China Business Now丨Gaokao, Huaiwei's HarmonyOS 2, and digital currency

Hi, everyone. Welcome to China Business Now, a 3-minute digest of what happened in China’s business sector. Our program is presented by 21st Century Business Herald. I’m your host Stephanie LI.

欢迎收听《中国经济速览》英语节目，该节目由《21世纪经济报道》出品，三分钟速览中国经济头条。我是主持人李莹亮。

Top stories today.

今天的头条新闻有：

China's national college entrance examination, or Gaokao, is scheduled to be held on Sunday and Monday. 10.78 million people registered for the exam this year, 70,000 more than last year. The country is taking special virus containment measures, including 26,000 isolation test rooms nationally.

今年高考将在6月7日开考，全国报名人数共1078万人，比去年增加7万人，再创历史新高。今年仍是疫情防控常态化下的“特殊高考”，全国将设2.6万个备用隔离考场。

Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Wednesday officially launched its operating system HarmonyOS 2 for smartphones, providing customers worldwide with a competitive alternative that works on a diverse range of devices. This means that Huawei will no longer rely on Google's Android system. Huawei expects the number of devices equipped with HarmonyOS to reach 300 million by the end of 2021, including more than 200 million for Huawei devices. 

中国科技巨头—华为公布正式推出鸿蒙2.0系统（HarmonyOS），周三晚间起部分华为手机将可以一键升级至鸿蒙。这意味着华为将不再依赖美国谷歌的安卓系统。华为此前预计到2021年底，搭载鸿蒙操作系统的设备数量将达3亿台，其中华为设备超过2亿台。

Chinese banks handled a jump in non-cash payments in the first quarter of 2020 with a surge in mobile payments, the central bank said on Wednesday. Non-cash payments have totaled 1,065.6 trillion yuan (about 167 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three months, up by 20.65 percent year on year, according to the People's Bank of China.

人民银行发布了2021年第一季度支付体系运行总体情况。非现金支付业务量快速增长，一季度，全国非现金支付金额达1065.59万亿元，同比增长20.65%。

Also, on digital currency. Beijing will hand out 40 million yuan (about 6.27 million U.S. dollars) in digital currency to consumers in the city through a lottery system. A total of 200,000 digital red envelopes, each containing 200 yuan of digital currency, will be given to lottery winners in the digital renminbi (RMB) pilot program.

北京第二轮数字人民币红包将至。北京将发放20万份，每份200元，共计4000万元数字人民币红包，可在本市指定商家消费。

China has delivered over 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Wednesday. China has provided vaccine assistance to over 80 countries and exported vaccines to over 40 countries.

中国外交部发言人汪文斌2日表示，中方已经向国际社会提供了超过3.5亿剂疫苗，包括向80多个国家提供疫苗援助，向40多个国家出口疫苗，同时中方还同多个发展中国家开展合作生产，迅速推进疫苗的大规模生产。

As New Zealand's top trade partner for the past four years, China accounted for approximately 23 percent of New Zealand's total trade in the year to March 2021, compared to 19 percent last year. 

新西兰统计局周三公布，作为新西兰过去四年最大的贸易伙伴，截至 2021 年 3 月的一年中，中国约占新西兰贸易总额的 23%，同比增长4个百分点。

In the financial sector.

金融市场要闻：

China's central bank Wednesday conducted 10 billion yuan (about 1.57 billion U.S. dollars) of reverse repos to maintain reasonably ample liquidity in the banking system. The interest rate for the 7-day reverse repos was set at 2.2 percent.

中国人民银行6月2日发布公告称，为维护银行体系流动性合理充裕，今日以利率招标方式开展了100亿元逆回购操作。期限为7天，中标利率为2.2%。

China's first-ever batch of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) has been met with huge enthusiasm by investors since their debut on Monday. The nine REITs in the offering were all oversubscribed, according to Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. 

中国首批公募基础设施证券投资基金（REITs）自5月31日发行以来就受到了投资者的极大追捧。根据上海和深圳证券交易所的数据，此次发行的9只REITs 均获得超额认购。

Finally, the stock market.

最后来看今日大盘行情：

Chinese stocks closed lower on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.36 percent, at 3,584 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.65 percent lower at 14,761 points. 

周四沪指收报3584.21点，跌0.36%，深成指收报14,761.13点，跌0.65%。

That’s it for China Business Now by 21st Century Business Herald. Thank you for joining us. Goodbye.

感谢你的收听！我们下期再见！

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Writer & Host: Stephanie LI

Producer：XIANG Xiufang

Sound Editor: YUAN Sijie

Graphic Designer: ZHANG Ying

Co-produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News & SFC Audio/Video Dept.

Presented by SFC

编委:  于晓娜

策划、编辑：李艳霞 

撰稿、播音：李莹亮

监制：向秀芳 

音频制作：袁思杰

设计：张颖

21世纪经济报道海外部 南财音视频部  联合制作

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（作者：李莹亮,实习生：郎舒婷 编辑：李艳霞）

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