Tag Archives: China

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NPC deputy proposes longer fishing ban to protect ocean resources

NPC Deputy Mai Kangsen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering [Photo/China.org.cn] 

NPC Deputy Mai Kangsen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has suggested extending the annual fishing ban among other measures to protect ocean resources.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

“Ocean resources are exhaustible. We have to recognize that, in order to protect ocean resources and make fishing sustainable, we have to have higher catch limits,” he said.

He proposed further extending the fishing ban, slapping strict controls on the size of fish caught, and setting fishing quotas.

Based on scientific estimates, Mai said the annual catch from the shallow ocean should be set in a range between 3-6 million tonnes. However, China’s current catch is more than 10 million tonnes every year, profoundly damaging the ocean ecosystem.

The fishing ban that China implements has been extended from three to four months and was extended to the Huaihe River last year. This year, the Pearl River and Minjiang River are included for the first time.

The ban is enforced beginning June 1 every year and aimed at safeguarding fish during their breeding season and conserving fish stocks.

“Despite the extension of the fishing ban, there is still a great strain on ocean resources,” said Mai. “We should come up with stricter policies to restore resources.”

Although there will be added management costs, protecting ocean resources was a far more important consideration.

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China’s new spaceship to rival the best in the world

Shenzhou XI manned spacecraft blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on Oct 17, 2016. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/chinadaily.com.cn] 

China is making a new-generation manned spaceship which rivals that of world-leading space powers, a space mission expert said.

“Among the next generation of manned spaceships some foreign countries are developing, only the Orion spacecraft of the US can carry out a moon landing mission,” Zhang Bainan, a spaceship engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, told Science and Technology Daily on Tuesday.

China is working on a new manned spaceship that can fly both in low earth orbit, as well as a moon landing mission, Zhang said. He added that the spacecraft is recoverable and has a larger capacity than the new-generation manned spaceship of foreign countries, which can carry six people in low earth orbit and three to four in a moon landing mission.

As a late-starter in manned space flight, China has made significant advances and its newest spacecraft is set to match the capabilities of other world leaders in space exploration, Zhang said.

Last year, the re-entry module of the new spacecraft was put to the test aboard a Long March-7 rocket.

China first launched a man into space in 2003, 42 years after the former Soviet Union carried out the maiden manned space flight.

The country is projected to build a space station in 2020 and make a manned moon landing in 2030.

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Chinese awarded highest honor in interventional radiology

President of Southeast University’s Zhongda Hospital, Teng Gaojun, along with two U.S. experts, has been awarded the SIR Gold Medal, the highest honor presented by the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) during its Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 2017.

The award aims to acknowledge “distinguished and extraordinary service to SIR or to the discipline of interventional radiology (IR).” Dr. Teng, as a Chinese pioneer in IR, had been nominated for his continuous hard work during the past 30 years, which has greatly contributed to the standardization of practice, education and research in the field as well as the relations between Chinese Society of Interventional Radiology (CSIR) and many foreign institutions.

Prof. Teng is the first Chinese mainland SIR Gold Medal recipient in the society’s history. As for him, the medal means more than recognition of his personal achievements, but also serves as an acknowledgement of China’s advanced-level status in the IR treatment domain.

Interventional radiology pioneers minimally invasive image-guided (X-rays, CT, ultrasound, MRI, etc.) diagnosis and treatment of diseases in every organ system, which means reaching the source of a medical problem through blood vessels or directly through a tiny incision in the skin to deliver a precise, targeted treatment. With an obvious advantage of less risk, less pain and less recovery time than traditional surgery, it is, to some extent, a synonym of modern medicine.

Beginning in the 1980s, China’s IR practice is among one of the nation’s most rapidly developed medical specialties, and has formed its own therapy system.

The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) is one of the world’s earliest and most influential academic societies in IR treatment, with a core purpose of improving patient care through image-guided therapy. Every year, the society bestows its ultimate accolade on two or three interventional radiologists. The SIR Gold Medal was established in 1996.

Along with Dr. Teng, this year’s Gold Medal recipients include Katharine L. Krol and Jeanne M. LaBerge, who “embody the inspiration and promise of IR’s limitless potential,” according to SIR 2016–17 President Charles E. Ray Jr.

 

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