An ambitious goal of China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which entered its second year, is to eliminate extreme poverty by 2020. The progress is well on track, as 10 million people had been lifted out of poverty by the end of 2016. This success is very encouraging as it is an indication of China's continued contribution to global development goals.
Editor's note: With the environment being one of most important issues on the agenda at the ongoing annual sessions of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the country's top political advisory body, Hu Jingnan and Cai Fahe from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, and Gong Zhengyu from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center, present their views on how to control air pollution.
AT THE ONGOING FIFTH PLENARY SESSION of the 12th National People's Congress, Yu Chun, a deputy from Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, called for more efforts to establish a cash-free society. Thepaper.cn commented on Saturday:
The sense of satisfaction with which the Chinese government delivered its annual work report to the joint meeting in Beijing of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and 12th National People's Congress is understandable.
China will continue to promote justice and equity, contribute to world peace, facilitate global development and back international order, Premier Li Keqiang said in a soaring description of the country's self-image as he delivered the Government Work Report to the fifth plenary session of the 12th National Peoples' Congress in Beijing on March 5.
It came as no surprise that this year's Government Work Report, by Premier Li Keqiang recently unveiled, highlighted the strategic importance of reform inside and across the state-owned enterprise sector - and the steel and coal industries in particular.
One of Britain's top supermarket chains just became the first major retailer to start stocking Chinese wine, two years after the best English wines appeared on shelves in Beijing and Shanghai.
Globalization is under attack these days from all quarters - except, it seems, from China. In fact, the reverse is the case.
United States citizens own the largest number of private guns in the world. Last year, 31 percent of the US population owned more than 357 million guns, according to US media reports. Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot, accidentally killed or commit suicides with guns, and over 200,000 people are wounded in shootings.
Bicycle-sharing companies have put more than 200,000 yellow and orange bicycles into service in Beijing in the past month. To use a bike for 1 yuan ($0.15) per hour, you have to download the app of any of the companies, pay a few hundred yuan as refundable deposit, and scan the code on a bike to unlock or lock it.
"O boy, you are growing taller", a middle-aged woman tells a boy, adding: "Now pull down your pants, and lemme see if your member is growing too?"
There were many takeaways for Chinese observing the 2016 US presidential election. One was the apparent energy exhibited by the three candidates Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, all above or approaching the age of 70.