Tag Archives: China

Aerial photo taken on Jan 9, 2017 shows view of Zhangqiao, one of the largest shantytowns, and surrounding estate in Hongkou district, East China’s Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua] China will build 6 million new homes for residents of shantytowns before th… read more

The U.S. department store franchise Nordstrom recently decided to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessory line. The retailer said that it won’t purchase products from the Ivanka Trump line based on the brand’s performance.

Ivanka Trump’s line of shoes on sale at a U.S. store. [Photo/VCG]

This move irritated U.S President Donald Trump. “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” Trump tweeted on his private Twitter account and the official @POTUS account. The Twitter criticism led to a brief fall in Nordstrom’s stock.

However, the trademark of Ivanka has become a hot commodity in China. Many Chinese firms have applied to use Ivanka Trump’s name as their trademark for their business. According to data from the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, there are 227 current applications to use “Ivanka” as a trademark on products ranging from diapers to cosmetics.

Among them, a Beijing-based company that provides weight loss services filed 55 applications to use the Chinese characters of Ivanka as its trademark for many products. Furthermore, the company also submitted 10 applications to use “IVANKA”, the English name of Ivanka Trump, for its products.

The rush to trademark Ivanka’s name is linked to her rising popularity in China, particularly after the presidential election. Most of the applications are still being processed, and it’s not clear whether any of them will be granted trademark rights.

According to Liu Kai, a lawyer from Hunan Province, foreign names or Chinese translations of such names are permitted as trademarks in business if they are not the names of public figures. However, it is easier to get the applications approved if a public figure is not popular in China.

“But now, the Chinese know Ivanka Trump because she is the first daughter in the U.S.,” said Liu Kai. According to a recent judicial interpretation by China’s Supreme People’s Court on Jan. 11, 2017, it is forbidden to use the names of public figures in trademarks, which the top courts say could “cause negative influence”.

“Therefore, I think it is impossible for these applications to get approved by the authority if the first daughter intervenes,” said Liu Kai.

Joint cooperation on environmental protection in the past three years between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province has resulted in significantly improved air quality in the region. China has promoted the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-He… read more

Chinese students celebrate their graduation from Columbia University on May 20, 2015. [photo/Xinhua] At the National Science and Technology Awards Conference held in Beijing on January, 2017, Ren Xiaobin and his team won the second prize in the 201… read more

The Education Ministry released a notice on its website on Wednesday, stressing that parents or guardians are not allowed to educate children at home without permission from education authorities.

According to the Compulsory Education Law, all school-age children must attend primary and junior middle school.

Schools and local education authorities shoulder the responsibility of finding those children who do not go to school and persuading them to attend, the notice said.

“For children who cannot attend school due to reasons such as poor physical health, their parents or guardians should report to the local education authorities and ask for a delay in enrollment,” the notice said.

“They cannot give children home schooling as a substitute for school education if they fail to gain permission from the authorities.”

The notice was released against a backdrop of an increasing number of students being educated at home or attending small, private teaching institutes.

Research conducted by the 21st Century Education Research Institute estimated that the number of children who receive home schooling rather than attending school in China has risen from 2,000 in 2013 to 6,000 today.

Wang Jiajia, who led the research, said the legality of home schooling had long been controversial in China, but that the increasing number of parents and children wanting to do so demonstrated that the unified, standardized education provided in the nation’s schools cannot meet everyone’s needs.