President Xi Jinping has sent a letter to the China Vocational Education Association to offer congratulations on the 100th anniversary of its founding.

In the letter published Friday, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, praised the association’s historical contribution and called on the organization to promote development of the country’s vocational education.

The president also told the association to work with domestic and overseas vocational education workers to strengthen exchanges and better serve society.

The State Council announced Friday the removal of Xiang Junbo from the post of the chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Xiang is being investigated for suspected serious violation of the Party’s code of conduct, according to an announcement from the top anti-graft authority on April 9.

The council also appointed Zheng Shanjie as a deputy director of its Taiwan affairs office, replacing Li Yafei.

Zheng’s previous post was deputy head of the National Energy Administration.

While most watchers of Chinese society are focusing their attention on the aging population, some have turned their eyes in another direction, to an emerging group in big cities－younger men and women who live alone.

Reports say there are 50 million of them. If they were a province, it would be the 11th-most populated. Observers even created a term for this group in Chinese－kongchaoqingnian－literally “young empty-nester”.

Kongchao, or empty-nest, has been used mainly in reference to parents whose children are gone. But thanks to the media’s wordplay, young empty-nesters include those from 20 to 39 years old who work far from their hometown and eat and sleep on their own.

That’s the definition used by Taobao, a leading e-commerce platform, which issued a wide-ranging report on Wednesday based on its trade database about this group.

They are not necessarily otaku, a Japanese concept referring to those who tend to stay at home all day and drown themselves in computer animation, comics and games. Some actually have pretty good social lives and enjoy hanging out with friends.

They do not have to be “single dogs”, either－a Chinese word created to mock those who are single beyond a certain age. Some maintain long-term romances.

Neither can they be simply categorized as kenlaozu, or boomerang children, media jargon referring to those who are economically dependent on their parents. Some, though not all, earn salaries way above average.

But one thing is for sure: They feel empty. That’s where the indication of the adjective kongchao, or empty nest, grabs their hearts.

As many as 68 percent of them say they have felt lonely in the past week, according to a recent survey by NetEase, a Chinese online portal website. The results were released on Thursday. Only 14 percent say they never feel empty.

The survey interviewed 5,000 young empty-nesters and looked into big data from NetEase’s news service and two other online social service providers－Tantan and Blued, the latter focusing on the gay community.

Young men seem more likely to become empty-nesters than their female counterparts, at least based on the current available surveys, representing 64 percent of the respondents in the survey.

Sexual relations, too, have become a luxury. Nearly half of the young empty-nesters had only one sexual encounter in the past year. Another 31 percent made love once in the past six months. Only 5 percent said they have sex more than 10 times per month. On the other hand, 64 percent of the gay empty-nesters said they have sex at least once every month.

That said, only 1 percent of all respondents placed a sexless or low-sex life as their biggest concern. Their top three concerns: no house, no partner and no hope.

Chinese authorities will list security risk management as a measure for assessing primary and middle schools and kindergartens, an official with the Ministry of Education said Thursday.

Schools and kindergartens will be told to install anti-collision facilities at school gates should conditions allow, Wang Daquan told a press conference, adding that heads of schools and kindergartens should be held accountable for school safety.

Educational departments should coordinate with relevant departments to map out guidebooks preventing and controlling bullying and violence, Wang said, citing a guideline recently issued by the State Council.

Wang said that schools should purchase liability insurance, while social organizations are encouraged to establish risk funds on school safety or student aid funds.

A security cooperation dialogue on the Belt and Road Initiative, attended by officials from more than 20 countries, was held Thursday in Beijing.

Enhancing international cooperation to tackle risks and safeguard security for the Belt and Road Initiative is the common task for all countries, said Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Meng called on attendees to make full use of the dialogue to enhance exchanges of information and deepen security and law-enforcement cooperation.

More than 100 countries and international organizations have already joined the Belt and Road Initiative, a China-proposed trade and infrastructure plan connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.

“Cooperation in trade, investment, and infrastructure have been growing, thanks to the Belt and Road initiative, ” Meng said, adding that the forthcoming Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will push for further cooperation.

The high-profile forum, which will be held from May 14 to 15 in Beijing, will see at least 28 heads of state and government.

“We hope that all sides would foster the concept of common and cooperative security, and establish a sound security cooperation mechanism for the Belt and Road Initiative,” China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun said at the opening ceremony of the dialogue.

Guo called for stepping up pragmatic cooperation in such areas as public security, anti-terrorism, and protecting overseas interests.

Participants attending the dialogue pledged to strengthen security cooperation with China for the Belt and Road Initiative.