Focus

Successful phase-I clinic trials of HIV vaccine indicates China's accelerated efforts in AIDS control.

China Completes Phase-I Clinical Trials on First AIDS Vaccine

The first AIDS vaccine developed by Chinese scientists has completed its phase-1 clinical trials. The results show it to be safe and effective. None of the 49 volunteers exhibited negative reactions to the vaccine over a 180-day period of observation, and they appeared immune to the HIV virus 15 days after injection. The participants, all healthy, included 33 men and 16 women aged between 18 and 50, and they were divided into eight groups. A total of 344 blood samples were taken from them, with each volunteer donating five to ten samples. The trials started on March 12, 2005. By June 11, 2006 all of the volunteers had completed 180 days of observation. The results are encouraging to Chinese scientists who are trying to stop the spread of AIDS in the country. Latest statistics show that there are now 650,000 HIV-infected people in China, including 75,000 AIDS patients.

Chinese kungfu attracts more and more foreigners.

2nd World Traditional Wushu Festival Kicks Off

The 2nd World Traditional Wushu Festival runs from October 15 to 19 this year in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province. Sponsored by the International Wushu Federation and the China Wushu Association, the festival was first held in 2004. This year's festival will see some 2,000 martial artists from more than 60 countries and regions competing in four events, namely, boxing, weapons skills, sparring and group events. What's more, 40,000 wushu practitioners will stage a traditional wushu martial arts show. Henan is the hometown of the two dominant boxing schools of Taiji and Shaolin, both of which will be represented at the festival. Of China's 100 million wushu practitioners, some 10 million hail from Henan.

Race to Become Olympic Volunteer Commences

The recruitment campaign for volunteers for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has officially commenced. Organizers estimate that 70,000 volunteers will be needed for the Olympics, with another 30,000 to serve at the Paralympics. The majority will be recruited from Beijing's 600,000 university students, while others will be recruited from other parts of China and overseas. The volunteers fall into 10 categories - those from universities, those from middle schools, those from various walks of life, those from other provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, those from the 5 co-host cities, those from Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan, overseas Chinese, foreign students in Beijing, and international and specialized volunteers. Anyone in good health who was born on or before June 30, 1990 and can provide continuous services for at least seven days during the Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics is eligible to apply.

RMB 6 Billion for Vocational Education

China plans to invest some RMB 1 billion annually until 2012 in constructing 1,000 county-level vocational education centers and 1,000 exemplary secondary vocational schools. It hopes to expand annual secondary vocational school enrolment to 8 million students nationwide by 2010. Statistics released last year show that China had a total of 14,466 secondary vocational schools with a student population of 16 million. Starting this year, the state treasury will also set up an annual fund of RMB 800 million to finance state scholarships for secondary vocational school students.

Rural Drinking Water and Hygienic Conditions Surveyed

The Ministry of Public Health has commenced an investigation into the quality of potable water and hygienic conditions around the country. The study will be concluded in April 2007. Rural China currently faces serious problems in this regard: more than 300 million farmers have no access to safe drinking water, only 31 percent of villages have hygienic lavatories, and most villages lack both sewage and garbage treatment systems. The study will cover the quality of drinking water, lavatory renovations, and the treatment of human waste and wastewater in rural areas. It aims to obtain a scientific basis for the formulation of a national development plan to improve the quality of potable water and garbage and wastewater treatment in rural areas.

Life expectency reaches 80.09 years in Beijing.

Live Longer in Beijing

A recent report by the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau says the average life expectancy for Beijing citizens stood at 80.09 years at the end of 2005. That's a marked improvement of 4.24 years compared with a similar report in 2001. The average life span of women was higher than that of males, at 81.76 years. In 2000 China's national average life span was 71.4 years, and that increased to 71.8 years in 2004. This equals an annual increase of 0.1 year. The corresponding increase rate in Beijing in recent years is one year, or 10 times as high as the national average.

More Female Officials

Statistics show the current number of female cadres in China stands at 15 million, accounting for 38 percent of the national total. Nine of them are central government leaders or CPC central committee members. The number of female cadres makes up 9.9 percent of the provincial/ministerial level cadres across the country. The number of female mayors has increased from 150 in 1991 to 670 today, and their average age is getting younger while their education level is getting higher. Some 40 percent of female cadres now hold master's degrees or higher. They are involved in the leadership of much a wider range of fields of municipal administration. With the rapid socio-economic improvements in China, women's capacity to participate in politics and state affairs has increased significantly.

Beijing will promote cinema culture by building 1,500 digital cinemas before 2008.

Beijing to Build 1,500 Digital Cinemas

The Beijing Municipal Cultural Bureau has announced plans to build 1,500 digital cameras in the Chinese capital before 2008, in a bid to revive its ordinary citizens' penchant for cinema culture. The bureau has signed an agreement with digital cinema conglomerate Century Oriental for the supply of 360 digital film projectors as the first step of the project. The new digital cinemas will be mainly built around residential areas, and ticket prices will be set at RMB 10 or lower. That is far cheaper than the current admission prices that discourage residents from sitting down in front of the silver screen.

The 2006 China Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair opens in October

The Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair, a high-level, market-oriented trade extravaganza, will be held from October 18 to 22 in the ceramics capital of the world. That is Jingdezhen city, in China’s Jiangxi Province.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, the China National Light Industry Council, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government, the fair will feature ceramics exhibitions and demonstrations, as well as top forums on the international ceramics trade.

Thousands of ceramic purchasers and over 500 ceramics producers from more than 20 countries and regions around the world attended the inaugural fair in 2004, including those from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. The second fair in 2005 saw even greater success.

This year is expected to be the biggest, and the best, International Ceramic Fair yet. More than 800 manufacturers and ten thousand dealers will descend upon Jingdezhen to participate in the event. They’ll come from over 40 countries and regions around the world, including well-known domestic ceramics bases like Guangdong, Shandong and Hunan.