China has published a list of prohibitions to further regulate notarization practices across the country, according to a guideline released by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Monday.

Notarizations for applicants whose identities are not verified are now prohibited. Notaries and notary organizations must confirm the identities of applicants by viewing their ID cards and cross-checking the information, the ministry said.

Moreover, notaries must not issue notarial certificates without examining the content of the notarization, and should fulfill their duty to a higher standard, the guideline stated.

Notaries who break the rules will receive severe repercussions with zero tolerance, according to the MOJ.

The guideline also called for more simplified notarial processes, and asked for efforts to make obtaining notarizations more convenient for the public, while also raising the quality of notarization services.

Recently, the notarization practice has drawn a lot of attention among the public, as some cases involved unreasonable conduct and failure to receive people’s full consent.

The Chinese city of Nanjing awarded a peace medal to the family of John Magee on Monday, to show gratitude for the late missionary who recorded the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.

Long Xiang, deputy Party chief of the city, presented the medal to Magee’s grandson Chris Magee.

A missionary in Nanjing from 1912 to 1940, Magee secretly filmed the slaughter of Chinese soldiers and civilians by Japanese troops 80 years ago.

The 105 minutes of footage is considered the only film found so far recording the massacre, in which 300,000 people were murdered.

Magee was also one of the founders of the safe zone international committee and refugee hospital, and rescued a huge number of Chinese who would have otherwise died during the Japanese invasion.

In 2002, his son donated the camera he used to record the events to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

“We are here to commemorate the humanity of foreign friends represented by Mr. John Magee, and this medal, representing peace and hope, will help express our gratitude and respect for the salvation of the Nanjing people,” Long said.

Paintings on the wall of Tholing Monastery in Tibet have come to east China’s Suzhou City via digital technology.

Featuring two giant buddhas, the high-precision digitalized images reproduce the original work in vivid detail.

“The images present the authentic features of the wall paintings, with a color rendition of over 95 percent accuracy,” said Li Zhirong of Zhejiang University.

Situated in Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tholing Monastery was built in 996, with many of its murals dating back to the late 15th and early 16th century.

The paintings, showing elements of Tibetan Buddhism and local culture, have been damaged by weather, religious activities and tourists.

To protect the murals, experts at Zhejiang University and local cultural bureaus have spent six months archiving parts of the paintings.

With the digital images, visitors to an exhibition hall in east China’s Jiangsu Province can “see” the frescos outside Tibet for the first time.

“By setting up the archive, we can restore the paintings even if they suffer further damage in the future,” said Li.

Both Chinese astronomers and the general public are interested in the development of the world’s largest telescope. But controversy on social media over its design has delayed the progress.

Chen Jiansheng, a senior astronomer at Peking University, sent a mass email to China’s leading astronomers last week, opposing the existing design of the telescope. Two academicians, Cui Xiangqun, the telescope’s chief engineer, and Su Dingquang, an astronomer at Nanjing University, jointly responded to Chen on social media, openly defending the original plan.

The Chinese public has now been drawn into the scientific infrastructure development process and has shown interest in picking sides.

The 12-meter telescope, known as the Large Optical/Infrared Telescope (LOT), was included on the list of megascience facilities to be built during the 13th five-year-plan period (2016-2020) in March. The four-mirror plan was approved by the engineering team in July.

The government has required construction on the telescope to begin by the end of 2018. Any delays or controversies over its design would risk missing that target.

The project’s engineering team, under Cui at the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, is in favor of the ambitious four-mirror plan. On the other side, many astronomers and astrophiles have called that too risky and want a simpler and more universal three-mirror plan.

“Though I have no understanding about the mirrors, I believe involving the public in the future of our country’s scientific endeavors is progress,” said Zhao Hang, an amateur stargazer.

Nearly 200 reports on the debate had been posted on news sites as of the weekend, including many of China’s most prestigious media outlets, with some pieces exceeding 100,000 views.

“Fundamental science has a relatively high ‘threshold’. But scientific findings have obviously drawn much more attention in recent years, which demonstrates rising scientific literacy among the public,” said Cai Yifu with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“It is also the job of scientists to explain and promote their work to the public,” Cai said, citing the world’s highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in Tibet, which welcomed public opinion from design to construction.

China’s young astronomers, who don’t usually have a say in state-level megascience projects like this, jointly released an open letter on social media which read: “As the main future users of the next-generation telescope, we sincerely and earnestly hope the debate over its design can be open and transparent.”

The letter has received over 130 signatures placing their votes for the three-mirror plan.

Last week, overseas Chinese scientists also joined the debate. Shen Yue, assistant professor with the University of Illinois, said the generally accepted international method is to organize an expert panel to review all plans and gradually reach a consensus after several rounds of discussion.

“I hope both sides will find a solution soon based on mutual understanding and sufficient debate,” a user named Zhang Dong commented online. “After all, none of us would like to see China miss this crucial opportunity in its astronomical development.”

A national campaign against pyramid schemes has been launched to try to prevent the public from falling prey to the die-hard scams that have led to four deaths since the beginning of July.

A notice was issued on Monday by four ministries to crack down on gangs operating pyramid schemes, which lure job seekers under the guise of regular job recruitment.

Once the job seekers are in place, they are kept in dorms and are told, often under duress, to recruit others and to solicit money from friends and family.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce said in the notice that it will work with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Security to fight such illegal schemes, regulate companies’ hiring procedures and offer job-seeking advice for school graduates.

The four ministries’ campaign to eliminate pyramid scheme gangs will last from Tuesday to Nov 15. They pledged to severely punish pyramid scammers and promised to establish a long-term way to deal with such scams.

The notice was handed out after recent reports of four deaths in connection with pyramid scams.

Police in Zhongxiang, Hubei province, reported the death of a 20-year-old female student, Lin Huarong, who was said to have been lured from Hunan province to a pyramid scheme gang and was found drowned in a river on Aug 4.

Five people who are suspected of being the gang members were detained on suspicion of being involved in the student’s death.

And recently, two deaths in connection with pyramid scams were reported by police in Tianjin and one similar death was reported in Shanxi province.

The three people were all in their 20s and were all offered false positions.

One of the victims, Li Wenxing, 23, a university graduate from Shandong province, believed a fraudulent employment advertisement and was lured to the gang on May 20 hoping to be offered a regular IT job. He paid an enrollment fee and was forced to stay in the organization’s dormitory in Tianjin.

Li’s body was found on July 14 in a pond.