China to further improve BeiDou tech innovation: vice premier

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing said on Tuesday that China will further enhance technological innovation of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) so that it can better serve global users.

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in a speech delivered at the 5th International Summit on BDS Applications held in Zhuzhou in central China's Hunan Province.

He said China is willing to work with all parties to uphold the principles of openness and integration, coordination and cooperation, as well as mutual complementarity for shared benefits.

He said China will strengthen the integration of BeiDou with artificial intelligence, satellite internet and other technologies, continue to advance system iteration and upgrading, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the BeiDou industry.

China will seek to enhance the system's applications in terms of service coverage and quality and contribute to global governance in satellite navigation, Zhang noted.

The BeiDou system benefits not only the Chinese people but also people around the world. The BDS has been providing stable and reliable positioning, navigation and timing services to users worldwide with its continuously improving performances and service quality, as well as its steadily expanding application scenarios and scale, according to Zhang.

The BDS has been used in a wide range of fields, including transportation, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, hydrological monitoring, meteorological forecasting and disaster relief.

About 900 people, including Chinese and foreign experts and scholars, business leaders, government officials and representatives of international organizations, attended the summit's opening ceremony.

The Chinese vice premier also met with Prime Minister of Madagascar Mamitiana Rajaonarison prior to the opening ceremony.

Zhang said that China stands ready to work with Madagascar to fully implement the important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries and the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit in 2024.

Rajaonarison reiterated Madagascar's adherence to the one-China principle, adding his country is willing to deepen practical cooperation with China in various fields.

China to further improve BeiDou tech innovation: vice premier

More than 7,200 confirmed Ebola cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as sustained transmission continues in several provinces despite an overall downward trend of the epidemic, according to governmental data released Tuesday.

A government report covering the epidemiological situation as of Sunday said 7,258 confirmed cases had been recorded in seven provinces, including 3,510 deaths and 1,726 recoveries. The overall fatality rate stood at 48.4 percent. There are still 905 patients in isolation or hospitalized. The outbreak has affected 62 health zones across seven provinces -- Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, Tshopo and Sud-Ubangi. Sustained transmission continued in Ituri, North Kivu and Haut-Uele, while sporadic cases were reported in Tshopo and Bas-Uele.

The overall epidemic curve was trending downward as the peak appeared to have been reached around mid-August, said Dieudonne Mwamba Kazadi, head of the National Institute of Public Health, after a strategic coordination meeting in Kinshasa on Monday.

However, he cautioned that the decline was uneven across the country, with some provinces, particularly North Kivu, still reporting increases in cases.

Declared in May, the current outbreak has become the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in the DRC's history and the second largest globally, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.

DR Congo reports over 7,200 Ebola cases despite overall downward trend