National-level fund set up for large aircraft development

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China have set up a joint fund for basic research into large aircraft.

The ministry and the foundation signed a cooperation agreement on Friday to set up the fund, the ministry said in a statement.

The fund will focus on the country's major and strategic needs in the sector of large aircraft, and will serve to support basic, prospective and innovative studies to address the sector's needs, including those for safety, reliability, environmental friendliness and intelligence.

Jin Zhuanglong, minister of industry and information technology, encouraged those in the field to pay more attention to collaboration among colleges, research institutes and enterprises, in a bid to streamline the development chain of scientific projects from basic theories, technological validation to production and industrial application. In this manner, China's foundation in large aircraft development will be solidified in the long run, he said.

Dou Xiankang, director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, said the establishment of the joint fund is an important measure the foundation and the ministry have taken to further promote the development of domestic large aircraft.

The joint fund is aimed to attract and mobilize science and technology resources and innovative talents from all over the society to help the country build a high-level independent innovation system for large aircraft development, according to Dou.

The scale of the fund was not immediately disclosed.

Seized counterfeit goods destroyed in publicity events

A nationwide event was held on Friday to destroy seized counterfeit goods.
More than 200 kinds of counterfeit products worth 330 million yuan ($45.5 million), including clothes, shoes, food, medicines, makeup, cigarettes and alcohol, were destroyed at the event, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement.

The event was held simultaneously at the main venue in Linfen city, Shanxi province, and sub-venues in 21 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The counterfeit products were disposed of in an environmentally friendly and harmless way, the administration said.

In recent years, various regions and departments have held numerous events to destroy counterfeit products in an effort to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and the rights of consumers, it said.

Notice calls for comprehensive survey of country's coral reefs

The Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources has issued a notice to strengthen the protection of the country's coral reefs.

The notice, released on the ministry's website last week, was issued to relevant authorities, including the natural resources and maritime authorities in the coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

It called for a national survey and assessment to determine the current situation of the country's coral reef ecosystems, as well as an enhanced system to monitor and issue alerts about coral reefs.

The notice put forward a series of requirements for improved protection of coral reefs, including asking relevant authorities to fully implement the "ecological conservation red line" system and strictly conserve the coral reefs that fall within the red lines.

The notice also called on authorities to conduct solid investigations to determine the causes of degradation and the restoration potential of coral reefs, and to take targeted measures accordingly, while focusing on approaches that help coral reefs restore themselves.