December 2015

Regional family-planning officials say the lack of clarity on when the new two-child rule will come into effect has put them in legal limbo, unable to issue birth permits to couples who conceive a second child before the new policy kicks in, leading to “illegal births” even after the policy shift.

The ruling Communist Party decided to abolish the controversial one-child rule in late October, but has failed to give a clear signal on when the two-child rule will come into effect.

Now that Beijing has had its first red alert since institutionalizing its smog alert system in 2013, it was news when the special forces who guard Tiananmen Square were seen, for the first time, wearing face masks to protect them from the smog, too. Yet Beijing isn’t even among China’s 20 most polluted cities, a list that includes many industrial cities in Hebei, the province that envelops Beijing, where steel is one of the most important industries and a top producer of air pollutants.

Chinese Internet giant Tencent teamed up with international NGO The Nature Conservancy to launch a campaign to promote December 2015 as Elephant Loving Month in China. The following animated short illustrates the toll human greed for ivory takes on wild elephants. One elephant is killed for its tusks every 15 minutes.