China Economy reported on a research and study forum on contemporary art that was held in Wuhan city in Hubei Province on October 17. During the forum, an art expert in attendance there said that 3,000 art exhibits had been held in China in 2013. However, very few of those displayed high quality art works or could be used for research purposes. The art works lacked depth or creativity. There was also shortage of artists and art works that could truly represent China or its culture, or which had any ethnic significance.

Source: China Economy, October 18, 2014
http://www.ce.cn/culture/gd/201410/18/t20141018_3727568.shtml

People’s Daily published an article in which it discussed an important speech that Xi Jinping delivered during an arts and cultural forum held in Beijing on October 15. The article said that Xi not only laid out the Party’s expectations about cultural work in the current age; it also criticized certain phenomenon in the culture industry. It listed five major negative trends in the culture industry. According to Xi, the problem with art and cultural works include the following. They have become a slave to the market and only seek economic benefits. Those who work in the field only seek fame and success but are not willing to work earnestly on creativity. They are copycats of each other, focusing only on quantity but not quality. They are distant from reality, are filled with off-color humor and have vulgar contents. Finally, those who work in the field lack professional ethics and have a poor public image.

Source: People’s Daily, October 20, 2014
http://culture.people.com.cn/n/2014/1020/c87423-25865500.html

On October 16, 2014, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a directive requiring that, by October 31, hospitals, clinics, and emergency centers are to complete a self examination of their readiness for handling Ebola. 

China’s state media, People’s Daily published a commentary on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia to attend the 19th regular meeting between the prime ministers of China and Russia. The article touted the strategic cooperation between China and Russia. It listed three highlights of the visit’s accomplishments. The first highlight was that "the potential for Sino-Russian relations is far from exhausted. Take the economic and trade exchanges [as an example]. Russia expects that, next year, trade with China will reach US$100 billion; it will reach US$200 billion by 2020. Mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation is just one of the highlights of Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia." 

Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong said, on October 14, that "Occupy Central" is a serious social and political event in that it violates the "one country" principle, challenges the central authority, ignores the Basic Law, and is an illegal activity in flagrant violation of the existing laws of Hong Kong.