Weekly News Collection

POLITICS
Brilliant achievements of the Chinese path
A launch event for reports on the transformation of national governance during the four decades of reform and opening up was recently held in Beijing. Yang Guangbin, deputy director of the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China, said that the model of national governance during the period of reform and opening up can be summarized as “adhering to the direction of socialism” as well as “prioritizing mixed governance systems” in terms of politics, economy and cultural values.

Pan Wei, a professor from the School of International Studies at Peking University, said that as socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, it is vital to summarize the experience in reform and opening up as well as tell Chinese stories. In the past four decades, the biggest change in the development of Chinese political science is reflected in methodology. Political science has become a social science by adopting the method of sociology, Pan said.

EDUCATION
Number of high-level overseas returnees increasing
According to the Ministry of Education, the number of Chinese studying abroad exceeded 600,000 for the first time in 2017, up nearly 12 percent annually. The number of returned students increased by 11 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 480,000. Among them, the number of students with a master’s or doctorate degree as well as postdoctoral personnel reached 227,400, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 15 percent.

Xiong Qingnian, director of the Research Institute for Higher Education at Fudan University, said that on one hand, the increasing number of students abroad shows people’s higher enthusiasm for education investment. Meanwhile, because of the sustained impact of the economic crisis, all countries in the world have been expanding the enrollment scale of foreign students. On the other hand, the obvious return trend of high-level overseas students indicates the increasing demand for talent from the building of “double first-class universities” (“world-class university” and “first-class discipline”) in China as well as economic development. In addition, the “Belt and Road” construction has also accelerated the return of high-level talent, Xiong said.

FINANCE
Promoting high-quality development of finance
Experts and scholars discussed the high-quality development of finance at a seminar on economic and financial studies held at the Jiangsu Institute of Financial Research on April 3. Participants agreed that high-quality finance should be secure, stable and efficient, serving the real economy. To push forward the high-quality development of finance, reform should be conducted from aspects of quality, efficiency and impetus. It is vital to establish high-quality systems of scientific and technological innovation, talent construction and corporate culture that are closely related to financial development.

Wu Xianman, director of the Jiangsu Institute of Financial Research, said that new approaches to the high-quality development of finance are needed. Standards of financial support to the real economy should be adjusted with time. Small and medium-sized enterprises currently struggle to find financing. More support from private finance is needed for the development of the private economy.

Jiang Zhaoyi, an associate research fellow from the the Institute of World Economy at the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said that driven by self-interest, banks are unwilling to provide petty loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, so it is necessary for small loan companies to supplement traditional financial institutions.

(edited by YU HUI)