China

BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's environmental authority has named and shamed 158 companies that discharged major pollutants at seriously excessive levels in the first quarter of 2018.

Nearly half of the polluters were urban sewage treatment plants, and others included heat suppliers, coal chemical processing firms, and printing and dyeing companies, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Over 60 percent of the polluters were based in the provincial regions of Xinjiang, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Liaoning, and Hebei.

BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Tuesday made remarks on the United States' decision to impose additional tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of Chinese products.

The United States, disregarding international and domestic trending opposition, made an announcement to impose 10-percent additional tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of Chinese products from Sept. 24, and take other escalating tariff measures.

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — One of China’s most prominent figures in global finance says Beijing should press Washington to end their tariff battle by clamping down on exports of goods needed by American companies, according to news reports Monday.

The comments by Lou Jiwei, a former finance minister and chairman of China’s sovereign wealth fund, follow reports regulators are squeezing American companies by slowing down customs approvals and stepping up environmental and other inspections.

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, will start formal operation and open to Chinese astronomers in 2019, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC).

FAST has discovered 44 new pulsars since its trial operation began in September 2016, and it is still being improved, said Li Di, chief scientist of FAST, in a recent astronomy forum held in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province.

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China added around 375 million jobs from the start of the reform and opening-up in 1978 to 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The number of rural and urban jobs in the country totaled 776 million at the end of last year, up 93 percent from 1978, an NBS report showed.

Urban jobs reached 425 million at the end of 2017, up 346 percent from 1978.

Beijing, Sep 12; PTI:  Nine people were killed and 46 others injured when a man drove his SUV into a crowd and later went on a stabbing spree in China's Hunan province on Wednesday evening.

The attack took place as people had gathered in a square by the river in Hengdong county.

The driver, Yang Zanyun, 54, first ploughed through the people with his vehicle and later got out of it and went on a rampage attacking people with a knife.

BEIJING; 12 Sep 2018; (AP) — Amid a worsening tariff battle, China is putting off accepting license applications from American companies in financial services and other industries until Washington makes progress toward a settlement, a business group says.

SHANGHAI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- China has launched its first domestically built polar research vessel and icebreaker "Xuelong 2" or "Snow Dragon" which will be operational in the first half of 2019.

The vessel was deployed in Shanghai on Monday and will go through a series of tests and interior decoration before beginning official operations, according to its builder Jiangnan Shipyard Group.

The launch of the vessel has extensively boosted China's polar research and expedition capabilities, said the builder.

Beijing, Sept 10, IRNA – In the framework of the new Silk Road program, China has established a new railway between Inner Mongolia and Iran for logistics purposes.

CHANGCHUN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's leading train maker on Friday released its new-generation carbon-fiber light rail train at an exhibition held in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

The body of the train is made of carbon fiber composite and weighs 30 percent less than those made of stainless steel, making it more energy-efficient, according to its manufacturer CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd.