Draft passed to help streamline inspections

On Dec 1, the State Council, China's Cabinet, passed the draft of a provision on government inspections at an executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.

"Repetitive and overlapping inspections and unauthorized inspections should be strictly prohibited," Premier Li said, noting that formalism and bureaucracy must be avoided to reduce the burden on community officials.

He said the provision would ensure that major decisions made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council are efficiently put into operation.

To regulate government inspections, the provision specified the position and responsibilities of such assessments, and stipulated procedures and support measures.

To guarantee democratic supervision, objectivity and fairness, the provision said deputies of the National People's Congress, the top legislature, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the top political advisory body, and government counselors, experts and scholars can be invited to take part in inspections.

Weather-modification abilities strengthened

China will strengthen its ability to modify the weather, with the aim of extending an artificial rain and snow program to cover at least 5.5 million square kilometers by 2025, according to a guideline issued on Dec 2.

The guideline, published by the General Office of the State Council, said that in recent years weather-modification work has played an important role in agricultural activities, supporting disaster relief work, promoting construction of an ecological civilization－a concept designed to promote sustainable development－and guaranteeing the success of major events.

To advance the high-quality development of such work, the guideline ordered efforts to ensure that the country's weather-modification capabilities would reach an advanced level by 2035.

According to the guideline, such activities should focus on revitalizing rural regions, restoring ecosystems and minimizing losses from natural disasters.

Efforts should be strengthened to relieve droughts and prevent hailstorms in key areas during important farming seasons, and intensify dynamic monitoring to alleviate damage caused by natural disasters, it said.

The guideline added that China would improve artificial weather operations in key areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the major environmental protection zones of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.

An emergency response mechanism should be established so weather-modification work can be launched in a timely manner in the event of incidents such as forest fires and droughts caused by unusually high temperatures, it said.

While urging efforts to strengthen basic weather-modification capabilities, such as the use of satellites to monitor climatic conditions, the guideline underlined the importance of accelerating research and development of important technical equipment and promoting the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data.

China will establish a national experimental base and laboratory to improve its ability to induce or prevent rain, eliminate fog and improve air quality, it said.