China is planning to include new measures to encourage more births and address its rapidly aging population as part of its new 2021-2025 “five-year plan”, state media reported on Monday.
China will offer extensive financial and policy support to encourage couples to have more children, the official China Daily cited experts as saying.

“More inclusive population policies will be introduced to improve fertility, the quality of the workforce, and the structure of the population,” said Yuan Xin, vice-president of the China Population Association.

China introduced a controversial “one-child policy” in 1978, saying efforts to reduce poverty and develop the economy was being undermined by rapid population growth, especially in the countryside.

But the world’s most populous nation decided in 2016 to relax restrictions and allow couples to have a second child in a bid to address the rapid increase in the elderly as well as a dwindling workforce. Some experts say it should now scrap all limits entirely.

The number of citizens aged 60 or over stood at 254 million at the end of last year, accounting for 18.1% of the population. The number is expected to rise to 300 million by 2025 and 400 million by 2035, putting huge pressure on the country’s health and social care system, demographers say.

Demographers also predict that on current trends, the number of people of working age could decline by 200 million by 2050.

Despite the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2016, the number of live births per 1,000 people fell to a record low of 10.48 last year, down from 10.94 in 2018.

Policies aimed at suppressing population growth must be replaced by a system designed to boost fertility, the official Legal Daily said, citing government experts.

“To proactively tackle the aging population, urgent measures are required to reform our country’s family planning policies and liberate fertility,” said Zheng Bingwen, an expert with the China Academy of Social Science.

Source: Reuters

---

Reviews is conducting a weekly contest. Answer a simple question and get a chance to win exciting gift hampers from Aiken Care Package. Go to our Facebook page for more details or also can check the details on our Instagram page.

---

Also Read:

TIPS FOR FIRST TIME CAR BUYERS | NEW OR USED

BEST BUDGET FITNESS TRACKERS IN NEPAL

HBO CHANNELS CAN BE VIEWED FREE BY DISHHOME USERS IN THE MOBILE APP

ROYAL ENFIELD IS DEVELOPING ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES TO BE AFFORDABLE MID-WEIGHT BIKE

XIAOMI NEPAL'S DASHAIN OFFER- CELEBRATE DASHAIN WITH MI

TOP 5 PRIMERS IN NEPAL | REVIEWS

HUAWEI BRINGS MOOVIT APP TO APPGALLERY

As COVID-19 cases in China sink to new lows, the world’s largest population of university students is heading back to campus in a migration defined by lockdowns, patriotic education and cutting-edge surveillance equipment. 

The highly choreographed return comes as Chinese universities revert to in-person instruction for the fall semester after months of pandemic controls.

Some universities have strict rules governing how students eat, bathe and travel. Students in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai told Reuters that they must submit detailed movement reports and stay on campus.

“But they haven’t yet told us the specific application process or what reasons will be considered reasonable,” said one student at Beijing’s Renmin University.

Renmin University did not respond to a request for comment. A notice on its social media account confirmed students must apply to leave campus.

At the same time, government procurement documents show dozens of universities have purchased “epidemic control” surveillance systems based on facial recognition, contact tracing and temperature checks. 

There are more than 20 million university students in China, and most live on campus in shared dorm rooms, presenting a challenge for health authorities. 

On Chinese social media, students have chafed at the controls, which mirror restrictions on the wider population during the height of the outbreak in March.

Responding to the criticism last week during a media briefing, officials from China’s Ministry of Education said that the measures weren’t compulsory for universities, but that students should not leave campuses unless necessary.

HI-TECH SURVEILLANCE

Procurement documents posted online in the past two months by dozens of Chinese universities give insight into campus life in the COVID era, detailing technology systems designed to bar outsiders and collect students’ data.

Many systems call for dozens of cameras that can collect facial data and temperatures, as well as notification systems that require students to enter information multiple times a day. The platform compiles a daily “body temperature report”, and stores students’ historical temperatures for 30 days.

SHOWER BOOKINGS

The new rules have also given rise to more mundane challenges, students said. 

Students returning to Nanjing University said they struggled to book time in the dormitory showers between disinfection rounds.

Source: Reuters

Also Read:

JAPAN’S ‘FLYING CAR’ GETS OFF GROUND, WITH A PERSON ABOARD

WORLD’S FIRST VIRTUAL ART MUSEUM VOMA SET TO OPEN IN SEPTEMBER

APPLE TO LAUNCH ITS OWN WEB-BASED SEARCH ENGINE

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN BUYING A GAMING SMARTPHONE

TOYOTA LAUNCHES NEW YARIS CROSS COMPACT SUV WITH HYBRID OPTION

FORD, BOSCH, BEDROCK PARTNER ON AUTONOMOUS PARKING

An aggressive China-led shift to electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to slash global oil demand growth by 70 percent by 2030 and will help bring an end to the “oil era”, according to research by the Carbon Tracker think tank published on Friday.

Within 10 years, China could save more than $80 billion in annual oil import costs as new-energy vehicles (NEVs) become increasingly competitive, Carbon Tracker said.

Its calculations were based on a “conservative” scenario by the International Energy Agency projecting that EVs would account for 40 percent of China’s total car sales by 2030, and for 20 percent of sales in India and other emerging markets.

Also read: Heat is now on EV makers, after battery fires 

The cost of importing the oil required to fuel an average car is 10 times higher than the cost of solar equipment required to power an electric vehicle, Carbon Tracker said.

“This is a simple choice between growing dependency on what has been expensive oil produced by a foreign cartel, or domestic electricity produced by renewable sources whose prices fall over time,” said Kingsmill Bond, a strategist with Carbon Tracker and the report’s lead author.

EVs are a key component of China’s efforts to slash climate-warming greenhouse gases and improve urban air quality, and India is also setting ambitious 2030 vehicle sales targets.

China has not yet set a date when it will ban the production and sale of traditional cars, but an industry official said last month that NEVs will account for 50 percent of all new car sales by 2035, with hybrid vehicles making up the remainder.

Source: Reuters Shanghai

---

Reviews is conducting a weekly contest. Answer a simple question and get a chance to win exciting gift hampers from Aiken Care Package. Go to our Facebook page for more details or also can check the details on our Instagram page.

---

Also Read:

TIPS FOR FIRST TIME CAR BUYERS | NEW OR USED

BEST BUDGET FITNESS TRACKERS IN NEPAL

HBO CHANNELS CAN BE VIEWED FREE BY DISHHOME USERS IN THE MOBILE APP

ROYAL ENFIELD IS DEVELOPING ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES TO BE AFFORDABLE MID-WEIGHT BIKE

XIAOMI NEPAL'S DASHAIN OFFER- CELEBRATE DASHAIN WITH MI

TOP 5 PRIMERS IN NEPAL | REVIEWS

HUAWEI BRINGS MOOVIT APP TO APPGALLERY

Apple has asked Foxconn to move some iPad and MacBook manufacturing capacity to Vietnam, Reuters reports. The assembly lines are set to start production in the first half of next year at Foxconn’s Bac Giang province, according to Reuters’ source, who notes that Apple wants to diversify its supply chain due to the ongoing trade disputes between the US and China.

Reuters’ report doesn’t state which iPad or Mac models will be assembled in Vietnam, nor what proportion of Apple’s total production will shift out of China. But these wouldn’t be the first Apple products to be assembled in Vietnam — Apple started producing AirPods Pro units there earlier this year. Apple has also used India for the production of certain iPhone models for a while, although that mostly predates the US-China trade war and helps the company meet local import regulations.

Nikkei reported earlier this week that Foxconn is planning a $270 million investment in Vietnam to expand its manufacturing capacity. The Taiwanese company is said to be moving more than 30 percent of its production lines outside China.

Source: theverge

---

Reviews is conducting a weekly contest. Answer a simple question and get a chance to win exciting gift hampers from Aiken Care Package. Go to our Facebook page for more details or also can check the details on our Instagram page.

---

Also Read:

TIPS FOR FIRST TIME CAR BUYERS | NEW OR USED

BEST BUDGET FITNESS TRACKERS IN NEPAL

HBO CHANNELS CAN BE VIEWED FREE BY DISHHOME USERS IN THE MOBILE APP

ROYAL ENFIELD IS DEVELOPING ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES TO BE AFFORDABLE MID-WEIGHT BIKE

XIAOMI NEPAL'S DASHAIN OFFER- CELEBRATE DASHAIN WITH MI

TOP 5 PRIMERS IN NEPAL | REVIEWS

HUAWEI BRINGS MOOVIT APP TO APPGALLERY