介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
A proposed legal ban on the use of surrogate mothers has been scrapped after lawmakers raised objections over the effectiveness of such a move.
Officials had initially included the ban in a draft amendment to the nation's Law on Population and Family Planning. Yet after a routine review, the top legislature removed the provision before approving the final draft.
Other amendments in the approved draft included allowing couples to have two children and extending maternity leave for mothers who abide by the law. The revised law has now come into effect.
Some members of the top legislature argued that surrogacy cannot be totally forbidden, adding that even with a law in place, rich people would still be able to go abroad to countries where surrogacy is allowed.
China already has regulations forbidding the use of surrogate mothers. However, law enforcement departments called for the ban to be written into law to enhance enforcement in tackling those who still offer such services.
Despite the regulations issued in 2001 by the Ministry of Health, now part of the commission, the practice has survived underground in many parts of China.
In April, the government launched a campaign to crack down on medical clinics that provide surrogacy services, but little progress was made due to a lack of legislation and enforcement at grassroots level.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Doctors in east China's Shandong Province have announced the successful transplant of a bio-engineered pig cornea into a human eye. The operation took place in late September.
The patient's vision has gradually improved after a three month recovery period, which means the transplant was a success.
The patient, 60-year-old Wang Xin-yi, had a serious corneal ulcer. He could only see moving objects within 10 centimeters.
The transplant used a bio-engineered cornea, the first such product to be accredited by the China Food and Drug Administration in late April.
With the pig cornea as the main material, the product is devoid of cells, hybrid proteins, and other antigens. It retains a natural collagen structure with remarkable bio-compatibility and biological safety.
Cornea diseases are some of the biggest causes of blindness in China, affecting around 4 million people. New cases are increasing by 100,000 each year; however, only around 5,000 people receive a cornea transplant annually.
Some hospitals in China have been conducting clinical trials of the pig cornea since 2010, recording a success rate of 94 percent, similar to the results seen with donated human corneas.
Doctors say this bio-engineered cornea may help millions of people to be able to see again.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The world-renowned journal Nature has released its annual list of ten people who mattered in science in 2015. The list includes one Chinese scientist whose work in human embryo gene editing has caused repeated debate in academic circle.
This year's list was compiled after much discussion by Nature's journalists and editors, spans the globe, highlighting individuals who have played important roles in issues ranging from climate change to gene editing to research reproducibility.
Helen Pearson, Nature's Chief Features Editor, says the explosion of interest in a human embryo gene editing has been a major story of the year, and for this reason biologist Huang Jun-jiu at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou earned a place on the list.
In April, Huang published the first report of a human embryo with edited genes, sparking global debate on the ethics of such research.
In his study, Huang and his team used spare embryos from fertility clinics that could not progress to a live birth, and modified the gene, responsible for a kind of blood disorder, in the embryos. To accomplish the task, they adopted a powerful technique, which can be programmed to precisely alter DNA in specific sequences.
Huang told Nature in April that he wanted to edit the genes of embryos because this can show up genetic problems related to cancer or diabetes, and can be used to study gene function in embryonic development.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A woman sentenced to life in prison for poisoning children has been acquitted, renewing long-standing questions among judicial experts about the best ways to ensure that legal processes are used in handling cases.
The central government determined two years ago to rectify wrongful verdicts.
Qian Renfeng was given a life sentence in 2002 in Yunnan province, after she was accused of putting poison in the food of children at a kindergarten where she worked. One of the children died. At the time, Qian was 17.
The court said Qian poisoned the children because she did not get along with her employer.
After serving 13 years in prison, Qian is now 30 years old, and was pronounced innocent, because evidence in the case was flawed, as was her confession.
The court says the evidence presented by the police was tainted, and there were some inconsistencies in the defendant's confession. Meanwhile, signatures on three statements in which she confessed to the crime were proved not to be hers.
It was not the first time the country's courts have overturned a judgment in the past two years.
Since late 2013, Chinese courts have conducted a sweeping crackdown on wrongful verdicts, aiming to build up judicial credibility and implement the rule of law nationwide.
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Medical and cosmetic surgery services from South Korea are expected to become more widely available in China as a result of the bilateral free trade agreement that took effect recently.
Under the agreement, doctors who are licensed in South Korea, including plastic surgeons, can work in China for six months to a year. This could mean Chinese customers may be able to get door-to-door cosmetic surgery services from South Korean doctors.
In the past five years, the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea for medical tours surged twentyfold, with around 25,000 people traveling annually. Almost 70 percent went to South Korea for cosmetic surgery.
Currently, most visiting Chinese customers choose Korean hospitals for cosmetic surgery based on the recommendations of Chinese agencies. They not only afford expensive surgery costs but lack legal protection in the event of medical malpractice.
The agreement will bring more Korean doctors to China, which will help Chinese customers to significantly save on costs including transportation, accommodation and intermediary fees.
The cosmetic surgery market in South Korea is almost saturated. By working in China, Korean surgeons will be able to get out of the competitive domestic market, and seize opportunities in the huge Chinese market.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Asia's largest underground railway station has begun operations in the southern city of Shenzhen, slashing the travel time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong to half an hour.
The Futian High-speed Railway Station in downtown Shenzhen covers a total area of 150,000 square meters, or the size of 21 football pitches.
Its three underground floors are installed with more than 1,200 seats, allowing 3,000 passengers to wait simultaneously.
The travel time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be slashed to half an hour. Passengers in Shenzhen need only 15 minutes to arrive in Hong Kong.
A total of twenty-three pairs of high-speed trains run in and out of the station.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto NEWSPlusRadio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.
Beijing's two recent red alerts for air pollution led to the suspension of classes at primary and middle schools in the capital, but online education platforms experienced a boom.
According to 17zuoye.com, an Internet-based homework service, the number of newly registered users on Dec 8 was almost three times as many as the day before, with 3,000 teachers and 160,000 students in Beijing assigning and doing homework there.
Users of Homework Box, a mobile app that has similar functions to 17zuoye.com, hit a new high in the number of questions downloaded and worked on by students from Dec 7 to 9, when Beijing issued its first red alert for air pollution and primary and middle schools of the capital suspended classes for three days.
TAL Education Group, an after-school tutoring service, opened some of its online courses to students free of charge during red alerts. The service had more than 20,000 students in Beijing studying online courses during the three days of suspended classes after the first red alert, 50 percent more than the average on ordinary days.
The top subjects studied were fifth-and seventh-grade math and eighth-grade physics.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A pair of white tiger cubs are expected to make their first public appearance during the forthcoming Spring Festival holiday in February at a zoo in Qingdao, Shandong Province. One of the 5-month-old cubs is snow-white in color with no stripes.
The cubs' parents were brought to the Qingdao Zoo in May 2012, and the mother gave birth to the cubs at age 4 in July this year.
The cubs are in good health and are receiving elaborate, around the clock care.
A zookeeper says the cubs have good appetite and together they eat one-and-a-half kilograms of beef and 10 chicken necks per day.
The cubs live in an air-conditioned environment where the temperature is kept at about 25 degrees Celsius. Their cage is regularly sterilized.
White tigers are a variant of the Bengal tiger. The chance of a snow-white tiger birth stands at 1 in 100,000. There are only seven snow-white tigers in Chinese zoos and around 100 worldwide.
White tigers are extinct in the wild, and those in captivity are categorized in China as first-grade State protected animals.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Filmmakers have wrapped up a biopic of the real-life pilgrim whose adventures inspired the legend of Journey to the West.
The venerable Buddhist monk Xuan Zang undertook a perilous journey to India around 1,300 years ago. Now, a forthcoming film based on the legendary expedition is set to re-create history on the big screen.
As one of the most talked-about co-productions between China and India in 2015, the biographical drama Xuan Zang has recently finished post-production. The film is set for release early in 2016.
For most Chinese people, Xuan Zang is a part of childhood memories thanks to Journey to the West, a Chinese classic that has inspired scores of cartoon books, animated series and TV dramas.
But interestingly, the novel depicts Xuan Zang as a weak, nagging coward, who heavily relies on his four powerful apprentices, including the superhero Monkey King, to finish the harsh pilgrimage.
Xuan Zang was a Tang Dynasty monk who lived more than 1,300 years ago. Confused by the mistranslated, self-contradicting Buddhist texts, he made an adventurous journey to India, seeking Buddhist scriptures.
The film's director Huo Jianqi says the strong faith that compels him to seek the real answers of Buddhism supported Xuan Zang to finish his dangerous journey.
When Xuan Zang returned to China 19 years after commencing his journey, he brought with him more than 650 volumes of sacred books.
The coastal city of Qingdao, hometown of title-role actor Huang Xiaoming, held an event to release the trailers and a poster.
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