Xi Jinping Reelected President

Xi Jinping was reelected president and chairman of the Central Military Commission at the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on March 17.

During his first five-year term, Xi led the country to historic achievements. China's GDP grew by 7.1 percent annually, while residents' income rose by 7.4 percent. The country carried out targeted poverty alleviation, implemented supply-side structural reform and fought corruption. It also promoted mass entrepreneurship and innovation, strengthened ecological protection and downsized the army. Xi's proposals of the Belt and Road Initiative and a community with a shared future for humanity have won widespread support in the international community.

Constitution Amended

The Amendment to the Constitution was adopted by the First Session of the 13th NPC on March 11.

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was codified into the Constitution to affirm its guiding role. The statement that "the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics" was also added to embody the Party's leadership over all work.

In addition, some other articles were amended to highlight the importance of adhering to socialist core values and promoting the rule of law.

Reform of Party and State Institutions

A prominent feature of the reform is that some state institutions were integrated into Party organs with similar functions so that the overall leadership of the Party has been strengthened.

According to the State Council's reshuffling plan adopted on March 15 at the First Session of the 13th NPC, eight ministerial-level and seven deputy ministerial-level departments were slashed. Except for the General Office, the State Council consists of 26 departments.

On March 23, the State Supervisory Commission was inaugurated. The amended Constitution stipulates that supervisory commissions should be established at various levels to handle illegal acts by public employees, mainly corruption, dereliction of duty and other duty-related crimes.

Rural Vitalization

The Rural Vitalization Strategic Plan (2018-22) was released on September 26, spelling out five key vitalization tasks involving rural industries, talent, culture, ecosystem and organizations. It also set a three-step goal. By 2020, the institutional framework and policy systems of rural vitalization will have taken shape; by 2035, rural

vitalization will have made decisive progress and the modernization of agriculture and rural areas will be basically realized; by 2050, rural areas will have been vitalized and beautified in an all-round way, agriculture will be strong and farmers affluent.

The rural vitalization strategy was first put forward at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2017. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council made comprehensive arrangements for implementing the strategy in a joint document in January.

Guangdong-HK-Macao Integration

Transportation infrastructure construction has enhanced the connectivity between Guangdong Province and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Railway was opened on September 23, marking Hong Kong's integration into the national high-speed rail network.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge opened to traffic on October 24. The 55-km bridge connects Zhuhai in Guangdong with Hong Kong and Macao. It is the world's longest sea-crossing bridge.

New Holidays

China created two new holidays in 2018, Medical Workers' Day on August 19 and the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival on the Autumnal Equinox (September 22 in 2018) each year.

Vaccine Scandal

Changchun Changsheng Biotech Co. Ltd. in northeast China's Jilin Province was found to have falsified production records in making rabies vaccines for human use, according to an announcement by the State Drug Administration on July 15.

In October, the Jilin Food and Drug Administration revoked the company's pharmaceutical production license and confiscated illegally produced vaccines and 1.89 billion yuan ($274 million) made from defective vaccine sales. It also imposed a fine of 7.21 billion yuan ($1.05 billion). On November 16, Shenzhen Stock Exchange started compulsory delisting procedures for Changsheng.

First Cloned Macaques

On January 25, Cell, the leading international academic journal in biology, featured the birth of the world's first two cloned macaques.

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were created by scientists at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The success will accelerate the research and development of new drugs for brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and autism, as well as for immune deficiencies, tumors and metabolic diseases. It also indicates that China is leading the research in non-human primate diseases in the world.

Super Typhoon Mangkhut

On September 16, super typhoon Mangkhut landed in Taishan, south China's Guangdong Province. The maximum wind velocity near the epicenter of the storm was 14 on the Beaufort wind force scale. Nearly 3 million people in Guangdong and neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hainan, Hunan and Guizhou provinces were affected, with five deaths. More than 1,200 houses collapsed and direct economic losses worth 5.2 billion yuan ($754 million) were incurred.

New Heritage Honors

Mount Fanjing in Tongren, southwest China's Guizhou Province, was inscribed into the World Natural Heritage List at the 42nd Session of the World Heritage Committee on July 2, becoming China's 53rd world heritage site and 13th world natural heritage site.

The mountain, with its highest peak at 2,570 meters above sea level, is mainly composed of metamorphic rocks surrounded by vast karst landforms, showing unique geological, ecological and biological characteristics.

On November 28, Tibetan medicine bath was included in the Representative List of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage.

An important part of Tibetan medicine, it is the traditional practice of disease prevention by bathing in natural hot springs or in water with medicinal steam.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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