New technologies contribute to media coverage of “two sessions”

By Yu Ronghua from People’s Daily

New technologies are contributing to the media coverage of China’s ongoing “two sessions”, the annual gathering of the National People's Congress (NPC), and that of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), as the country sees greater demand to present higher-quality information contents to the public.

An innovative live broadcast was carried out by People’s Daily in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, in which new media technologies played a vital role.

At around 8:00 a.m., a virtual reality (VR) panoramic camera set on a tripod started working on the square in front of the Great Hall of the People, recording the entrance of NPC deputies and CPPCC members into the venue as the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th NPC was about to begin.

The real-time video collected by the camera was sent to the new media center of People’s Daily via 5G network, and then presented to hundreds of millions of Chinese internet users on the People’s Daily mobile application.

The amazing part of this broadcast was that the users of the app were able to watch real-time video from different angles and get an immersive experience as long as they revolve their phones at hand.

Such live outdoor VR broadcast was almost impossible due to limited speed of the mobile internet. However, 5G network, which has not been widely applied yet, became available at the Great Hall of the People and the Tiananmen Square, making the impossible possible.

Thanks to such innovative attempt of People’s Daily, Internet users could have better and more picturesque experiences. 

In addition, People’s Daily also add augmented reality (AR) function to its video application to make news fresher. By scanning relevant photos of the “two sessions” on the newspaper in the app, users will be able to get more in-depth contents such as live information, annotations, and visual data.

Such innovative experience will help readers get more comprehensive and in-depth knowledge about the “two sessions”.

Apart from creating new experiences for users and readers, the new technologies and equipment are also making things easier for journalists.

The mobile phones of People’s Daily journalists are all equipped with voice-recognition software that can convert audio to text. It presents drafts with hardly any error soon after the interviews end, largely improving  efficiency.

Besides, new experiences are being offered thanks to the new forms and ideas of media coverage.

The new media center of People’s Daily, through cooperation with a popular short video platform, launched an HTML5 webpage on which the users can make virtual video calls to 40 common Chinese people at different ages from different regions and occupations.

Through the virtual video calls, users can have an insight into these people’s lives and learn about their wishes. Such novel and interesting experience has successfully drawn attention from the massive internet users.

China will roll out more opening measures in the agriculture, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, and allow wholly foreign-funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, a senior official of the country's top economic planner said.

The country has begun revising the negative list for foreign investment access and will continue to carry out test programs for further opening-up in free trade zones, Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session on March 6.

It will further shorten the negative list which outlines fields off-limits to foreign investors based on last year's measures to substantially expand market access for foreign investors, Ning said.

The NDRC official introduced that a new catalog of encouraged foreign-invested industries will be released this year. The list aims to encourage foreign investment in more fields, and give full play to the role of foreign capital in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the development of emerging industries and coordinated regional development.

Foreign capital in China will be entitled to pre- and post-establishment national treatment, Ning said, adding that China is taking measures to remove access restrictions for foreign investment in areas outside the negative list to ensure that foreign investors are treated the same as domestic ones.

The country will also offer fair treatment for foreign-invested companies in terms of government procurement, setting of standards, industrial policies, technological policies, qualification licensing, registration, going public and access to financing, said Ning.

Ning disclosed that the country’s top economic planner is working with other departments and local governments to simplify management procedures such as filing, and facilitate and serve major foreign-invested projects.

The commission has so far granted approval to two batches of foreign-invested projects, and the third batch, including projects in new energy, advanced manufacturing, petrochemicals and electronic information, will be introduced this year.

The NDRC will support these projects not only in the use of land, ocean and energy resources, but also in project planning. It will also accelerate environmental impact assessment so as to further enhance investment facilitation.

Source:People’s Daily

Head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) He Lifeng (C) and deputy heads of the commission Ning Jizhe (2nd right) and Lian Weiliang (2nd left) take questions from domestic and foreign journalists on promoting high-quality economic development during a press conference held at the media center of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, March 6,2019. (Photo by Weng Qiyu, People’s Daily Online)