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1. Party Congress
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened in Beijing from November 8 to 14.
Delivering a report at the start of the congress, Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the 17th CPC Central Committee, said that China will build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, when the GDP and per-capita income for residents will have doubled from their 2010 levels. The congress elected a new central committee and approved an amendment to the CPC Constitution that includes the Scientific Outlook on Development in the Party’s guidelines for action.
On November 15, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPC’s Central Military Commission at the First Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. Other members of the newly elected Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee are Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
2. Toxic Capsule Scandal
On April 15, a China Central Television program on quality standards stated that nine companies had manufactured drug capsules with industrial gelatin containing levels of chromium exceeding legal limits. The industrial gelatin was found to be made from leather scraps.
After the scandal broke, the State Food and Drug Administration launched a nationwide inspection on all medications produced and sold as of April 30 and required producers of pharmaceutical gelatin, capsules and capsule drugs to conduct strict checks on every batch of raw materials prior to production starting from May 1.
The Ministry of Public Security said on April 22 that it had confiscated 77 million capsules made from toxic chromium-containing industrial gelatin, arrested nine suspects, detained 54 and sealed 80 industrial manufacturing lines.
China published 88 new standards on food safety in 2012. It also enhanced the monitoring network on chemical contaminants and pathogenic microorganism food, expanding coverage from 25 percent of county-level administrative regions to 47 percent in 2012.
3. Criminal Procedure Law Amended
The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, adopted the revision to the Criminal Procedure Law on March 14 after legislators produced draft revisions of over 100 articles. The revised law will take force on January 1, 2013. The principle of “respecting and safeguarding human rights” was written into the law, which was enacted in 1979 and revised in 1996.
The amendments make it clear that confessions by a suspect or a defendant obtained through extortion or other illegal means, and witness’ testimony and victim’s statements obtained through the use of violence, threats or other illegal means should be excluded from evidence.
The newly amended law also clearly stipulates that no person may be forced to prove his or her own innocence, and no criminal suspects or defendants may be forced to confess.
4. New Hi-Tech Frontiers
China’s space programs achieved more milestones in space exploration. After successfully completing China’s first automatic space docking on June 18, the three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, including China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang, manually docked the spaceship with the Tiangong-1 lab module on June 24. The crew returned to Earth safely on June 29.
The country’s deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong set a new national record of 7,062 meters below sea level during a dive into the Mariana Trench on June 27. During its six dives in May and June, the submersible took three 7,000-meter plunges, marking a breakthrough in the development of China’s deep-sea exploration technology. China is now capable of conducting deep-sea scientific research and resources exploration in 99.8 percent of the world’s oceans.
5. First Aircraft Carrier Commissioned
China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, entered service on September 25, making China the 10th country to put an aircraft carrier into active service and the last among of the five permanent members the UN Security Council to do so.
The Liaoning is named after the province that had been its home for the past 10 years as it was rebuilt from the Soviet Varyag with new engines and weapons. The Chinese navy’s largest warship completed 10 sea trials in one year after the decade of refitting.
In late November, pilots successfully conducted China’s first carrier-borne take-off and landing exercises of the J-15 fighter jet.
6. Senior Officials Punished
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to expel Bo Xilai from the CPC and removed him from public office for severe disciplinary violations during a meeting on September 28. Bo’s suspected legal violations were transferred to relevant judicial departments. Investigations showed Bo had abused his power and bore major responsibility in an incident concerning former Chongqing Vice Mayor Wang Lijun’s entering the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu, and an intentional homicide case involving Bo’s wife, Bogu Kailai.
A court on August 20 sentenced Bogu Kailai to death with a two-year reprieve for murdering British citizen Neil Heywood in November 2011. Wang was sentenced to 15 years in prison on defection and other charges on September 24.
Investigations have also found that Bo seriously violated CPC discipline while managing Dalian City, Liaoning Province and the Ministry of Commerce, as well as serving as a Political Bureau member and Chongqing Party chief.
Bo was accused of taking advantage of his position to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally or through his family. His position was utilized by his wife to seek profits for others, and the Bo family accepted a huge amount of money and property from third parties.
Bo had maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women. He was also found to have violated organizational and personnel discipline and made erroneous decisions in certain promotion cases.
7. Maritime Stewardship
China set up the city of Sansha to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea on July 24.
The city government is located on the 2.13-square-km Yongxing Island, the largest island in the Xisha Islands group.
As the smallest prefecture-level city in China in land area and population, Sansha includes 2.6 million square km of territorial waters.
On September 10, the Chinese Government issued a statement on the baselines of the territorial waters of Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets in the East China Sea.
China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Li Baodong met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 13, and filed a copy of the Chinese Government’s Diaoyu Islands baseline announcement with the UN, which includes charts showing straight baselines and archipelagic baselines as well as lists of geographical coordinates.
8. HK Anniversary Celebrated
The swearing-in ceremony of the fourth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on July 1, which marked the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. Delivering a speech at the event, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the Central Government will remain committed to the principles of “one country, two systems,” “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong”and a high degree of autonomy.
9. Literary Recognition
The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Mo Yan on December 10 in Stockholm, Sweden, making Mo the first Chinese novelist to win the literary honor.
The 57-year-old writer, “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary,” is from a farmers’family and dropped out of school at the age of 12.
10. New Air Standards
The State Council passed revised air quality standards that include an index for fine particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter (PM2.5), on February 28.
The new standards include indices for concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone over a period of eight hours. For years, China’s environmental indices monitored particulate matter less than 10 micrometers.
In 2012, the government began monitoring PM2.5 in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions—east China’s Yangtze River Delta, south China’s Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north. In 2013, PM2.5 monitoring will be extended to 113 cities on the state environmental protection list, and to all cities at the prefecture level or above in 2015.
The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened in Beijing from November 8 to 14.
Delivering a report at the start of the congress, Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the 17th CPC Central Committee, said that China will build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, when the GDP and per-capita income for residents will have doubled from their 2010 levels. The congress elected a new central committee and approved an amendment to the CPC Constitution that includes the Scientific Outlook on Development in the Party’s guidelines for action.
On November 15, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPC’s Central Military Commission at the First Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. Other members of the newly elected Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee are Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
2. Toxic Capsule Scandal
On April 15, a China Central Television program on quality standards stated that nine companies had manufactured drug capsules with industrial gelatin containing levels of chromium exceeding legal limits. The industrial gelatin was found to be made from leather scraps.
After the scandal broke, the State Food and Drug Administration launched a nationwide inspection on all medications produced and sold as of April 30 and required producers of pharmaceutical gelatin, capsules and capsule drugs to conduct strict checks on every batch of raw materials prior to production starting from May 1.
The Ministry of Public Security said on April 22 that it had confiscated 77 million capsules made from toxic chromium-containing industrial gelatin, arrested nine suspects, detained 54 and sealed 80 industrial manufacturing lines.
China published 88 new standards on food safety in 2012. It also enhanced the monitoring network on chemical contaminants and pathogenic microorganism food, expanding coverage from 25 percent of county-level administrative regions to 47 percent in 2012.
3. Criminal Procedure Law Amended
The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, adopted the revision to the Criminal Procedure Law on March 14 after legislators produced draft revisions of over 100 articles. The revised law will take force on January 1, 2013. The principle of “respecting and safeguarding human rights” was written into the law, which was enacted in 1979 and revised in 1996.
The amendments make it clear that confessions by a suspect or a defendant obtained through extortion or other illegal means, and witness’ testimony and victim’s statements obtained through the use of violence, threats or other illegal means should be excluded from evidence.
The newly amended law also clearly stipulates that no person may be forced to prove his or her own innocence, and no criminal suspects or defendants may be forced to confess.
4. New Hi-Tech Frontiers
China’s space programs achieved more milestones in space exploration. After successfully completing China’s first automatic space docking on June 18, the three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, including China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang, manually docked the spaceship with the Tiangong-1 lab module on June 24. The crew returned to Earth safely on June 29.
The country’s deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong set a new national record of 7,062 meters below sea level during a dive into the Mariana Trench on June 27. During its six dives in May and June, the submersible took three 7,000-meter plunges, marking a breakthrough in the development of China’s deep-sea exploration technology. China is now capable of conducting deep-sea scientific research and resources exploration in 99.8 percent of the world’s oceans.
5. First Aircraft Carrier Commissioned
China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, entered service on September 25, making China the 10th country to put an aircraft carrier into active service and the last among of the five permanent members the UN Security Council to do so.
The Liaoning is named after the province that had been its home for the past 10 years as it was rebuilt from the Soviet Varyag with new engines and weapons. The Chinese navy’s largest warship completed 10 sea trials in one year after the decade of refitting.
In late November, pilots successfully conducted China’s first carrier-borne take-off and landing exercises of the J-15 fighter jet.
6. Senior Officials Punished
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to expel Bo Xilai from the CPC and removed him from public office for severe disciplinary violations during a meeting on September 28. Bo’s suspected legal violations were transferred to relevant judicial departments. Investigations showed Bo had abused his power and bore major responsibility in an incident concerning former Chongqing Vice Mayor Wang Lijun’s entering the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu, and an intentional homicide case involving Bo’s wife, Bogu Kailai.
A court on August 20 sentenced Bogu Kailai to death with a two-year reprieve for murdering British citizen Neil Heywood in November 2011. Wang was sentenced to 15 years in prison on defection and other charges on September 24.
Investigations have also found that Bo seriously violated CPC discipline while managing Dalian City, Liaoning Province and the Ministry of Commerce, as well as serving as a Political Bureau member and Chongqing Party chief.
Bo was accused of taking advantage of his position to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally or through his family. His position was utilized by his wife to seek profits for others, and the Bo family accepted a huge amount of money and property from third parties.
Bo had maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women. He was also found to have violated organizational and personnel discipline and made erroneous decisions in certain promotion cases.
7. Maritime Stewardship
China set up the city of Sansha to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea on July 24.
The city government is located on the 2.13-square-km Yongxing Island, the largest island in the Xisha Islands group.
As the smallest prefecture-level city in China in land area and population, Sansha includes 2.6 million square km of territorial waters.
On September 10, the Chinese Government issued a statement on the baselines of the territorial waters of Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islets in the East China Sea.
China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Li Baodong met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 13, and filed a copy of the Chinese Government’s Diaoyu Islands baseline announcement with the UN, which includes charts showing straight baselines and archipelagic baselines as well as lists of geographical coordinates.
8. HK Anniversary Celebrated
The swearing-in ceremony of the fourth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on July 1, which marked the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. Delivering a speech at the event, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the Central Government will remain committed to the principles of “one country, two systems,” “Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong”and a high degree of autonomy.
9. Literary Recognition
The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Mo Yan on December 10 in Stockholm, Sweden, making Mo the first Chinese novelist to win the literary honor.
The 57-year-old writer, “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary,” is from a farmers’family and dropped out of school at the age of 12.
10. New Air Standards
The State Council passed revised air quality standards that include an index for fine particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter (PM2.5), on February 28.
The new standards include indices for concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone over a period of eight hours. For years, China’s environmental indices monitored particulate matter less than 10 micrometers.
In 2012, the government began monitoring PM2.5 in four municipalities, 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions—east China’s Yangtze River Delta, south China’s Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in the north. In 2013, PM2.5 monitoring will be extended to 113 cities on the state environmental protection list, and to all cities at the prefecture level or above in 2015.