China aims to build the world’s third ocean drilling research vessel and become a key leader in international deep-sea drilling scientific efforts by 2028, a senior government consultant said Monday.

Wang Pinxian, a marine geologist from Tongji University and also with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made the remarks at a press event to announce the successful conclusion of a China-led international drilling mission to find out how the South China Sea was formed some tens of millions of years ago.

The four-month mission was conducted on board the American vessel JOIDES Resolution as part of the 367th and 368th expeditions of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international collaboration on deep-sea geological scientific research that began in 1968.

China joined the IODP in 1998 and participated in three drilling missions focused in the South China Sea in 1999, 2014 and 2017. The latest mission was proposed, designed and led by Chinese scientists. Over 60 researchers from more than ten countries were involved.

Wang, who serves as a consultant for China’s IODP involvement, said the mission marked the first step in a three-part strategy for China to engage in international ocean drilling activities.

He said China aims to drill seabeds in other oceans and set up the world’s fourth seabed rock database and a lab before attempting to build an ocean drilling vessel.

The two ships used by the IODP are JOIDES Resolution and Japan’s Chikyu.

JOIDES Resolution docked in Shanghai Sunday, the first-ever visit of an international ocean drilling vessel to a Chinese port.

Tongji University marine geologist Jian Zhimin, a co-lead of the IODP mission, said at Monday’s press briefing that during the expedition they dug 17 holes at seven sites in the South China Sea. The combined drilling depth exceeded 7,669 meters, and samples including sedimentary and volcanic rocks were collected.

The study of the rocks indicates the South China Sea was formed differently than the Atlantic, scientists have found.

Jian said the newly discovered formation of the South China Sea was so unique that they might need to rewrite the textbooks on continental shelf break-up and ocean formation.

Further research is required.

China will set up a community governance system led by grassroots Communist Party of China (CPC) organizations by 2020, according to a guideline released by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council Monday.

Local governments will play a guiding role in the community governance system which also feature public participation.

Governance capacity in both urban and rural communities will improve significantly by that time, as public services, management and security will be effectively ensured, the guideline said.

Within another five to ten years, a more mature and comprehensive community governance system will offer strong support for the CPC at a grassroots level, while consolidating local governments, the guideline noted.

Issues such as the basic role of autonomous organizations, the participation of social groups and the functions of communities are also included in the guideline.

According to the guideline, on major issues relating to community public interests as well as those that matter to the residents’ immediate interests, the community residents’ role in the decision making and dispute resolution processes should be enhanced.

Also, community services that are closely related to the residents’ interests, such as employment, social security, health, education, housing, public security as well as legal and arbitration services, should be made more widely available, the guideline said.

The guideline called for increased efforts to resolve disputes within communities. Party congress delegates, legislators, political advisors and CPC members and officials should maintain contact with communities and their residents via proper channels, it said.

It urged more support for groups in need, such as the poor, children in difficulty, mentally-challenged people, left-behind children, senior citizens as well as people who have been convicted of crimes or released from prison.

The guideline also requires infrastructure improvements and better environmental management in communities.

To enhance community governance, the guideline pledged more financial investment in this regard. It also encouraged the public to contribute via channels such as charity donations and community foundation endowments.

An alliance on the Mobile Internet of Things (MIoT) was established in east China’s Jiangxi Province Monday.

More than 140 leading companies and research institutions on Internet of Things (IoT) have joined the alliance, which is engaged in creating an industrial system of research and development, production, certification, testing, training and services for MIoT.

ZTE, Huawei, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom are among the members.

Zhou Hongren, executive deputy director of government think-tank Advisory Committee of State Informatization, serves as secretary general of the alliance.

Zhou said the alliance was the world’s first based on NarrowBand-IoT, or NB-IoT, an international technical standard for MIoT led by China.

An MIoT industrial park was also inaugurated in Jiangxi’s Yingtan Monday, where research centers, laboratories and quality inspection centers will be built.

China’s central government has allocated another 30.7 billion yuan (about US$4.52 billion) in funding to help people living in poverty, the finance ministry said Monday.

That has brought this year’s total central government poverty relief funds to nearly 86.1 billion yuan, which has all been allocated at local levels, the Ministry of Finance said.

Up to 97.4 percent of the funding has gone to 22 provincial regions in the central and western parts of the country, the main battleground for poverty alleviation, said the ministry.

The central government has assigned 196.1 billion yuan of poverty relief funding over the past four years, representing annual average growth of 19.22 percent. This year’s funding marks a 30.3 percent increase year on year.

The Chinese government has vowed to lift all impoverished citizens out of poverty by 2020 to build a moderately prosperous society. In 2016 alone, China helped 12.4 million rural residents move above the poverty line.

By the end of last year, there were 43.35 million people living in poverty in China.

One person remains missing and 120,000 residents have damaged property after torrential rain since Friday in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the local government said Monday.

Heavy rain lashed 16 counties and cities, inundating farmland, damaging houses, forcing the evacuation of 1,079 residents and causing direct economic losses estimated at 48.7 million yuan (7.16 million U.S. dollars), according to the latest tally.

The local civil affairs department is investigating the damage and sending relief goods to affected areas.

Rain hit most parts of China’s central, eastern and southern regions over the weekend. China Central Meteorological Station Monday morning maintained rainstorm alerts for a third consecutive day in Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces.

Typhoon Merbok, the second typhoon of the year, is forecast to make landfall in Guangdong late Monday, intensifying rainstorms in southern and eastern regions.