Weekly News Collection

ECONOMY

Industrial economy to maintain a slowdown in growth

China’s industrial economy will possibly maintain the slowdown in growth from July 2016 to July 2017, according to the Summer Report of China Industrial Economics Operation Analysis (2016) released by the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Aug. 17 in Beijing. In the first half the 2016, industrial indicators leveled out while rapid growth was seen in the nation’s central regions. The decline of industrial export prices and the producer prices of manufactured goods continued to slow down, while the profit of industrial enterprises rebounded. The report also suggested a restorative growth of profit in raw material industries like coal, steel and nonferrous metals. The report indicated the stock pressure for some enterprises was relieved to some extent, while the pressure for some industries to cut excessive production capacity was still heavy.

Human nature integrated into economic planning

The China Association for Ethical Studies’ first International Summit Forum on Virtue was held on Aug. 13 in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province. At the summit, Zhejiang University Vice-President Luo Weidong emphasized the role human ethics and emotions play in the construction of economic mechanisms. Luo said people often behave irrationally in defiance of one of the basic premises of traditional economic theory. The “endowment effect,” “loss aversion” and “inequity aversion” have become the core concepts in various branches of the economy. Some scholars agreed with him, saying market failure is a problem rooted in mankind’s limitations as an organism. Therefore, the design of institutions, organizations and policies should be based on authentic human nature. A behavioral assumption in accordance with human nature, especially the logic of human emotion should be explored, Luo said. 
 

ECOLOGY

Greenhouse gasses other than CO2 should be tracked

The decisions by several Chinese local governments to  include gasses other than carbon dioxide in the emissions reduction targets have offered valuable lessons on reaching targets earlier than the established national deadline, said Li Lailai, the China country director for the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington-based non-governmental global resource research organization. The WRI released its research paper on China’s efforts to reduce emissions of non-carbon greenhouse gasses on Aug. 1 in Beijing. Reducing the impact of non-carbon gasses is a crucial facet of the fight against global climate change, she said. China has reduced the emission of certain refrigerants, the potential emission reduction of which in the future would equal reducing 200 to 300 million tons of carbon dioxide, said Hu Jianxin, a professor from the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Peking University.
 

MYTHOLOGY

Mythology, history relations disputed

The notion that mythology and history are mutually exclusive is a product of modern empirical science. Ancient people did not make this distinction, so today’s scholars should avoid recklessly dismissing myths as being “ahistorical,” said Chen Lianshan, a professor from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University. Chen shared his ideas at a symposium marking the publication of the book Comparative Mythology in China co-authored by Ye Shuxian and Tan Jia from the Institute of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The book suggested that Chinese mythology provided a way for people to understand Chinese culture and history. The mythologies were developed based on a combination of ancient history and literary imagination, said Liu Yuejin, party secretary of the Institute of Literature at CASS, adding that history and literature were like twins in prehistory.