Premier Li Keqiang talks at a gathering of outstanding foreign experts working in China on Monday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY China will continue with supply-side structural reform and produce more appealing policies to attract foreign professionals to work here in an enhanced effort at opening-up further in 2018, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday. With our country's door to the world opening even wider, we will produce more appealing policies to attract foreign talents to work in China and provide more convenience for your lives here, Li told a gathering of outstanding foreign experts working in China. Ten days ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year, Li attended the annual event in the Great Hall of the People to send greetings and collect wisdom from more than 60 scholars and business leaders on achieving high-quality development, smart manufacturing and improving the quality of higher education. Li expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Chinese government to foreign experts in China for their contribution to the country's progress of modernization and reform. Noting that 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, Li said the government will fully implement the five to 10 year visa policy for foreign experts and issue more favorable policies for foreigners working in China, including easing terms of applications for permanent residency. He said that under the Communist Party of China's strong leadership, with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core, China's economy remained in good health in 2017, with a better than expected annual growth rate of 6.9 percent, the first acceleration in annual growth in seven years, contributing to more than 30 percent of the world's economic growth. The Chinese economy will not face drastic fluctuation, as its economic structure has been remarkably improved with consumption leading its growth in the past several years, Li said, ruling out the possibility of a hard landing. The government will comprehensively deepen reform while preparing for all kinds of risks this year, he said. He encouraged experts from overseas to continue to actively participate in China's growth in innovation and industrial upgrading, adding that their ideas will be more than welcomed. Edmund S. Phelps, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics and dean of New Huadu Business School in Fujian province, told Li at the meeting that he has just received the new 10-year visa for foreign experts. It is encouraging to see China creating an increasingly conducive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation, he said. And I think this open policy will bring more foreign talents to China to showcase their expertise and to join in China's development. John Hopcroft, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared his thoughts with the premier on improving the evaluation system of China's higher education. In January, China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs announced easier visa permits for foreign professionals and high-skilled workers who qualified among efforts to bridge the country's gap in foreign experts, with the expiration date of the visa extended to five to 10 years after issuance, with multiple entries and 180-day-stays for a single entry. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
Heavy smog covers buildings at Beijing's CBD area on Oct 15, 2018. [Photo/IC] Pollution set to linger in center and south of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area Meteorological conditions that don't favor the dispersal of pollutants are to blame for air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with winds carrying pollutants from other regions, making the situation even worse, authorities said. While cold air from the north will help clear the pollution on Tuesday, moderate to heavy pollution may linger in cities in central and southern parts of the region for the day, a national joint research center on the causes and control of air pollution said on Monday. From Friday night, the density of PM2.5, a major air pollutant, in some cities around the Taihang and Yanshan mountains in the region began to climb because of pollutants transported from the south and unfavorable conditions for pollutant dispersal, including high humidity and a stable atmosphere. The hourly average concentration of PM2.5 in Xingtai and Tangshan in Hebei province reached the heavily polluted threshold first, with the level in Beijing following suit. As of 8 pm on Sunday, the hourly average concentration in Baoding had peaked at 164 micrograms per cubic meter, the center said in a statement posted online. Beijing's environmental monitoring authority said the PM2.5 density in the capital reached the heavy pollution level from Sunday afternoon and it remained high during daytime on Monday. The average PM2.5 concentration in the capital at 4 pm Monday was 199 mcg/cubic meter. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has regularly been hit by similar air pollution around the National Day holiday, the joint center said. It said the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region saw its best air quality during the weeklong National Day holiday starting on Oct 1 this year compared with previous years, with heavy air pollution arriving much later. The center said nitric oxide from local vehicle and industrial emissions and sulfur dioxide from other regions were major contributors to the PM2.5 concentrations. The air quality in the region will improve gradually from north to south on Tuesday thanks to cold air from the north. But pollution will linger in central and southern parts of the region because of pollutants blown in from elsewhere, it said. The transportation and industrial structures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region mean the air pollution control situation this fall and winter will remain grim, the center said. Emissions of nitric oxide and volatile organic compounds, both major contributors to air pollution, remain high in Beijing and Tianjin because of the large number of vehicles in the two cities. The concentration of industrial enterprises in Tangshan and Cangzhou also contributes to high sulfur dioxide emissions, the center said. According to Beijing's environmental authority, diesel-powered trucks are a major contributor to air pollution in the capital. As the pollution lingers, the authority has organized inspections at 38 entrances to the capital, with environmental officers inspecting 6,000 such trucks a day on average, finding about 900 with excessive emissions. Diesel-powered trucks in the city need to be made environmentally friendly to improve the air quality in Beijing, the authority said on Monday. The transformation of industrial, energy and transportation structures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region cannot be done overnight and is a time-consuming process. As pollutant discharges remain high, the air pollution control situation in the region is still grim. We should be resolute but also patient ahead of the coming success of air pollution control work in the region.
