Current Affairs from September 2011 to March 2012

Domestic part:

1. The Chinese government website reported on September 7 that the State Council had recently issued the Comprehensive Working Program for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in the 12th Five-Year Plan, determining that, by 2015, China's energy consumption of 10,000 yuan of GDP would fall to 0.869 tons of standard coal (in 2005 prices), down 16% from 2010, down 32% from 2005. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, China will achieve energy savings of 670 million tons of standard coal.

2. On Sept. 8, the State Council reported that it had published revised Regulations on the Supervision of Public Security Organs. The Regulations are intended to improve the oversight mechanism for public security organs and to ensure that public security organs and their people's police perform their duties, exercise their powers and observe discipline in accordance with the law. The Regulations will come into force on October 1, 2011, and are expected to be implemented by the end of this year.

3. The Ninth National Minority Traditional Sports Games opened on the evening of Sept. 10 in Guiyang.

4. The opening ceremony of the 14th National Publicity Week for the Promotion of Putonghua on Sept. 11. The publicity theme of this week is "Enhancing the ability to use the common language and writing systems of the country, and carrying forward the excellent cultural traditions of China,"

5. On Sept. 19, programmer Hua, director of the China National Rice Research Institute, formally announced that the "Y Two Excellent No. 2" rice plant, which is under the direction of Yuan Longping, had been developed into the "Y Two Excellent No. 2". "Y two excellent 2" 100 mu test field average mu yield is 926.6 kilograms, set the world hybrid rice larger area mu yield highest record. This is a major breakthrough in China's super hybrid rice cultivation.

6. On September 21, the State Council executive meeting discussed and adopted the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Work Safety". The meeting identified six major tasks for production safety during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, including improving the enterprise safety and security system, improving the government safety supervision and social supervision system, improving the safety science and technology support system, improving the system of laws, regulations, policies and standards, improving the emergency response and rescue system, and improving the publicity, education and training system.

7. On September 21, the Ministry of Health released the "Report on the Development of Maternal and Child Health in China (2011)". According to the report, China's average life expectancy for women reached 75.2 years in 2009, and the infant mortality rate and the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 continued to decline, realizing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule.

8. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the 12th Five-Year Plan for the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) on September 22nd, which is China's first national-level special plan for SMEs' development. The plan puts forward five major tasks, including enhancing the vitality of entrepreneurship and innovation and the ability to absorb employment, optimizing the structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), improving the level of "specialization, specialization and innovation" and the development of industrial clusters, upgrading the level of enterprise management, and perfecting the service system for SMEs.

9. On Sept. 27, the State Council held a national conference on energy conservation and emission reduction, putting forward the goal of building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.

10.On Sept. 29 China successfully sent Tiangong 1 into low-Earth orbit, taking a key step toward building a permanent manned space station.

International section:

1. September 2 Japan's new cabinet was formally established with Yoshihiko Noda as prime minister.

2. The World Economic Forum's 2011 Annual Meeting of New Leaders (the fifth Summer Davos Forum) opened on Sept. 14 in Dalian. The theme of the three-day forum is "Focusing on the Quality of Growth, Taking Control of the Economic Landscape."

3. The 66th session of the General Assembly agreed on September 16 that Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) should be the legitimate representative of Libya at the United Nations.