China has issued more than 98 million e-chip passports, which contain the personal information of the bearer, the Ministry of Public Security said Saturday.

Since chipped passports were launched in March 2012, 6.6 million were issued that year alone and the annual average rate of issuing new passports grew by 20 percent.

The ministry estimates that it will have issued in excess of 100 million e-chip passports by the end of April.

At present, smart cards have replaced the paper permits issued to Hong Kong and Macao residents commuting between the Chinese mainland and the two regions, said the ministry.

The ministry has simplified procedures and delegated power to local administrations aiming to provide convenience to people who made such application.

In 2016, 79 million residents of the Chinese mainland held chipped passports for exit or entry, 30.6 percent of the residents who travelled outside the mainland.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Chancellor’s message in Delhi and Mumbai this week is that the UK is perfectly placed to finance manufacturing growth in India.

Diane
Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to reports of a
brutal attack on a 17 year old asylum seeker yesterday evening, said:

“Sadly this is not an isolated incident,  but part of a
sustained increase in hate crimes that this Tory government is yet to offer any
effective response to.

 “With right-wing politicians across the world scapegoating
migrants, refugees and others for their economic problems, we are seeing a deeply
worrying rise in the politics of hate.

 “We must make clear that there is no place for anti-foreigner
myths, racism and hate in our society.”

Seven people died and another was critically injured in a series of car crashes in central China’s Henan Province, police with Xinyang City said Saturday.

The accident occurred early Saturday at an expressway section in Xixian County of Xinyang. More than 40 vehicles were involved in the crashes, which happened within a two-km-long area. Eight people were trapped in six separate vehicles, the police said.

Three fire engines and 17 fire fighters were sent to rescue the people. Seven died at the site and one person was gravely injured and sent to the hospital.

Fog and low visibility are suspected to be the cause of the accident. Further investigation is under way.

“Today
many businesses across the country will see their business rates increase
substantially. For some firms, it will seriously threaten their viability and
continued existence. However, today it also transpires that the Government’s
inadequate measures to mitigate these effects are not even in place to help
businesses. The support fund the Government promised is reportedly not even up
and running and nor is the Government clear on how it will work.

 “The
Government’s botched business rate revaluation has created a huge and
destabilising burden for many businesses. Prior to the budget Labour announced
its Five Point Plan for business rates, which promised to set up an Emergency
Relief Fund, undo Tory restrictions on the appeals process, bring forward the
shift from RPI to CPI indexation, and remove most categories of new plant and
machinery from valuations, as well as a fundamental rethink of business rates
in the longer term. Today the Government must rise to Labour’s challenge by
taking action to defuse the ticking time bomb of business rates and bringing
forward additional transitional relief for small and medium sized firms.”