BEIJING Wholesale Jerseys From China , Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China started collecting an environment tax on Monday to better protect the environment and cut pollutant discharge, as the country's Environmental Protection Tax Law took effect on Jan. 1, 2018.
The introduction of the tax called an end to the "pollutant discharge fee" which China had been collecting for nearly 40 years.
This is China's first tax clearly designed for environmental protection, which will help establish a "green" financial and taxation system and promote pollution control and treatment of pollutants, said Wang Jinnan, head of the Chinese Academy For Environmental Planning under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
China had collected a "pollutant discharge fee" since 1979. However Wholesale Jerseys China , some local governments exploited loopholes and exempted enterprises that were otherwise big contributors to fiscal revenue. For years, regulators had suggested replacing the fee system with a law.
Under the Environmental Protection Tax Law, which targets enterprises and public institutions that discharge listed pollutants directly into the environment, companies will pay taxes for producing noise, air and water pollutants as well as solid waste.
On tax rates, the central authorities will set upper limits and allow local governments to determine the rates on their own.
Individuals do not need to pay the tax as it is applicable only to enterprises Wholesale Jerseys , public institutions and other business operators.
The central government will allot revenue from the environmental protection tax to local governments to motivate participation in the fight against pollution.
Up to 50 billion yuan (about 7.68 billion U.S. dollars) could be collected annually from the new tax, according to estimates from analysts.
Tackling pollution has been listed as one of the "three tough battles" that China aims to win in the next three years, according to the Central Economic Work Conference in December.
From January to November, China investigated over 35,600 violations of environmental protection laws and regulations, up more than 102 percent year on year.
BEIJING Cheap NFL Nike Jerseys , Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years has stoked fear that the technology will one day take control of human destiny. However, experts believe humans are still able to be the masters of their own fate by making the machines they have invented work for their benefit.
WIDESPREAD APPLICATION
Given its extensive application in industrial production and everyday activities, AI is nothing new nowadays both as a concept and in actual practice.
It not only has liberated humans from trivial and repetitive work, but also can satisfactorily accomplish tasks that are otherwise unachievable for mankind due to either physical or intellectual constraints.
AI's stunning power has been demonstrated, for example, by the successive wins by Google's AlphaGo over the best human Go players early this year Cheap New NFL Jerseys , which have occupied international news headlines and shocked the whole world.
Tech companies have used the technology's ability to make sophisticated choices based on deep learning to facilitate traders in the stock market.
EquBot LLC, a San Francisco-based company which launched the world's first AI-powered Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in the New York Stock Exchange in October, said its product can simulate the work of equity research analysts and work around the clock in an "almost fully automated" process.
"The process of choices is almost as complicated as AlphaGo," EquBot CEO Chida Khatua said. "We train our AI models to see how the market will react, let the AI models look at it and see how they behaved," he told Xinhua in a recent interview Cheap NFL Jerseys China Free Shipping , explaining the way AI makes decisions.
The AI technology employed by Equbot can process more data than the portfolio managers whom it has replaced and "generate unbiased decisions under a set of investment criteria," according to the company.
In addition, AI has also been applied in the diagnosis of skin cancer, in which the algorithm involved has reached a level on par with professional doctors in dermatology.
It is also featured in the latest iPhone's facial recognition function, and helps Facebook to target users showing intention to commit suicide so as to prevent the tragedies in advance.
Despite these astounding achievements, experts have pointed out that for the time being Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale , the use of AI is still limited to isolated fields and lacks universal applicability.
MAN STILL MASTER OF OWN FATE
People familiar with the AI industry have warned, though, that there will be a time when the technology will evolve into something mature enough to break the sectoral confines.
Elon Musk, CEO of both aerospace manufacturer SpaceX and electric car producer Tesla, has predicted a future scenario where "super AI" will pose real threats to the very existence of mankind, and human beings will have to face that challenge.
However Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping , Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, views AI as something to be embraced and not feared.
He said that it is up to humans themselves whether AI would prove to be an aid to humanity or end up destroying it. He gave the remarks while launching his book "Hit Refresh" in London in October, according to local media reports.
In a 2016 essay calling for coordination and collaboration on AI, Nadella listed six principles for the design of AI so as to guarantee that the technology works together with human beings instead of harming them.
He said AI must assist humanity, must be transparent Cheap Authentic NFL Jerseys , must maximize efficiencies without destroying the dignity of people, must be designed for intelligent privacy, must have algorithmic accountability, and must guard against bias.
He argued in the article that rather than spending time on de