Educational punishment A rule on educational punishment in primary and middle schools across China took effect on Monday after it was introduced by the Ministry of Education in December 2020. The regulation allows schools and teachers for the first time to discipline the students for their misbehavior and ask them to correct it. To protect students as well as teachers, the rule on the one hand stipulates that schools and teachers can take disciplinary action when students commit acts of disobedience, engage in disorderly conduct, endanger others’ safety or infringe on others’ rights. On the other hand, the rule specifies the methods teachers may not use when punishing students. One-shot COVID vaccine The Chinese National Medical Products Administration granted conditional market approval to a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine that requires only one shot. Developed by a research team led by Chen Wei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, the vaccine shows a 65.7-percent efficacy at preventing symptomatic cases and a 90.98-percent efficacy against severe cases in an interim analysis of its global phase-3 clinical trials, according to media reports. Top scientific advances The Ministry of Science and Technology unveiled the selected top 10 domestic scientific advances of 2020 on Saturday. Chinese scientists’ remarkable progress in tackling COVID-19, the Chang’e-5 probe’s retrieval of lunar samples, and the deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe’s diving record topped the list. Other advances include research on the transmission of human genetic materials, transparent ferroelectric single crystals with ultrahigh piezoelectricity, quantum interference in chemical reactions, as well as biomarkers and potential intervention targets for organ aging in mammals. Complete victory President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that China has secured a “complete victory” in its fight against poverty, saying absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world’s most populous country. Xi made the announcement while addressing a grand gathering held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the nation’s poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters. (SD-Agencies) | 