Current Events

[Randy W]

Spectacular! 🎉🎉🎊The annual Longji Terraced Field Seedling Combing Festival（梳秧节） was held on #June 13 in #Guilin's Longsheng. We can experience various kinds of #traditions here, such as fish catching and tug-of-war competition in the fields. The atmosphere was quite lively. 
#nature #China #photography #photooftheday

from Discover Guangxi China on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverGuangxi/posts/327288322177204

[Randy W]

A group of Chinese scientists recently reported finding a 423-million-year old fossil from the Silurian period in Chongqing, suggesting that the development of animal jaws may have begun earlier than previously thought. https://bit.ly/3xDNlHi

from China Daily on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/191347651290/posts/10159569812946291/

🧐A #fossil of a new Silurian fish Bianchengichthys micros, dating back nearly 4.23 billion years, has been discovered in #Xiushan. It is the oldest well-preserved vertebrate fossil in #Chongqing, making Chongqing the second place in the world with a near-complete Silurian fossil record of jawed vertebrates.

from iChongqing on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/1145429832271380/posts/2072047686276252/

[Randy W]

Discovery of ‘Dragon Man’ Skull in China May Add Species to Human Family Tree
A laborer discovered the fossil and hid it in a well for 85 years. Scientists say it could help sort out the human family tree and how our species emerged.

from the NY Times 

 

Quote

 

Scientists on Friday announced that a massive fossilized skull that is at least 140,000 years old is a new species of ancient human. It belonged to a mature male who had a huge brain, massive brow ridges, deep set eyes and a bulbous nose. The skull had remained hidden in an abandoned well for 85 years, after a laborer came across it at a construction site in China.

The researchers named the new species Homo longi and gave it the nickname “Dragon Man,” for the Dragon River region of northeast China where the skull was discovered. The team said that Homo longi, and not the Neanderthals, was the extinct human species mostly closely related to our own. If confirmed, that could significantly change our view of how — and even where — our species, Homo sapiens, evolved.
A number of experts questioned this conclusion, published in three papers that provided the first detailed look at the fossil. But many still thought that the find could help scientists reconstruct the human family tree.
All the experts who reviewed the data in the studies said it is a magnificent fossil.

Rather than hand over the new skull to the Japanese authorities who occupied northeast China at the time, the laborer chose to hide it. He did not mention the skull to anyone for decades. In an account of the fossil’s discovery, the authors of the new papers speculated that he was ashamed of having worked for the Japanese.
Shortly before his death in 2018, the laborer told his family about the fossil. They went to the well and found it. The family donated it to the Geoscience Museum of Hebei GEO University, where scientists immediately could see that it had been exquisitely well preserved.

 

and Nat Geo
https://www.facebook.com/72996268335/posts/10159638493088336/

Edited June 26, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The herd of 14 wandering wild #AsianElephants in southwest China's Yunnan Province has quickened its pace southward, authorities said Saturday.
The herd traveled 10 km south and entered Tadian Township between 5 p.m. on Friday and the same time on Saturday. This is the fifth straight day they have been moving southward, according to the headquarters in charge of monitoring the elephants' migration.
The animals have traveled about 500 km north from their forest home in southern Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, reaching Kunming on June 2.

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3903086649816695&id=553929144732479

[Randy W]

China opens new gateway to giant panda country as flights start at Chengdu’s second airport

The first flight from China’s brand new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport took off on June 27, bound for Beijing. 

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://fb.watch/6p4lGtNOSy/

[Randy W]

fromthedeskofXiJinping.cn ??

A website dedicated to China's Diplomacy in the New Era was launched in both Chinese and English on Monday.

The website serves as an official platform to introduce and popularize Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy.
The website features Xi Jinping's important foreign affair activities, remarks, statements and signed articles, as well as literature and studies on Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. 
The website also makes Xi Jinping's wide-ranging diplomatic activities come to life through a dynamic online map. 
Aiming to demonstrate major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, the website provides the latest news and information about China's foreign affairs and diplomatic policies.
Other language versions are planned, and the website can be reached at this address: http://www.chinadiplomacy.org.cn. 

from CGTN on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/565225540184937/posts/6517577718282993/

[Randy W]

Breaking: The Cyberspace Administration of China has ordered app stores to remove the country’s dominant ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing due to “serious violations of laws and regulations to collect and use personal information,” according to an announcement on Sunday.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/2986432681675572

[Randy W]

The SCMP with more details

China launches cybersecurity review into more newly-listed firms following action against Didi Chuxing

• Latest move focuses on truck-hailing and online recruitment firms that were recently listed in the US
• Move comes hours after the powerful cyberspace administration agency ordered Didi Chuxing off the nation’s app stores

Quote

In similar wordings to its Didi probe, the administrator ordered the three companies to stop registering new users. It cited the National Security Law, the Cybersecurity Law and the Measures for Cybersecurity Review for the action, but did not mention any specific clauses that the three apps had supposedly violated.

 

[Randy W]

Lone Asian elephant that left China’s ‘wandering herd’ sent home to reserve

An Asian elephant that strayed from a herd that has been wandering across China’s southern fringes since March 2020, has been sent home. The animal travelled more than 190km on its own. 

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://fb.watch/6CCjZLDc7f/

[Randy W]

On 7/4/2021 at 10:40 PM, Randy W said:

Breaking: The Cyberspace Administration of China has ordered app stores to remove the country’s dominant ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing due to “serious violations of laws and regulations to collect and use personal information,” according to an announcement on Sunday.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/2986432681675572

 

Billions were wiped from the share value of Didi after this year's biggest Wall Street IPO - but why? Our latest podcast analyses the how, the why and what comes next. 

Days after China's biggest ride-hailing app Didi launched a multibillion-dollar IPO on Wall Street, Beijing's internet watchdog removed it from China's app stores, claiming data being collected was a national security risk. SCMP tech reporter Xinmei Shen is joined by fellow reporter Tracy Qu and tech desk editor John Artman to analyse what’s behind the move, the Tesla-Microsoft connection, and whether this signals the start of decoupling between the world’s two biggest economies.

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://fb.watch/v/3eSnxCWgR/

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Edited July 16, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

China launched the world’s largest carbon emissions-trading exchange, as part of the nation’s efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/220258213301321/

[Randy W]

US, Britain and EU accuse China of sponsoring massive Microsoft email server hack

The US, Britain, the EU and Nato have accused China of sponsoring a massive cyberattack on the Microsoft Exchange email server discovered in early 2021.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/992724481480953/

[Randy W]

China launches early-warning system in Yunnan to prevent human-elephant conflict

To protect wild elephants from clashes with humans, China has launched an early-warning system using drones, radio equipment and infrared cameras.

More on the elephants from the SCMP
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/226316859353811/

[Randy W]

Dealing with a tragic news ...
Henan is my second hometown, but it's now suffering from a disastrous rainstorm. The rainfall in the past 3 days equals the amount this area usually has for a year.
Firefighters, soldiers are all at the frontline saving people now.
#StayStrongHenan

from Talk It Out With Li Jingjing on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/106341131134920/posts/343619327407098/

^ Click on Facebook link ^

Edited July 21, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The proportion of coal consumption in China is expected to drop to about 51 percent by 2025, according to a latest report released by China Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute.
The 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) is a key period to realize the goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. During this period, as the country strides into a new phase in high-quality development, China's national economy is expected to continue stable growth, and the low-carbon transformation of the energy structure will be more obvious, the Report on China's Energy Development 2020 said.

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3966436376815055&id=553929144732479