China on Oct. 4 delivered a joint statement on behalf of some 80 countries at the 54th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, calling for better social security systems for the aged population.

 

Delivering the joint statement, Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission in Geneva, said that as population aging accelerates around the world, inadequacies in the social support systems are becoming more prominent, including sustainability of social security policy, regional disparity of old-age care and support, and age-based discrimination against older persons.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

Authorities in Beijing have said that the capital will step up vaccination against human papillomavirus, or HPV, among girls this year and will scale up free screening for cervical cancer, as part of a trial program aimed at accelerating the elimination of the deadly disease.

 

More awareness and registration campaigns should be rolled out on campuses to encourage girls to get HPV vaccines, according to an action plan released by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission and nine other government departments on Oct. 7.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

China has strengthened the provision of psychological services for children and adolescents on campuses and in communities in recent years to promote the mental health of juveniles, a health official said on Oct. 9.

 

Li Dachuan, deputy director of the National Health Commission’s Department of Medical Administration, said a national drive that started in 2018 has seen about 96 percent of villages or communities, all colleges and 95 percent of primary and middle schools in trial regions set up mental health facilities.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

As Chinese trade unions are set to convene their 18th national congress in Beijing on Oct. 9, more than one fifth of selected delegates are workers in new jobs, such as delivery men and car-hailing drivers. The representatives will introduce proposals to better protect the group’s legal rights and interests.

 

According to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), a total of 2,002 delegates from 35 delegations across the country will attend the congress, which is held every five years as required by the Constitution of the ACFTU.

 

From: Global Times

 

 

China’s State Council, or the cabinet, on Oct. 10 adopted a guideline on promoting dynamic monitoring of the low-income population and multi-tiered and categorized social assistance, as well as action plans on meal assistance for the elderly and on patent enforcement.

 

Efforts should be made to make social assistance work more precise, prompt, and effective to better safeguard people’s livelihoods, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

Beijing’s childcare institutions will face tighter regulations starting from Jan. 1 next year as the city’s health commission has announced a set of new measures aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of children.

 

Under the new regulations, comprehensive security monitoring systems will be mandatory for all childcare institutions, according to a report from China Central Television on Oct. 12, which will help enhance the overall safety of the facilities and provide parents with peace of mind.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

Chinese human rights scholar Lu Haina was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on discrimination against women and girls at the 54th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, on Oct. 13.

 

Lu is the only Chinese expert on the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and the second Chinese expert elected to the position since its establishment in 1967.

 

Lu currently serves as executive director of the Human Rights Research Center at Renmin University of China and professor at the Renmin University of China Law School. She is also a member of China Society for Human Rights Studies and the editorial board of Human Rights magazine.

 

From: Ecns.cn

 

 

The people-centered Chinese path to modernization is key in protecting and improving human rights in China, human rights experts said.

 

China has been attaching great importance to improving people’s human rights during the process of achieving social and economic development, as the goal of the Chinese path to modernization is to ensure the all-around development of human rights, said Lu Guangjin, deputy head of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and a professor at the Human Rights Research Center of Jilin University.

 

He made the remarks during a symposium discussing the Chinese path to modernization and the all-around development of human rights on Oct. 14. Supported by the society, the symposium was held by the university in Changchun, Jilin.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

China has helped train nearly 100,000 medical professionals in developing countries and established paired cooperation with 46 hospitals in 41 countries in the past decade along side the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, the National Health Commission said on Oct. 17.

 

The commission said that 25 clinical centers were set up specializing in a specific field of disease as a result of the initiative that was launched around ten years ago.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

Some Western countries are attacking China based on disinformation while disregarding their own serious human rights issues, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Oct. 19, following the meetings of the Third Committee of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

 

Earlier this week, some Western countries, including the United Kingdom, attacked China over human rights during the meetings, while more than 70 countries, including Pakistan, voiced opposition to interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.

 

From: China Daily Global

 

 

China has expanded HIV/AIDS therapy to cover over 90 percent of patients in the country, and for those already in treatment there is a 90 percent success rate, signifying major progress in tackling the disease, according to a recent study.

 

Improving access to effective treatment has resulted in a decrease in the disease’s mortality rate and a marked rise in life expectancy for HIV/AIDS patients in the country, said the study released on Oct. 20 by China CDC Weekly, a research platform of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

Chinese lawmakers are mulling over a draft revision for the infectious disease prevention and control law that would improve the country’s epidemic surveillance, early warning and reporting system, including forbidding interventions in and providing incentives for early reporting.

 

The draft was submitted to a session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for further review on Oct. 20. The session will run from Oct. 20 to 24.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

China’s foreign medical aid teams were awarded the title of “role model of the times” by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Oct. 20 as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the country’s first medical team dispatched to Algeria.

 

Since 1963, China has dispatched more than 30,000 medical workers to 76 countries and regions, and helped build more than 130 healthcare facilities overseas. They have treated nearly 300 million patients and saved countless lives in their localities, according to official figures.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

Almost 70 percent of the delegates to China’s 13th National Women’s Congress this week serve in front-line posts at the grassroots level, more than at the previous congress five years ago, the All-China Women’s Federation said on Oct. 21.

 

From Oct. 23 to 26, 1,793 representatives and 90 specially invited delegates will attend the congress, the federation said.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

Draft bills and revised laws, including China’s first regulations on the protection of minors in cyberspace, were passed by Chinese lawmakers as the sixth session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) on Oct. 24.

 

The Chinese lawmakers also voted to adopt the Patriotic Education Law and a revised Marine Environment Protection Law, both of which will take effect on January 1, 2024.

 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang has signed an order of the State Council to issue a set of regulations to protect minors in cyberspace. The regulatory document, comprising 60 articles in seven chapters, will also come into effect on January 1, 2024, according to an official statement.

 

From: Global Times

 

 

The China Foundation for Human Rights Development on Oct. 25 convened a council meeting in Beijing.

 

The meeting reviewed and passed a work report from the previous council, a financial audit report, and a five-year development outline for the foundation from 2024 to 2028.

 

A new council and new leadership were elected at the meeting, with Xie Fuzhan, former president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, elected as the chairman of the council.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China has achieved full coverage in its educational assistance for students from families struggling with economic hardship throughout all educational stages and in all public and private schools, a Ministry of Education (MOE) official said on Oct. 25.

 

Preliminary statistics showed that in 2022, China’s educational assistance fund nationwide totaled 292.27 billion yuan (about 40.71 billion U.S. dollars), benefiting 161 million students, MOE official Ma Jiabin said at a press conference.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

Medical assistance teams sent to China’s Xinjiang and Xizang have significantly elevated local healthcare services over the years, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Oct. 25.

 

In 2015, China initiated a national program of sending teams of medical and education personnel to offer support to Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

 

Since then, more than 3,100 high-caliber personnel from provinces relatively advanced in the medical sector have been dispatched to these two regions as members of assistance teams, Xing Ruoqi, an NHC official, told a press conference held in Kashgar, Xinjiang.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China plans to offer nutritious, affordable and accessible welfare meals for seniors to support elderly care at home and improve their well-being, officials said.

 

“Meal assistance services have become common needs for the elderly,” Tang Chengpei, vice-minister of civil affairs, said at a news conference on Oct. 25 in Beijing.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

China’s job market showed stable growth in first three quarters of the year, with 10.22 million people landing jobs in urban areas during that time, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Oct. 26.

 

According to the ministry, the nation’s surveyed unemployment rate was around 5 percent in September, falling by 0.2 percentage point from the previous month.

 

In addition, about 42,000 college graduates have been recruited for grassroots positions nationwide as of September. Of those graduates, 4,996 took positions in counties with harsh environments and weaker economic conditions to help contribute to the areas’ development.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

The Cyberspace Administration of China will focus on rectifying prominent issues such as fabricating and disseminating illegal and harmful information, and generating explicit content with new technologies and applications, to continually create a clean cyberspace, officials from the CAC said at a news conference in Beijing on Oct. 27.

 

The actions also aim at promoting the implementation of the recently issued Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace, which was approved in September during the 15th executive meeting of the State Council, and officially published on Oct 16. These regulations will take effect on Jan 1.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

A China-Germany forum on human rights development was held in Beijing on Oct. 31, where experts from the two countries discussed efforts to promote human rights developments around the world.

 

The event was jointly organized by the China Foundation for Human Rights and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation based in Germany.

 

From: CGTN

 

 

The health level of Chinese cities saw a stable increase over the last four years in terms of health service, industry, facility and environment, which shows a positive trend toward the construction of livable cities nationwide, experts said.

 

The overall health index increased 2.1 percent year-on-year in 2023, and 249 out of 296 cities surveyed showed that their health index grew, according to a report released by the Institute for Sustainable Urbanization at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Oct. 31.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

 

China has channeled a tremendous amount of resources into improving grassroots healthcare infrastructure and nurturing related talent, and has made continuous efforts to promote the high-quality formation of families by strengthening healthcare for women and children, officials said in Beijing on Nov. 1.

 

According to the latest figures from the National Health Commission, China now has over 3,800 community-based hospitals to meet the medical needs of the public.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

China’s national political advisors on Nov. 1 shared their views on strengthening environment protection and promoting the building of a Beautiful China.

 

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attended the plenary meeting of the fourth session of the Standing Committee of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

There were 5.11 billion hospital visits by people seeking medical care at China’s medical and health institutions from January to September this year, making the efficiency of medical and health supply has been improved, an official at China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Nov. 1 at a press conference.

 

The number has increased by 12.4 percent compared with the same period in 2019 and 6 percent last year, according to Lei Haichao, deputy head of the NHC.

 

From: CGTN

 

 

China will launch carbon-peaking pilot projects in 100 cities and zones nationwide to solve bottlenecks constraining the country’s green and low-carbon development and explore paths toward carbon-peaking for different areas, according to a plan unveiled on Nov. 6.

 

By 2025, the policy mechanism conducive to green and low-carbon development in the pilot areas will mostly be in place, together with many innovative practices and reform measures that are feasible, replicable, and can be applied elsewhere, said the plan issued by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China’s State Council Information Office on Nov. 10 released a white paper on the policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the governance of Xizang Autonomous Region in the new era.

 

The white paper, titled “CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements,” highlighted that the CPC’s guidelines for governing Xizang in the new era have brought about all-round progress and historic success in various undertakings in the region. 

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

President Xi Jinping stressed on Nov. 10 the need to bolster post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and guarantee the well-being of the people, while inspecting areas hit by summer floods and geological disasters in Beijing and neighboring Hebei province.

 

He called on local authorities to ensure that the people in the two regions can stay warm in the coming winter, while visiting disaster-affected villages, households, a school and water conservancy projects.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

No political, group or violent terrorist incidents have occured in Southwest China’s Xizang autonomous region for years, said the head of the regional government on Nov. 10.

 

The safety and satisfaction index of people of all ethnic groups in the region has ranked among the highest in China, said Yan Jinhai, chairman of the government of the Xizang Autonomous Region, at a press conference on a newly-released white paper titled “CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements.”

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

Southwest China’s Xizang autonomous region has taken the lead in the country in establishing a 15-year publicly-funded education system from kindergarten all the way up to senior high school, a senior official said on Nov. 10.

 

Yan Jinhai, chairman of the government of the Xizang autonomous region, made the remarks while highlighting the region’s commitment to people-centered development and achievements since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China has been and will continue to be a key player in advancing human development and the Sustainable Development Goals, remarked scholars during a forum on Nov. 13.

 

Over the past 40 years, China has contributed close to three-quarters of the global reduction in the number of people living in extreme poverty, without which the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 1 would not have been successfully reached, said Peng Gang, vice president of Tsinghua University, at this forum co-hosted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the China Institute for Development Planning of Tsinghua University.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China has selected 15 cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, as pilot locations to expand the coverage of new energy vehicles for public services.

 

In a plan released on Nov. 14, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that, with joint effort from seven other departments including the Ministry of Transport, the project would see the expansion of vehicles in the public services sector — government cars, buses, sanitary trucks, taxis, delivery and urban logistics vehicles, airport shuttles and heavy-haul trucks for special occasions. The goal is to have 600,000 new energy vehicles in public service in these cities.

 

To support the expansion, some 700,000 charging stations and 7,800 battery swapping stations will be built in these cities, the plan said.

 

From: chinadaily.com.cn

 

 

China aims to raise the overall five-year survival rate for cancers to over 46.6 percent by 2030 by rolling out comprehensive measures including promoting healthy lifestyles, expanding screening and accelerating the development of new technologies, officials and experts said on Nov. 15.

 

China reports nearly 4.1 million new cancer cases each year, with lung, colorectal, stomach, liver and breast cancers the most common. Cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic illnesses account for over 80 percent of deaths in the country.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

The first phase of the eastern route of China’s South-to-North Water Diversion Project has benefited more than 68 million people in east China’s Shandong Province in its decade-long operation, China South-to-North Water Diversion Co., Ltd. said on Nov. 15.

 

It has transferred 6.14 billion cubic meters of water to Shandong since it began supplying water in November 2013, according to the company.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

With the correct policies and leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the development of Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region is presented with real examples and data, allowing people to see the true development of Xizang, leaving the separatist forces speechless and can only smear the development in the region, China’s top experts of Tibetology said at a forum while discussing a recently-published white paper on China’s policies in governing Xizang and the achievements it has gained.

 

On Nov. 21, a high-level forum on the practice of the CPC’s strategy for governing Xizang in the new era and its historic achievements was hosted by the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing. Nearly 50 experts and scholars participated.

 

From: Global Times

 

 

Jiang Jianguo, member of the standing committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), vice-director of the Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC and executive vice-president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), met with a friendly Indian delegation led by Parveen Gupta, chairman of the National Human Rights Council of India (NHRC), in Beijing on Nov. 21, 2023.

 

After an in-depth discussion about the similarity of each other’s human rights development and the common challenges, both sides agreed to actively carry out dialogues and exchanges in terms of human rights, increase the developing countries’ discourse power on human rights governance, and jointly promote more fair, just, reasonable and inclusive global human rights governance.

 

From: en.humanrights.cn

 

 

The Spanish-Chinese version of a compilation of President Xi Jinping’s discourses on respecting and protecting human rights has been launched in Madrid.

 

A launch ceremony and a seminar on “Human Wisdom for Global Governance” were held in the Spanish capital on Nov. 22 to inaugurate the bilingual version of Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights.

 

From: China Daily

 

 

China’s State Council underscored the importance of ensuring workplace safety at the turn of the year during an executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang on Nov. 24.

 

The meeting also reviewed and approved an action plan to improve air quality, as well as regulations on supervising and managing non-bank payment institutions.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing on Nov. 28 called for continued efforts to ensure food safety and better meet the people’s new demand for safe, nutritious and healthy food.

 

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at an event in Beijing marking this year’s food safety publicity week.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China’s police chief has called for further efforts to bolster public security capabilities and safeguard the country’s modernization endeavors.

 

Wang Xiaohong, a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and minister of public security, made the remarks during a national meeting attended by local police chiefs, which was held on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province.

 

From: Xinhua

 

 

China’s National Health Commission issued a circular on Nov. 30, urging maternal and child care institutions to increase the resources for diagnosing and treating respiratory diseases in children.

 

The document was released against the backdrop of increasing cases of respiratory diseases among children in some regions of China, as autumn and winter are the peak season for children to contract such diseases.

 

From: CGTN