Nobel laureate C.N. Yang (left) and Turing Award winner Yao Qizhi. [Photo: China Daily]

Nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang and Turing Award winner Yao Qizhi have become Chinese citizens and officially joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences as academicians－the highest academic title in China, the academy’s faculty office said on Tuesday.

They are the first overseas scientists to relinquish their US citizenship to join the official faculty of China’s highest scientific research organization. Yang, 94, will join the mathematical physics department, while Yao, 70, will enter the information technology and science department.

“They are both world renowned scholars,” the office said in a statement. “Their entry into the academy’s faculty will increase the influence of China’s scientific circles worldwide.”

Yang and Tsung-dao Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction, becoming the first people of Chinese origin to win a Nobel Prize.

Yao became in 2000 the first person of Chinese origin to receive the Turing Award, the most prestigious award in computer science. He won for his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation such as cryptography and communication complexity.

In late 2016, both scientists had relinquished their foreign nationality and submitted their request to join the academy. The faculty office said it had to adopt new procedures to accept the two scientists, who were both foreign academicians at the time.

In order to become a foreign academician, one has to be an accomplished scientist who contributed greatly to China’s science and technology. After being recommended by more than five Chinese members, the foreign scientist enters a biennial election and must win a two-thirds majority of academicians’ votes to join their ranks, according to the academy’s charter.

A foreign academician, though lacking voting rights, can advise on Chinese scientific developments and the workings of the faculty office, as well as receive academic publications and invitations to seminars held by the office. Foreign academicians can join the ranks of Chinese members once they receive Chinese citizenship.

A Chinese member can make suggestions on major Chinese scientific projects and vote on prospective new members of the academy.

There are now 754 Chinese and 78 foreign scientists in the academy. In recent years, the faculty office has worked to build a “big academician family”, connecting renowned scholars from around the world to give advice and contribute to China’s scientific development.

“As China’s science, economy and society develop, the influence of the faculties will increase domestically and abroad,” the office said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Tuesday chaired a meeting on the draft government work report.

The meeting, attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, discussed the draft report, which is scheduled to be submitted to the upcoming fifth session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC).

Tuesday’s meeting also reviewed a special report on inspections of central Party and governmental authorities, and another document on a Party education campaign.

At the meeting, China’s top leadership pledged to stick to the basic tone of “seeking progress while maintaining stability” in 2017, aiming for more progress from supply-side structural reform.

The meeting highlighted the significance of 2017 as the 19th CPC National Congress will convene.

Acknowledging that China has scored a strong start for the 2016-2020 period, the meeting called for further efforts to balance multiple economic tasks in 2017, including stabilizing growth, advancing reforms, pushing restructuring, improving people’s livelihood and preventing risks.

At the macro level, China will continue to implement proactive fiscal policies and prudent monetary policies, according to a document released after the meeting.

Reforms in key areas will be deepened, while the role of innovation will be boosted to facilitate economic upgrading, said the document.

China will also intensify efforts to tap the potential of domestic demand and strengthen internal growth momentum.

Other tasks include pushing supply-side structural reform in the agriculture sector, widening opening-up, promoting green development and improving government services for people’s well-being.

The meeting came ahead of China’s annual two sessions in March, during which lawmakers and political advisors will gather in Beijing to discuss the social and economic policies for the year.

Since the CPC’s 18th National Congress, anti-graft teams have carried out 11 rounds of inspections across all provincial-level governments, central authorities, key state-owned enterprises and central financial institutions, according to the document.

The inspections, which focused on the adherence to the Party’s leadership, comprehensive and strict governance of the Party and observation of the Party’s Constitution and rules, have been effective political “microscopes” and “searchlights,” the document stated.

The document said that central Party and governmental authorities play an important role in the Party and the state and they must uphold the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized and unified leadership.

It stressed that all problems detected in the inspections should be properly addressed.

The document said that the Party education campaign — which focuses on the study of the Party Constitution and rules, as well as the speeches made by Xi, and calls for being qualified Party members — plays an important role in Party building and governance.

Deeming it an effective tool in Party building, the document said the education campaign had helped shape the approach to governance of the Party under a new situation.

It said the education campaign should be regular and institutionalized, as this would help members understand the essence of Xi’s speeches, ensure Party members unite closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and scoring new achievements in socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The document called on Party organizations at all levels to make the education campaign a strategic and basic project.

It stressed that ideological education must be prioritized and efforts should be made to educate and guide Party members, especially leading officials.

Leading officials should set a good example in the campaign, the document said, adding that evaluations of the education campaign should be carried out annually.

Yang Dongliang, former head of the State Administration of Work Safety, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes and embezzlement on Tuesday by a court in Beijing.

Yang accepted the verdict and will not to appeal.

According to the verdict by the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing, from 2002 to 2015 when Yang was vice mayor of Tianjin and a member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China Tianjin municipal committee, head of the State Administration of Work Safety and other posts, he help others in running businesses, promotions, tenders and other issues, illegally accepting assets worth 28.5 million yuan (US$4.1 million).

In 1999, as head of Tianjin’s economic commission, Yang bought an apartment with public funds of 270,800 yuan.

Yang was shown leniency as he pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and returned his illegal gains.

At least two people have died and four injured after an explosion at a chemical factory in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local authorities said Tuesday.

The blast occurred at 9 a.m. at Lixin Chemical in Alashan League, Inner Mongolia, according to the local safety bureau.

No chemical leaks have been discovered.

An investigation is underway.

Microplastics, which are small particles of plastic debris found in cosmetics and cleaning products like toothpastes, is viewed as a major environmental concern along with climate change, ozone depletion and ocean acidification.

A national key research project on microplastics was recently launched in Shanghai to assess their impact on the ecological environment, especially in the ocean.

Led by East China Normal University, the study will be conducted by several college laboratories and research institutions in a time span from 2016 to late 2020 and aims to detect marine microplastics, establish research standards and monitoring procedures and develop ways to control their risks on the ecosystem.

Microplastics, which are small particles of plastic debris found in cosmetics and cleaning products like toothpastes, are too small to be captured through existing wastewater treatment processes and are washed straight into the oceans.

GESAMP (The Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection), an inter-agency body of the United Nations, listed microplastics as a mild killer whose harm is equal to marine garbage. In 2015, it was viewed as a major environmental concern along with climate change, ozone depletion and ocean acidification.

Due to its widespread presence in the oceans and potential harm to marine life, some countries have already rolled out countermeasures to deal with the increasing concern.

The US was the first country to announce that it would ban microbeads use in cosmetics; the European Commission is developing proposals to ban them in cosmetics across the EU, following calls from a number of member states. And the UK government has announced plans to ban microbeads use in related products by 2017.

Environmental agencies should tighten emissions of microplastics in different land- and sea-based activities, formulate stricter punishment measures for violations and accelerate legislation research on limiting the production and use of microplastics, said Professor Li Daoji, chief expert of the project.

Observers say the public also needs increased awareness of their potential harm to marine life and should refuse to buy cleansing products with polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and nylon.