2017 GDP growth

Premier Li Keqiang said China’s economy is expected to have grown around 6.9 percent last year, Xinhua News Agency reported, accelerating from a 26-year low in 2016.

Analysts expect the economy to have grown around 6.8 percent in 2016, thanks to a construction boom and robust* global demand for Chinese exports.

Unusual virus strains

Unusual virus strains* has caused the current flu* outbreak in China, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

People have been more likely to lack the immune* barrier for the strains, according to the commission.

However, no mutation* has been detected in the strains.

Marriott probed

Shanghai’s market watchdog* has opened an investigation into Marriott International. The group was alleged to breach* China’s Internet security and advertising laws after it was found to have listed Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Tibet as separate countries in questionnaires and on its app.

Marriott International was ordered on January 11 to shut down its official Chinese website and app for one week.

Marriott International has since issued three statements on its Weibo account.

It apologized for the “mistakes,” suspended all questionnaires and upgraded its app to correct the information.

Donations to ‘Snowflake Boy’

Images of a boy who arrived at school with a head full of icicles* after walking more than 4 kilometers through the freezing snow has drawn widespread* attention.

Wang Manfu, 10, was photographed by his teacher on January 8, and the picture quickly went viral*.

Wearing only a thin jacket, the student had braved temperature of minus 9 degrees Celsius to travel over an hour from his village home to reach Zhuanshanbao Primary School in Zhaotong, Yunnan Province.

(SD-Agencies)