China’s insurance premium income reached 3.09 trillion yuan (US$457 billion) in 2016, overtaking Japan and the UK to become the second largest market after the U.S., according to the 2016-2017 Insurance Industry Risk Management Report, released by EY, a global service firm and one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, in Beijing on July 18.

The insurance revenue witnessed a year-on-year increase of 27.5 percent and accounted for nearly half of the world’s total.

The EY report said life insurance was the main driver of growth.

The premium income of life insurance companies climbed 31.72 percent to hit 1.74 trillion yuan (US$257 billion), largely due to people increasingly preparing for old age.

In addition, China’s health insurance market has also witnessed fast growth in the lastfour years, up 67.71 percent to over 404.2 billion yuan (US$59.7 billion) in 2016, an indication of people’s enhanced awareness of heath guarantees and an increased number ofdiversified insurance products, said the report.

The report also analyzed the challenges and risks the insurance companies face including disruption from stricter supervision, a slowing economy which may not grow enough to significantly boost insurance sales and higher financial market risk.

The police have discovered more than 3,800 cases related to the sale and manufacturing of illegal firearms since August 2016, said the Ministry of Public Security.

A total of 25,000 suspects have been questioned, with 192 firearms workshops dismantled and 265 websites closed, according to the ministry.

Police should intensify the anti-firearm campaign, Li Wei, deputy minister of public security, told attendees of a conference on gun control in Beijing.

Li urged the police to focus on looking for evidence of gun trade and sale on the Internet as well as at logistics companies.

More investigations and control measures are needed to address the inflow of firearms from overseas, Li said.

It is illegal for civilians to possess guns in China and the country has long maintained high pressure on gun crime.

The top disciplinary watchdog of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said that 210,000 people were punished for violating the Party code of conduct in the first half of 2017.

The figure was released Thursday on the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Among the punished officials, 38 were at the provincial level or ministerial level, more than 1,000 at the prefecture level, over 8,400 at the county level and 129,000 others from rural areas and enterprises.

In 2016, 415,000 people were disciplined for violating the Party’s code of conduct and other irregularities.

A seminar was held in Beijing on July 18 to share the successful experience of an online short video program named “China Mosaic.” Jiang Jianguo, vice minister of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and minister of the State Council Information Office (SCIO), attended and addressed the seminar. Guo Weimin, vice minister of the SCIO, hosted the seminar.

The serial program “China Mosaic” is an English-language commentary on global news, often offering Chinese perspective. It is produced by China.org.cn, a Beijing-based website offering news and information service in 10 languages.

In his speech, Jiang spoke highly of the program, saying that China.org.cn has shouldered the responsibility towards the nation and the people and produced an influential program. He summarized the reasons for the success of the program, saying that China.org.cn has not only equipped itself with innovative capabilities through proactive agenda-setting and condensing the content into three-minute programs, but also cultivated talent to lead and promote the related work. Jiang encouraged China.org.cn to keep improving the program and explore the regular patterns of online international communication.

Concerning how to promote international communication, Jiang emphasized proactive agenda-setting, the use of the internet and mobile internet as well as the production of signature programs.

Zhang Fuhai, president of China International Publishing Group (CIPG), which is the parent company of China.org.cn, stressed the importance of international communication and CIPG’s support of the program. He said that international communication is the blood of CIPG, and while continuing to support the program, CIPG will increase its capability of international communication.

Wang Xiaohui, editor-in-chief of China.org.cn and host of the program, introduced the practice and experience in producing the program. Wang said that the achievements of the program can be attributed to the use of English (modern day lingua franca), the effect-oriented principle, the emphasis on facts and opinions, the story-telling pattern, and the serial structure. He pledged that China.org.cn will continue to promote international communication.

The program “China Mosaic” was launched by China.org.cn in May 2015, and 116 videos have been produced during the past two years. By far, the program has been watched for 227 million times, the videos have been played for over 16.95 million times, and the interaction among the audience has reached 1.27 million times.

Technology has changed the way people live their lives, and now it has started to change the way government works in China.

To illustrate this, a vice environment minister used Wechat to communicate with lower-level officials in a group talk seeking solutions to environmental problems.

According to The Beijing News, the mayors of 12 cities in Sichuan Province were invited to join a Wechat group chat chaired by China’s Vice Environment Minister Zhai Qing and Sichuan Vice Governor Yang Hongbo. The 12 mayors have to report their progress in dealing with certain local environmental issues every week.

On July 7, the Ministry of Environmental Protection held a teleconference. It was revealed there are still 107 environmental violation issues concerning the Yangtze River Economic Zone’s drinking water reserve area that are yet to be resolved. Among them, Sichuan Province has 30 cases, topping the list.

So, Zhai went to Sichuan to resolve the problems and formed a Wechat group to “communicate, investigate and supervise,” hoping that, together, they could work out problems one by one.

The city governments involved obviously speeded up their efforts to deal with environmental problems after the meeting and Wechat group chat.