Job preference Private enterprises appear to be more attractive to graduates of China’s top universities, compared with previously popular State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the job market, according to China Youth Daily. An article in the newspaper’s Monday edition said that 19 Chinese universities on a list of 42 universities recognized as the country’s “first-class universities” have made public the rates that their 2018 graduates were employed by the private sector and SOEs. For 17 of them, the number of graduates who chose to work in private enterprises exceeded the number who went to SOE employers. Illegal data collection Internet regulators in China are inspecting smartphone applications to determine if they illegally or excessively collect users’ information. The move is expected to better regulate the industry and protect privacy. Apps that offer services such as ordering food and help with health issues, navigation* or car hailing are the main targets in the campaign, which will last to the end of December 2019. Food tracking system A food tracking system involving 86,000 companies and 524,000 merchants has been established in 58 big and medium-sized cities across China, a spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce said. The tracking system covers commonly-consumed meats like pork and beef, over 500 kinds of vegetables and some fruits as well as aquatic* products. The establishment of the tracking system will help ensure food safety for consumers, Gao Feng said at a press conference. Gene-edited monkeys China has cloned five monkeys from a gene-edited macaque* with circadian* rhythm disorders*, marking the first time multiple monkeys have been cloned from a gene-edited monkey for biomedical* research. Scientists made the announcement on Thursday. The cloned monkeys were born in Shanghai at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers said that the advance means that a population of customized gene-edited monkey models with uniform genetic backgrounds will be available for biomedical research. (SD-Agencies) | 