China has sent eight inspection groups to local governments and enterprises to make sure workplace safety-related problems will be discovered and eliminated, according to an official statement.

As the fourth batch of inspections by the Work Safety Committee of the State Council, the groups went to Inner Mongolia and Tibet autonomous regions; Shanghai municipality; provinces of Gansu, Hainan, Hubei and Qinghai; and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The inspectors, who will pay random visits to local companies, are tasked to detect problems in work safety and promote the rectification, the committee said in a statement.

Local governments and departments will be held accountable if local checks failed to discover major work safety hazards in companies, or if local authorities did not punish companies after major problems had been detected, the committee said.

After the completion of the new inspections, the committee’s inspection tours since last year will have covered all the country’s provincial level regions, according to the statement.

Liu Yunshan, a senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has urged Party cadres at the grassroots level to do more in serving the people and advancing reform and development.

Liu, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during an inspection in southeast China’s Fujian Province from Thursday to Saturday.

Liu visited various villages, communities and enterprises to learn about the progress made in the Party building at the grassroots level, where he asked the CPC members to learn from the example of Liao Junbo, a late official who had served in Fujian.

The CPC Central Committee on Tuesday decided to posthumously honor Liao as an “outstanding CPC member.” Liao died at the age of 48 in a traffic accident while heading to a meeting on March 18.

A statement of the CPC central leadership noted that Liao, vice mayor of Nanping City in Fujian, had worked wholeheartedly to lead local cadres and people in poverty-relief work, showing his loyalty to the Party and selfless devotion to duty.

Liao had also served as Party chief of Fujian’s Zhenghe County, where he pushed forward economic development that eventually helped more than 30,000 people shake off poverty within less than four years.

During the inspection tour, Liu held a seminar with some officials in Zhenghe county to discuss how to learn from Liao to better serve the people.

The Chinese mainland holds a positive and open attitude toward cross-Strait intercity exchanges with Taiwan as long as there is correct understanding of the nature of cross-Strait relations and city-to-city exchanges.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks Saturday in response to questions about an interview with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who made remarks on the annual city forum between Shanghai and Taipei, as well as the mainland-Taiwan relations.

Ko had said he would work actively to facilitate the exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai as long as the exchanges benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and are conducive to peaceful development across the strait.

Ma said the mainland had taken note of the reports of the interview. He said Shanghai and Taipei will take care of detailed arrangements for the annual city forum.

The southeast corner of the imperial palace discovered at the Taosi relic site in Xiangfen County of north China’s Shanxi Province. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Archeologists have dated the ruins in the northeast of the Taosi relic site in Xiangfen County to around 4000 years ago.

They are believed to provide important evidence of China’s capital city system, officials from Shanxi institute of archaeology told Chinanews.com.

“We’ve been exploring the southeast corners of the palace since 2017. Basically, this palace has been completely preserved. It demonstrates a self-contained system and rigorous structure, with outstanding defensive function. It’s the earliest imperial city discovered in China so far”, said Gao Jiangtao with the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A photo shows the southeast gate of the imperial palace discovered in the Taosi relic site in Xiangfen County of north China’s Shanxi Province. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Rectangular in shape, the site is about 470 meters in length from the east to the west, and some 270 meters in width from south to the north.

Spanning an area of about 130,000 square meters, the palace is composed of a north wall, east wall, south wall, and west wall. Only the foundations of the city walls remain, although some corners which have also been destroyed.

In ancient times, such imperial cities are indicative of a class division, with the living quarters of civilians separated from those of the royal family.

Archeologists point out that the Taosi imperial palace may indicate the beginnings of the capital system in ancient China.

The Taosi relics site covers an area of 3 million square meters. It is believed to be a settlement of the period of the five legendary rulers (2,600 BC-1,600 BC) in Chinese history.

Shanghai procuratorate has begun to offer rights and obligations notifications in both Chinese and English for cases relating to intellectual property rights (IPRs).

Starting Friday, procuratorates in the city will issue the new rights and obligations notifications to parties involved in IPR infringement cases.

Dozens of international brands, including Amore Pacific and Adidas, were shown the bilingual document on Friday, according to a spokesperson with the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate.

In 2013, procuratorate bodies in Shanghai began to notify IRP victims of their rights and obligations within three days of IPR infringement cases being accepted.

The bilingual document will help the aggrieved parties better claim their rights and perform obligations and will address misunderstandings caused by inaccurate translation, said the spokesperson.