China’s first pilot programme for compulsory parental education has helped various families since its debut in 2016, reports the Huaxi City Daily.

A mandatory parental education lecture is held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. [File Photo: cdxdjcy.gov.cn]

Initiated by procurators in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, the project “forces the parents of juveniles involved in crimes to accept professional educational instructions,” according to Yang Chunxi, deputy chief of a local procuratorate.

So far, a total of 128 courses have been offered to parents of 176 young offenders and 11 under-age victims.

“In one outstanding example, the parents of a minor restored their marriage after taking the parental education courses. That child then went on to pass the national college entrance exam,” said Yang Chunxi.

Parents who don’t attend the mandatory parental education lectures may be put into detention.

“It is an attempt to bring public intervention to family guardianships,” added Yang.

Under-age crimes are a long-running concern in China.

Statistics show that since 2014, over 40% of young offenders and victims in the Chengdu area were from single-parent families, step-families or families going through a divorce.

The same stats suggest close to 80% of the young offenders and victims were either over-indulged or mistreated by their parents.

Shanghai will promote a new construction method that involves less pollution and noise.

The new method has been tried out on the expansion of the city’s century-old major hospital.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has listed the expansion of the Shanghai General Hospital in downtown Hongkou District as a demonstration project for its environmental friendly construction process and the innovative “inverse building method.”

Under the inverse method, the construction parts under and above the ground are built simultaneously, compared to the traditional way that normally starts with the foundations, according to the Shanghai Construction No. 2 Group, which takes charge of the expansion work.

As part of the expansion, a 15-story new hospital building has been built beside the hospital, whose origins go back to 1864. The hospital grounds are surrounded by old residential buildings and there is limited space for the expansion work, the group said. The new building has three underground stories for offices, parking garages and equipment storage.

“The traditional construction method would disturb the nearby residents as well as the patients,” said Long Libo, chief engineer with the group.

However, with the inverse method, all the underground construction was conducted under sealed conditions to cut flying dust and noise.

Furthermore, the completion schedule was reduced to 152 days, compared with 206 days had traditional methods been used, Long said.

The expansion work started in June 2014 and was completed in August this year.

China will firmly stick to the basic national policy of opening-up and pursue win-win cooperation while safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

President Xi Jinping meets with members of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. [Photo/China Daily]

Xi made the remark while meeting with members of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The members include foreign and Chinese entrepreneurs, academics and former officials.

It was Xi’s first meeting with foreigners after his re-election as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee last week.

Xi told the members that the recently concluded 19th National Congress of the CPC had great significance, boosting Chinese people’s confidence of continuing with the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Saying that China is deepening overall reform with unprecedented determination and force, Xi vowed to continue to promote reform and opening-up.

China has not only benefited from but also contributed to economic globalization, Xi said, adding that China’s development means opportunities for the world.

China will not seek to take advantage of other countries but will pursue win-win cooperation, Xi said, while pledging to take more measures to boost opening-up.

The president pointed out that China sticks to the path of peaceful development, proactively participating in the reform and construction of the global governance system, and pushes to build a community of a shared future for mankind.

Xi also highlighted the importance of education, saying that China’s education system aims to train builders and inheritors of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Commenting that he is looking forward to the upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump, Xi said China would like to make joint efforts with the US to take each other’s interests and concerns into consideration, dissolve disputes and contradictions, and engage in win-win cooperation.

During the meeting, some members of the board made speeches to express confidence in the Chinese economy and extended congratulations to the Party’s 19th National Congress.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, said at the meeting that Apple looks forward to “continuing to be in China and working together on a very prosperous future”.

“Innovation and technology come from openness and collaboration. I’d like to strongly encourage China to continue to open wider to the outside world,” he said.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, said that boosting connections will create economic opportunities, just like what the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has brought to the world.

“Like the supply-side structural reform that you are working on, we know that when it’s easier for businesses to connect their customers on the internet, that enables the creation of new entrepreneurship, innovation and development, and improves the life of everyone,” he told Xi.

What they say

Henry M. Paulson, chairman of the Paulson Institute and former US treasury secretary

I am quite optimistic that you and President Trump will have a very successful meeting, largely because of the personal relationship and working relationship you two have built up.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc

Congratulations on the successful conclusion of the 19th Party Congress.

Today we are proud to support 5 million jobs in China. We never would have been able to do that without the friendships and the partnerships that we developed over many years in China, and we are very appreciative of that.

What I’d like to do this morning is just thank you for your global leadership on climate change. I do believe that it’s one of the most important issues of our time. Thank you very much for your help.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

I firmly believe that when billions of people can hear the real voices of people in China, we will all be better off for that around the world.

In the last 30 years, China has helped raise more than 500 million people out of poverty, and China has done more on that front than any other country.

The Communist Party of China (CPC)’s new top graft buster Monday called on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to continue to build a clean Party and fight corruption “without a moment’s letup.”

Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Party’s anti-graft body, made the remarks during a CCDI meeting held to study the spirit of the just concluded 19th CPC National Congress.

He said members of the CCDI are all tasked with a special mission and have a major responsibility to protect the authority as well as the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core.

They must take the lead in implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the missions laid out at the Party congress, Zhao said.

He called for an all-encompassing counter-corruption drive that has no limits and zero tolerance, to ensure officials do not dare to be corrupt, institutionalize the legal framework so it is not possible to be corrupt, and finally create a moral compass so that officials do not want to be corrupt.

President Xi Jinping said Monday that China is a contributor to economic globalization and its opening-up means win-win cooperation for the world.

Xi’s comment came during a meeting with members of the advisory board of the elite Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.