THIS WEEK

THIS WEEK

“China hopes the next president will further enhance developing countries’ rights to speak and represent themselves at the World Bank, and, therefore, make contributions to global poverty reduction and development.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, commenting on the election process for the next World Bank president, at a regular press briefing in Beijing on April 11

“My team and I will be peopleoriented, introducing policies and measures to meet people’s need. We will continue to go and visit the general public, listening to people’s concerns, enhancing the level of policy studies, and strengthening investigations on social and economic issues.”

Leung Chun-ying, newly elected Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, telling Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong in an exclusive interview published on April 11

“Iran’s representatives will participate in the negotiations with new initiatives and we hope that the G5+1 countries will also enter talks with constructive approaches. We are ready to hold progressive and successful talks on cooperation.”

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, in an interview with the local satellite Press TV on April 11

“This means that our economy has fully overcome the consequences of the recession registered in 2008, 2009 and even 2010.”

Russian Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin, commenting on Russia’s 4.8 year-on-year GDP growth in February 2012, in his annual address to the lower house of parliament in Moscow on April 11

Bo Under Probe

Bo Xilai, former Party chief of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, has been suspended from membership of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the CPC Central Committee, the CPC Central Committee said in a statement on April 10.

Bo is suspected of being involved in serious discipline violations, according to the statement.

The statement said that the suspension is in line with the CPC Constitution and the rules on investigation of CPC discipline and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC will file the case for investigation,

Xinhua News Agency said in a separate report that Chinese police have set up a team to reinvestigate the death of British citizen Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing on November 15, 2011.

The existing evidence indicates that Heywood died of homicide. Bogu Kailai, Bo’s wife, and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo’s home, are suspects and have now been transferred to judicial authorities on suspicion of having committed intentional homicide, said Xinhua.

Population Targets

China has pledged to maintain the country’s low birth rate so as to limit its population to 1.39 billion by 2015.

“From 2011 to 2015, the country’s working-age population will peak, while the aging population will grow at an unprecedented rate. And the urban population will remain greater than that in rural areas,” said a guideline on the country’s population development in 2011-15.

WOW A visitor looks at a painting at the China International Gallery Exposition 2012, which kicked off in Beijing on April 11

According to the document, issued on April 10 by the State Council, China’s cabinet, the overall population growth rate will be kept below 0.72 percent per annum.

School Bus Regulation

China’s long-awaited regulations on school bus safety finally came into force on April 10, including an extensive list of measures aimed at reducing the risk of tragedy.

Local governments above the county level should organize licensed bus companies to provide commuting services to students and supervise their operations, the regulation says, adding that security staff should accompany students in school buses.

Should major school bus accidents occur as a result of government dereliction, responsible officials will be held accountable, the regulation provides.

The regulation also specifies stricter requirements for the technical conditions of school buses, bus drivers’ qualifications, the responsibilities of security staff and penalties for those who violate the regulation.

Homeowners Protection

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has issued a judicial interpretation ensuring that homeowners’ legitimate rights will be protected in government-led land expropriation and housing demolition practices.

PRETTY SPRING Visitors take pictures of cherry blossoms in a park in Qingzhou City, east China’s Shandong Province, on April 9

Master Artist

Luo Pengpeng, a renowned seal cutting artist in China, holds an exhibition in the Royal College of Art in London, from April 14 to 22, expanding the influence of the art worldwide.

Making her first seal at the age of 7, Luo is one of the few outstanding female seal cutting artists in China. Luo’s carving career began when she was chosen to become a seal cutter for Rong Bao Zhai, a prestigious traditional art gallery with a history of 300 years, in 1980.

In the past 32 years, Luo has created more than 10,000 seal cutting works, most of which have been exhibited in various seal cutting exhibitions in China and other countries. Her seals feature a combination of traditional style and contemporary living.

Besides artistic creations, Luo has devoted the majority of her time and energy to teaching and promoting the seal cutting art. In 2006, she founded the Academy of Seal Cutting Art of China, the first high-level seal cutting art research institute in China. In 2007, the academy enrolled its first student as a seal cutting major for a master’s degree, also the first postgraduate studying the art form in China. Luo also gives lectures on seal cutting in universities and on TV, and has published several books on the art.

MEMORIAL CEREMONY A worshipper touches a horse believed to have special spiritual power to bring good luck during the memorial rites honoring Genghis Khan, the 13th-century Mongolian warrior, at the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan in Ejin Horo Banner, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on April 11

Local courts can reject government housing demolition requests if the compensation for homeowners is deemed unfair, according to the new legal interpretation posted at the SPC website, and effective from April 10.

The rule specifies circumstances under which courts should reject government requests for forced relocation, including where the proposed compensation “violates the principle of fairness” and where land expropriation “obviously lacks factual or legal basis” or has “severely violated the procedures provided by law.”

The rule supplements the existing regulation on housing expropriation, which was promulgated by the State Council in January last year and forbids local governments from executing their administrative rights to demolish housing without residents’ consent, unless approved by a court.

Aerospace Medical Lab

China has established its first key national lab for fundamental and applied studies of aerospace medicine. The lab is set to provide significant research support for astronauts’health during space missions, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Construction of the lab began in September 2009.

Built in the China Astronaut Center of Beijing Aerospace City, the lab is the country’s first facility dedicated to aerospace medical research.

Joint University

New York University Shanghai (NYU Shanghai), the first university jointly operated by China and the United States, will enroll its first undergraduates in 2013, said the preparatory council of NYU Shanghai on April 5.

The assessment of student applications will be based on both their performance in China’s national college entrance examination and an NYU-style student screening process, the council said.

Of the first 300 undergraduates, it is expected that 51 percent will come from the Chinese mainland, and 49 percent will be international students.

NYU Shanghai is an independent entity authorized to grant degrees. NYU and Shanghai-based East China Normal University will operate the institution. Its campus, located in the Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, is under construction.

Health Benefit

Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region will offer free surgery for more than 6,000 children with congenital heart diseases this year, according to a medical aid program launched in Lhasa on April 6.

The aid program is aimed at treating patients aged from 0 to 18, said Phubu Drolma, Director of Tibet Regional Health Department, at the program’s launching ceremony.

The plateau region, with an average altitude of over 4,000 meters, has a much higher reported incidence of congenital heart disease than other parts of China.

“The incidence rate is 1.11 percent among newborn babies in Tibet, compared with 0.8 percent elsewhere in China,” said Phubu Drolma.

With financial and technical assistance from China’s interior regions, free heart surgery has cured more than 2,900 Tibetan children of the disease since 2008. Another 6,235 children are still awaiting surgery, he said.

WELCOME BACK China’s research vessel Xuelong at port in east China’s Shanghai on April 7, after returning from China’s 28th antarctic expedition

Economic Forecasts

The World Bank’s latestChina Quarterly Updatereleased on April 12 predicts that China’s GDP growth will stand at 8.2 percent in 2012 and 8.6 percent in 2013.

“China’s gradual slowdown is expected to continue to 2012, as consumption growth slows, investment growth decelerates more pronouncedly and external demand remains weak,” said Ardo Hansson, World Bank’s lead economist for China. “The risks of overheating are moderating, increasing the prospects to achieve a soft landing,” he said.

The report notes that key risks confronting China include the weak and uncertain growth prospects of high-income economies and the evolution of the ongoing correction in China’s property markets.

The update points out China’s long-term outlook will depend on structural adjustment.

As the traditional drivers of growth weakened over time, sustaining strong percapita income growth requires productivity improvement and redefining China’s competitive advantage from low cost to higher-value products based on technological innovation.

Looking forward, China will focus on the quality of development rather than just the speed, said the report.

BRIDGING HANGZHOU Engineers work on the project of Subway Line 1 in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, which is scheduled to begin trial operation in June 2012

Auto Gloom

China’s auto sales totaled 4.79 million units in the first three months of 2012, down 3.4 percent year on year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Auto output in the first quarter hit 4.78 million units, down 1.83 percent from last year.

The once-booming auto market is losing momentum as domestic demands weaken, and the government rolls back some policy incentives. Meanwhile, retail fuel prices are increasing, pouring cold water on buyers’ enthusiasm.

The CAAM expected sales to grow 8 percent this year. “It’s too early to revise the estimate, and the market is still likely to see modest growth in 2012,” said Dong Yang, Secretary General of the CAAM.

Going Public

The online news portal of government-backedPeople’s Dailyplans to raise 527 million yuan ($83.7 million) in its initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai.

People.com.cn will sell 69.1 million shares, of which 19.97 percent will be reserved for offline subscription for institutional investors, according to its filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The proceeds will be used to upgrade technology, deliver news on mobile platforms and strengthen its editorial team.

People’s Dailyis people.com.cn’s controlling shareholder, with a 79.54-percent stake. Its other stakeholders include other state-owned giants like China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and Sinopec.

M&A Falls

Chinese companies were involved in a total of 204 merger and acquisition (M&A) cases in the first quarter of 2012, down 22.4 percent from a year ago, said the Beijing-based research firm Zero2IPO, in a recent report.

Of this total, there were 165 domestic M&A cases, 28 cases of Chinese enterprises buying overseas businesses and 11 cases of foreign companies taking over Chinese ones.

The transaction value of the 28 overseas M&As by Chinese companies totaled $11.6 billion in the first quarter, up 78 percent from the same period last year, Zero2IPO data showed.

Most of the completed M&As are in the sectors of energy and mining, industrial raw materials and processing as well as construction and engineering.

“The Chinese economy has achieved stable growth, which encouraged the need of Chinese companies for overseas energy,” said the report.

Exploring China

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s largest consumer electronics maker, announced on April 10 that it will build a memory chip factory valued at $7 billion in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. This would be its largest ever overseas investment.

The move signals Samsung’s expansion in the Chinese market, and the project is the largest foreign investment by value in west China.

The factory is expected to become operational at the end of 2013, with a monthly output of 100,000 units of chips. It will also be the company’s second largest memory chip production base worldwide.

China is now Samsung’s largest overseas market. So far, the South Korean electronics maker has 23 companies in China.

Disney Deal

The Walt Disney Co. recently inked an agreement with the China Animation Group and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to jointly build an animation creative research and development platform in the country.

“The initiative is focused on nurturing local talent and recognizes the importance of developing original local animation content,”said Andy Bird, Chairman of Walt Disney International.

“Disney’s involvement builds on our expertise and long-term commitment to nurturing the local original animation industry,”he added.

Tencent will provide online marketing support. “Tencent’s massive user coverage in China could be a great platform for Disney to promote its brand and animated characters in the country,” said Zhao Xufeng, an analyst at iResearch Consulting Group based in Shanghai.

GOING ELECTRIC The first electric taxi recharge station of Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, comes into operation on April 10

Charitable Entrepreneur

Xu Jiayin, Board Chairman of Evergrande Real Estate Group, ranked first on the 2012 China Charity List in the Chinese version of Forbes magazine. Xu donated 387.9 million yuan ($61.56 million) in 2011.

In May 2011, Xu donated 245 million yuan ($38.88 million) to mountainous areas in the northern part of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. In June 2011, Xu donated 18 million yuan ($2.86 million) to improve people’s livelihood in the city of Qingyuan in Guangdong Province.

Xu, 54, founded Evergrande in 1997 and turned it into China’s leading property developer. In 2011, it sold a total of 12.2 million square meters of homes nationwide, the highest in China and a 54.7 percent year-on-year increase. The total sales revenue of Evergrande stood at 80.3 billion yuan ($12.74 billion).

Joyce Banda is sworn in on April 7 in the capital Lilongwe as Malawi’s new president, becoming the country’s first female leader

MALAWI

PERU

An artifact on display in Lima on April 10. The United States has recently handed 208 Peruvian pottery and textile artifacts in its possession back to Peru

ARGENTINA

A man breaks the world’s biggest Easter egg in San Carlos de Bariloche, a town in the foothills of the Andes, on April 8. The 8.5-meter-high egg was certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest

INDONESIA

Banda Aceh residents seek higher ground after a powerful earthquake hit the western coast of the Sumatra Island on April 11. The earthquake prompted an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert

NORTH KOREA

The Unha-3 rocket set to launch the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite is prepared on a launch pad in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, on April 8. The earth observation satellite was launched five days later but failed to enter orbit