Society

　　Healthcare Rules

　　Chinese authorities unveiled a barrage of new measures on April 9， which consisted of relaxing price controls covering non-public hospital services and encouraging the private sector to build healthcare institutions.

　　The measures were announced in a joint circular by the National Development and Reform Commission， the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

　　The measures are aimed at giving private organizations more leeway to charge what they want for medical services and to encourage competition， according to the circular.

　　Authorities want private capital to enter the healthcare sector as soon as possible to increase the supply of medical services， and in turn to help ease the problem of inadequate health provisions available to the public.

　　The circular also specified that all provincial governments have to publicize a directory listing all public hospitals within their regions before the end of June.

　　Language Protection

　　Authorities in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region are enacting a new legally-binding regulation to safeguard the heritage and development of the Tibetan language， local authorities revealed on April 7.

　　The Tibetan Language Work Committee and other authorities in Tibet have finished drawing up a draft regulation， according to Chodrak， the committee’s deputy director.

　　The regulation， which has gone through four amendments， is expected to come out in September.

　　According to the committee， the new regulation will provide legal protection for the rights and freedom of the people of Tibetan ethnic group to study， use and develop their language. In Tibetan areas， most classes are taught in Tibetan， though Mandarin and English classes are also on the curriculum.

　　Smog Forecast

　　An air-quality early warning system that will forecast smog two or three days in advance is to be put into use， the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on April 3.

　　At a meeting on environmental monitoring， Vice Minister Wu Xiaoqing said that an air-quality forecast and early warning center covering the whole country is already in operation with an accuracy of 60 to 70 percent.

　　China began air-quality forecasts in 47 major cities in 1998. The new system covers all prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta， the Pearl River Delta， as well as the areas surrounding Beijing and other capital cities of provincial regions.

　　Wu called for improvements through remote sensing and other cutting-edge technology， as well as innovations in publicizing air-quality information. China currently has around 1，200 automatic air-quality monitoring stations across 252 cities.

　　Nurseries

　　Southwest China’s Guizhou Province is to establish 800 nurseries for “left-behind” children， to ease their psychological problems caused by the absence of parents.

　　The nurseries， to be built in rural boarding schools， are expected to be completed before the end of 2014， the Guizhou Education Department said in a statement on April 4.

　　The facilities will help create a better environment for healthy growth by providing good physical conditions as well as sufficient psychological intervention， according to the statement.

　　The provincial education authority will award 20，000 yuan ($3，220) to each nursery that operates well in the future， it added.

　　“Left-behind” children are those who remain in rural homes while their parents go to work in cities. The children are usually taken care of by their grandparents or other relatives.

　　Guizhou had about 2.4 million “left-behind” children in 2013 due to the large number of outbound local laborers， a report by the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences showed.

　　Government Microblogs

　　The number of microblog accounts operated by government departments and individual officials increased by 46 percent in 2013， according a report issued on April 8 by the E-Government Research Center with the Chinese Academy of Governance. It has issued the report annually since 2011.

　　The growth rate was mild compared with the 249 percent recorded in 2012 and 776 percent in 2011， the report noted. It attributed the slowdown to users shifting to new social network tools such as WeChat， an instant messaging application claiming to have about 400 million active users.

　　Verified government accounts on the four top microblog services in China—Sina， Tencent， People.com.cn and Xinhuanet—totaled around 258，700 at the end of 2013.

　　About 70.8 percent of them were operated by government departments and the rest were individual users whose identities were verified to be officials.

　　Governments in richer regions and bigger cities have proved more inclined to communicate with the people through microblogging， according to the report.

　　Among various government departments， police have been the most active， according to the report. Four out of the top 10 government microblog accounts were operated by police departments.

　　Cloned Tree

　　A 5，000-year-old cypress tree said to have been planted by the Yellow Emperor， the mythological sovereign considered the common ancestor of all Chinese， has been cloned， scientists said on April 5.

　　The 20-meter-high tree is in the Xuanyuan Temple near the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor， also known as Huangdi， in Huangling County， northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

　　Created using asexual reproduction methods such grafting， eight saplings from the ancient tree are growing well， said Jiang Zeping， a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

　　The project started in April 2013 when scientists from the academy obtained samples and cultured more than 1，500 clones.

　　Aging has put the ancient cypress in danger， said Peng Hong， deputy head of the Forestry Department of Shaanxi. “It is important to preserve the genes of millennial cypress trees，” Peng said.

　　“Luckily， we have been successful and a second clone can be made from the saplings after three to five years，” Jiang said.

　　The project is of great significance in conservation of genetic resources and protecting rare ancient trees， according to scientists.

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