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No.336

 
 
 


CHINA  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China


N0.336 July 10,2003
 
IN THIS ISSUE

* Tax Holidays for Popular Science Activities

* China's Major Scientific Projects Evaluated

* National Long- and Medium-Term S&T Plans

* Geophysical Detection of Dinosaur Fossils

* Nanometer Feed Additive

* “Marine IV” Heads for its 10th Expedition

* Substantive Progress on Wildlife Protection  

 
 SPECIAL ISSUES
 

 Tax Holidays for Popular Science Activities

To implement the PRC Law on Science and Technology Diffusions and to stimulate the development of the S&T diffusion activities in the nation, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation of China, the Customs General Administration of PRC, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Copyright Administration of PRC with the approval of the Chinese State Council, have jointly published the “Policies on Taxation Holidays to Encourage S&T Diffusion Activities.” The policies came into force on June 1, 2003. The preferential taxation treatment as defined in the Policies is as follows:

1. By the end of 2005, S&T newspapers falling under the comprehensive category and S&T related audio and video products will enjoy tax refunds upon the payment of value-added tax for the revenues accrued from distributions. However, the press and newspaper publishers that have made illegal publications or have operated against laws or regulations shall not be entitled to the above mentioned tax holidays.

2. The revenues accrued from tickets sold by S&T halls, nature museums, observatories, weather stations, seismological stations, universities, and research institutions that are designated open to public visits, and ticket revenues collected by governmental agencies and scientific associations at the county level or above from organizing popular scientific activities shall be exempted from the business tax.

3. By the end of 2005, popular science bases such as S&T halls, nature museums, observatories, weather stations, seismological stations, universities, and research institutions that are designated open to public visits, when importing popular science film copies or work copies from abroad for the purpose of staging on their own premises, shall be exempted from paying the added-value tax for such importation, as well as from paying the business tax for the assignment of the staging right to overseas institutions. These popular science bases are also entitled to exemption from paying the added-value tax to Customs and the import link for the importation of film or video products in other forms for their own use.

4. According to the Law of Donations, when making their donations, to S&T halls, nature museums, observatories, weather stations, seismological stations, universities and research institutions designated for public visits through non-profit social groups or governmental agencies, the industrial enterprises, governmental agencies or social groups may enjoy a 10% reduction of their income taxes payable in the year in line with the provisions of Article 12 under the “Implementation Details for the PRC Interim Regulations on Enterprises' Income Tax.”

The “Policies on Taxation Holidays to Encourage S&T Diffusion Activities” are the first of their kind in the nation, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, dedicated to supporting popular science activities through taxation leverage. They will become an important stimulus to strengthening popular science diffusion, constructing high level popular science educational bases, organizing major popular science activities, and encouraging all walks of life to take an active part in the popular science diffusion campaign. The certification criteria and implementation details to accommodate the tax holiday policies are now being prepared for their timely debut.

China's Major Scientific Projects Evaluated

From (year 1981 to 2000), the period from the 6th Five-Year Plan to the 9th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government committed a huge investment of RMB 2.5 billion to initiate more than 20 major scientific projects. Among them some have been completed. Some are still being developed. They include the fields of nuclear physics, astronomy, earth sciences, biology, and information. These major scientific projects and inventions have been playing increasingly important roles in enhancing research capacity, developing scientific research bases, nurturing high caliber research talents, and developing international cooperation and exchanges for China. To strengthen and streamline the management of major national scientific projects and to take full advantage of their roles in the scientific research activities, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance decided to jointly research and evaluate the operations and management of the major national scientific projects and inventions.

On the basis of comprehensive analysis and the accomplishment summary of the major national scientific projects and inventions, and by learning from overseas theories and experience through accomplishments evaluations, the investigation team of the National S&T Ventures Development Center conducted extensive and in-depth investigations in line with the special and technical features of these projects and inventions and collected a huge amount of the first hand data and information. The team has completed its full, systematic and in-depth analysis of the investigation results and has made a report entitled “Evaluations of the Management Accomplishments of the Major National Scientific Projects and Inventions.”

The State will, on the basis of the report, prepare and publish the “Methods on Evaluating the Management Accomplishments of Major National Scientific Projects and Inventions” so as to assess and evaluate major national scientific projects that have passed the verification checks. They will then finance their future operation according to the evaluation results. These evaluation efforts will greatly strengthen the management of major national scientific projects.

National Long- and Medium-Term S&T Plans

China recently kicked off planning initiatives for its long- and medium-term S&T development by convening a strategic forum to discuss issues related to S&T development planning. With an attendance of nearly one hundred domestic experts, the forum had three major agenda items: 1) realize the spirit of the first steering committee meeting concerning the national long- and medium-term S&T development plans and report the latest developments of the planning activities; 2) discuss the situation and current status facing China's S&T development and analyze the major missions to be reflected in the national long- and medium-term S&T development planning; and 3) discuss the strategic studies involving the plans.

China's national long- and medium-term S&T development plan is an all-inclusive deployment document for S&T activities in the next 15-20 years in China. It addresses the major issues and demands relating to national economic construction, social development, and national security.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
 

Geophysical Detection of Dinosaur Fossils

The researchers of Chengdu Polytechnic University and the Zigong Dinosaur Museum have recently unearthed a dinosaur fossil from an underground depth of 9 meters. The discovery was based on geophysical detection results.

The researchers have, for the first time in the world, employed geophysical means to map the basic distribution of dinosaur fossils and layers rich with fossils over the Dashanpu area, Zigong City, Sichuan Province. They started from a major detecting site of 5 km2 arranged by geographic investigations and then narrowed it down to an area of 1km2 for further geophysical investigation. Researchers applied high-density electric resistance to measure the target layers and earth radar to sketch the fossil reserves in the key fossil colony. They located the tectonic and layer positions of the dinosaur fossil colony over the Dashanpu area, and acquired basic knowledge of the underground preservation status of these fossils. Based on the preliminary geophysical detection results on dinosaur fossils, researchers have confirmed that the dinosaur fossil colony was distributed over 19 natural layers and the layer that housed the dinosaur fossils should be the 5th layer in the section rather than the 7th layer as previously believed.

Nanometer Feed Additive

The Institute of Feeds, a part of Zhejiang University, has recently announced that, thanks to its more than one decade long study, it has finally worked out a feed additive series at nanometer level that is safe, highly efficient, and is of high quality. The Institute has applied for two international invention patents, as well as 6 national invention patents.

A few years ago, the Institute discovered four trace nutritional elements needed by both humans and pigs. These elements have no harmful effects. When being processed into nanometer grains, these nutritional elements demonstrate apparently enhanced physical properties in the form of a greatly increased number of atoms on the grain surface. This in turn remarkably increases their application efficiency. Researchers have made the four trace nutritional elements into an optimized combination together with a number of other nutritional elements and turned it into a new and fresh nanometer feed additive. In addition, the Institute has developed other additives that are able to replace antibiotics or absorb harmful and poisonous residues in animal products. As a result, the Institute has created its own unique animal nutriology.

The testing results have shown that pork fed with the nanometer feed additives only recorded 60% of the top limit for heavy metal content as required by the EU. Thus, the additives have been approved for applications in export-oriented pork production.

China's Substantive Progress on Superconductor Cable

The 3-phase AC high temperature superconductor cable project, listed under the National 863 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and supported by the Major S&T Projects Program of the Beijing Municipal Government, has recently applauded its major achievement: a superconductor cable system 4 meters in length and having a current carrier capacity of 2000A completed, installed, and verified at Beijing Yundian Yingna Superconductor Cable Co. Ltd.

This system is the first of its kind in the nation that has been put into successful operation in a complete and closed form. It indicates that Chinese researchers have found solutions to all the key technical difficulties in applying the superconductor cable to practical use. It is predicted that by the end of this year, a set of superconductor cables as long as 30 meters will be installed in the power grid. This will make it the third superconductor power cable in operation in the world following the US and Denmark.  

China's First Full-Color Organic Illumination Display

Recently, the Beijing Weixinnuo Corp. and Tsinghua University jointly developed the full-color organic illuminating display, the first of its kind in the nation. With the specifications of 1.28 inches, 260,000 color pigments, and a resolution of 64×3×64, the display, during its research and development period, solved the problem of the RGB three-color steaming and plating technique and adopted the proprietary new OLED materials, which have further improved the color purity and illumination efficiency. The development has constituted a ground-zero breakthrough achieved by both Weixinnuo and Tsinghua, and has marked the parallel advancement of China's display industry with its overseas counterparts. This marks a new age for the proprietary development of color display.

Marine IV” Heads for its 10th Expedition

The Marine IV scientific expedition vessel recently started a journey to investigate cobalt rich agglomerate found over hilly submarine areas in the Magellanic Sea. The expedition will also explore other new areas. As a scientific expedition mission of DY105-15 defined by the 10th Five-Year Plan(2001-2005) for international sea floor research and development, the journey constitutes the 10th expedition made by the vessel. The expedition team will primarily investigate the cobalt rich agglomerate over the hilly submarine areas of the Magellanic Sea and the mid-section of the Pacific Ocean, and hopes to basically mapping out the areas of reserves which meets the requirements for commercial development. The expedition will also take in-depth investigations in a designated area of multiple metal agglomeration zones as part of implementation of prospecting contract signed between the Ocean Association and the International Ocean Floor Administration.  It also provide basic data for the study of agglomeration distributions and the selection of the mining sites for the future commercial exploitation. 

 NEWS BRIEFS

Substantive Progress on Wildlife Protection

A report published by the Chinese State Forestry Administration has shown that China has thus far established 1,757 nature conservation zones with a total area of 1.99 billion mu (1mu=0.0667ha.), or 13.2% of the nation's total territory. By 2010, the total number of nature conservation zones will rise to 1800 and the total area will involve 16.14% of the nation's territories.

It is reported that the Chinese State Forestry Administration launched a Program on Wild Animal Protection and Nature Conservation Zone Construction in 2001. The program covers 15 wildlife rescue projects and 30 major ecological protection projects relating to forests, wild lands, and wetlands. Since the implementation of the Program, the nation has witnessed the construction of 249 new nature conservation zones, an addition of 53.85 million mu in area under protection, and has enhanced the protection and breeding of endangered and rare wildlife species, such as the Panda and the Orchid Family.

Chen Jiageng Science Award

The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Bank of China have recently made a joint investment to establish a non-profit nation-wide fund - the Chen Jiageng Science Fund - to honor scientists who have achieved outstanding original and inventive S&T findings.

The entire Science Award is made up of five internally dedicated awards: the Mathematics and Physics Award covering mathematics, physics, dynamics, and astronomy; the Chemistry Award; the Life Science Award covering biology, medical sciences, and agriculture; the Earth Science Award; and the Technology Award. The Science Award will select its winners once every two years with one winner for each being awarded a prize of RMB 300,000.

Armored SARS Virus Samples

A research group headed by Li Jinming, a research fellow of the Clinical Examination Center attached to the Chinese Ministry of Health, has recently developed infection free SARS coronavirus sample grains. The sample grains have become a safe and powerful tool for SARS monitoring and diagnosing.

The new SARS virus sample grains contain partially inactive nucleic acids of the SARS viruses. In addition, the sample grains are covered with a layer of bacteriophages as an armor to ward off infection. Since the grains can be applied in clinical sample testing, the results for the further development and associated standardization of SARS testing agents will be good.


       Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Cheng Jiayi, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China  Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594

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