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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
With the new national security law passed and a draft cyber security law in the works, China will further safeguard the country's computers, as cyber-crimes are on the rise.
According to a white paper on China's military strategy released in May, cyberspace has become a new pillar of economic and social development, and a new domain of national security.
With dire need of a law which can guarantee systematic legal measures to protect the cyberspace and its users, the new national security law focused heavily on cyber security.
The law-makers say the 68-article draft cyber security law is designed to protect the public, not to undermine their freedom, as some Western media outlets have claimed.
In order to avoid the Internet being used as a communication tool for social peril, the draft stipulates that Internet service could be temporarily suspended to respond to "major emergencies" that may seriously threaten public security.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
China's newborn population grew to almost 17 million last year, thanks partly to the country's relaxation of the "one-child" policy.
According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, there were almost 1 million more newborns last year, compared to 16 million in 2010.
The commission says the increase was prompted by a bigger population of women of child-bearing age, as well as the country's relaxation of the "one-child" policy.
China's total population reached 1.3 billion by the end of last year, and the country has been reining in a population surge with family planning policies.
China first introduced the policy in the late 1970s, limiting most urban couples to one child and most rural couples to two if the first child is a girl.
A major policy change was adopted in 2013, stipulating that couples nationwide may now have a second child if either parent is an only child.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
In a related development, the government last year compensated 770,000 couples who reached middle age but with their only child dead or disabled.
Under a system incorporated into the one-child policy in 2008, a monthly allowance is provided to couples who have not had a second child or adopted another child before the wife reaches 45 years of age.
Last year, the government gave this allowance to around 470,000 couples whose only child had died, and 300,000 others whose only child was disabled.
At the end of 2013, China raised the monthly allowance in the case of urban couples to 270 yuan, roughly 44 U.S. dollars, if their only child is disabled, and 340 yuan if their only child is dead. Rural families get 150 yuan and 170 yuan respectively.
