全文请参阅微信周日第三条。This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.

China will work hard to lift around 70 million people in rural areas out of poverty by the end of 2020.

The government's top task force on eliminating poverty says the task faces challenges from the economic slowdown and employment pressures.

However, the government will take all necessary steps to achieve the poverty reduction goal, including lifting 10 million people out of poverty by the end of this year.

Among the steps, the government will beef up subsidizing banks to provide loans of around 50,000 yuan, roughly 8,000 U.S. dollars. The money will be used as seed funds to help families in poverty-stricken areas to start their own businesses.

Additionally, because 42 percent of poor households are impoverished due to medical issues affecting family members, governments at all levels will improve the social security network, especially the healthcare system.

This is NEWS Plus Special English.

Public outcry over an over-priced prawn scam has prompted the China Consumers' Association to tell regulators to pull together to fight tourist rip-offs.

The association says there should be zero-tolerance for unlawful business operations, urging local regulators to deal with consumer complaints and blacklist businesses that break the rules.

The statement came after the incident that a tourist ordered a prawn dish marked as 38 yuan, but was asked to pay 1,520 yuan in a restaurant in Qingdao, in eastern China. Local police showed up and told the customer to pay the bill.

The city government has since revoked the restaurant's license and fined the owner 90,000 yuan, roughly 15,000 U.S. dollars. A local official in charge of market regulation has been suspended from duty.

Tourists routinely complain about exorbitant pricing during holidays in China, as well as local governments' failure to remedy the situation.

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