Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone near Beijing, should have a “world-class transport system” that is green and smart, a policy advisor said Wednesday.

Transportation in the new area should mainly focus on rail and bus transit options, complemented by bike-sharing and other “green, advanced and highly intelligent” transportation options, said Lu Huapu, from Tsinghua University and a member of the expert committee advising the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (Jing-Jin-Ji).

Public transportation, parking, traffic management and logistics should all be supported by smart systems, Lu told Xinhua in an interview.

He also suggested smooth and easy transit between Xiongan and the metropolises of Beijing and Tianjin, saying this was essential to attracting high-level talent from those cities and key to the new area’s development.

There should be “seamless connections” between Xiongan and the airports of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Lu noted.

China announced plans to create Xiongan New Area on Saturday, which authorities described as a “major historic and strategic choice” that would be “crucial for the millennium to come.”

The new area, some 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing, is designed to advance coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and cure “urban ills” such as traffic congestion and air pollution in the capital.

Establishing Xiongan New Area will help with the ongoing drive to transfer “non-capital” functions out of Beijing, officials said.

China said on Wednesday it will lodge solemn representations to India over the Dalai Lama’s visit to the disputed border region.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a routine press conference, responding to media reports that the Dalai Lama, regarded by China as a political exile who has attempted to split Tibet from Chinese territory under the cloak of religion, arrived in the so-called “Arunachal Pradesh” for a visit on Tuesday.

Despite China’s concerns, India persisted in arranging the Dalai Lama to visit the disputed zone in the eastern part of the China-India border area, severely damaging China’s interests and China-India relations, Hua said.

“China firmly opposes this and will lodge solemn representations to India,” Hua said.

“Our stance on the eastern part of the China-India border is clear and consistent,” Hua said. “Well aware of the Dalai Lama’s role, India reneged on its commitments on Tibet-related issues and stirred up the border dispute by hosting the Dalai Lama in the sensitive disputed region,” Hua said.

This move runs counter to the development of bilateral relations and will not bring any good to India, the spokesperson said, warning that China will take necessary measures to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and legitimate interests.

The spokesperson demanded India immediately stop using the Dalai Lama to damage Chinese interests and refrain from playing up the sensitive issues between the two countries or damaging the foundation for border talks and bilateral relations.

“India should work to protect the big picture of bilateral relations with real action,” Hua said.

Three officials have been removed from their posts after a road accident in central China’s Hunan Province Monday killed 12 people, local authorities said Tuesday.

A truck owned by a landscaping company overturned at about 5:50 p.m. Monday as it was transporting workers after they finished their tree planting work in Chenzhou City, the city’s publicity department said.

Another 19 were injured and receiving treatment.

According to the department, Zhou Yong, deputy head of the city’s Suxian District, who oversees the district’s forestry work, has been removed from office on Tuesday night. The director and chief engineer of the district’s forestry bureau were also removed from their posts.

The investigation continues.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has urged its officials to take the lead in promoting good values among ordinary citizens, according to a guideline.

According to the guideline, issued by the Central Commission for Guiding Ethic and Cultural Progress, CPC officials, especially leading officials, should practise the core values of socialism and practice a disciplined work style.

Ideological, patriotism and moral education among CPC members should be advanced, it said.

It was also suggested that a recording system should be established and rule of law improved.

A hospital in Henan province where a patient killed three people with a chopstick has been closed to allow for an investigation into its standards.

The man, identified as Yang, attacked four women at the privately run Da Zhong Hospital after breaking free of his restraints on Feb 24, according to a statement from the Luoning county government on Tuesday.

All of the victims were patients. One of the women died at the scene, while two others died in hospital from their injuries.

The mental health hospital is “suspected of chaotic management” and has been closed while an investigation team looks into the attack, the statement said. It added that two county health officials in charge of supervising local hospitals have been dismissed.

“The county’s public security authority has placed Yang under criminal coercive measures and a thorough investigation is ongoing,” the government said without elaborating. Coercive measures can include detention and 24-hour monitoring.

The killings, first reported on Saturday by The Paper, a news website based in Shanghai, happened on the night Yang was admitted to the hospital.

“Yang is a schizophrenic,” The Paper quoted an anonymous source at the hospital as saying. “He looked potentially dangerous during a health check after he was admitted, so we treated him as a priority patient. We asked his relatives to look after him and assigned a member of our staff to regularly observe him.”

Yang refused to take medicine or meals, “and we had to fasten him to his bed with restraints”, the source said.

On Tuesday, nine minutes of footage from a surveillance camera at the hospital that captured parts of the attack began to spread on social media.

In the video, a man believed to be Yang is lying on a hospital bed and appears to free his hands from restraints at 8:21 pm. Seven minutes later, he picks up a chopstick from a nearby table and walks off-camera into another room shared by two of the victims.

He then returns to the room about 30 seconds later and is seen stabbing two other women in the head with the chopstick.

According to The Paper, the last time a staff member checked on Yang was at about 5:30 pm, even though the hospital said such checks were carried out every half hour.