China takes fight against child abduction online

China’s Ministry of Public Security announced Saturday that 611 missing children were found last year, following the launch of an app in May.

During the period, 648 updates on missing children were posted. Of the 611, 27 had been abducted and 358 had run away from home, according to the ministry.

A new version of the platform that went live in November has expanded its reach through cooperation with other popular mobile apps, such as Amap,Taobao, Baidu, QQ and Didi Chuxing.

Users near where a child disappears receive push notifications, including photos and descriptions. The scope of these push notifications will be expanded over time.




China’s grain heartland cultivates more high-yield fields

Central China’s Henan Province added 7.55 million mu (around 500,000 hectares) of high-yield farmland in 2016, as the grain base modernizes its agriculture, according local officials on Saturday.

The province, which produces a tenth of China’s grain, plans to upgrade 63.69 million mu of farmland by 2020, according to the local high-yield grainfield office.

So far, about 53.57 million mu has been upgraded to high-yield, 84.1 percent of the overall target. In 2016, the provincial government spent 9.94 billion yuan (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) on the project.

Agricultural machinery and professional fertilizing methods are used to support the endeavor.

The province also established an information system which contains information on location of the fields and agricultural knowledge enquiry points, soil conditions and meteorological conditions.




Border police seizes 1.6 tonnes of drugs in 2016

Border police in a prefecture in southwest China’s Yunnan Province seized 1.6 tonnes of narcotics in 2016, the police announced Saturday.

Police in Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture completed investigations into 668 drug-related crimes and arrested 662 suspects in 2016.

The prefecture is near the opium-growing Golden Triangle.




Seven dead in north China car accident

Seven people were killed when a car crashed into a wall in a county road in north China’s Hebei Province, local authorities said Saturday.

The accident occurred at about 10:36 p.m. Friday in Anzhou town, Hebei.

Six people died at the scene and one died in hospital.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.




Henan Province plans four nuke power stations

The photo shows the architectural rendering for the nuclear power station to be built in Nanyang in Henan Province. [File photo]

Central China’s Henan Province has planned to build four nuclear power stations to ease the populous province’s pressing demand for electricity and to continue optimizing the structure of local energy consumption during the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

The four nuclear power stations will be set up in Nanyang, Xinyang, Luoyang and Pingdingshan. But construction can only start when the country lifts the ban on new inland nuclear power facilities due to safety concerns.

Under the province’s plan for energy development (2016-20), nuclear power, wind power and distributed solar power will join natural gas and non-fossil energies to reduce the percentage of coal in the local energy consumption structure.

As per the plan’s requirements, by 2020 consumption of non-fossil energies will account for at least 7 percent and natural gas for 7.5 percent in the province’s total energy consumption.

While urging the continued optimization of the local energy structure, the plan also requires the total installed capacity for power generation to increase to 87,000 megawatts by 2020, a 30 percent increase over that of 2015.