NEW TECH BILLIONAIRE

Tang Yan， founder and CEO of social networking platform Momo Inc.， has become Chinas newest IT billionaire after Momo made its trading debut in Nasdaq， New York City， on December 11， raising $216 million for its U.S. initial public offering.

Tang was born in 1979 in central Chinas Hunan Province. He graduated from university in 2000， majoring in architecture， and worked in the building industry till 2002. Tang joined Netease， one of Chinas leading websites， as an editor in 2003. In April 2011， he was appointed editor in chief of Netease. Five months later， he resigned and founded Momo.

Today， the Beijing-based Momo application allows over 180 million users to connect with each other. Users can chat with one another through the platform—and find people within their geographical vicinity or through shared-interest groups that are also location based—Momo is backed by Chinas e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Parks and Recreation

Oriental Outlook December 18

Following the establishment of the first national park in the world—the Yellowstone National Park—in the United States in 1872， about 100 countries and regions have set up their own equivalents. There are altogether thousands of national parks around the world， and they have become important symbols of modern civilization.

Although China commenced construction of pilot national parks in 2008， these programs have failed to meet their initial target. Local governments have followed the same management methods used with heritage sites or natural conservation areas in constructing these pilot projects. Some do not even have a clear understanding of the concept of national parks.

National parks should not be equated with natural conservation areas. The latter are designed for the protection of biodiversity and may not have high landscape value， whereas for national parks， high landscape are requirement.

Developed countries have established a sound system for the management of national parks with an agency exclusively responsible for managing such parks. For example， the National Park Service in the United States takes responsibility for appointing the management staff， both temporary and permanent， of national parks across the country. To ensure the quality of service， these staff members are required to possess higher education qualifications.

In order to regulate the management of national parks in China， such a department is urgently needed.endprint

Railway Construction Fund

Caijing Magazine December 8

The China Railway Corp. （CRC）， which operates the countrys railway network， established the China Railway Development Fund Corp. on September 26. The establishment of the fund is aimed at attracting more social capital to the construction of railways.

In the first round of fundraising， the subsidiaries of four banks—the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China， the Agricultural Bank of China， the China Construction Bank and the Industrial Bank—invested a total of 8.2 billion yuan（$1.3 billion）. The CRC put in an investment of 75 billion yuan （$12.1 billion）.

As a reward， the four aforementioned banks are due to receive a 5.5-percent profit dividend every year. However， they are not allowed to participate in the management of the new corporation or hold seats on its board of directors.

The corporation plans to carry out four rounds of capital raising and to accumulate between 400 billion yuan （$64.6 billion） and 600 billion yuan （$96.9 billion） over the next two years in the process.

However， some insiders say that the operation of the company is incompatible with market rules， as stockholders other than the CRC have little say in its running and the rewards as they stand are too small. Such a fundraising system more closely resembles loans from banks and， in the long term， is unsustainable.

Punishing a ‘Gang of Four

Beijing Youth Daily December 16

An in-flight brawl between Chinese passengers and Thailand flight attendants on December 11 forced the plane to return to Don Mueng International Airport in Bangkok. The four passengers involved， which included a couple， were taken away by Thai police. They were required to pay compensation of 50，000 Thai baht （$1，525） to the flight attendant. Prior to their arrest， the female member of the couple had thrown hot water at the attendant and another of the four had even threatened to blow up the plane.

The actions of the four have been widely criticized on the Internet. However， they have received only light punishment from the Jiangsu Provincial Tourism Bureau since returning to Nanjing. The bureau has required that the behavior of all four be inscribed in their personal ill credit records and published. Many have wondered why these offenders were not subject to criminal charges.

According to Chinese law， endangering flight safety with violence is a crime. However， the law does not specify which kinds of behavior can constitute violence. Therefore， it is ambiguous whether or not throwing hot water at a flight attendant can be construed as an act of violence.endprint

In order to improve citizens behavior， the terms of the relevant laws should be made clearer and expressed in greater detail so as to allow an appropriate level of punishment to be meted out to offenders.

A MOTHER FOR JUSTICE

Shang Aiyun， 62， mother of a wrongfully convicted young man who was later executed， finally succeeded in clearing her sons name on December 15， bringing to an end a yearslong campaign.

After a rape and murder took place on April 9， 1996， in Hohhot， north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region， Shangs 18-year-old son Hugjilitu was convicted and sentenced to death on May 23 that year. Just 18 days later， he was executed amid a national campaign to come down hard on criminal activities. However， another alleged serial rapist and killer confessed to the murder following his 2005 arrest.

After Shang retired from a local textile factory in 2005， she tried to find ways to clear her sons name， including petitioning law enforcement agencies. A retrial， which began in November this year， cleared off all charges against Hugjilitu. State compensation will be applied in light of his being posthumously exonerated.

“Some state-owned enterprise （SOE） directors have colluded with foreign forces to trade national assets in return for huge bribes. We will fight such practices resolutely.”

Hao Mingjin， Vice Minister of Supervision， discussing ongoing efforts to uncover corruption in SOEs

“Lack of animal welfare protection will impede our efforts to curb acts of animal abuse such as catching and killing animals or making them perform for entertainment purposes.”

Yang Zhaoxia， deputy head of the Ecological Law Research Center of Beijing Forestry University， pointing out that animal welfare will be legally recognized for the first time in China in an upcoming revision of the countrys wildlife protection law

“In future， we hope to perfect our water supply facilities through more cooperation between Guangdong and Macao. This includes the completion of a fourth water supply pipe.”

Wong Soi Man， Director of Macaos Marine and Water Bureau， speaking at a recent press conference about collaboration with the mainland to meet the special administrative regions freshwater needs

“Chinas decision on foreign aid projects adheres to strict standards.”

Shen Danyang， spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce， saying that China has taken the development strategies of recipient nations into consideration when providing foreign assistance， on December 16endprint