Tag Archives: China

China unveiled new measures Wednesday to prevent misuse of water pollution funds. A performance rating framework will be set up to assess whether the money is spent wisely and whether the anti-pollution project is well managed, according to a statemen… read more

Willow catkins shroud parked vehicles and a fruit vendor on Huixin Dongjie in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on Monday. [Photo/China Daily]

The Beijing municipal government is looking at ways to deal with the masses of willow and poplar catkins－pollenating flowers－blowing throughout the city.

Though a small number of the fluffy pods may elicit a romantic mood, too many can cause problems with traffic, street cleaning and allergic people.

To solve the problem, the Beijing Municipal Landscape and Forestry Bureau said it will trim and thin trees, and treat 400,000 willow and poplar trees with chemicals this year to limit their catkin production. It will also replace willow and poplar trees with other kinds of trees to gradually reduce the problem.

In addition, it will use high-pressure water jets to reduce floating catkins and has asked the urban cleaning department to clear away the debris in a timely manner.

According to the bureau, Beijing has 2 million poplar and willow trees, which produce a large number of catkins for about a month every spring.

Shen Guofang, a forestry expert and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said catkins cannot be dealt with simply by cutting the trees.

“The ecological benefits from full-grown trees far out-weigh the annoyance caused by catkins,” he said. “If we cut them, the city’s natural environment will be damaged.”

Willows and poplars account for 5.4 percent of the city’s green trees, according to the bureau.

Liu Xiuchen, a consultant for the State Council who has worked in the gardening and landscape industry for decades, said that in the 1950s the government didn’t have enough money to spend on greening in the capital, so the low-cost and fast-growing poplars and willows became the best choice at that time and were widely planted.

Poplars and willows produce catkins as part of their reproduction process. The city government will stop using female poplar and willow trees to limit the number, the bureau said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) and Wang Xiaotao (L), deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, attend a press conference on the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, capital of China, April 18, 20… read more

President Xi Jinping asked People’s Liberation Army commanders on Tuesday to focus on strengthening their unit’s combat capability following the establishment of 84 large units.

Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, met commanders of these new units at the commission’s headquarters in Beijing.

The new units must prepare themselves for combat and study wars. They should concentrate on improving their joint operation capabilities and technology level, Xi said.

The president also told the new forces to conduct more combat exercises and give priority to building “new-type” fighting capabilities.

In PLA terminology, new-type fighting capabilities generally refers to capabilities of engaging in electronic, information and space operations.

All 84 of the new units are at combined corps level, which means their commanders have or soon will be promoted to a rank of either major general in the Ground Force, Air Force and Rocket Force or rear admiral in the Navy. Though the PLA has not disclosed how these units were set up, it is likely that they were created through the regrouping of existing forces rather than recruiting new personnel, because the Chinese military is still engaged in cutting its troops by 300,000.

The units’ emergence also indicates the PLA’s structural shake-up has taken effect. At a Central Military Commission conference in December, Xi ordered the military’s structure to be adjusted and optimized, calling for a smaller but capable and flexible military.

The establishment of the units is the latest move in a massive reform the PLA is undergoing. That unprecedented reform began in November 2015, when the Central Military Commission unveiled a blueprint for the PLA’s development. The commission pledged to establish a leaner and more efficient command chain, to reduce the number of noncombatant personnel and departments and to build the PLA into a mightier force capable of winning modern wars.

Since then, the PLA has set up a headquarters for its Ground Force, founded a Strategic Support Force dedicated to electronic, information and space operations, and established a Rocket Force to replace the former Second Artillery Corps.

The previous four top PLA departments－staff, politics, logistics and armaments－were dismantled.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed the role of supervision in implementing reform, demanding such work be carried out in a wider and deeper scope to detect and solve problems. All departments and localities should attach greater importan… read more