| New Air Force Commander
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(XINHUA) |
Ma Xiaotian, former Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), was recently appointed as the PLA Air Force Commander, becoming the 11th person to hold the position after the PLA Air Force was founded in 1949.
Ma was born in 1949. He joined the PLA at the age of 16. He learned to fly fighter planes at an aviation school from 1966 to 1968, becoming a PLA Air Force pilot at the age of 22. Three years later, a promotion made him the youngest assistant regimental commander in the Air Force. He had been chief of staff and army commander of the 10th Army of the PLA Air Force before being named major general of the Air Force at the age of 46. Ma was titled lieutenant general and general of the Air Force in 1999 and 2009, respectively. In 1998, Ma awed audiences while piloting an SU-20 fighter at an air show in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced key appointments in a major reshuffle that experts and observers said reflects its determination to continue its modernization drive.
Four generals--Fang Fenghui, Zhang Yang, Zhao Keshi and Zhang Youxia--were named to lead four key PLA departments: general staff, general political, general logistics and general armaments.
The reshuffle reflects the leadership's emphasis on the experience of senior military commanders, especially at a time of regional tension.
All four are generals from the PLA ground force and have worked their way up the ladders due to their outstanding performance in military service.
Several plans for the development of China's energy sector and nuclear power safety over the next five years have been passed, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council on October 24.
The executive meeting discussed and passed the Nuclear Power Safety Plan (2011-20) as well as the Mid- and Long-term Development Plan for Nuclear Power (2011-20). During the 2011-15 period, China will not construct any nuclear projects in inland regions, but only construct a few projects in coastal areas that have gone through adequate evaluation processes.
China will also apply the world's tightest safety requirements to new nuclear power projects and adhere to third-generation nuclear safety standards in constructing new projects, the statement said.
On the same day, China also issued the 2012 edition of its energy policy white paper, elaborating on its energy development policies, energy conservation and the promotion of renewable power sources. China's installed nuclear power capacity is expected to reach 40 million kw by 2015, according to the white paper.
The government has allocated an additional 5 billion yuan ($801 million) to fund the renovation of 600,000 dilapidated rural homes this year, the Ministry of Finance said on October 19.
The additional funds will also be used to improve the energy efficiency of 200,000 rural households in north China, as well as southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, said the ministry.
The government previously allocated 39.57 billion yuan ($6.34 billion) to subsidize 5 million rural households whose homes are being restored this year, with each recipient receiving 7,500 yuan ($1,201) on average.
The government will spend 12 billion yuan ($1.92 billion) to improve water quality on the middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project from 2011 to 2015.
The money will be used to build sewage and garbage treatment facilities, conserve soil and treat polluted rivers, agricultural pollution and mine tailings in the Danjiangkou Reservoir, a major water source along the south-north water diversion project's middle route, and its upper reaches in central China's Hubei Province, according to an inter-ministerial conference held on October 24.
The massive south-to-north water diversion project is designed to take water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, to feed drought-prone areas in the north, including Beijing. Water will flow northward via eastern, middle and western routes.
The project started with the construction of the eastern route in 2002, and the construction of the middle route followed in 2003.
The number of Chinese senior citizens is expected to skyrocket from the current 185 million to 487 million, or 35 percent of the population, by 2053, according to the China National Committee on Aging.
China had about 185 million people above the age of 60, or 13.7 percent of the population, as of the end of last year. The figure is expected to surge to 221 million in 2015, including 51 million empty nesters, or elderly people whose children no longer live with them.
Figures from United Nations Population Fund show that out of the global population, one out of every nine people is at or above the age of 60. The ratio is expected to climb to one in five by 2050.
Authorities with China's National Social Sciences Fund have earmarked 800,000 yuan ($128,158) for the compilation of a dictionary on Tibetan Buddhism, compilers said on October 20.
The dictionary will include more than 40,000 entries such as terminologies, ancient books and records, historic figures and scenic spots related to Tibetan Buddhism, according to the Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province.
The bilingual dictionary in both Tibetan and Chinese is being compiled by the university's Institute on Overseas and Ethnic Documents, and will be the first of its kind on Tibetan Buddhism and the fundamental Tibetology research.
The National Social Sciences Fund is China's top social sciences funding program to promote research that is significant to economic and social development and the cultural promotion of the country's ethnic groups.
The Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project, a massive scientific research project that will monitor weather in space, became fully operational on October 23.
The project is China's first space weather monitoring project and will lead the field in multiple areas, according to a statement from the National Space Science Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
"The project will help China's space program achieve major breakthroughs, enhance the country's competence in space and safeguard the security of the nation's space activities," said Wu Ji, General Manager of the project and Director of the National Space Science Center.
Beginning in January 2008, the project provided forecasts and warnings for the Tiangong-1 space lab module and Shenzhou-8 spacecraft missions in 2011 and the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft mission in June, according to the statement.
A large-scale ground-based monitoring system composed of 15 stations will be set up as part of the project, according to the CAS. A comprehensive multi-layered and inter-disciplinary survey and exploration of space will be conducted as well, it said. | 
