A draft amendment to the Securities Law was submitted Saturday to a bimonthly session of the
The settlement of the dispute over agricultural product
ts between China and the United States is nothing out of the ordin
ary – it is a normal part of China’s engagement with the rules-based trading syste
m. As Mr Pascal Lamy, a former WTO director general put it, “China has delivered an ‘A-pl
us performance’ since its WTO accession,” and no WTO member has been
a perfect performer when it comes to WTO rules as each country has its own interpretation of the rules.
China will regard every dispute settlement within the WTO framework as an opportunity to cont
inuously adjust and improve its trade practices. Through the process, China will consult extensively with oth
er WTO members in order to promote reforms of the WTO that enhance the organization’s authority and effe
ctiveness so that it can better safeguard free trade and the multilateral trading system.
Chinese Navy to send huge fleet to take part in sea parade
Chinese Navy will send 32 warships and 39 aircraft to take part in a joint sea parade in waters near Qingdao.
Nearly 20 ships from about 10 countries will participate in the sea parade on Tuesday, deputy commander of the PLA Navy Qiu Yanpeng said.
A Singapore Navy frigate arrived on Friday in Qingdao, Shandong province, becoming the first for
eign warship to arrive ahead of a grand event to honor the 70th birthday of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
The PLA Navy will hold multinational naval activities in Qingdao and nearby waters from Mo
nday to Thursday to celebrate its founding anniversary. They will include a joint sea parade, high-level sy
mposiums, public tours of ships, military music performances and other cultural exchanges.
A press center opened on Wednesday in Qingdao for the upcoming multi
national naval activity.eputy commander of the PLA Navy, attends a press conference for the u
pcoming multinational naval activity to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy at t
Viewpoint Adding gene-editing in draft civil lawnceptual art
On Saturday, a new item was added to China’s draft civil law, which put
s all medical and scientific research related to human genes and embryos under stricter re
gulation. Two experts shared their views with China Daily’s Zhang Zhouxiang:
One major change this time is that embryos are clearly included in the draft regulation. Actually,
gene-editing of embryos deserves more attention than gene-editing of adults or children.
First, gene-editing of embryos might more easily get out of control an
d pose more risks to the society. The safety of gene-e
diting for embryos remains unknown and the availability limit of the technology needs to be confirmed.
The birth of the twin gene-edited babies in November 2018 sounded an alarming bell to all. If the embr
yos with edited genes are born, how should we protect their rights as citizens? Will they suffer fro
m discrimination? Who will be responsible if the gene-editing causes health problems?
For example, technologies like artificial intelligence
have improved the company’s stocking and inventory processes.
“Earlier we were reliant on the intuitions and experience of the local operation team. With the
use of technology like AI and big data, we are getting more accurate answers.”
As a larger and older retailer, Walmart has constantly worked with startups, said McMillon, citing the new Omega 8 platf
orm that enables retail innovation startups to collaborate with Walmart China to create better services for customers.
McMillon cited the example of a scanning ring developed by a starup for
Walmart that shortens pickup time for JD Daojia orders to less than 10 minutes and impr
ovements in the overall efficiency by 50 percent. Walmart’s WeChat mini-program has over 30 million members and is
developing an e-commerce service based on WeChat to help customers shop more easily and more accurately.
Much work remains in Sino-US trade negotiations
China and the United States have made new progress in negotiating the text of an econom
ic and trade deal, but much work remains to be done, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.
Negotiating teams from the two countries are hashing out the text of the deal, including
an enforcement mechanism, on the basis of mutual respect and benefit, said Gao Feng, ministry spokesman.
The remarks came as the world’s two biggest economies have been i
ntensifying their consultations and aiming to break the deadlock in a timely manner.
In the most recent round of trade consultations, the negotiators discussed technolo
gy transfers, protection of intellectual property rights, nontariff measures, the service sector, agriculture, tra
de imbalances and enforcement mechanisms, according to earlier reports.
The American Chamber of Commerce in China said in a recent white paper that the US business commu
nity in China, long an advocate of good bilateral relations, can no longer be relied on to be a positive anchor.
China’s trade with the US amounted to 815.86 billi
on yuan ($121.7 billion) between January and March, a decrease of 1
1 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.
In March, Sino-US trade climbed 0.1 percent to 291.35 billion yuan, the administration said.
Li Kuiwen, spokesman for the customs authority, said trade tensions between the two cou
ntries have had certain impacts on companies’ operations, but the impact is “generally controllable”.
Li said economic and trade cooperation remains the ballast of Sino-US re
lations, and he is hopeful that China and the US will achieve mutually beneficial results.
China’s economy, despite headwinds, has enjoyed a good start in 2019, and the country
has the confidence to achieve the annual projected growth goal, said the nation’s top economic regulator.
Yuan Da, spokesperson with the National Development and Reform Commission, said the
first quarter’s stable economic development has laid a solid foundation for annual growth.
Economic structure was further improved during the sa
me period. The value-added high-tech sector’s out
put rose by 7.8 percent, higher than the country’s value-added industrial output.
In the first quarter, the NDRC approved 50 fixed asset investment projects, mainly in th
e fields of energy, transportation and high-tech. The total investment hit 370.3 billion yuan ($55.3 billion).
The NDRC reportedly is considering a slew of new measure to boost spending on automob
iles, home appliances and consumer electronics products. People close to the NDRC said it has sent a draft plan to
encourage consumption in the three sectors, according to a report in the National Business Daily.
The news caused shares of home appliance companies traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen to increase
by 1.47 percent on Thursday, according to Shanghai-based information provider Wind Info.
growth of PM.5 tiny particulate matter concentration tha
that could at least double the readings,” Zhang said. He added that this could help explain the o
ccurrence of heavy PM2.5 pollution that lasts for an extended period of time in certain regions.
Zhang said the interaction of air pollution and meteorologic
al conditions could be triggered when PM2.5 density reaches 100 micrograms per cubic meter in ma
ny of the monitoring points of a region. In such situations, more solar radiation wil
l be reflected back into the space, resulting in temperature inversion and further stabilizing the ground atm
osphere. And the height of the mixing layer could decrease to only one-third of that w
hen pollution processes begin, exacerbating particulate concentration levels even further.
The center’s research also showed that global warming is increas
ing the number of days with a stable surface atmosphere in n
orthern China, especially in the cluster, making smog more likely to develop.
China’s foreign direct investment up 6.5% in Q1
China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) totaled 242.28 billion yuan in the first quarter of t
