SHANGHAI: China has recovered 2.3 billion yuan (US$331.27 million) in losses from graft in the first 11 months of this year from across more than 70 different regions and countries, the country’s corruption watchdog said on its official website on Saturday.
The news comes after Beijing shifted the focus of its corruption campaign to recover illicit funds taken overseas as part of the country’s multi-agency « Sky Net » campaign launched in 2014.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said that 908 people who were on the run have been captured, 122 of whom were government officials.
The commission added that it would strengthen its campaign by tightening co-ordination, doubling-down on « Sky Net 2016 » by focusing on key countries and cases and increase international cooperation.
Since coming to power in late 2012, President Xi Jinping has vowed to pursue powerful « tigers » as well as subordinate « flies » in a campaign against pervasive corruption.
China’s most-wanted corruption suspect Yang Xiuzhu, a former deputy director of Wenzhou’s construction bureau, returned to the country from the United States in November, turning herself in after 13 years on the run.
China said on Friday it will prosecute one of its former spy chiefs, accusing him of bribery and abusing his power to interfere in law enforcement.

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SHANGHAI: One of China’s top coal-producing provinces has vowed to slash its level of fine particle pollution by one-fifth by 2020, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, citing the provincial government.
China has adopted various measures from policing barbeques to halting industrial production in efforts to ease the yearly winter haze that hit the country earlier this month leaving cities veiled in foul-smelling smog.
China’s northern Shanxi province aims to increase the proportion of days per year with good air quality to 75.4 percent, the agency said.
The move comes after concentrations of PM2.5, fine particulate matter, in a major northern Chinese city exceeded a World Health Organisation guideline by 100 times in December.
The province will create a pollutant discharge license system covering all polluting enterprises, while industrial capacity expansion will be restricted and no new coal, steel, cement or plate glass projects will be approved, it added.
By the end of 2017 all coal-fired plants of 300,000 KW and above will be upgraded to produce fewer emissions, Xinhua said.
But under its five-year plan for the coal sector, the state planner said it was targetting national coal output of 3.9 billion tonnes in 2020, up from 3.75 billion tonnes in 2015, even as it attempts to tackle pollution.

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CHINA’S military has become alarmed by what it sees as U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s support of Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the island from moving toward independence, sources with ties to senior military officers said.
Three sources said one possibility being considered was conducting war games near the self-ruled island that China considers as a breakaway province. Another was a series of economic measures to cripple Taiwan.
It was not clear whether any decisions had been taken, but the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Taiwan issue had become a hot topic within the upper echelons of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in recent weeks.
Trump, due to take office on Jan 20, angered Beijing this month by speaking to Taiwan’s president by telephone, breaking decades of precedent and casting doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy. Beijing fears this could embolden supporters of independence in Taiwan.
“If Trump challenges ‘one China’ after becoming president, this would cross our red line,” said another source, who has ties to China’s leadership. 
China’s defence ministry declined to comment. An official at the ministry’s news department said China’s position was clearly laid out in the 2005 Anti-Secession Law, which authorises the use of force against Taiwan in the event China judges it to have seceded.
SEE ALSO: Trump calls out China on Twitter after breaking protocol with Taiwan call
Asked about any possible aggressive moves from China, Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-shi said: “We are fully prepared, and plan for the worst while preparing for the best.” 
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its sacred and inviolable territory and is deeply suspicious of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party espouses the island’s independence. Tsai, who took power this year, says she wants to maintain peace with China, but China is unconvinced.
Tsai said on Saturday that Taiwan will be “calm” when facing issues to do with China, but uncertainties next year will test the self-ruled island and its national security team.
Beijing has also been angered by a trip planned by Tsai in January to Latin America in which she will transit through Houston and San Francisco. China has urged the United States to block the stopovers. 
Chinese officials have blamed Taiwan for creating trouble rather than Trump, and many of them believe he will be more accommodating to China once in office.
“We’re ready. If Taiwan wants to make trouble so can we. Let’s hit them hard,” said an official in Beijing who meets regularly with China’s most senior military officers, including those who work directly with President Xi Jinping.
“We can hold exercises close to Taiwan, and show them the damage we could cause. Taiwan will have to give in then,” the official added, citing a recent conversation with one of the military officers.
ONE CHINA POLICY
The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it’s unclear if the United States would send troops in the event of war between China and Taiwan.
Washington also acknowledges Beijing’s position that there is only one China and Taiwan is its territory.
A retired senior officer who maintains contacts with the PLA told Reuters that China probably wouldn’t need to fire any missiles to bring Taiwan to its knees. China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, and Taiwan runs a huge trade surplus with China, worth US$27 billion in 2015.
“We can just cut them off economically. No more direct flights, no more trade. Nothing. Taiwan would not last long,” the officer said. “There would be no need for war.”
SEE ALSO: China says ‘extremely dissatisfied’ with renaming of de facto Japanese embassy in Taiwan
In addition, any Western economic blockade of China put in place in the event of war with Taiwan would also be damaging to China, already dealing with a slowing economy.
A U. S. defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chinese actions had been more provocative in the past month, since Trump won the U. S. election and made comments about Taiwan.
This month, a Chinese naval flotilla headed by its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, took part in drills that took it around Taiwan. 
Chinese air force jets have performed similar drills in recent weeks, flying close to the island, though China has officially called the air force and naval exercises routine.
China also scored a diplomatic victory when tiny Sao Tome and Principe switched recognition to Beijing from Taiwan. – Reuters

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State broadcaster Central China Television has rebranded its international networks and digital presence under the name China Global Television Network as part of a push to consolidate its worldwide reach.
CCTV on Friday unveiled several new mobile apps under the CGTN brand, and visitors to CCTV’s non-Chinese language websites are directed to a new http://www.cgtn.com site. The broadcaster says it made the move to « integrate resources and to adapt to the trend of media convergence, » with foreign language channels, video content and digital media falling under the new group.
The broadcaster published a congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping on Saturday urging the newly launched CGTN to « tell China’s story well, spread China’s voice well, let the world know a three-dimensional, colorful China, and showcase China’s role as a builder of world peace.  »
The government has long grumbled about the Western news media’s hold on international discourse and has spent vast sums in recent years to enhance its own influence and shape global opinion, with CCTV as one of its spearheads. The broadcaster has channels in English, Arabic, French, Spanish and Russian and production centers in Washington and Nairobi.
Chen Lidong, a CCTV official, said the rebranding would not affect CCTV’s domestic operations.
But the international-facing makeover will be extensive. CCTV’s international newscasts will now carry CGTN logos, while CGTN has unveiled two new smartphone apps: one that contains mostly news articles and one for live broadcasts. CCTV’s social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr — all of which are aimed at international audiences, because the platforms are all blocked inside China — have all been rebranded as CGTN overnight.
In the past year, Xi has tightened the ruling Communist Party’s control over state media outlets while re-articulating their core mission to serve as the government’s mouthpiece. Xi memorably sat in the evening news anchor’s chair himself during a high-profile tour of CCTV’s Beijing headquarters in February when he urged journalists to ramp up their coverage of positive news and pledge complete loyalty to the party.
CCTV and the official Xinhua News Agency have expanded aggressively in recent years with dual missions of becoming globally credible media heavyweights while sustaining their roles as vital propaganda organs of the Communist Party.
China announced a plan in 2009 to spend 45 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) to help spread its message abroad. In the years since, CCTV and Xinhua have leased a giant display in New York’s Times Square that has, among other things, broadcast videos arguing China’s position on the South China Sea territorial dispute.
They have also deployed vast numbers of journalists to produce extensive daily reports from around the world, including from countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa where Western media presences are shrinking amid vanishing budgets.
Their swift inroads have at times prompted alarm. Australian members of parliament complained in September after the Communist Party’s propaganda chief flew to Sydney to witness deals signed between Chinese and Australian media that would see major Australian newspapers carry content produced by Beijing.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that his government would continue to focus on poverty alleviation at home and resolutely defending China’s territorial rights on the foreign front.
Xi made the televised remarks in his annual New Year’s Eve address, in which he touted China’s scientific accomplishments, highlighting its large new radio telescope and space missions, and the country’s growing role as a leader in global affairs.
Standing before a mural of the Great Wall, Xi said his administration successfully hosted a G-20 summit, pushed forward with China’s « One Belt One Road » pan-Eurasian infrastructure project and established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
China has upheld its peaceful development while resolutely defending its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, Xi said, making a reference to an international tribunal ruling last summer against China’s claims in the contested South China Sea.
« If anyone makes this an issue of question, the Chinese people will never agree!  » he said, one of the few points in his 10-minute address when his voice rose noticeably.
For most of his address, Xi struck a populist tone, saying he was above all concerned about the living conditions of the people and vowed that improving employment, education, housing and health care would be a responsibility that his ruling Communist Party would never shirk from. China lifted 10 million people out of poverty in 2016, Xi said.
« On this new year, I am most concerned about the difficulties of the masses: how they eat, how they live, whether they can have a good New Year, or a good Spring Festival, » Xi said, as the television broadcast cut to footage of his visits this year to impoverished rural areas.
Xi also promised to shore up Communist Party discipline and « unwaveringly » maintain his anticorruption campaign against high- and low-ranking officials alike. He said that « supply-side » economic reforms were making progress and that the party would continue to push reform and rule by law during the 19th National Congress, scheduled for late 2017.

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China will ban all domestic ivory trade within the country by the end of 2017, the country’s announced Friday, in a “game-changing” move that wildlife campaigners say may help protect the species against poachers. This move is significant for the world’s elephant population, as conservationists estimate that are killed by poachers each year, mostly to satisfy the demand for ivory products in Asia —. A published in September showed that the savannah elephant population has declined 30% in the past seven years, mostly due to poaching. The survey placed the number of wild elephants on the continent at just less than 400,000. The first phase of China’s ivory trade ban will be implemented by the end of March, when the government begins the process of shutting down the country’s 34 processing facilities and 143 designated ivory trading venues. In , an official with the State Forestry Administration said that “dozens” of these organizations will be closed by April 1, 2017. The Chinese Ministry of Culture will assist employees of the ivory trade in finding new occupations that utilize their carving skills, likely in antique restoration and maintenance. Per the directive, China will also step up its enforcement of illegal ivory sales and set up a system to regulate the transfers or sales of those ivory goods currently owned by citizens. All domestic processing and trading of ivory will be shut down by Dec. 31, 2017. Animal welfare and conservation groups worldwide are applauding China’s decision. president and CEO Carter Roberts called it “a game changer for elephant conservation”. In a press release, the Asia Director, Aili Kang wrote, “This is great news that will shut down the world’s largest market for elephant ivory. I am very proud of my country for showing this leadership that will help ensure that elephants have a fighting chance to beat extinction.” The Chinese government also plans to launch a public awareness campaign about the brutalities of the ivory trade to discourage consumers, a move through which conservation groups have seen success in China in the past. A four-year anti-ivory campaign by the International Fund for Animal Welfare — which depicted a young elephant excited about his new tusks walking with his mother — reached 75% of the urban Chinese population. showed that this specific PSA had reduced the number of Chinese people likely to purchase ivory from 54% of the population to 26%.

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