China Daily - 30.07.2019

CHINA

4 | Tuesday, July 30, 2019 CHINA DAILY

Ministry looks to boost physical activities at schools

By WANG XIAOYU

[email protected]

China plans to increase exercise

opportunities at schools to help chil-

dren and teenagers become more

physically active, a senior official

with the Ministry of Education said

on Friday.

Students at primary, middle and

high schools will learn basic sports

knowledge and receive athletic

skills training. More competitive

sports activities will also be held to

improve their mental and physical

well-being, said Wang Dengfeng,

director of the ministry’s physical

education, health and art depart-

ment.

He added that students should

exercise for at least an hour a day at

school, and get an additional hour of

physical activity off campus.

In order to achieve these goals,

Wang said, more effort will be made

to address the severe shortage of

physical education tutors and sports

facilities at schools.

“For instance, there are about

12,000 soccer fields of different sizes

across schools in China. That means

on average, each school with more

than 300 pupils has the equivalent

of about half a soccer field,” he said.

“The strain is also noticed in the

number of soccer coaches.”

An equally important task is to

shift attitudes on physical education

classes, which are often overlooked,

or even skipped, against mounting

academic pressure.

“Unnecessary academic loads

should be cut down to make time for

outdoor activities,” Wang said.

“Evaluation systems aimed at meas-

uring improvements in fitness pro-

grams at schools will be set up to

oversee implementation of workout

programs on campus.”

The World Health Organization

recommends young children and

teenagers get at least 60 minutes of

moderate to vigorous physical activ-

ity each day.

In China, about 11 percent of stu-

dents meet this standard, even

though 90 percent are reported to

take physical education classes dai-

ly, according to Chen Peijie, presi-

dent of Shanghai University of

Sport.

“The problem is that exercises on

most campuses tend to be extremely

light and ineffective,” he said. “Thus,

it’s crucial to launch more competi-

tive sports events to motivate stu-

dents to get more intense workouts

every day.”

Insufficient exercise is tied to

higher risks of obesity and being

overweight, a looming threat to the

health of young Chinese.

“Research shows that the rate of

being overweight for children aged

6 to 18 jumped from 1.1 percent in

1985 to 20.4 percent in 2014,” Chen

said. “The obesity rate also

increased from 0.5 percent to 7.

percent during the same period.”

Since students spend the majority

of their waking hours at schools,

Chen suggested physical education

classes devote more time to offering

moderate to vigorous activities.

Low levels of physical activity

have also contributed to the epi-

demic of myopia among Chinese

students, an issue that has been

highlighted by the central leader-

ship as a critical disease in recent

years.

More than half the young chil-

dren and teenagers in China are

nearsighted, according to a survey

jointly released by the Ministry of

Education, Ministry of Finance and

the National Health Commission

this year.

According to a health promotion

guideline issued by the State Coun-

cil earlier this month, the rate of

nearsightedness will be decreased

by 0.5 percentage points each year

as of 2022.

Posts smearing China

lead to man’s detention

By WANG KEJU
[email protected]

A man was criminally detained
upon his return to China recently
for allegedly spreading online
comics on domestic and foreign
websites insulting China, Dalian
police in Northeast China’s Liao-
ning province said on Sunday.
Since January 2018, the 36-year-
old man, surnamed Lu, produced a
series of anti-China comics —
together with a 22-year-old woman
surnamed Zhang who was
detained in May by police in Anhui
province — and published them in
more than 140 posts, according to a
Sina Weibo post by the police in
Dalian’s Shahekou district.
The police in Tianjiaan district,
Huainan in Anhui province, said
in a statement that Zhang, an avid
fan of Japanese comics and cul-
ture, produced comics series fea-
turing pigheaded Chinese to
distort history, misinterpret Chi-
na-related news and events and
smear the living habits of Chinese
people. Zhang provided over 300
such pieces to Lu to spread online.
Police said these posts encour-
aged splitting the country and
promoted nationalistic hatred,

which distorted history, insulted

China and its people, and incited

antagonism between nations.

Lu has also been cooperating

with similar communities at home

and abroad to spread anti-Chinese

rhetoric to young students in China

and also recruited young people to

join them and set up illegal organi-

zations via the internet to advocate

Japanese militarism, police said.

Such people have been referred

to as a jingri, a Chinese national

who is “spiritually Japanese,”

identifying much more with

Japan than China. State Council-

or and Foreign Minister Wang Yi

slammed them in March last year

as “scum among Chinese people”.

Also on Sunday, police in Nanjing,

capital of Jiangsu province, said

they detained a man surnamed Dai

who was inspired by jingri groups

abroad and stole hundreds of Weibo

accounts to spread anti-China mes-

sages, including one that said the

Nanjing Massacre was fabricated.

The 20-year-old suspect also

coaxed teenagers into joining

jingri groups and brainwashed

them with Japanese militarism.

The police put him in detention

on a charge of picking quarrels

and provoking trouble.

Disability rate

among elderly

sparks efforts

Nation to target early signs of trouble,

especially illnesses tied to dementia

By WANG XIAOYU
[email protected]

Even though China increased its
average life span to 77 years last
year, the country’s seniors often
live the last eight years of their lives
in poor health, the National Health
Commission said on Monday.
The average healthy life expectan-
cy in China — an indicator used by
the World Health Organization to
measure years of good health a new-
born can expect — stands at 68.
years, meaning severe diseases drag
down the quality of life for the elder-
ly for nearly a decade, said Wang
Haidong, director of the commis-
sion’s aging and health department.
“There are more than 180 million
seniors with chronic conditions
and 40 million living with disabili-
ties,” he said, adding that China is
home to about 250 million people
aged 60 or older, accounting for 18
percent of the population.
The country aims to reduce the
disability rate for those aged 65 to 74
and curtail the rising rates of
dementia among those 65 or over in
the next decade, according to a
health promotion plan issued by
the State Council earlier this month.
Chen Zheng, head of the Beijing
Geriatric Hospital, said occurren-
ces of disabilities are closely tied to
chronic illnesses, especially car-
diovascular diseases and malig-
nant tumors.
“Multiple chronic diseases will
first lead to severe complications
such as sleep disorder, chronic
pain and urinary incontinence,”

he said. “Gradually, critical condi-

tions including strokes and respi-

ratory failure might surface and

result in disabilities.”

Chen said it is therefore signifi-

cant to precisely detect early signs of

disability and allow elderly patients

to receive effective diagnosis and

treatment as soon as possible.

According to Wang, the depart-

ment of aging and health, which

was established in September dur-

ing a government reshuffle, has

been improving grassroots medical

services targeting the older popula-

tion by conducting more physical

examinations for the elderly and

formulating new guidelines intend-

ed to smooth out services at elderly-

oriented hospitals.

As China’s population ages, the

number of people living with age-

related dementia is also climbing.

“It is estimated that more than 9

million elderly people have demen-

tia in China. The number is projec-

ted to reach 40 million by 2050,”

said Li Zhixin, a senior official with

the Chinese Center for Disease Con-

trol and Prevention. “In order to

curb the rates, it is crucial to per-

form long-term monitoring and

carry out early interventions among

the group, which demonstrates a

higher risk of developing dementia.

“Research shows that hearing

loss, obesity, tobacco use, depression

and lack of exercise or social interac-

tion are among factors that are

closely linked to dementia. If we can

effectively prevent and control these

factors, the incidence rate of demen-

tia is likely to drop by 40 percent.”

Children learn to play ice hockey at a rink in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Monday.DING GENHOU / FOR CHINA DAILY

Briefly

GUIZHOU

Death toll in landslide

climbs to 42; 9 missing

Forty-two people have been con-

firmed dead after a mountain land-

slide in Shuicheng county, Guizhou

province, as of 11:30 pm on Sunday,

with nine missing, authorities said

on Monday. The landslide happened

on Tuesday night and buried 21

houses. After speaking with survi-

vors and cross-checking registration

records and DNA identification,

investigators said the registered

population of the area was 77, with

another eight visiting the village

when the landslide occurred. Twen-

ty-three residents were confirmed to

have been out of town, while 11 were

injured. Rescue efforts at the site

have concluded, and the local gov-

ernment has set up a temporary set-

tlement point in a local middle

school, offering medical services and

psychological counseling.

FUJIAN

First footprint fossil

of T. rex family found

Paleontologists from China and the

United States have found a Tyranno-

sauripus, a giant dinosaur footprint

fossil belonged to the Tyrannosaur-

us family, in Jiangxi province, mark-

ing the first discovery of such a fossil

in Asia. It was unveiled on Monday

in Yingliang Stone Nature History

Museum in Nan’an, Fujian province.

The track, found in Jiangxi’s Gan-

zhou during road construction, was

identified by scholars including

Xing Lida with China University of

Geosciences, Beijing; Niu Kecheng

with Yingliang museum; and Martin

G. Lockley from the University of

Colorado, US. Xing said the fossil

very likely belongs to a dinosaur of

the Tyrannosaurus family, which

incorporates the Tyrannosaurus

rex, or T. rex.

CHINA DAILY—XINHUA

conservation value,” said Zhang

Jianlong, head of the National For-

estry and Grassland Administration.

“The protection of tigers and leop-

ards in the world has achieved

remarkable results through the joint

efforts of all parties, but we still face

prominent problems such as insuffi-

cient and dispersive habitat areas.”

Representatives discussed moni-

toring technology, restoration of pop-

ulations and habitat areas, landscape

resource allocation in protected are-

as, conflict resolution and other

related technical and policy issues.

A consensus on tiger and leopard

transboundary conservation reached

by all the representatives was pub-

lished at the forum, pointing out that

sustained joint efforts are still neces-

sary to achieve the recovery of tiger

and leopard populations in trans-

boundary areas.

Furthermore, the establishment

of an international exchange and

cooperation mechanism for cross-

border protection of tigers and leop-

ards is expected to see important

progress in the future.

Contact the writers at

[email protected]

Network helps monitor population of big cats

By TIAN XUEFEI

and ZHOU HUIYING in Harbin

After nearly 20 years of efforts, Chi-

na has built a monitoring network for

endangered Siberian tigers and Amur

leopards, covering more than 12,

square kilometers in the provinces of

Jilin and Heilongjiang, an expert said

on Sunday.

With cutting-edge technologies

such as artificial intelligence and big

data, more than 4,000 infrared cam-

era video clips of tigers and more than

600 clips of leopards were recorded

by a team led by Jiang Guangshun,

deputy director of the Feline Research

Center of the Natural Forestry and

Grassland Administration.

“By comparing the data of tigers

and leopards of China and Russia

from 2013 to 2015, we have con-

firmed that 17 tigers and 42 leopards

are shared populations of both Chi-

na and Russia,” Jiang said at the

International Forum on Tiger and

Leopard Transboundary Conserva-

tion which kicked off on Sunday in

Harbin, Heilongjiang province.

“The ecology has greatly

improved since the natural forest

protection project started in 1998,

and all commercial logging has

been stopped, which helped to pro-

tect tigers and leopards.

“However, we still face great chal-

lenges,” he said. “The distribution pat-

tern of the two species suggests that

the protection of the tiger and leopard

requires the establishment of a net-

work of protected sites, the construc-

tion of international and domestic

corridors and the formation of a per-

meable landscape. It needs attention

and support from all over the world.

“Military fences, transportation

facilities and farmland in the habi-

tats have a strong impact on tigers’

free migration in different areas in

China and cross-border areas

between China and Russia. Living in

small and isolated areas may cause

more inbreeding, which can be a

factor in their decline in immunity,”

Jiang added.

“Therefore, the construction of an

ecological corridor, including the

improvement of habitat quality, is

essential.”

Jiang said the project can ensure

the security of the environment of

the cross-border areas and may

become a model for the transnation-

al cooperation for the protection of

endangered species.

Focusing on big cats around the

world, especially tiger and leopard

populations, the two-day event

attracted more than 300 representa-

tives from 19 countries, including

Nepal, Russia, Vietnam and 10 inter-

national organizations, including the

World Wildlife Fund.

“Tigers and leopards are impor-

tant symbols of a healthy and stable

natural ecosystem and have high

Siberian tigers rest at Hengdaohezi, a major breeding center for big

cats in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang province, in April.WANG JIANWEI / XINHUA

Visitors enjoy a natural foggy vista at Mount Huangshan, a
renowned scenic spot in Anhui province, on Sunday. With its
cooler temperatures, many people choose to visit the mountain
to escape the scorching sun as heat clouds much of China’s cen-
tral and eastern areas. PAN CHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY

It’s cool up here