China is aiming to transform a barren desert into an economic development area with vegetation coverage of 53 percent. An international forum will be held on July 28 in Kubuqi Desert, aiming to share the Chinese experience in reforesting the desert.

This experience, known as the Kubuqi Model, urged people to create enterprises using technology to control desertification on a large scale.

Erik Solheim, executive director of United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), said that the Kubuqi Model offered precious experience for other countries and regions suffering from desertification and that such experience should spread along the Belt and Road for local benefit.

Farmers and herdsmen in Kubuqi plant liquorice to improve soil and build photovoltaic power stations for electricity. They lifted themselves out of poverty while fighting desertification.

“The desert is terrible, but the problem can be tackled,” said Luo Bin, an official of State Forestry Administration in charge of desert control.

“Years of effort and practice have proved that desert can turn green,” said Wang Wenbiao, chairman of ELION Group, which initiated the desert control plan in Kubuqi.

Wang also said that people would not bring sand storms under permanent control unless they combined policy support, commercial investment, market-based local agriculture and continuous improvment in the local environment.

Kubuqi is the seventh largest desert in China, covering a total area of 18,600 square kilometers. Beijing, only 800 km from the desert, was ofen troubled by sand storms in the past.

Chinese people have forested more than 6,000 square kilometers of Kubuqi and reduced 90 percent of sand storms in the desert.

China applauded an exhibition on the Nanjing Massacre jointly organized by groups from Nanjing, China and Hiroshima, Japan, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Referring to the exhibition that kicked off on July 15 in Hiroshima, Lu Kang said this year marks the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, in which the Japanese militarists committed serious crimes during the Second World War.

The painful history should never be forgotten, he said, and called on Japan to learn from the history to avoid war, safeguard peace and shape the future.

Su Shulin, former governor of east China’s Fujian Province, has been put under investigation on suspicion of accepting bribes, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Tuesday.

Su, also former deputy chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Fujian provincial committee, was expelled from the CPC and dismissed from public office for violating the Party’s code of conduct and corruption on July 4.

The SPP also announced an investigation into four other officials for taking bribes: Yang Chongyong, a former senior legislator in northern China’s Hebei Province; Wang Yincheng, former president of the People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (PICC); Zhou Chunyu, vice governor of east China’s Anhui Province; and Cai Xiyou, former general manager of state-owned chemical firm Sinochem Group.

The five have been placed under “coercive measures,” which may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention or arrest.

Investigations into their cases are currently under way, according to the SPP.

At least 14 people were taken to hospital after an explosion hit a restaurant in Feng Chia business district in Taichung city Tuesday lunchtime, local media said.

A man surnamed Wu reportedly suffered burns on over 90 percent of his body and is in critical conditions. Other victims included a 35-year-old pregnant woman and six people believed to be students from a nearby university.

A series of explosions were heard emanating from the restaurant in the business zone at 12:22 p.m., and fire enveloped the site and an adjacent clothing store, a noodle restaurant and a curry restaurant, local fire authorities said.

The combination of a gas leak and turning off an electric fan on the second floor might have caused the blaze, according to local authority.

The fire is under control and further investigation is underway.

A high-profile criminal case has been heard at the Baiyin Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Gansu Province on Tuesday.

Alleged serial killer Gao Chengyong, detained in the city of Baiyin last year, is on trial for intentional killing, rape, robbery and desecrating a human corpse.

If convicted, the 53-year old Gao could face the death penalty. A verdict is expected later this week.

Gao Chengyong is accused of raping and murdering 11 people from 1988 to 2002. He was arrested in August, 2016, after a lengthy investigation in the city of Baiyin, where 9 of the 11 killings took place.

Prosecutors have alleged Gao would target young women dressed in red, then follow them home, where he would subsequently rape and kill them, normally by cutting their throats. The victims’ bodies were also mutilated after their deaths, leading to the killer being dubbed ‘China’s Jack the Ripper’ in Chinese media.