China’s marine nuclear power platform to start by 2020 in S.China Sea

The primary focus of China’s offshore nuclear platforms – reportedly to be commissioned before 2020 – will be for civil use on islands in waters such as the South China Sea, and as the technology matures, it could be applied to military nuclear vessels, Chinese analysts said.

A shipbuilding firm in Central China’s Hubei Province announced on Sunday it is set to start construction on a marine nuclear power platform which is designed to supply power for the country’s offshore oil drilling platforms and islands.

According to the firm, a joint venture by the State-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), CSIC 719 Research Institute and the Hubei Hongtai State-owned Capital Investment Operation Group in 2015, the nuclear power platforms will serve as small nuclear power plants. The technical design has been finalized, and the project is moving to the construction phase, local media the Hubei Daily reported.

The platforms have two modes – floating and submersible, and the first will be commissioned before 2020.

The platforms will focus on solving power supply issues in the Xisha Islands and other islands in the South China Sea where infrastructure construction is underway, and urban agglomerations after that, Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert and also a TV commentator told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The floating type will provide more nuclear power, although it will be more affected by sea conditions, such as the scale of the wind and waves, while the submersible one will be more stable but produce less power, Song said.

Zhang Jinlin, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert at the CSIC 719 Research Institute, told the paper that the platform is a typical civilian-military integration project, as its design fully takes civil demands into consideration, as well as tackling issues including safety, radiation protection and waste processing.

The nuclear reactor-related technology, when successfully reduced in size, could be later applied to the country’s military vessels, including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers or next generation nuclear submarines, Song said.

Source: Global Times

A novel patent application says people can fan haze away

A city shrouded in haze

Can haze be fanned away? A patent application to manually drive away smog recently appeared in the inquiry system of China’s State Intellectual Property Office, attracting attention.

The application abstract said people in haze-stricken areas could fan smog in the same direction simultaneously, creating a huge blast of air able to blow the floating particles away.

According to the application, the method is cost efficient and effective, and won’t cause secondary pollution.

For instance, if 15 million people join the “wind-generating campaign,” at least 1.08 trillion cubic meters of air could be fanned away at a rate of 68 km/h, enough to eliminate newly-formed haze in Beijing and keep it from worsening.

The patent application said the government should provide people with fans and inform them to join the campaign via TV, radio, and instant messages if there is haze.

It is uncertain whether the patent will be approved.

China’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile expected to be deployed next year

(File photo)

China’s intercontinental ballistic missile DF-41 is expected to be deployed in early 2018, said military expert Yang Chengjun on a TV program broadcasted on China Central Television (CCTV) on Nov. 26.

According to military experts, no failure has occurred during the test launches of DF-41, and the success rates of the US and Russia are around 90% and 85%, respectively.

“DF-41 is 4th-generation and China’s latest strategic missile,” said Yang, adding that the reliable missile is quick, mobile, and precise.

Public data shows that DF-41 is a rival of the 6th-generation missiles of some developed countries, such as the American LGM-30 Minuteman and the Russian RT-2PM2. The Chinese missile even has an edge with regard to some technologies.

The DF-41 has a range of 12,000 kilometers and a deviation of some one hundred meters. It can carry six to 10 multiple maneuverable warheads, which makes it difficult to be intercepted.

The missile is 16.5 meters in length with a diameter of 2.78 meters. It can be launched from road- and rail-mobile launcher platforms, as well as silo-based launchers.

“The missile can hit every corner of the earth, allowing China to counter a nuclear strike on the country,” Yang noted.

German student rides 5,800 km in China to understand the Chinese Dream

For his graduate thesis, a German student rode 5,800 kilometers in China to learn about the Chinese Dream among ordinary people, Qianjiang Evening News reported on Nov. 27.

“What’s your Chinese Dream?” This is the question he raised for every stranger he came across on his 100-day journey.

The 28-year-old student surnamed Jorg came to China for the first time in 2011. After a year in China, he was able to use chopsticks and speak Chinese. Because of his interest in Chinese culture, he went to Zhejiang University in 2015 for a master’s degree in sinology.

According to Lu Yuan, a sinology teacher at the Institute of China Studies at Zhejiang University, sinology is not confined to the classroom and students are encouraged to dig into Chinese society to find social issues through interviews and investigations.

Jorg learned the term “Chinese Dream” in 2013, and now it has become a buzz word in Chinese society. With an eagerness to understand the true connotation of the term among ordinary Chinese people, he started his journey in May 2016.

Jorg believes that riding is natural, environmentally-friendly, and flexible. Before starting his trip, he specifically carried out bicycle training.

His trip covered 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, from the northernmost city of Mohe to the southernmost city of Sanya. Jorg has set up a public account on social media to record and share his experiences during the trip.

Urban-rural disparity was one of the focuses of his investigation. He found that people in the countryside strive for a peaceful life, while urban residents follow their hearts.

In addition, older generations of Chinese are more concerned with social stability and equality than economies desires, Jorg said, adding that education and individual development are the major consideration of the young generation.

Jorg concluded that dreams of individuals are more down-to-earth and mostly related with wealth, happiness, and self-fulfillment. From an official perspective, the dream paints a bigger picture of national rejuvenation, he noted.

Though the people seek their own way to realize their dreams, they all believe that a strong country is the prerequisite, Jorg said.

Table tennis authority changes balls for Team World Cup, raising doubts among Chinese fans

The change of balls made by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for next year’s Team World Cup in London has raised doubts among Chinese ping pong fans.

The ITTF announced its agenda for the London tournament on its official website on Wednesday. It can be seen that the game-use balls have been changed to Double Fish V40+ — a completely new model for the world-level event.

For Chinese athletes, this is not good news, since it will take a while to adapt to the new balls.

Changing game-use balls has become a common practice of the ITTF in recent years. Balls used at the recent World Cup, World Championships, and the ITTF World Tour were all different.

A Chinese netizen commented on social media that the ITTF is just trying to weaken China’s dominance of the sport by frequently changing the balls. However, the net user was doubted by another netizen who said that every athlete has to adapt to the new balls, not just Chinese.

Some said table tennis is the only sport that sees such a high frequency of equipment changes and even a subtle change could influence the performance of the athletes.

The ITTF might bring on the shots for table tennis games in the future, a netizen joked.

Head transplants will never be allowed in China: medical authority

Huang Jiefu

Clinical tests like head transplants will never be allowed in China, said Huang Jiefu, chairman of the country’s National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee (NODTC), on Nov. 23.

A year ago, Dr. Xiaoping Ren from Harbin Medical University in northeastern China performed “head transplant” anatomical research on two corpses together with Italian professor Sergio Canavero.

The study was recently misinterpreted as the first “head transplant,” triggering a wave of controversy.

Though Ren didn’t provide details about the clinical test, he was quite confident about the results.

Huang, on behalf of all NODTC experts, said that head transplant tests will never be allowed in China.

Such a study goes against China’s laws and regulations, he said, hoping that ethics organizations could take their responsibility.

Huang also doubted the feasibility of the surgery, saying the so-called head transplant experts have failed to provide proof that their methods would repair damaged core nerves.

Ethical issues are another problem. “Patients are still themselves after receiving liver and kidney transplants,” Huang said, but he wondered if that would still be the case if they had a head transplant.

According to Huang, China is broadly recognized for how it performs organ transplants. Voluntary donation is the only legitimate source of organs in the country. China is leading the world in liver, kidney, heart, lung and small intestine transplants, Huang said.

Transplant doctors should improve China’s influence in this field with an indisputable manner, and every one of them should protect China’s reputation, Huang told thepaper.cn.

Private enterprises take close to half of top-50 influential Chinese companies in B&R countries

Private enterprises accounted for 42% of the 50 most influential Chinese companies in Belt and Road countries, becoming a major force for the construction of the initiative, said a recent report issued by the Belt and Road Big Data Center under the State Information Center.

It is the second big data report issued by the organization, according to which central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises respectively accounted for 36% and 20% of the top 50.

The proposal and implementation of the initiative are the most important measure of the “go global” strategy of Chinese enterprises. Under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative, fruitful results have been achieved by China and participating countries.

By the end of 2016, China inked bilateral investment agreements with 53 countries participating in the initiative, as well as bilateral tax treaties for the avoidance of double taxation with 54 related nations.

A total of 2,946 contracts have been signed between Chinese enterprises and 61 Belt and Road countries in the first seven months of this year, with a total contract value of $78.09 billion, up 32.6% year on year. The annual figure is expected to be further increased.

The increasing influence of the private sector is a highlight of China’s implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. Many private companies are now playing a bigger role in Belt and Road countries through business expansion and branding.

Private companies are both a new and major force of the Belt and Road construction, said Ou Xiaoli, an inspector in the Department of Western Development under China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

The economic complementarily between China and other Belt and Road countries has offered huge development potential for Chinese private enterprises, noted Bian Yongzu, a researcher with Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

Bian said that thanks to the flexibility and operational variety of these enterprises, they could help improve the vitality and efficiency of China’s foreign investment in the construction of the Belt and Road.

Preschool teachers in high demand after baby boom brought by two-child policy

China should establish a job alert system for preschool education to meet the increasing demand of kindergarten teachers as the effects of the “two child” policy gradually show, according to the country’s education experts.

The number of children at preschool ages will increase greatly in 2019 and reach its peak two years later. The country is likely to see 15 million new kindergarten students in 2021, which suggests a demand gap of 110,000 kindergartens and three million professionals.

Statistics show that the ratio between the nation’s teachers and preschool students stood at a low point of 1:12 in 2016, which means nearly 2.5 million more teachers are needed to increase the figure to a more reasonable proportion of 1:7.

According to Li Yan, head of the preschool education department of Shanghai Normal University, though preschool organizations recruit almost all the graduates of this major at each graduation season, the annual demand gap of nearly 3,000 newly added job vacancies in the city of Shanghai is still hard to meet.

Some of the kindergartens recruit supernumerary teachers or child-care workers to deal with the demand, while others hire graduates with unrelated majors but who have the required licenses.

However, experts warn that this approach is not the ideal solution, because the children are at an important phase of development and the teachers need to be strictly screened.

Shanghai is expected to establish a job alert system for preschool education, said Jiang Ming, head of the Shanghai Educational Human Resource Exchange & Service Center, which will make alerts and suggestions based on changes in this industry.