News Scan 2.26

胡晨璇： Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming has been elected chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), the association announced after its national congress on Thursday. Since January, multiple media outlets have hinted at Yao&`&s involvement in the election, citing a proposal from the General Administration of Sport, the country&`&s top sports governing body, that he be involved in the game&`&s professional reform. Yao, a former NBA All-Star and backbone of the Chinese national team, said after his appointment that he will work hard to lead the reshuffled CBA and push for reform of the game. “After being regrouped as a full-fledged nongovernmental organization, we have to better study our own situation while learning from overseas expertise to work out our own way to develop the game in China,” he said. According to WeChat account of People’s Daily, Yao said carrying out the reform is “like making a cream cake”. “While people are putting fruits onto it, I’m thinking of adding some chocolate and change the flavor of it to attract the public." After being elected, Yao declared that he will quit the management of his own CBA club, and the club would be sold to "a fresh and passionate investor". The CBA said in a briefing last month that its new leader would be someone with a professional background, who had made a great contribution to and had knowledge of the game and was held in high regard. Yao, China&`&s only Basketball Hall of Famer, landed on NBA in the year of 2002 as the first-pick of the draft, playing for Houston Rockets for 9 years and entering all-star games eight times. As a reputed member of the national team, he also led the national team to eighth place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has been operating his hometown CBA club Shanghai Sharks as its owner. Li Yingchuan, assistant director of the administration, said that Yao&`&s election as the new CBA leader will be a major step forward for the management of the game in China. Observers said earlier that reshuffling the administration&`&s leadership structure and separating professional sports league management from the traditional government-run system will help improve decision-making, as well as enhancing independence and transparency. Former CBA leaders, including ex-chairman Yu Zaiqing, were appointed by the administration from within its own ranks. 谢泽茜： 02.25 11:46 Detained public-use bikes A public-use bike is seen locked at a residential building in Hefei, Anhui province, in January. Two nurses in Beijing are under administrative detention for putting their own locks on two publicly shared bikes. "The two nurses who put private locks on public-use bikes disturbed the public order," said Liu Lin, a lawyer at Beijing Shuangli Law Firm, because it prevented other people from using the bikes. Those who intentionally damage property may face a five- to 10-day administrative detention, according to the Law on Public Security Administration Punishments. Tang Ke from the publicity office of OFO, the company that owns the bikes, confirmed the news and said further investigation was underway. The market for public-use bikes - which are stored along sidewalks and can be accessed through an app - has boomed in China since the middle of last year. The new mode of transportation has brought a greener and more convenient mode of urban transportation, but the model has also caused many problems including illegal parking, theft and vandalism. Parking violations are also a common problem, followed by violation of traffic rules. "Once users scan the app and click &`&accept&`& when they rent the bike, they have signed an agreement with the service provider and should follow the rules," Liu said. OFO has introduced a blacklist banning users who break its rules. Many cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are proposing draft regulations to manage the market for public bikes. The Shenzhen traffic police department has also announced fines for the illegal parking of bikes. 鲍俞哲： China projected to post 6.64% GDP growth in 2017 Helped by a robust service sector, China is expected to see 6.64 percent economic growth this year, but the sluggish private sector might influence the overall outlook, according to a report released by Xiamen University on Wednesday. Following 6.7 percent growth in 2016, the economy might expand at a slower pace year-on-year starting from this year during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), but there is little likelihood of growth falling below the 6.5 to 7 percent target range set in the plan, according to the forecast released by the university&`&s Center for Macroeconomic Research. The consumer price index is expected to rise 2.15 percent year-on-year, up 0.15 percentage points compared to the previous year, and Producer Price Index is expected to reach 2.41 percent, up by 3.81 percentage points compared to 2016. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the service sector has outpaced the manufacturing sector since 2015, accounting for more than half of the nation&`&s gross domestic product. 柯长霖： china fights spread of deadly avian virus The Chinese authorities are battling a surge in H7N9 “bird flu” infections, and have shuttered live poultry markets across the country after dozens of people in recent weeks were killed by the disease. As of Friday, health officials confirmed eight deaths and 77 diagnosed cases just in February, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Last month, 192 people in China learned they had the virus, and 79 of them died, according to official numbers released on Tuesday. The strain, H7N9, is an avian influenza virus that can infect people who come in close contact with infected live or newly killed birds. The latest deaths include a woman in her twenties and her young daughter, who both had contact with live poultry. In rural and small-town China, many residents prefer to buy live chickens, ducks and geese that are slaughtered on the spot or at home. China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission has banned sales of live poultry in some areas across eastern, southern and southwestern China. The eastern province of Zhejiang ordered all live-poultry markets closed. Nearly all of the confirmed infections have come from direct contact with birds. But experts worry that the virus could eventually mutate into one that passes easily between people. The first confirmed outbreak of H7N9 in humans was in 2013 in China. Each subsequent winter and spring has seen a spike in new cases. This year’s resurgence is the deadliest in four years. In January 2016, Chinese health authorities recorded 28 human infections, including five deaths. Since November, there have been at least 355 confirmed H7N9 cases in mainland China, according to the Hong Kong Center for Health Protection. An outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which spread across China in 2003, deeply damaged public trust in the government after senior officials tried to conceal its spread. At least 336 people died in China from the outbreak, and hundreds more died abroad. Since then, the Chinese government has improved its monitoring of communicable diseases. In Chongqing, a sprawling municipality in southwest China, three people were detained by the police for spreading rumors that bird flu had been found there, the police said on Friday. The police in Hubei Province in central China also detained a woman accused of spreading false rumors about the virus.