THIS WEEK

THIS WEEK

Celebrations Overseas

People in New York City marvel at a traditional Chinese dragon dance costume at the Lincoln Center Square on January 24,the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

2012 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon. A dragon dance was staged at the square as part of the celebrations for the new year, also known as the Spring Festival, China’s most important holiday. The festival traditionally lasts half a month,beginning on the first day of the first month according to the Chinese lunar calendar and ending with the Lantern Festival,15 days later.

Host Praised

Cui Yongyuan, a famous TV host at China Central Television (CCTV),won nationwide praise because he chose to host the evening gala for migrant workers for free instead of the lavish gala of the Annual Conference of Philanthropy China on January 8.

Cui, 48, graduated from the Communication University of China in 1985 and became a journalist for China National Radio. During his spare time, he participated in the planning of CCTV’s Oriental Horizon program, which turned out to be a huge success.

From 1998, Cui began to work for CCTV. He was the host of the programTell It Like It Is, a popular talk show which made Cui a household name in China. He proved his talent as a remarkable host with his humor, wisdom and sincerity.

Smaller Gap

The income gap between urban and rural Chinese residents narrowed further in 2011,according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The ratio stood at 3.13:1 in 2011, meaning city dwellers’ average income was 3.13 times that of rural people. It represents a decline from 3.23:1 in 2010 and 3.33:1 in 2009.

Rural residents’ per-capita annual income rose 17.9 percent year on year in 2011 to 6,977 yuan ($1,101), while the per-capita disposable income of urbanites was 21,810 yuan($3,443), up 14.1 percent from a year earlier,the NBS said, citing fi gures from a survey of 74,000 rural households and 66,000 urban households nationwide.

The NBS attributed the large increase in rural residents’ wages to the rising incomes of migrant workers last year.

Outbound Investment

China’s non- fi nancial outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 1.8 percent year on year to$60.07 billion in 2011, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The figure brought the country’s total non-financial ODI to $322 billion as of the end of 2011. China made investments in 132 countries and regions in 2011, with ODI in Europe and Africa up 57.3 percent and 58.9 percent, respectively, reaching $4.61 billion and $1.7 billion, the MOC said.

Investment through mergers and acquisitions, mainly in the mining, manufacturing,electricity, communications and retail sectors,hit $22.2 billion in 2011, accounting for 37 percent of the total ODI, the MOC said.

New Supercomputer

The Chinese Sunway BlueLight supercomputer, which was built with China-produced microprocessors and is capable of performing around 1,000-trillion calculations per second,has officially gon≠e into operation at the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in Jinan, east China’s Shandong Province.

The supercomputer was installed in September 2011 and underwent a threemonth-long trial operation period before going into official use, making China the third country in the world to be capable of producing supercomputers using domestically developed processors after the United States and Japan.

Consisting of nine 3-meter-high boxes and equipped with a total of 8,704 Shenwei 1600 microprocessors, the Sunway BlueLight is among the 20 fastest supercomputers in the world.

Developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, the Sunway BlueLight incorporates high-density packaging and low energy consumption technologies. It will be used to help increase the accuracy of climate simulations conducted by Chinese scientists and assist them in ocean circulation monitoring.

AIDS Situation

A total of 28,000 people died of HIV/AIDS in China in 2011, and another 48,000 were newly infected with the virus during the year, said an of fi cial publication on January 21.

The report on the HIV/AIDS situation in China, which was produced jointly by China’s Ministry of Health, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, and the World Health Organization, said that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS increased by 40,000 in two years from 2009, although cases of new infections remained at a low level.

With about 780,000 people living with HIV/AIDS nationwide, including 154,000 AIDS patients, the country’s total infection rate stands at 0.058 percent, the report said.

The major reasons for the rise of the number of AIDS patients on record are the government’s increasing disease prevention and intervention efforts, which have helped reduce deaths and also led to an increase in diagnoses, said the report.

ANXIOUS JOB HUNTER A man looks for opportunities at a job fair in Taizhou,Zhejiang Province, on January 25,the third day of the Chinese Lunar New Year

The report added that more than 136,000 AIDS patients had received anti-virus treatments by September 2011, bringing the treatment coverage rate to 73.5 percent, an increase of 11.5 percentage points compared to 2009.

Relief Program

yuan ($5,857) in 2010 to 53,500 yuan($8,445) in 2011. Among all investigated cases, 800 involved more than 150,000 yuan ($23,679), up 40 percent from a year earlier, said Li Yuanping, spokesman of the administration.

Nearly half of the cases related to food,building materials and agricultural production, he said.

New Museum Head

Shan Jixiang, former Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, was appointed new curator of the Palace Museum in Beijing, replacing the 65-yearold Zheng Xinmiao, who has been its head from 2002. The museum’s reputation was tarnished by a slew of scandals last year.

Shan, 57, who holds a doctor’s degree in urban planning from Tsinghua University in Beijing, is known for his efforts in protecting cultural heritage across the country.After being appointed director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2002, Shan promoted the preservation of cultural relics,launched new nationwide surveys of cultural heritage sites and developed new architecture-related programs in rural areas. It’s commonly believed that Shan’s background will help with the ongoing renovation of the Palace Museum, which will be completed by 2020.The China Disabled Persons’ Federation has released the Sunlight Program, a 10-year development guideline for the country’s handicapped population from 2011 to 2020.According to the report, production bases particularly for handicapped rural people will be set up nationwide with fi nancial assistance from both central and local governments.

Under the plan, a large number of greenhouses will be built for rural families with handicapped members, to help increase their income, with the assistance of companies or cooperatives. Meanwhile, these families will also be encouraged to run businesses related to agricultural production.

Moreover, the country will continue carrying out the “Sunlight” housing projects for these families, which is funded by government-backed lottery programs.

Counterfeit Cleanup

China dealt with 111,300 cases involving fake or low-quality products in 2011, with the total value of the goods in question estimated at 5.5 billion yuan ($868 million), said the General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection and Quarantine.

There was an increase in the average amount involved per case, from 37,100

RUSSIA

Russian Communist Party supporters queue up to lay fowers at the mausoleum of Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on Red Square in Moscow to mark the 88th anniversary of his death on January 21

THE UNITED STATES

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on January 24, in Washington, D.C. In his speech Obama called for “rebuilding an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded”

EGYPT

ROMANIA

Railway company employees clear snow in Bucharest on January 26. South Romania was paralysed by heavy snow, with dozens of national roads cut off and 28 fights to and from Bucharest’s airports cancelled

INDIA

A marching band member plays a tuba as he participates in the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26. India celebrated its 63rd Republic Day with a large military parade

CROATIA

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station in Zagreb on January 22, in a referendum on Croatia’s EU membership bid. More than 66 percent of voters said“yes” in the referendum, paving the way for Croatia to become the bloc’s 28th member in mid-2013