The Chinese government plans to cultivate a large number of competitive private medical institutions to complete a diversified multi-layered healthcare system by 2020, which is expected to meet growing demands for customized services.

The target was set in a guideline that encourages private businesses to provide diversified medical services, which was approved at a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

Encouraging private medical services is vital to developing a prosperous healthcare industry, unleashing the potential for domestic consumption and promoting economic restructuring and upgrading, the guideline said.

The premier said that the necessity to develop healthcare industries cannot be overestimated. Healthcare has great potential as people’s lives are getting better, but is still in short supply. The key is to transform governmental functions and push forward administrative reforms, he said.

As one of the document’s seven key tasks, the guideline eyes private businesses to set up and operate high-quality general clinics, which will offer customized services.

Support will be given to the private sector to create strongly competitive institutions with their own branding in subfields such as stomatology. The advantage of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) should be fully utilized to offer services such as TCM-based healthcare and rehabilitative services.

The guideline encourages private medical institutions to provide services featuring advanced medical technologies. Customized services will be enhanced to offer value-added and ancillary services such as long-distance diagnoses. Business models integrating different sectors, such as medical services and nursing homes for seniors, will be promoted.

The guideline also aims to build industrial clusters for healthcare industries that meet high-end demands in and outside China.

The healthcare market will be further opened up with lower threshold of access as private medical institutions will be supported to introduce strategic investors and partners, and forge cooperation with public hospitals to boost diversified services, the guideline said.

In addition, the document envisages foreign investors as partners to establish high-level medical institutions in China through joint ventures and other forms of cooperation. China is open to overseas professionals, medical technologies, management experiences and operation models.

Premier Li called for making full use of the market dynamics to nurture an environment for different medical institutions to grow, compete and prosper. Private businesses will be encouraged to enhance the supply of healthcare products and services that cater to people’s diversified demands, he added.

Since the start of a new round of medical reform in 2009, the State Council has been working to boost enthusiasm and participation of private businesses with a slew of guidelines, including one that encourages private capital to enter the healthcare sector in November 2010.

In March, the central government promulgated another guideline to further promote participation of private businesses in areas such as medical services.

The premier said the central government has emphasized equal treatment for state-owned and private capital. He called for pragmatic measures to invigorate the enthusiasm of private businesses to participate in remedying shortcomings in these fields.

Wednesday’s meeting also approved another guideline, which aims to develop a system of health and medical tourism by 2030.

China said on Wednesday it would send two giant pandas to Denmark and work on panda protection during Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s visit.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Rasmussen held talks on Wednesday afternoon and witnessed the signing of cooperation documents on food and drug supervision, quarantine and panda protection, among others.

It will be the first time China has sent pandas to Denmark.

“The Danish prime minister visited Chengdu to see the two giant pandas to be sent to the Copenhagen Zoo to live there for some time. But The arrival of the pandas in Denmark will depend on when Denmark gets (the Panda House) ready,” Liu Weimin, an official with the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters after the talks.

“The giant pandas, as messengers of friendship, will play a positive role to our bilateral relations,” Liu said.

Copenhagen Zoo revealed in March the design of the panda house. Construction will begin in November and take about a year, according to Copenhagen Zoo director and CEO Steffen Straede.

China and Denmark unveiled a plan to deepen cooperation from 2017 to 2020 and agreed to expand two-way trade and investment. Both sides identified agriculture, fisheries, food security, health and tourism as major areas for cooperation.

“China hopes to work with Denmark to advance bilateral practical cooperation and guide the economic globalization towards more inclusiveness and fairness and promote liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment,” Li said.

Rasmussen said developing a comprehensive strategic partnership with China is a diplomatic priority for Denmark and invited Chinese investment to Denmark.

As a EU member, Denmark supports progress in the talks of EU-China investment treaty and contribute to the EU-China relations, Rasmussen said.

Before the talks, Li held a welcome ceremony for Rasmussen at the Great Hall of the People.

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for more efforts in promoting rule of law and cultivating talent for the cause.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks on a visit to China University of Political Science and Law ahead of Youth Day on May 4.

Fully implementing the rule of law is essential and an important measure in adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, said Xi, while talking with senior law professors and students.

Implementation of the rule of law is impossible without a high-quality legal work force, said Xi.

Xi called on the country’s law schools to enhance their research on basic issues in rule of law and related areas and provide theoretical support for socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics.

“We should have confidence in developing our own legal disciplines and contribute to global rule of law with Chinese wisdom and practice,” Xi said.

China should take successful legal practices worldwide as reference, but not simply copy them, he said.

Xi also called for more exchange between scholars and legal professionals.

In cultivating legal talent, Xi highlighted training of students’ virtue in addition to teaching legal knowledge.

He also told the country’s officials at all levels to take the lead in studying and observing the law and promoting the respect of virtue and law among society.

On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi extended greetings to young people, education workers, youth workers and those working for the rule of law nationwide.

The future of China and the Chinese nation belongs to the young, Xi said, noting that the younger generation’s belief, spirit and quality matter to the country’s development, vigor and core competitiveness.

He called on Chinese youth to uphold the belief in the country’s “two centenary goals” and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and take their responsibilities in the cause.

He also expressed wishes that the youth would study hard and grow healthily.

While talking with the university’s students, Xi called on them to follow the Party’s leadership and make use of their talent to serve the country and the people after graduation.

“The youth period is a key period to foster one’s scientific thinking,” Xi said, noting that the students should integrate their thinking with their study, observation and practices.

He also called on young people to fully use their creative spirit and be courageous in exploring and seeking the truth.

“During one’s growth and endeavor, the young may gain success and joy, but may also face difficulties and pressure,” the president said. “One should treat the success and failure at the moment with a correct attitude, not slouch in prosperity and not be frustrated in adversity.”

Xi also ordered Party organizations in colleges and universities to perform their duties in both Party governance and school management and to pay attention to both ideological issues and Party building, urging them to solve practical problems of the teachers and students in their work, research, study and employment.

A tomb complex likely used by nomadic people to bury their dead was recently discovered in Yinxu archaeological site in Anyang City, Henan Province.

Over 90 tombs were excavated, among which 18 were believed to have been the final resting place of a nomadic group. From soil samples and some of the items unearthed, the tombs are believed to be around 1,800 years old, according to the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Anyang station.

Shen Wenxi, with the station, said evidence has been found that indicates that Dasikong Village, the area where the tombs are located, had been a human settlement since as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.). The 18 nomadic tombs, which are relatively small and made from brick, were likely built after the Shang Dynasty.

The burial objects include two-handled bronze and iron pots, iron short swords and agate beads on strings — all typical items of nomadic people of the time. Experts believe that the 18 tombs could belong to the northern nomads who settled down in central China.

Among the remains was a well-preserved human skeleton, which was initially confirmed to be a male over 160 cm tall. Anthropologists will test the remains and hopefully shed light on the origins of these nomadic people, said Shen.

In the 1950s, a tomb containing similar burial items was discovered in Dasikong. This discovery, however, was the first time such a large nomadic tomb complex has been discovered in Anyang. Further exploration will continue.

Yinxu, or the Ruins of Yin, is one of China’s oldest archaeological sites. Named after the last capital of Shang, the Ruins of Yin was where the earliest written Chinese characters were discovered, etched on bone and tortoise shell.

A prison in southwest China’s Yunnan Province offered a reward of 100,000 yuan on Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of an escaped convict.

A class-A warrant has been issued for Zhang Lincang, 27, who escaped from No. 1 Prison in Yunnan Tuesday morning.

Zhang was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug-trafficking, and started his sentence in January 2017.

“Zhang left the site where inmates were working at around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, stole a truck and fled,” the report said. He abandoned the truck on a road 2 kilometers from the prison.