The State Council, China’s cabinet, has issued a plan for artificial intelligence (AI) development, setting the target of China becoming a major center for AI innovation and leading the world in AI technology and applications by 2030.

The plan said China firstly aims to keep pace with the leading countries in AI technology and applications in general by 2020.

The AI industry will serve as a new major economic growth engine and help improve people’s lives by that time, and then the country will look to major breakthroughs in AI theoretical research and progress in intelligent society building by 2025.

The plan specified goals for AI development including creating an open and coordinated system for AI sci-tech innovation, fostering a high-end intelligent economy, building a safe and convenient society, as well as the upgrading of infrastructure for Internet, big data and computers.

Government finance and the market will play their roles in supporting the AI industry while social capital is encouraged to help develop the industry, according to the plan.

Wu Tianjun, a former senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official in central China’s Henan Province, stood trial for accepting bribes Thursday.

Wu, a former member of the standing committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee, was accused of accepting money and valuables worth more than 11.05 million yuan (1.64 million U.S. dollars) personally or through others between 2004 and 2015.

Prosecutors alleged that Wu, also former head of the commission for political and legal affairs of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee, took advantage of his positions during that period to help others with business operations and promotions.

The case was tried at the Intermediate People’s Court of Xiangyang in Hubei Province.

Wu pleaded guilty and expressed remorse.

More than 40 people, including representatives of legislators and political advisors as well as journalists and members of the public, were present at the open trial.

The verdict will be announced at a later date.

China’s insurance premium income reached 3.09 trillion yuan (US$457 billion) in 2016, overtaking Japan and the UK to become the second largest market after the U.S., according to the 2016-2017 Insurance Industry Risk Management Report, released by EY, a global service firm and one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, in Beijing on July 18.

The insurance revenue witnessed a year-on-year increase of 27.5 percent and accounted for nearly half of the world’s total.

The EY report said life insurance was the main driver of growth.

The premium income of life insurance companies climbed 31.72 percent to hit 1.74 trillion yuan (US$257 billion), largely due to people increasingly preparing for old age.

In addition, China’s health insurance market has also witnessed fast growth in the lastfour years, up 67.71 percent to over 404.2 billion yuan (US$59.7 billion) in 2016, an indication of people’s enhanced awareness of heath guarantees and an increased number ofdiversified insurance products, said the report.

The report also analyzed the challenges and risks the insurance companies face including disruption from stricter supervision, a slowing economy which may not grow enough to significantly boost insurance sales and higher financial market risk.

The police have discovered more than 3,800 cases related to the sale and manufacturing of illegal firearms since August 2016, said the Ministry of Public Security.

A total of 25,000 suspects have been questioned, with 192 firearms workshops dismantled and 265 websites closed, according to the ministry.

Police should intensify the anti-firearm campaign, Li Wei, deputy minister of public security, told attendees of a conference on gun control in Beijing.

Li urged the police to focus on looking for evidence of gun trade and sale on the Internet as well as at logistics companies.

More investigations and control measures are needed to address the inflow of firearms from overseas, Li said.

It is illegal for civilians to possess guns in China and the country has long maintained high pressure on gun crime.

The top disciplinary watchdog of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said that 210,000 people were punished for violating the Party code of conduct in the first half of 2017.

The figure was released Thursday on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Among the punished officials, 38 were at the provincial level or ministerial level, more than 1,000 at the prefecture level, over 8,400 at the county level and 129,000 others from rural areas and enterprises.

In 2016, 415,000 people were disciplined for violating the Party’s code of conduct and other irregularities.