News in review

Monday March 28

China's pension fund to flow into stock market

China's massive pension fund may begin investing in the nation's A-share markets this year, a move that will channel approximately 600 billion yuan ($92.28 billion) into the equity market and likely improve its liquidity.

The target date comes several months after China's State Council published an investment guideline that would allow the country's pension fund to invest in more diversified and riskier products, with the maximum proportion of investments in stocks and equities set at 30 percent of total net assets.

China's pension fund, which accounts for approximately 90 percent of the country's total social security fund pool, had net assets of 3.98 trillion yuan by the end of 2015. By the end of last year, total investible pension fund nationwide reached approximately 2 trillion yuan.

Love affair with the city ending marriages

A record number of women from rural China are filing for divorce. In most cases, their marriages broke down after they migrated to the city in search of work but found love or self-empowerment instead.

Statistics from the people's court in Songzi city, Hubei province, are typical. They show that three in four of the more than 700 divorce lawsuits filed there in 2014 were initiated by wives, and more than 90 percent of those involved women who had migrated to big cities for work and often husbands who stayed behind in the village.

Shi Renbing, head of the Population Research Institute at Wuhan-based Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said in a report examining the phenomenon that similar patterns were being played out in rural regions of Henan and Sichuan provinces as well.

Tuesday March 29

Aerospace industry to be worth $123b

Carrier rockets, satellite applications and space broadband Internet will be the top priorities among key aerospace projects which are expected to be launched this year, Economic Information Daily reported.

According to an industry expert, the three fields are the trends and core of the future development of the aerospace industry and are expected to reach 800 billion yuan ($123 billion) in terms of market size by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

The expert told the newspaper that by the end of 13th Five-Year Plan, China will build a new generation of carrier rockets and a civil space infrastructure which will meet most of the needs of businesses in different fields. (Photo 1)

Shanghai Disneyland website crashes for tickets

Enthusiastic customers for Shanghai Disneyland quickly snapped up the first batch of tickets for the opening day of the park on June 16, temporarily crashing the official website.

A statement issued by the Shanghai Disney Resort said it had received warm feedback since it started selling tickets online at 12:01 am on Monday.

'Within half an hour, clicks on the website (www.shanghaidisneyresort.com) reached more than 5 million. The massive volume resulted in our ticketing system temporarily malfunctioning,' it said.

The statement said all official website ticketing systems and authorized partners' distribution channels functioned well later. But it did not say how many tickets were sold.

Shanghai Disney Resort is scheduled to open on June 16. (Photo 2)

Wednesday March 30

China seeks foreign talent for polar research

China's top polar research institute expects to recruit foreign talents to help the country advance its research work in the polar regions, the institute's head said.

Yang Huigen, director of the Polar Research Institute of China, said that his institute would recruit at least two experts in the fields of physical oceanography, ice core science and polar marine ecology this year, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The institute is the country's organization focusing on polar research and offering logistic supports to researchers in polar regions.

The State Oceanic Administration said in a statement in February that an Antarctic air squadron will be set up this year to support its scientific expeditions to the polar region.

Alibaba's Cainiao invests 1b yuan in delivery

Cainiao, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's logistics offshoot, is investing 1 billion yuan ($153.6 million) in an upgraded delivery service, which it claims will offer China's growing army of online shoppers better, faster deliveries.

The Cainiao Alliance will be dedicated to offering higher-quality delivery services. It is expected to immediately roll out the upgraded package of services, including same-day and next-day deliveries, on Alibaba's business-to-customer site Tmall. Cainiao said the goal is for the alliance to serve 10 million enterprises and have the annual capacity to deliver 100 billion parcels in the next five to eight years.

Founded by Alibaba and a consortium of logistics companies, rather than expanding its own network, Cainiao operates a proprietary logistics information platform that links a network of providers, warehouses and distribution centers that offers better efficiency and cost savings.

Thursday March 31

Buses offer private space for breast feeding

More cities in China have started creating private spaces on public buses for breast feeding.

Pingxiang in East China's Jiangxi province has become the latest to adopt the idea. The seats are near the door and have pink curtains that mothers can draw around them for privacy.

Other passengers could open the curtain and take the seat when there are no breast-feeding mothers onboard. When mothers carrying babies get on these buses, drivers remind them to take the special seats.

Some other cities had set up the special seats on buses in past years. (Photo 3)

Limit put on local government debt

China has put a ceiling on the amount of local government debt, according to the central budget for 2016 released by the Ministry of Finance.

The total outstanding debt of China's local governments must be kept under 17.2 trillion yuan ($2.6 trillion) at the end of 2016, said the MOF.

The budget was approved by the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on March 16.

China is trying to rein in local government debt mainly caused by borrowing during an investment and construction binge that followed the global financial crisis in 2008.

A debt swap mechanism allows local governments to convert their debt to low-interest bonds, easing the debt burden without disrupting the broader economy.

Friday April 1

Police nab nearly 3,000 illegal immigrants

Mainland and Hong Kong police have arrested 2,943 illegal immigrants in a joint operation to crack down on growing human smuggling.

Among the detained immigrants, 2,860 are from Southeast Asia and 83 from South Asia, the Ministry of Public Security said. Most of the illegal immigrants were trying to sneak into Hong Kong from the mainland to seek employment, it added.

A total of 142 suspects from three cross-border smuggling syndicates were apprehended by police, including 29 from countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Ban on harvest of bear bile supported: survey

Keeping bears in captivity to harvest their bile should be banned in China, according to more than 80 percent of people surveyed by the Beijing Loving Animals Foundation.

The organization, which is also known as the Ta Foundation, asked more than 1,800 people their thoughts toward bear bile extraction.

Upward of 97 percent thought the industry was 'very cruel' and 83.9 percent supported banning it outright.

In addition, more than 70 percent of participants said they had never used or bought any products made of bear bile and vowed to not do so in future.

The survey, conducted by Beijing-based consultancy Horizonkey, was designed to gauge public opinion on the bear bile industry, according to Zhang Yue, the foundation's founder.

It comes in the wake of a public outcry against Fujian Guizhentang Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd, a Chinese pharmaceutical company that extracts bear bile to make traditional Chinese medicines, after it attempted to list publicly in 2012.

The company responded by announcing plans to open its bear farms for visits by experts, but critics hit back saying such events would be staged and not reveal the truth of the bears' living conditions.

(China Daily 04/01/2016 page15)