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Beijing has passed a law that aims to punish food waste with heavy fines. The main reason is not concern about a food shortage, but the fear of becoming too dependent on foreign countries due to the consumption needs of the growing middle class. China has to import more and more food.
By Frank Sieren
Without massive green investments, climate targets will be hard to achieve. EU states are already wrangling intensively over what counts as green. Beijing is now seeking common standards with the EU. But the European side hesitates: Chinese requirements are weaker and ignore social issues such as forced labor. Critics now fear that the EU will move closer to China in the negotiations and lower its standards.
By Nico Beckert
The Middle Kingdom is playing its trump cards in space travel. That's what many headlines say. China's taikonauts (after the word taikong 太空 for outer space) are on the verge of moving into their own celestial palace (Tiangong 天宫) in space in 2022, just before US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have to vacate their outdated International Space Station (ISS). China's Fairy (Zhang'e 嫦娥) returned to the moon, where she has her cute Jade Rabbit (Yutu 玉兔) exploring the far side as a rover. Starting mid-May, Fire God (Zhu Rong 祝融) will help explore Mars as the second rover. The People's Republic, a latecomer to space, is reshuffling its space cards with traditional folklore – loosely based on Confucius: "The superior man can determine the terms and turn his words into deeds."
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