The Sunday Mail
Manyika Kangai
China launches manned spaceship
China launched the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship with three astronauts aboard who will stay in orbit for about six months on a space station mission. The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off at 11.14 am Thursday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). About 10 minutes after the launch, the Shenzhou-17 spaceship separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. The crew, led by Tang Hongbo, 48, has the youngest line-up since the construction of China’s Tiangong space station started, with crew members Tang Shengjie, 33, and Jiang Xinlin, 35.
China removes officials
The Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, concluded its sixth session on Tuesday in Beijing and removed Li Shangfu from the posts of State Councillor, Defence Minister and Member of the Central Military Commission; Wang Zhigang from the post of Minister of Science and Technology; and Liu Kun from the post of Finance Minister. Yin Hejun was appointed as Minister of Science and Technology and Lan Fo’an was appointed Finance Minister. President Xi Jinping signed presidential orders to put the decisions into effect.
China adopts Patriotic Education Law
Chinese lawmakers voted to adopt the Patriotic Education Law, which is aimed at promoting the spirit of patriotism in the country. The law, passed at a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, will take effect on January 1, 2024. According to the law, patriotic education covers areas such as ideology and politics, history and culture, national symbols, the beauty of the motherland, national unity and ethnic solidarity, national security and defence, and the deeds of heroes and role models. The law highlights patriotic education for the youth and children and makes stipulations regarding patriotic education for various groups of people, such as employees of government departments, enterprises and public institutions, residents of urban and rural areas, as well as compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese.
China’s gold output, consumption rises
China produced 271,2 tonnes of gold in the first nine months of 2023, up 0,47 percent compared with the same period last year, according to data released by the China Gold Association (CGA). In the January-September period, gold consumption in China totalled 835,07 tonnes, up 7,3 percent year-on-year. Specifically, consumption of gold jewellery in the Chinese market rose 5,7 percent year-on-year to 552,04 tonnes, while that of gold bars and coins surged 15,9 percent from the same period in 2022 to 222,4 tonnes. During the period, consumption of gold for industrial and other use fell 5,5 percent from a year earlier to 60,7 tonnes. In the third quarter alone, holdings of gold-backed Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in China added 9,53 tonnes. The figure brought total holdings of gold ETFs in the Chinese market to about 59,7 tonnes by the end of September.
China designs AI tool for drug discovery
A team of Chinese scientists proposed a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that may help significantly speed up the process of discovering drugs. The researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, described PBCNet, or Pairwise Binding Comparison Network, in a study recently published in the journal Nature Computational Science. The AI tools have been widely used for hunting chemicals that can potentially be translated into drugs, but their efficiency continues to pose a challenge. A simulation-based experiment showed that active learning-optimised PBCNet may accelerate structure optimisation by 473 percent and save computing resources by an average of 30 percent.
*Manyika Kangai has over 17 years of experience facilitating and advising on China-Africa trade and investment deals. Feedback: Muvambi SA (Pty) Ltd/+27743487997/ www.muvambi-sa.co.za
