Vaccine case

President Xi Jinping has ordered a thorough investigation into an illegal vaccine production case and serious punishment of those found responsible.

Xi said this in an instruction while visiting foreign countries. The people’s health should always be a top priority, and the bottom line of safety should be resolutely* guarded, Xi said. Xi said the illegal production of vaccines by Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech Co., a major vaccine producer in China, is vile* in nature and shocking.

Retired teachers

The education and finance authorities plan to recruit 10,000 teachers beyond retirement age in the coming three years to teach in primary and junior middle schools in rural areas.

The first batch of veteran teachers will be in place for this fall term. The “silver-age” project by the ministries of education and finance, will recruit retired headmasters and teachers to give classes in rural schools between 2018 and 2020. The project is aimed at improving the quality of education and to help balance the education gap between urban and rural areas.

Elderly population

The number of elderly people in China is expected peak at 487 million in 2050, accounting for 34.9 percent of the total population, said an official with the National Health Commission on Thursday.

According to Wang Jianjun, also executive deputy director of the Office of the National Working Commission on Aging, the number of people aged 60 and above in China will reach 300 million by 2025, and 400 million by 2033. “The money spent on the elderly, such as in caring and medical services, will take up 26.24 percent of China’s GDP by 2050, up from 7.33 percent in 2015,” he said.

Mobile payment

China saw fast expansion in the number of mobile payment users last year, reaching 527 million at the end of 2017, according to an Internet industry report.

The number of mobile payment users increased by 57.83 million in 2017, representing a 12.3-percent growth, the Internet Society of China said in the report. (SD-Agencies)