China Insights: Week in Review

10 Minute Read

We bring you the latest China news, as it unravels 🇨🇳. Here’s what happened in the Middle Kingdom this week:

1. Dogs must be leashed outdoors from now on.

2. Tourist sites across China packed with travelers.

3. Qingdao: tanker collision may spill hundreds of tons of oil.

4. China reduces homework load in schools.

5. Messi, Neymar to get Chinese Covid-19 vaccines.

6. Digital Yuan to be available to foreigners.

7. China adopts law on preventing food waste.

8. Chinese space rocket is coming tumbling towards Earth.

No. 1 

 Dogs must be leashed outdoors from May 1st 

Dog owners must keep their furry friends on a leash in outdoor areas as China's revised Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention takes effect on Saturday.

Previously, only local regulations in some provincial regions required dog owners to keep their pets on a leash in public areas.

The number of dog owners topped 36 million in China's urban areas as of 2019, according to a white paper on China's pet business published by a Chinese pet industry website.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/01/c_139919150.htm

No. 2 

 May Holiday: Packed Tourist sites across China 

Crowds, long expected, appeared across tourist spots in China with many struggling to reach their destinations, and many were stuck on highways for long hours on Saturday, the first day of the May Day holidays. 

The scene is an indication that Chinese people trust the country's epidemic-control measures. The number of May Day passenger trips in China is expected to hit 265 million, up 120% compared with 2020. 

Sources:

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222555.shtml

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-01/Travel-frenzy-begins-as-China-celebrates-Labor-Day-ZUgQwZ3cBy/index.html

No.3 

 Tanker collision off Qingdao mat spill hundreds of tons of oil 

A tanker carrying around one million barrels of bitumen mix was involved in a collision near the Chinese port city of Qingdao during heavy fog, spilling oil into the Yellow Sea, Chinese maritime officials and tanker representatives said on Tuesday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/oil-tanker-symphony-crashes-outside-chinas-qingdao-port-spills-oil-2021-04-27/

No. 4 

 China reduces homework load in schools 

Primary schools should ensure that students in the first and second grades do not have written homework. Those in higher grades should complete their homework within one hour, a circular issued by the Ministry of Education stated.

Junior high school students will spend a maximum of one and a half hours on written homework each day, the circular said. It called for an appropriate amount of homework, even for weekends and summer and winter holidays.

After-school training institutions are prohibited from giving any homework to primary and junior high school students, the circular said.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-04/25/c_139905257.htm

No. 5 

 Messi, Neymar to get Chinese Covid-19 vaccines 

Footballers Lionel Messi and Neymar are among hundreds of South American players that will receive Covid-19 vaccines donated by China’s Sinovac Biotech in the coming weeks, according to regional football confederation CONMEBOL. The entity began distributing vaccines to its 10-member associations after a shipment of 50,000 doses arrived in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Vaccines for South American football are already arriving. Thank you Sinovac Biotech Ltd. for this gesture of solidarity and for understanding the enormous social and cultural value that football has in the countries of our continent,” said CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez on Twitter. In a statement published on its official website, CONMEBOL said the vaccination programme would prioritise each of the national squads, coaches, officials and other workers taking part in the Copa America to be played in Argentina and Colombia from June 13 to July 10.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-04/25/c_139905257.htm

No. 6

 Digital Yuan to be Open to Foreigners 

Photo: Kyodo

Bank of China (BOC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Beijing-backed commercial banks of China, unveiled the prototype of automated teller machines for foreigners to try out China’s central bank digital currency, officially called e-CNY but still colloquially known as DCEP. 

Among them, the most eye-catching is the prototype digital yuan ATM.  The Bank of China exhibited such a prototype for the first time. Like an ordinary ATM, it allowed users to exchange foreign currencies for digital yuan. The machine will automatically create a bank card-like DCEP hardware wallet with the saving in the card showing in an ink screen on the DCEP hardware wallet card. Based on the shape and also the feature it has, PBOC also called it visualization chip wallet.

According to the reporting from Yicai, an elite financial publication based in Shanghai, the DCEP ATM supports about 17 different countries’ currencies. In the future, foreigners holding passports will be able to use this service and get a visualization chip wallet. The wallet will allow foreigners to pay in all kinds of shopping scenarios, including shopping malls, supermarkets, vending machines and transportation. China watchers say this invention aims for the 2022 winter Olympic games in Beijing, that travelers from all over the world will pour into Beijing and have payment convenience through the DCEP chip wallet.

Source: https://forkast.news/chinas-banks-unveil-atm-for-foreigners-to-use-digital-yuan/

No. 7

 China adopts law on preventing food waste 

Chinese lawmakers on Thursday voted to adopt an anti-food-waste law at a session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

According to the law, catering service providers could charge customers who leave excessive amounts of food waste a disposal fee, but rates for the charge must be clearly advertised.

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1222436.shtml

No. 8

 Chinese space rocket is coming tumbling towards earth 

The huge, 100-foot-tall (30 meters) core of a Chinese rocket is tumbling wildly through low-Earth orbit and could make an uncontrolled reentry through the atmosphere in the coming days, according to news reports.

The core belongs to a Long March 5B rocket (a version of China's largest rocket), which successfully launched a module for China's planned Tianhe space station into orbit on Wednesday (April 28). Following the module's deployment, the rocket core was expected to make maneuvers for a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere, according to SpaceNews — however, that didn't happen.

Ground-based radars soon detected the rocket core tumbling through orbit, oscillating between altitudes of 106 and 231 miles (170 and 372 kilometers) above Earth's surface and traveling at more than 15,840 mph (25,490 km/h). The drag of Earth's atmosphere will eventually tug the rocket core out of orbit — however, given the object's high speed and variable altitude, it's impossible to predict exactly where or when it will fall toward Earth's surface. Much of the core will likely burn up in the planet's atmosphere, SpaceNews reported, but there is a chance that some chunks of debris will survive the reentry and rain down on the land or ocean.

Source: Live Science, SpaceNews

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