DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, December 10, 2020 | 3 TOP NEWS

Freezing China to sanction officials in work US for meddling in HKSAR An electrical worker in clears ice on By HOU LIQIANG sovereignty, security and develop­ Monday while patrolling [email protected] ment interests and Hong Kong’s the power network in a long­term prosperity and stability, mountainous region in China will sanction United States as well as to ensure the stable and order to ensure there is officials who meddle in the affairs of long­term operation of the princi­ no interruption to the the Hong Kong Special Administra­ ple of “one country, two systems”, power supply in the tive Region, as a countermeasure to the statement said. area. US sanctions against senior Chinese “We firmly oppose any external YOU BO / CHINA NEWS SERVICE lawmakers, according to a state­ interference in Hong Kong affairs in ment from China’s top legislature on any way and will fulfill our lawful Wednesday. duties as always to handle Hong The statement was made by the Kong affairs in accordance with the Standing Committee of the National law,” the statement said. People’s Congress after the US The Chinese government is firmly announced sanctions on 14 vice­ committed to safeguarding China’s chairpersons of the committee, cit­ national sovereignty, security and ing its decision to enact the National development interests, implement­ Security Law for Hong Kong and ing “one country, two systems” fully another decision that led to the dis­ and faithfully, and opposing any qualification of four Hong Kong interference in Hong Kong affairs. opposition lawmakers. Related Chinese government bod­ “The US sanctions are a typical ies will sanction US officials who example of political bullying and meddle in Hong Kong affairs and double standards. We strongly con­ undermine China’s sovereign secu­ demn and oppose this,” the state­ rity by initiating and promoting ment said. Hong Kong­related measures, the Hong Kong affairs are purely Chi­ statement said. na’s internal affairs. The NPC Standing Committee adopted the Inside National Security Law for Hong Kong to safeguard China’s national Editorial, page 9 Movable model Li: Boost role of insurance sector

Sophistication, coverage of industry ties nationwide,” Li said. remain modest, says premier “Suitable supplementary More types of endowment insurance will be developed to cater to the needs of By WANG KEJU needs and payment capacity of insurance covering people working in those business­ [email protected] the elderly will be developed. critical illnesses will es, as well as of those in flexible Insurance companies will be employment, to ensure a more China will adopt a host of policy encouraged to incorporate medi­ be supported and reliable guarantee for the future. measures to promote the scale cal expenses, within a reasonable aligned with the basic It will help sustain existing jobs and quality of the personal insur­ range yet outside the basic medi­ and create new jobs. This is a ance sector and facilitate its cal insurance catalog, into insur­ medical insurance major task, and breakthroughs steady development, in order to ance coverage. system as will be made,” he added. meet the public’s diverse needs, “More types of insurance cover­ Long­term investment capabil­ the State Council’s executive ing critical illnesses will be sup­ supplements to ities will be enhanced. Supervi­ meeting chaired by Premier Li ported and aligned with the basic enhance critical sion of assets and liabilities will Keqiang decided on Wednesday. medical insurance system as sup­ be strengthened, and risk preven­ “The personal insurance sector plements to enhance critical ill­ illness insurance tion and control stepped up. in China has made notable ness insurance protection for protection for urban Insurance funding will be encour­ progress in recent years, with urban and rural residents,” Li and rural residents.” aged to participate in major con­ insurance coverage continuously said. “Openness will be extended struction projects such as Eighty­three­year­old Zhang Tianwei from Xi’an, province, expanding and public awareness in an orderly manner, and inter­ Li Keqiang, premier infrastructure and new­type demonstrates on Wednesday his movable “model chariot” made of risks steadily increasing. That national cooperation strength­ urbanization, to more effectively from more than 900 pieces of bamboo. Zhang spent four months said, the sophistication and cov­ ened, to promote the bring out its role in driving the making the model. ZHUANG YUAN / CHINA NEWS SERVICE erage of China’s personal insur­ development of health insurance payment and relatively stable real economy. ance sector remain modest. This and provide better services.” earnings will be supported. “Risk prevention and control also indicates that China is a huge Commercial endowment insur­ “Commercial endowment must be enhanced on an ongoing insurance market with enormous ance, which serves as the third insurance will be vigorously basis to prevent the speculative potential,” Li said. pillar of China’s pension system, developed. In the past few years, use of insurance funds. Greater CPI: Core inflation minus Attendees at the meeting will be put under unified stan­ new industries and new business efforts will be made to address emphasized the need to step up dards and regulations, and its models have emerged as China the difficulty in settling insurance the development of commercial development will be stepped up. deepens reform of government claims and to attract more people insurance. Commercial medical Endowment insurance featuring functions and encourages entre­ to participate in insurance plans,” food, energy remains insurance products that suit the convenient application, flexible preneurial and innovation activi­ Li said. steady for five months who had worked hard day and Chengdu faces up to COVID­19 threat night on the front line of preven­ From page 1 Iris Pang, chief China economist at tion and control. Dutch bank ING. Peng said epidemic prevention On a yearly basis, the PPI Pang said she expected the Peo­ By HUANG ZHILING in Chengdu the recently confirmed cases in als can pay to get nucleic acid tests, and control has to be the most dropped by 1.5 percent in the same ple’s Bank of China, the central [email protected] Chengdu are getting tests offered according to Fan Chuan, an infor­ important task right now and con­ period, versus a 2.1 percent decline bank, to focus more on financial free of charge by local health cen­ mation officer with the provincial certed efforts have to be made to in October. risk prevention and make no Ma Zhao, a middle­aged woman ters. health commission. win this hard battle. Experts said the year­on­year changes in policy interest rates in Chengdu, province, During this latest outbreak, Wen As of Wednesday, 739,000 nucle­ The city has introduced strict CPI growth may turn positive and the reserve requirement ratio waited among some 30 people at a Fu, a taxi driver in Chengdu, said ic acid test samples had been col­ measures to contain the transmis­ starting in the second quarter of in the coming months. hotel in the city on Wednesday to he had seen some changes in the lected and 399,300 of those had sion of the virus, such as suspend­ next year as the base effect fades China’s broad money supply, or get a nucleic acid test. city. been processed. ing school classes in certain areas. while domestic demand speeds up M2, grew by 10.7 percent year­on­ “The line was long. But it took Streets in the city became less Six confirmed COVID­19 cases, Since Wednesday morning, all its recovery, especially for consum­ year during the first 11 months of me only seconds to go through the congested overnight as fewer vehi­ plus one asymptomatic case, have students at Minyang Foreign Lan­ er goods, offline services and cor­ the year, up from 10.5 percent a procedure of having my (nucleic cles and people went out after the been discovered in Chengdu this guage Experimental School have porate investment. month earlier, the PBOC said on acid) sample collected. I will see first two COVID­19 cases were con­ week. started having lessons online. One The pickup in consumption and Wednesday. the result early tomorrow morn­ firmed on Monday. Peng Qinghua, the provincial of the recent confirmed cases was the services sector will become the Some recent surveys have indi­ ing,” said the woman, who will “There is only about half the Party secretary and head of the of a worker in the school’s canteen. main driver of China’s economic cated that many foreign business­ attend a large­scale meeting in the normal traffic volume in the leading group coping with the The students all received negative rebound as household incomes es in China, including those from city later this week. streets,” said Wen, who has been a COVID­19 pandemic in Sichuan, test results on Monday. improve while the pandemic situa­ the United States and Japan, are “The conference organizer has taxi driver for about 20 years. chaired a meeting at the emergen­ In addition, some other kinder­ tion further stabilizes, underpinning upbeat about the country’s eco­ financed the test. It’s a must for all In addition to the free tests for cy command center of Chengdu gartens and schools have also an 8.8 percent GDP growth for 2021, nomic development and market participants,” she added. certain locations affected, there epidemic prevention and control switched to online lessons to a KPMG report said on Tuesday. potential, Foreign Ministry Meanwhile, many residents of are 141 hospitals and organiza­ headquarters on Wednesday. He reduce students’ potential expo­ Guo Liyan, a researcher at the spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a villages and locations related to tions in Chengdu where individu­ expressed his gratitude to all those sure to the virus. Chinese Academy of Macro­ news conference on Wednesday. economic Research, said rising About 44 percent of British com­ industrial goods prices have sig­ panies that responded said in a security authorities in Chengdu naled improving profitability for survey that they are considering for infringing on Zhao’s privacy, industrial companies, which increasing investment on the Chi­ Don’t infringe on other’s rights, netizens told according to a Weibo post on the would be conducive to recovery in nese mainland next year despite account of the public security industrial investment. the challenges of the pandemic. By ZHAO XINYING Slander, spreading rumors or Wednesday, Zhao apologized to bureau of Chengdu’s Chenghua “It is groundless to say that defla­ The survey was released by the [email protected] infringing upon other people’s the residents of Chengdu and said district. tion is beginning to take hold,” said British Chamber of Commerce in rights will be punished according that she cooperated with the dis­ Investigations showed that the Wen Bin, chief researcher at China China on Tuesday. Internet users have been urged to laws, it said. ease prevention and control man posted Zhao’s personal infor­ Minsheng Bank. to respect the privacy of COVID­19 A 20­year­old female patient authorities to stop the virus from mation on his own Weibo account. The growth in core CPI, which Chen Jia and Ouyang Shijia patients, after a patient’s recent surnamed Zhao, the granddaugh­ further spreading immediately Shi Jiayou, a law professor at excludes volatile food and energy contributed to this story. experience stirred heated debate ter of an elderly couple confirmed after her infection was confirmed. Renmin University of China, said prices to better reflect true both online and offline. as being infected on Monday, has Zhao said she did not know that the behavior of the man and some demand, has stood at 0.5 percent CPI changes During his visit to Chengdu on had personal information her grandparents had been infect­ other netizens is illegal. He added on a yearly basis for the fifth con­ Unit: percent Wednesday, Peng Qinghua, Party exposed on the internet amid ed and if she had known, she that the Civil Code of China, secutive month, indicating that 6 5.4 secretary of Sichuan province, claims that she had continued to would not have gone out. which has detailed stipulations 5.2 the overall economy is healthy, 5 requested that attention should travel around the city, and fre­ She said in another post on on protecting personal informa­ Wen said. 4.3 be paid to the protection of quented a number of public pla­ Wednesday that she had been tion and privacy, will take effect 4 As economic fundamentals 3.3 patients’ privacy and cybervio­ ces, after it was known that other receiving phone calls and text on Jan 1. 2.7 remain robust, experts said the 3 2.4 2.5 2.4 lence should be stopped so that a members of her family were messages from strangers since her A law on personal information temporary CPI decline will have 2 1.7 good atmosphere can be nurtured infected. personal information was protection is also being drafted to no major impact on monetary pol­ in the prevention and control of Zhao’s personal details, includ­ exposed on Tuesday. Zhao said she crack down on behavior such as 1 icy, nor on foreign businesses’ con­ 0.5 COVID­19. ing her name, photos, address, felt hurt by the abusive messages this, he added. fidence in the Chinese economy. 0 Chengdu’s Public Security mobile phone number and ID she received.

“The base­effect­driven CPI -1 -0.5 Bureau called on people using the number, soon appeared online. On Wednesday, a man sur­ Inside Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov decline should be ignored in for­ 2020 internet to express their opinions In response, in a post on micro­ named Wang received adminis­ mulating monetary policy,” said Source: National Bureau of Statistics CHINA DAILY in a polite and reasonable way. blogging platform Weibo on trative punishment from public Comment, page 9