathing engines, allowing it to operate as a normal plane in the atmosphere. It will take off and land at a normal airport, instead of at special launch pads. The viehcle will be reusable, and cost will be greatly reduced.

Scientist from the corporation said they expect to master the key technology in around three to five years, and significantly improve the vehicle's capabilities during the application.

The vehicle is expected to be used for suborbital flight and orbital insertion by 2030. The expeditions will be between dozens to hundreds of kilometers from the earth.

Compared with spacecraft which use partially recovered carrier rockets, by integrating different engines, the new vehicle has many more advantages in maintenance and application.

In early July, it was reported that several institutes of the corporation were coordinating efforts to study the new vehicle.

An engineer at the corporation said that in around 10 years, passengers will not need special training to travel into space on the vehicle.

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Chinese scientists have defined a subset of a type of virus-specific cell that play a vital role in the control of viral replication in chronic viral infection. The discovery will possibly pave the way for new ways to treat chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS and cancer.

According to research published online by Nature magazine, virus-specific cells, CD8 +T, appear to deplete during chronic viral infection.

However, according to the research findings, the cells are able to control viral replication in both animal models and HIV infection.

Researchers found a unique subset that offers higher anti-viral potential than previously known, thus, showing greater therapeutic potential.

The research also identified an important regulator for the generation of this subset.

The research was led by the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing Municipality, with a number of partner institutions. It began in early 2013 with government financial support.

Current therapies can only contain viral replication, but cannot purge them completely in chronic diseases such as HIV.

Chinese researchers will now use the findings to further research into immunotherapy in cancer and HIV.

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

A genome project for newborns has been launched in Shanghai to aid the early identification and treatment of hereditary diseases.

The project was jointly initiated by the Chinese Board of Genetic Counseling and the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai. It will carry out genetic testing on 100,000 newborn babies over the coming five years.

The findings will be recorded in a database and a genetic testing standard for hereditary diseases will be developed, which will improve the identification and treatment of such conditions.

Experts say early identification can help doctors make better treatment strategies and improve the patients' quality of life.

In another development, the Chinese Board of Genetic Counseling and Reproductive Hospital, which is affiliated with Shandong University, jointly launched China's embryo genome project.

An embryo genome database will improve research and understanding of the development of embryos and improve diagnostic rates.

There are some 7,000 kinds of inherited diseases and China sees around 900,000 babies born with birth defects every year.

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Health experts are calling for sex education to be included in China's school curriculum. They say the lack of formal tuition, allied with misunderstandings and outdated ideas, is putting young people at risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

The topic has recently been at the center of a heated debate on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, after campaigners condemned a sex education textbook that claimed premarital sex has a "tremendously negative psychological and physical impact on girls".

For thousands of years, sex could not be discussed openly in China. Even today, it is taboo in most of China's schools.

According to Gou Ping, a professor of psychology at Chengdu University, sex education is a comprehensive definition and is a fully developed concept related to many other issues. The university is the higher learning institute in the country that offers sex education as a minor course.

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

Chinese firm FiberHome has developed a type of optical fiber that can transmit 400 terabytes of data per second, breaking the world record for the amount of data that can be transmitted using optic fibers.

Such capacity can allow for simultaneous phone calls by almost 5 billion people and the transmission of 40,000 blue-ray high definition films in one second.

The company is based in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei Province.

The transmission of 400 terabytes of data is accomplished on multi-core mono-mode optical fiber, which can be simply understood as breaking down the fiber into multiple paths to enhance transmission capacity.

Such expansion in transmission capacity is a welcoming development amid growing demand for high speed transmission of data for VR, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and other emerging technology.

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Consumers in China will be entitled to a full refund on unsatisfactory products purchased online, even if the packages have been unsealed.

A draft regulation that protects buyers' rights has been released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and is based on China's consumer protection law. Public opinion is being sought until Sept 5.

The draft says businesses must provide refunds to consumers within seven days of receiving returned products.

The draft says the returned goods must be intact.

The rule does not apply to several types of goods including those that can pose hazards to personal safety or health after being opened, or perishable goods that are near their expiry dates.

Under China's consumer rights protection law, consumers can return goods for up to seven days, and get a refund for items that fail quality standards.

In the case of goods purchased online or by telephone or television, consumers can make returns within seven days and get a refund without specifying a reason for most products. The only exceptions are four types of goods, including those that are perishable and prone to spoilage, as well as videodiscs that have been opened.

This is the first draft regulation in China that specifies clearly that goods bought online can be returned for a refund, even if the packages have been opened.

The regulation was made because there have been a number of disputes in recent years involving businesses refusing to offer refunds for goods that they sold online, using the excuse that the packages have been opened.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Archeologists have discovered more than 1,000 cliff paintings dating back more than 1,000 years in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Experts say the paintings are surprisingly well preserved, and feature sheep, camels, elks, tigers, wolves and people hunting.

The images are believed to have been engraved by the ancient tribal people 1,500 years ago.

The new findings are among many found across the Yinshan Mountains and will greatly inform research into ancient nomadic people.

More than 10,000 ancient cliff paintings have been discovered in the area.

In 2012, 18 cliff paintings dating back more than 4,000 years were discovered in the same area. Among them, a picture of seven human faces has been interpreted as the seven stars in the "Plough" constellation.

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China's largest Siberian tiger breeding center has announced that more than 50 tiger cubs have been born in the park so far this year.

Located in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Siberian Tiger Park is home to more than 1,000 Siberian tigers. Scientists handpick certain tigers, using a DNA database, to breed the next generation every year.

Chief engineer Liu Dan said the park has been controlling the tigers' population to around 1,000 in order to maintain the ecological balance.

The peak season for the breeding of Siberian tigers is in May and June. The cubs will be sent to the semi-wild environment after living with their mothers for around 100 days to learn how to hunt.

Siberian tigers are among the world's most endangered species. They mostly live in northeast China and eastern Russia. The Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park was established in 1986 for better protection of the species.

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

Chinese internet company LeEco is in talks with online video-streaming site Netflix for possible cooperation in content. Details will be announced in September, as the Beijing-based firm steps up efforts to expand its presence in the United States.

Analysts say that the deal, if goes through, could also serve as a steppingstone for California-based Netflix to crack its China market, which it has been eyeing for a long time.

China Daily reports that LeEco was looking for content partners in the United States, where it will launch its smartphones and Televisions this year.

The deal with Netflix will be announced in September.

The news came shortly after LeEco spent 2 billion U.S. dollars acquiring Vizio, a major U.S. television manufacturer. It is expected to give LeEco around 20 million big-screen users. The firm also purchased land in California as the center for its overseas operations.

LeEco started as an online video-streaming site, but managed a rapid rise by selling internet-enabled devices that are bundled with video content.

Since January, the company has intensified efforts to go global, listing the United States, India and Russia as its key overseas markets.

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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

Government news conferences must be held within 24 hours of serious major events and incidents to deal with public concerns. That's according to a statement released by the State Council, China's Cabinet.

The statement further specified the responsibility of national and local government agencies in responding to public opinion on government affairs.

The development of the internet in recent years has been changing how people communicate. Social media have the ability to incite and expand public sentiment quickly and often. But, the release said some government officials do not respond to public sentiment quickly and effectively.

It said government agencies must react promptly, if they are to be effective, so news conferences should be held within 24 hours of major emergencies.

Regarding public reaction to smaller government affairs, agencies should respond within 48 hours and keep updating with authoritative information on the latest developments.

When there is notable public opinion on major State Council policies and decisions, the central government agencies directly involved should be the first to respond. Similarly, local government agencies should be the first to address the public's reaction in matters directly related to them.

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Nongovernmental organizations have called on the Chinese government to impose a total ban on the ivory trade in the country within the next two years, and with no expiration date or financial compensation for those who would lose business.

A wildlife trade specialist at the World Wildlife Fund in China said the majority of Chinese consumers would stop buying ivory products if the legal trade channel was shut down. The specialist said it would also leave no room for speculators to operate if the ban on the ivory trade in China were permanent.

The World Wildlife Fund and TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental organization that monitors the global wildlife trade, are compiling a feasibility report on banning the ivory trade in China, hoping that it will become a technical reference document for the Chinese government.

The head of the China program at TRAFFIC, Zhou Fei, said the African elephant population had dropped from 3 to 5 million, to only 500,000 in recent years.

Zhou said if they don't do anything, African elephants will be functionally extinct within two decades.

At present, the trade and manufacture of registered ivory products is legal in China.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

Chinese biologist Han Chunyu has provided his experimental data to Nature magazine as requested to help peer researchers replicate his work, but the controversy has not gone away.

According to the journal's website, Han has been working to replicate his own work.

The incident now is evolving into a battle between the widely recognized gene editing tool CRISPR and a potentially better substitute, NgAgo, presented by Han, a geneticist at Hebei University of Science and Technology.

Three months ago, Han announced that NgAgo can be used to edit human genes, and an article was published in Nature Biotechnology. However, some researchers in Australia and other countries said they had been unable to replicate Han's work.

In response, the journal initiated an investigation and asked Han to submit his experimental protocols and original data. Further investigations are underway.

A Chinese biology researcher in Beijing, who wants to remain anonymous, told China Daily that Han's updating of his protocol is a good start, and other scientists should allow for more time and be patient.

Han is known for focusing on his research and maintaining a low-key lifestyle. The article about him on Nature's website said he didn't like to travel, and a trip to visit a collaborator in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province five months ago was the first time the 42-year-old had ever boarded a plane.

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The first national alliance of hospitals providing air ambulance services has taken off, covering vast regions in eight provinces with swift evacuations for people from remote rural areas to clogged city streets.

Air ambulances have become a key supplement in medical emergencies to save lives despite congestion or remote location, leading to the growth of such services in China.

A helicopter took off from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, and picked up a 58-year-old patient in neighboring Huzhou city who needed an emergency operation. It brought the patient to a landing pad at the hospital in Hangzhou.

The round trip was brief. Within two hours, including flight time, the patient, who had suffered a heart attack, was out of surgery.

The patient, surnamed Ding, said the helicopter was so quick and convenient that it made him feel like this hospital was located in front of his home.

Without the helicopter, it would likely take an ambulance more than two hours just for the return trip, instead of the 30 minutes by air.

Eyeing the huge potential of air emergency services, 14 provincial level hospitals initiated the China Air Emergency Hospital Alliance, which is the largest domestic alliance in the air ambulance service industry.

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With bulbous red noses, colorful curly wigs and exaggerated makeup, a group of 40 medical workers in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, have offered patients something to smile about.

By dispensing hope and humor, the medical clowns lift the mood and inject vitality into the wards.

A medical clown training center, jointly launched by China and Israel, has been established at Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital.

Forty doctors and nurses in Chengdu will learn from the world's leading professional medical clowns this year.

Amir Lati, consul general with the Consulate General of Israel in Chengdu, said Israel is a world leader in medical clowning. In Israel, the profession is a serious business.

Israel set up the world's first clown care course at the University of Haifa in 2006.

When people are entertained, laughing especially, the brain releases more endorphins, which can help relieve pain and produces more leukocytes, which help improve the immune system. Lati said medical clowns have been proven to help the healing process.

The trainee Chinese medical clowns will be taught medical care, psychology, physiotherapy as well as magic performance, puppet shows and acting by the Israeli practitioners.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Officials in Huichang, a county in southern Jiangxi Province are being encouraged to read more books by both Chinese and foreign writers to improve their governing abilities.

The activity was initiated by the county head Cai Xiaowei. The original reading list contained just 12 books, but this year's list contains 23 and covers a wider range of topics.

In addition to traditional best-sellers, including Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the reading list also features a critique of Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution. The book is a strategic initiative related to a manufacturing technology by the German government, and a graphic book to educate people about legal issues.

A number of books about improving governance at the grassroots level, and others related to environmental protection and sustainable development have also been recommended.

The head of the county's finance bureau, Peng Changchun, is one of a large number of officials that have joined the literary trend.

One of the books Peng has read is a collection of essays by D. Gale Johnson, an economist from the United States. The essays feature issues related to China's agricultural sector, the rural area and farmers. Peng said the book objectively displays some real situations in China's rural areas.

Peng is seeking inspiration about how financial resources can be used more efficiently to lift rural areas out of poverty, and how rural residents can become more involved in the governance of their home areas.

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A middle school student in Jiaozhou, Shandong province, whose application was tampered with by a fellow classmate, has got his application restored and has been admitted to Shaanxi Normal University in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province.

The Shandong Provincial Academy of Education, Recruitment and Examination said it has negotiated with the university and decided to accept Chang's application. The university also agreed to enroll the student.

According to The Paper, a Chinese media platform based in Shanghai, local police have confirmed that 19-year-old Chang Sheng, failed to enroll into the university in the first place only because his application was tampered with by a classmate surnamed Guo.

Local police said Guo has been detained for investigation after Chang's family reported the case to the police in July.

Earlier, Chinese media had reported Chang's story, triggering hot discussion online. Chang is from an impoverished farming family. He applied to study physical education at Shaanxi Normal University, and would have been exempt from tuition if enrolled.

Chang said he was not enrolled which was a surprise because his college entrance exam scores met the standard, and the university didn't receive enough applications.

Chang checked his records and found that his application had not been submitted to the correct university.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

A 32-year-old Shanghai woman who fell off a cruise ship that was returning to China from Japan was miraculously saved after floating in the sea for more than 38 hours. She even fell asleep for a while.

The woman, whose name was not disclosed, was traveling with her parents aboard the ship when her companions noticed she was missing. She had gone for a walk on the deck at around 8:30 pm but didn't return. Her parents and more than 100 volunteers searched the boat but failed to find her.

The parents gave up hope. A police officer on the ship told the father that there was no chance of survival if his daughter had fallen from the deck, which is 20 meters above water.

The woman said she fell off the cruise ship while leaning over a 1.4-meter-high rail. She managed to swim and remained drifted in the water until someone saved her. She suffered only minor injuries on her arms.

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

China is planning an overhaul of the Communist Youth League to reinforce youth belief in the Communist Party of China and pump vigor into the cause of national rejuvenation.

The Party Central Committee has published a document outlining plans for the reform. The league committees will be downsized, with more staff assigned to the grassroots level to serve the youth, with bureaucratic procedures streamlined.

Positions in the League should be filled by talented Party members and League workers who "understand and love young people".

The document said League delegates should pay more attention to the opinions of Party members and ordinary young people. It should also take responsibility for serving and protecting teenagers' lawful rights.

The League was founded in 1922, the following year after the founding of the Party. It was designed to be a bridge linking youth with the Party and a talent reserve for the Party.

As of last year, the League had around 88 million members and almost 4 million organizations across the country.

There have been worries that the league has lost its connection with young people and formed undesirable work styles, including formalism and a focus on entertainment.

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The journal Nature Biotechnology has said it will investigate criticisms of what was thought to be a breakthrough gene-editing technique developed by Chinese scientist Han Chunyu.

The journal published Han's research findings online in May. But a scientist from Australia has said his lab was not able to replicate Han's results.

Forty-two-year-old Han is a geneticist at Hebei University of Science and Technology. He rose to prominence with the publication of his cutting-edge gene editing technique known as NgAgo, and was perceived as a contender for a Nobel Prize.

The journal said it had been contacted by several researchers who said they had not been able to reproduce Han's published results. The journal said it takes seriously any concerns raised about any paper, and considers them carefully, adding that it is now following an established process to investigate the issues.

Han was quoted in a Beijing-based newspaper as saying that he will repeat the experiment and share his original data if the journal requests.

Before NgAgo, efforts and investments were directed heavily towards the widely recognized genome-editing technique known as CRSPR. It allows researchers to clip a specific DNA sequence and replace it with a new one, offering the potential to cure diseases caused by faulty genes.

The NgAgo technique for editing DNA was initially believed to surpass CRISPR in precision and efficiency.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

A new guideline says China must shut down outmoded facilities, consolidate production and reduce pollution to increase the competitiveness of its petrochemical industry.

According to the guideline issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, the development of the petrochemical industry is hindered by overcapacity along with security and environmental constraints. Foreign companies are to be allowed to participate in mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

Seven planned coastal petrochemical production bases will be built to consolidate the sector.

By 2020, energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of output, roughly 1,500 U.S. dollars, will be cut by 8 percent from the 2015 level, with cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption of 10 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

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A new judicial interpretation has been issued by the top court to regulate online judicial auctions.

The Regulations on Online Auctions for Judicial Sales were mapped out by the Supreme People's Court, and will take effect on Jan 1 next year.

A law enforcement official from the Supreme People's Court said online auctions will lower the cost of judicial sales and allow people from anywhere to take part. They are expected to help increase transparency of law enforcement and better protect creditors' interests.

Each e-auction organized by a court requires a deposit, even in auctions for small items, which is different to the practice in auction houses.

The regulations stipulate that the deposit should not exceed 20 percent of the starting bidding price and each online auction is required to last at least 24 hours to better enable all parties to take part.

More than 1,400 courts have organized online auctions since 2010, when such practices were allowed for judicial sales. Deals worth more than 150 billion yuan, roughly 23 billion U.S. dollars, have been reached.

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

An 8-year-old boy from central China's Hunan Province has sued three hospitals, seeking compensation after being infected with AIDS.

The boy was confirmed HIV positive in July last year. He received treatment in the hospitals for serious traffic accident injuries obtained in 2014. His HIV screening tests were negative before the initial treatment which included a blood transfusion.

The local health authority says it is difficult to determine the exact source of the infection.

During a period of 18 months following the traffic accident, the child was hospitalized eight times in three different hospitals in the local area, the provincial capital Changsha and Shanghai. He also spent considerable time outside the hospitals, which makes ascertaining the precise source of the infection difficult.

In addition to the three hospitals, the co-defendants also include a blood supplier organization and a biological produt company.

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Chinese experts are expected to arrive in Abidjan, the capital of Cote d'Ivoire to reinforce agricultural cooperation between the two countries, and help modernize the agricultural sector of the African country.

In September, China will send 30 agricultural experts with different expertise to evaluate national needs in domains including cocoa, cashew nuts, rice, pineapples and mangoes.

Cote d'Ivoire's agricultural ministry said in a statement that five Cote d'Ivoire villages will benefit from the program dubbed "one village, one company". It was initiated by China to increase incomes for farmers. The project will be carried out in 100 African villages.

China currently provides support for Cote d'Ivoire's agricultural sector through a hydro-agricultural project, 180 km south of Abidjan. The project is for rice farming.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

When China opened its arms to international universities, foreign educators saw the jointly founded institutions as transforming Chinese higher education.

Denis Simon is an executive vice-chancellor of Duke University's campus in Kunshan in eastern China. Simon says the idea of allowing seven foreign universities to have campuses in China is something people wouldn't have thought would happen 20 years ago. He says the number will soon grow to nine.

Simon told China Daily that he sees it as a watershed moment in Chinese higher education.

Located in Kunshan in Jiangsu province, Duke Kunshan University was jointly founded in 2013 by two prestigious universities, Duke University in the United States and China's Wuhan University. It was designed as a new model to advance China's higher learning system.

Simon said Duke came specifically to deliver a liberal arts education to China, and to provide an innovative educational platform.

Since 2004, the Chinese government has approved the establishment of independent Sino-foreign universities across the country in the hope that these joint-ventures will help to facilitate the transfer of international educational experiences and import advanced management, teaching methods as well as curriculum systems.

Duke Kunshan received its first class in 2014 and currently offers four master's programs, namely global health, environmental policy, medical physics and management studies. In addition, there's an undergraduate program called the Global Learning Semester.

The campus has seen its first graduates in global health and medical physics. Its management program has already had graduates for two years.

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After its successful Shanghai debut, the stage drama, "Three Body Problem", has begun its performance in Beijing. The drama is based on Chinese author Liu Cixin's first book of a trilogy entitled "Remembrance of Earth's Past", also known as the "Three Body Problem".

The story features human's first but frustrating contact with an alien civilization. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel last year.

Along with the storyline of ups and downs, the drama invites multimedia technology to showcase magnificent 3D scenes, bringing audience a visual feast.

The scene of "three suns" particularly impressed many viewers. Audience members saw flaring suns being swept from the stage into the auditorium. In fact, the "suns" were controlled by several unmanned aerial vehicles, with motion trails calculated accurately.

The lighting is another highlight. Hundreds of beams went around back and forth or were projected on semitransparent curtains, creating a vivid 3D world.

The director of the show Liu Fangqi says this is a new form of drama combined with stage art and special-effects in a theater with great surround sound. It might be the best way for science fiction novels to be showcased on stage.

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

Fifteen people from seven countries in the European Union have finally wrapped up their tour of China.

Members of the group were winners of an EU-wide contest where they had to submit articles, pictures, videos and paintings on the theme of China-EU friendship. The event was jointly sponsored by the Confucius Institute and the Mission of China to the EU.

The winners include a former ambassador to China and a corporate consultant, as well as an artist and a college student.

They visited museums and traveled to communities and villages in Beijing and northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. During their trip, they learned about China's economic and social development. They also witnessed local governments' poverty relief efforts.

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The number of tourists from the Chinese mainland visiting Taiwan decreased by 12 percent in May and June, compared with the same period last year. Nevertheless, the mainland has remained the largest source of visitors in Taiwan so far this year.

More than 2 million visitors from the Chinese mainland visited the island in the first half of the year, accounting for almost 40 percent of all visitors to Taiwan.

Despite the marked drop in May and June, visitor numbers still grew by 3 percent in the first six month.

However, tourism experts in Taiwan worried that the number of mainland tourists will continue to drop in the months to come.

Taiwan-based Ezfly International Travel says people in the tourism industry want a change. Around 90 percent of the company's clients are from the mainland. The company says the number of mainland tourists began to decline sharply after Taiwan's new leader took office in May.

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A new song has become popular among Internet users in China, who feel it is a vivid description of their lives as workaholics who always work overtime.

The song is entitled My Body is Hollowed Out.

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