Hong Kong | Li Ka-Shing tells city leaders to ‘have mercy’

Hong Kong’s richest man urged the government to “have mercy” in dealing with the unrest that has rocked the city this summer. Li Ka-shing, whose conglomerate is among Hong Kong’s most dominant business empires, called for reconciliation between the government and protesters as another weekend of demonstrations turned violent. “If it continues, it will be very bad, and I am concerned,” the 91-year-old said during an event at Tsz Shan Monastery, a Buddhist temple which he helped finance. “We hope young people can consider the big picture, and government leaders can also have mercy on the masters of our future.” In newspaper advertisements last month, Li called for an end to the violence in a poetic message that some interpreted as calling for those in power to stop persecution, while others said it meant to urge protesters to stop disrupting the city.

Taishan | Second nuclear power unit ready for commercial use

A third-generation nuclear power unit of a China-France joint venture in Guangdong Province has completed all the testing operations and is ready for commercial use, said China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN). The No.2 unit at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the world’s second third-generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) nuclear power unit, said CGN, the largest nuclear power operator in China. The No. 1 unit, which was put into commercial use in December last year, was the first of its kind. The Taishan nuclear power plant, the largest Sino-French project in the energy field, uses the EPR for its No.1 and No. 2 power units, with a unit capacity of 1.75 million kilowatts each. The power plant is run by a joint venture set up by CGN, French energy supplier Electricite de France (EDF), and Guangdong Energy Group Co., Ltd. It is estimated that about 8.03 million tons of standard coal will be saved, with over 21.09 million tons of carbon emissions cut upon the completion of the two units.

Guangzhou | 386kg of dried snakes seized in south China

Guangzhou Customs in seized a total of 386 kilograms of smuggled dried snakes, the customs entity said on Friday. The captured products contain 256.8kg of dried mucosal rat snakes and 128.8kg of Javan spitting cobras, which are both protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and can only be imported or exported with legal paperwork. The customs found the smuggled serpents in about 10 tons of imported products declared to be dried geckos and zaocys dhumnades, a kind of black striped snake. Guangzhou customs has intensified its crackdown on endangered species smuggling starting from 2019 and cleared more than 400 cases that involve ivories, pangolin scales, living crocodiles, hawksbills, and dried seahorses.