XI HONORS OUTSTANDING SCIENTISTS

President Xi Jinping presented China's top science award on Friday to Huang Xuhua, the chief designer of China's first-generation nuclear submarines, and Zeng Qingcun, a famous meteorologist.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, granted award medals and certificates to them at an annual ceremony held in Beijing to honor distinguished scientists, engineers and research achievements.

After receiving the medals and certificates, to show respects, the two scientists were invited to accompany the Party and State leaders on the rostrum.

Huang, 94, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the award was not for himself as an individual but for those who have been dedicated to researching China's nuclear submarines and who have contributed to progress in national defense.

"My colleagues and I have devoted our lives to the country. We have not wasted our lives, and we have no regrets over that," he said in a speech at the ceremony.

For over three decades, Huang's work designing China's first-generation nuclear submarine remained top secret. In December 1970, China launched Long March I, becoming the fifth nation to have a nuclear submarine.

In 1988, Huang took the vessel to its maximum depth to test it, a task so dangerous that many crew members wrote farewell letters to their families to be delivered in the event of their death.

Huang was also one of the eight recipients of the Medal of the Republic last year for his outstanding contributions to the nation. Other exemplary individuals who received the medal included agriculturalist Yuan Longping and Nobel laureate Tu Youyou.

Zeng, 85, is a renowned atmospheric physicist who helped modernize the world's weather forecast systems and meteorological satellite remote sensing technologies. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 2016, Zeng won the International Meteorological Organization Prize for his contributions to satellite meteorological remote-sensing theory, numerical weather prediction theory, meteorological disaster prevention and the earth system model.

Premier Li Keqiang delivered a speech at the ceremony during which he congratulated the scientists on their awards, greeted those who devoted themselves to the country's scientific research and expressed gratitude toward foreign experts who supported China's scientific work.

Noting that China will achieve its first centenary goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects this year, Li said that the whole country should be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and further implement the strategy of innovation-driven development

Li pledged to take such measures as increasing fiscal support, encouraging enterprises' investment and improving the research fund coverage system to bring more rewards to those who stay focused on research for decades.

Li required the relevant departments to implement tax reduction policies for scientific companies, respect and protect intellectual property rights and increase the companies' will and capability to innovate.

PRESIDENT'S MYANMAR VISIT TO BOOST TIES

President Xi Jinping will pay a two-day state visit to Myanmar from Jan 17 which will further strengthen the substantial cooperation between the two friendly neighbors.

It will be the first time in 19 years that a Chinese president has visited the Southeast Asian country.

In Myanmar, Xi will attend a series of state activities held by Myanmar President U Win Myint, including a welcoming ceremony, bilateral meetings and a banquet.

Xi will have talks with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar's Defense Services.

As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations, Xi will attend activities commemorating the 70th anniversary, as well as the launch ceremony of the China-Myanmar Year of Tourism along with Myanmar leaders.

Vice-Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said on Friday that the two sides will seek to deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and push forward substantial construction of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor during Xi's visit.

"The CMEC and bilateral cooperation on major projects have boosted employment and economic development in Myanmar's related areas and greatly improved local people's livelihoods," Luo told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing about the visit.

China has been Myanmar's largest trading partner and its major source of foreign investment. Last year, bilateral trade volume between the two countries exceeded $15 billion.

According to Luo, China and Myanmar share a high level of mutual trust in politics, in-depth economic cooperation and close coordination on international and regional issues.

During the upcoming visit, the two sides will further enrich bilateral ties and build the China-Myanmar community with a shared future to usher their relationship into a new era, he said, adding that the two countries will issue a joint statement covering areas such as politics, the economy and people-to-people exchanges.

Both as the initiators and practitioners of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Luo said, China and Myanmar always adhere to basic norms governing international relations, uphold multilateralism and safeguard free trade.

FORMER CHAIRMAN OF CHINA DEVELOPMENT BANK EXPELLED FROM CPC

Hu Huaibang, ex-chairman of the China Development Bank (CDB), has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) over serious violations of Party discipline and laws, the top anti-graft body announced Saturday.

Hu, also former secretary of the CDB committee of the CPC, lost his ideals and convictions, and covertly refused to implement the Party's major decisions and plans in practice while appearing to be obedient, according to a statement issued by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.

An investigation found that Hu violated the eight-point code on Party and government conduct, sought profits for others in personnel promotion by taking advantage of his posts, wantonly traded power for money, and connived with his relatives, allowing them to use his influence to seek personal gains, the statement said.

Hu severely violated the Party's disciplinary standards on politics, organization, clean governance and life, and is suspected of taking bribes, said the statement, adding that he showed no signs of restraint even after the 18th CPC National Congress.

Hu's qualification for delegate to the 19th CPC National Congress was terminated, and his illicit gains would be confiscated.

His suspected crimes will be transferred to the procuratorate for further investigation and prosecution, said the statement.

FOREIGN, PRIVATE FIRMS TO GAIN WIDER ACCESS TO OIL, GAS SECTORS

China will fully open its oil and gas exploration and mining market to qualified foreign and private enterprises, so that the industry will become further vitalized, under a pilot guideline released on Thursday by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Domestic companies and foreign ones registered in China with net assets of at least 300 million yuan ($43.16 million) will be eligible to apply for oil and gas prospecting and mining permits.

Previously, foreign companies could enter the industry only through joint ventures or other cooperative arrangements with Chinese companies, mainly State-owned giants.

The guideline, which takes effect on May 1, says that to explore and extract oil and gas a company must meet certain criteria covering safety, environmental protection and technology.

It will also promote "competitive" transfers of prospecting and mining rights through public bidding, auctions and listings, except in special circumstances that allow the rights to be transferred through agreements.

After oil or gas is found, the holder of the prospecting rights must register the resources with the authorities. At that point, extraction may begin. The signing of a mining authorization contract must be completed within five years.

Analysts said the guideline aims to bring more players into the sector to stimulate the vitality of the upstream market for oil and gas, which is currently dominated by large State-owned enterprises.

"The opening-up of the market will attract more players to oil and gas prospecting and mining. It will energize the market and increase oil and gas production," said Zhao Xu, an expert at the School of Economics and Management at China University of Petroleum in Beijing.

China has developed an increasing appetite for oil and gas as its economy grows, but because many of its easily exploitable resources have already been detected and tapped, it takes greater investment and involves greater risks to discover and tap the remaining resources, she said.

The opening of the upstream oil and gas market, and the adoption of competitive mining rights transfers, will ensure open and fair competition among all eligible market entities and facilitate the allocation of prospecting and mining rights to the most suitable players, she said.

WECHAT QUICK RESPONSE CODES HELP GENERATE JOBS AND BOOST BUSINESSES

What's in a quick response (QR) code? An economy worth more than 8 trillion yuan ($1.15 trillion), says a new report released on Thursday.

New industries and business models fostered by WeChat, China's all-in-one application connecting people and businesses with a QR code, created a market value of more than 8.58 trillion yuan last year, WeChat operator Tencent Holdings Ltd said in a joint study with Tsinghua University's Institute for Global Industry.

Featuring WeChat's mini program, public accounts and payment functions, the so-called WeChat ecosystem generated some 26 million jobs related to transactions via QR codes last year, the company said during its annual WeChat-themed Open Class in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

For instance, its mini program, or a built-in app aggregator, saw transactions reach 800 billion yuan in 2019. The adoption of a WeChat Pay Score, which gauges users' credit worthiness using data analytics, helped save deposits of various service types worth over 100 billion yuan.

WeChat currently hosts over 1 million mini programs, with 1.5 million developers and 82 million third-party platforms devoted to enriching various services via the app, which boasts 1.15 billion users globally. Among them, 800 million have chosen to tie their bank cards to the app so that they can pay with their phones across tens of millions of stores in more than 300 cities.

Due to its ubiquity, WeChat has effectively prolonged the operating hours of businesses. Data showed that evening expenditure was most vibrant between 8 pm to 10 pm, whereas a quarter of WeChat Pay users opened their virtual wallets from 10 pm to midnight.

Meanwhile, technology advancements have also empowered mom-and-pop stores and individual peddlers. The number of transactions settled via WeChat Pay tripled between 2017 and 2019. More than 50 million small merchants, or 79.4 percent nationwide, use WeChat Pay as a payment method.

In the retail realm, people used WeChat Pay 5.8 times per month on average for purchases last year. Scanning the QR codes for food purchases jumped six times, while public transportation benefited from increased adoption of QR code swiping for metro rides and consequently enhanced entry efficiency by three times.

WeChat has also shouldered bigger social undertakings. Mini programs related to civic services were used 900 million times in 2018, while over 60 percent of hospitals used WeChat Service Account, a customer relations management-like function that cuts the average queue time by 43.6 minutes.

As a bridge connecting the real world and the virtual world, QR codes lower costs for business operators, add more value in a smoother fashion, and are set to accelerate digitalization of the entire society, said Wu Jing, a researcher with the Institute of Science and Development at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

WeChat said it plans to include more functionalities this year to better monetize mini programs. These include livestreaming, targeted QR codes pegged to items, and object-recognition capabilities to help merchants better convert clicks into cash via WeChat, said Du Jiahui, vice-general manager of WeChat Open Platform.