Another COVID vaccine

One more Chinese adenovirus vector vaccine candidate against COVID-19 is ready for human trials at home and abroad, its developers said on Monday.

Researchers from Tsinghua University, Tianjin Medical University and Kunming-based Walvax Biotechnology Co. have started developing the vaccine since the outbreak of the pandemic. Compared with other candidates, it was produced using chimpanzee blood. The vaccine makers have completed animal tests and started applying to launch human trials in China and overseas.

Amended law

The age of criminal responsibility in China has been lowered to 12 years old in some special conditions in accordance with a newly amended law, as a move to fight serious offenses committed by the very young.

The amendment to the Criminal Law was passed by the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, on Saturday after a third review. The revised law will take effect from March 1. Under the amended law, children aged 12 to 14 should be held criminally liable for intentional homicide or intentional injury that leads to death or causes others severe disabilities by extremely cruel means.

Ant Group

Financial regulators have identified major problems in Ant Group’s business operations and have urged the company to make plans and set a timetable as soon as possible to fix the problems in accordance with supervision requirements.

The group’s major operating problems include flaws in its corporate governance mechanism and poor legal awareness, flouting regulatory compliance requirements, foul play for regulatory arbitrage, leveraging market dominance to exclude competitors, and hurting consumers’ legitimate rights and interests, which led to consumer complaints, said Pan Gongsheng, deputy head of the People’s Bank of China.

Blood pressure

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects one in five Chinese people and kills more people than any other disease in the country, a leading cardiologist has warned.

An estimated 300 million Chinese live with high blood pressure, with annual medical bills totaling 31.89 billion yuan (US$4.88 billion), said Hu Shengshou, head of China’s National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases. (SD-Agencies)