Beijing

Beijing's Miyun district is helping residents lead a healthier, wealthier life through a sweet industry — beekeeping. Liu Jinliang, a bee farmer in the district, is the second generation of the beekeeping industry there. His father is an experienced bee farmer who has raised the insects for more than 30 years. "Raising bees has helped my family to have a much better life with more money," Liu said. "Advanced technology has helped us double our output compared with traditional methods." Liu said his family produced 10 tons of honey in 2020, for an income of 380,000 yuan ($58,882), twice as much as the previous year. Jiang Xuefu, head of the United Front Work Department of the district, said Miyun plans to integrate the tourism, agriculture and health industries to extend the industrial chain and increase farmers' income this year. Miyun includes the largest beekeeping area in Beijing, with 2,072 bee farmers tending 115,000 colonies, which account for 44 percent of the city's ... » Learn More about Beijing’s Miyun district abuzz about bees

Beijing will provide novel coronavirus vaccinations for people over age 60 and patients with chronic diseases after enough data are collected, an expert said recently. Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said data on people's vaccinations and related research has been accumulating. Once the health authority gets enough data to ensure safety, the city government will start vaccinating the older people, patients with chronic diseases and people with allergies. Meanwhile, she said, the protection period of the novel coronavirus vaccines are not necessarily only half a year, which is widely believed by the public. "The reason why people say the effectiveness period is half a year is that we only have data for six months. At present, various departments are collecting data on the vaccinated population, which will give more information about the protection period of the vaccine." She also reminded the public that people should provide ... » Learn More about Beijing prepare to expand vaccine delivery

BEIJING : China set a modest five-year growth target on Friday for its nuclear power generation capacity and promised quicker development of alternative energy sources as it seeks to cut its carbon footprint, but left its coal industry largely untouched. The world's third-largest largest nuclear power producer, aims to have 70 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2025, the government said in its 2021-2025 plan delivered to the Chinese parliament. China originally aimed to bring its total nuclear installed capacity to 58 GW by 2020 but failed to meet the target following a long moratorium on new projects as well as delays at new third-generation plants. The plan also called for a rapid boost to wind and solar power generation and promotion of electricity generation from waste to help China meet its goal of having non-fossil fuels meet around 20% of total energy consumption by 2025. The world's top energy consumer has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060 but has to ... » Learn More about China to speed up tapping new energy sources, but coal stays in mix

The country needs to speed up formulating a law for the construction of a barrier-free environment to care for the disabled and the elderly, especially when China faces increasing challenges from aging, said a motion that the Shanghai delegation to the National People's Congress submitted on Friday. It was the first time ever that a motion was submitted in the name of the entire Shanghai delegation. It submitted two motions in this way during the ongoing annual session of the national legislature in Beijing. The deputies said there are 85 million disabled individuals and 240 million people aged 60 or above in the country. But in today's society, there are often some cases where these individuals feel unwelcome. Such cases may include a resident in their twilight years taken to a bank outlet by family members to conduct facial recognition, and some barrier-free facilities are locked, blocked or do not work properly, they said. "A barrier-free environment has been promoted in ... » Learn More about Speed up barrier-free construction, Shanghai delegation urges

Report says it will spend $210 billion on defense, second largest budget in the world after US; NPC says rise doesn’t threaten anyone BEIJING China is increasing its defense spending by 6.8% in 2021 as it works to maintain a robust upgrading of the armed forces despite high government debt and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A national budget report issued Friday said China would spend 1.355 trillion yuan ($210 billion) on defense in the coming year. That’s up from 1.3 trillion yuan ($180 billion) last year representing a 6.6% boost, the lowest percentage increase in at least two decades. The military budget has dipped during periods of slower economic growth, but has also been dropping steadily from the double-digit percentage increases over years as the increasingly powerful military matures and rapid expansion of what is already the world’s second largest defense budget is no longer required. Defending the increase, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for ... » Learn More about China raises defense budget ’21-22 by 6.8%

BEIJING -- The crewmembers who will participate in the construction of China's space station have been selected and are being trained for their missions, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The construction of the space station has entered a crucial stage, said the CMSA, noting that this year will see several space missions including the launch of the station's core module, cargo replenishment, and a manned flight, which will be carried out one after another. China aims to complete the construction of its space station by around 2022. During the construction, China plans to launch four Shenzhou manned spaceships and four Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to transport astronauts and supplement materials. The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, which will launch the core module, has been safely transported to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province. The core module is scheduled to be launched in the first half of this year. ... » Learn More about China selects astronauts for space station program

The first construction phase of a smart pig farm owned by New Hope Group, one of China's biggest pork breeders, was completed recently in Beijing's Pinggu district. The company's chairman, Liu Yonghao, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said on Wednesday that the company will focus on village development and swine breeding this year. "The smart pig farm in Pinggu is equipped with temperature-checking robots, along with systems for automatic feeding and disinfection. Disinfecting raises the safety of the pigs and helps avoid outbreaks of African swine fever," Liu said. "The equipment points to the development direction of the smart agricultural industry." The company said the smart pig farm takes up an area of 140,000 square meters and has an annual production capacity of 120,000 pigs — the largest so far in Beijing. Construction of the second phase of the farm is underway and is expected to be completed ... » Learn More about Smart pig farm raises bar for pork breeders

China is a nation with a true global vision and genuine desire to build a framework of international cooperation, according to experts. They were speaking as the two sessions, the nation's biggest annual political event, which will chart China's future course, take place in Beijing. The experts pointed to President Xi Jinping, who reiterated his commitment to a community with a shared destiny for mankind, and contrasted this with the US leader's concept of "extreme competition" between China and the United States. Xi restated his commitment in a speech to the World Economic Forum virtual event in January. John Ross, a senior fellow at Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said the contrast could not be starker. "Xi's concept of a common destiny is one in which he recognizes that societies and countries are interdependent and need to cooperate. This creates the possibility of mutual advantage and a win-win outcome," he said. Ross added that ... » Learn More about Xi’s vision of shared destiny draws applause

Video Player Close -- China aims to expand its economy by over 6 percent in 2021, with goals to put the economy firmly back to pre-pandemic vibrancy. -- The specific growth target reveals the country's confidence in achieving high-quality development. -- China also has the confidence and ability to fulfill the goals and tasks in the 14th Five-Year Plan. BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China aims to expand its economy by over 6 percent in 2021, building on strong tailwind from success in containing COVID-19, as lawmakers gather in Beijing to map out priorities for high-quality development. The gross domestic product (GDP) target is one of the many key goals laid out in a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang to the national legislature, which began its annual session Friday. "In setting this target, we have taken into account the recovery of economic activity," Li said. "A target of over 6 percent will enable all of us to devote full energy to ... » Learn More about China targets GDP growth of over 6 pct in 2021, revs up modernization drive

Video Player Close BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- With the COVID-19 vaccinations underway amid dwindling daily counts of new cases and deaths worldwide, the epidemic has shown a downward trend. But experts around the world pointed out that it is still too early to talk about when the pandemic will end and vigilance is still needed as the "turning point" has yet to come. "It is premature to think that we're going to finish with this virus by the end of the year," Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program Mike Ryan said at a regular press conference Monday. The WHO is now focusing on keeping COVID-19 transmission as low as possible, which will help prevent the emergence of variants and reduce the number of infections and hospitalizations, Ryan said. Noting that countries and regions around the world are ramping up vaccine rollout, Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua that ... » Learn More about World Insights: Is global COVID-19 pandemic approaching “turning point”