海外传媒

母亲慰问信

WASHINGTON - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit China's largest lake next week on a trip that will highlight global environmental challenges. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks during an interview with Reuters in Washington July 2, 2007. [AP]Paulson will also hold talks in Beijing with President Hu Jintao that will focus on the Strategic Economic Dialogue, high-level discussions launched last year in an effort to deal with economic tensions between the US and China. "This trip is part of an ongoing process to strengthen our strategic economic relationship - to address long-term issues such as working with China to rebalance its growth and increase the flexibility of its currency and also to address short-term issues as they arise," Paulson said Tuesday in announcing the trip. Paulson will begin the trip with a visit July 30 to Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in the country and an example of some of the environmental challenges facing China as it struggles to deal with pollution. "The only way to make progress on climate change is to engage all the large economies, developed and developing, to work toward embracing cleaner technology and reducing emissions," Paulson said. "What's happening with the environment in the middle of China not only affects the local climate and economy but also the global climate and economy." Paulson will meet on July 31 in Beijing with Hu and Vice Premier Wu Yi, who is leading the Chinese side in the strategic dialogue talks. The administration is coming under pressure from Congress to show results from these discussions, particularly in the area of currency values. American manufacturers contend that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, which makes Chinese products cheaper for US consumers but makes it more difficult for US products to be sold in China. The first strategic dialogue session was held in Beijing last December with a follow-up meeting in Washington in May. The two countries have pledged to meet twice a year with the next session to take place in China later this year. An exact date has not yet been announced. The Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the trip that Paulson in his meetings with Chinese leaders would raise issues of concern to Congress as well as follow up on issues that were identified as priority items at the May meeting of the strategic dialogue. US lawmakers have grown increasingly unhappy as America's trade deficit with China has soared, hitting 3 billion last year, the largest ever recorded with a single country and one-third of the US total deficit with the rest of the world. Various bills have been introduced that would require the administration to take a harder line on the currency issue including pursuing economic sanctions if China does not move more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar. China has reiterated that it does not manipulate its currency and the currency reforms are moving as quickly as the developing economy and financial system will allow.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Central bank chiefs from the U.S., Europe and Japan warned Tuesday of the risks of the Chinese economy overheating, potentially adding to inflationary pressures in other countries. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet also urged Beijing to let its currency rise in value, saying it would benefit both China and the global economy. "A quick pace toward greater flexibility would be in China's interest and create more flexibility for monetary policy to address the potential overheating of their economy," Bernanke said in a satellite linkup with a banking conference in Cape Town. "We could all be better off, China on the one hand and the global economy on the other hand," echoed Trichet. Critics argue that China is keeping its currency artificially low, contributing to its massive trade surplus with other countries and undermining competitors' prices. Both Bernanke and Trichet conceded that the cheapness of Chinese products flooding world markets had helped reduce global inflation, although said this was balanced by China's huge appetite for fuel and raw materials -- which has contributed to higher oil prices. Overall, China's impact on global inflation was "modest," Bernanke said. China is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and its expansion has had a ripple effect on prosperity in other countries and offset more modest growth rates in North America, Europe and Japan. Trichet said the current boom was "absolutely exceptional in the global economy," but warned that this could not last indefinitely. "Complacency would be the worst possible advice for all of us," he said. Japan, where growth is a sluggish 2 percent, is keeping a watchful eye on the new Asian giant. "We need to be mindful of the risk of overheating and we can't rule out some risk of inflation in the Chinese economy," said Toshihiko Fukui, governor of Japan's central bank. China is witnessing a stock market boom, with millions of first-time investors jumping into the market, tapping savings and retirement accounts and mortgaging homes to buy stocks. Authorities are worried that the new money is fueling a bubble in prices. Chinese stocks rebounded Tuesday in volatile trading after their sharpest one-day drop in three months a day earlier as strong buying by institutions offset selling by retail investors. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.3 percent on Monday -- the benchmark's sharpest decline since an 8.8 percent drop Feb. 27 triggered a global market sell-off.

Two labor watchdog officers in north China's Shanxi Province have been detained by police in connection with the country's growing slave-worker scandal. Hou Junyuan, head of an inspection team in Yongji City's Labor and Social Security Bureau, was accused of dereliction of duty and detained yesterday afternoon. Another officer from the team, Shang Guangze, was arrested on charges of abuse of power and fired from his job. The two had transferred an underage laborer, who was from central China's Henan Province and was being sent back home, to another kiln for new employment, authorities said. Police have arrested 168 people and are seeking more than 20 other suspects involved in the forced-labor scandal. By Sunday night, 45,000 officers had raided more than 8,000 kilns and small coal mines in Shanxi and Henan provinces and freed 591 workers, including 51 children. Those charged with crimes are suspected not only of illegal employment practices but also of abduction, limiting others' freedom, employing underage workers and even murder. Meanwhile, the government of Shanxi's Hongtong County, where one of the most notorious kilns was located, has dispatched work teams to 12 provinces to compensate victims who were compelled to work in captivity. The central government plans to launch a nationwide survey of labor conditions in small kilns and collieries, and those who illegally employ children, force people to work or deliberately injure workers will be severely punished, the State Council warned.

福州牙齿矫正

BRUSSELS - Javier Solana, European Union top diplomat, expressed here on Thursday his concern over Taiwanese leaders' comments on the Chinese province's application for UN membership."I have noted with concern the comments made by Taiwan's leadership on October 24 concerning Taiwan's application for UN membership under the name of Taiwan," Solana said in a statement."The EU has a substantial interest in peace and stability in East Asia. It has a particular interest in the continued prosperity and security of Taiwan and in the maintenance of peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait," he said.    The fundamental position of the EU is that the Taiwan question must be solved peacefully through cross-Strait negotiations between all concerned parties."We have concerns about the current policy of Taiwan's authorities to pursue a referendum on the question of UN membership in the name of Taiwan," Solana said, adding "This concern flows from the EU's conviction that both sides of the Strait should refrain from statements or actions which might raise tension across the Strait and which might be perceived as a unilateral change in the status quo."The proposed referendum would risk making it harder for Taiwan to enjoy the pragmatic participation in the activities of specialized multilateral fora, "when there are clear public interests for this and when statehood is not required." he said"I therefore want to encourage both sides to take further initiatives aimed at promoting dialogue, practical cooperation and confidence-building," he concluded.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in Xining in northwest China last night, kicking off a four-day visit to China. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, pictured June 2007, arrived in China on Sunday. [AFP]He is due to visit local environmental protection programs in Qinghai Province, home to Qinghai Lake, the largest salt water lake in China. He will also visit rural households in the remote province on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, dubbed the "roof of the world." Paulson, who heads to Beijing on Monday, will meet with government officials to discuss the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) launched last year.The forum covers a range of economic and environmental issues, but the issue at the forefront is China's yuan, which is seen by lawmakers in the United States as grossly undervalued. Last week the Senate Finance Committee overwhelmingly approved a bill requiring the Treasury to identify nations with "fundamentally misaligned" currencies, potentially opening the door to economic sanctions against Beijing. But Paulson said Friday that lawmakers were sending the wrong message by threatening to punish Beijing."We would like to see the Chinese move and show more flexibility," he said.Paulson will also hold talks with President Hu over tensions arising from China's swollen trade surplus and other issues. The secretary also is to meet Vice Premier Wu Yi, who leads the Chinese side of the dialogue. The last formal meeting of the economic dialogue in May ended with no progress. Since then, China has announced measures to rein in surging export growth. It repealed rebates of value-added taxes on more than 2,000 types of goods ranging from cement to plastic products in June. Last week, the government said it would limit the growth of its "processing trade," a big but low-profit segment of the economy that imports components and exports finished goods.Paulson was due to leave China on Wednesday.

Apart from its soaring economy, Beijing is experiencing another kind of growth - in the age of its population.A police nurse takes an elderly woman's blood pressure as part of a medical checkup at her home in the Xicheng district of Beijing in November. A growing number of police officers have become involved with providing healthcare services to senior citizens in the community. [China Daily]According to figures released on Friday by the municipal civil affairs bureau, the city has 2.36 million people aged 60 or above, equivalent to about 15 percent of the total.Bureau spokesman Guo Xusheng said although the figure had risen by 340,000 from last year, the rate of growth could accelerate in the future, putting pressure on the city's social security system.A report by Beijing's working committee for the aged released late last year forecast the city's gray-haired population would reach 6.5 million by 2050, meaning one out of every three residents would be over 60.Guo told a government press conference the reason why there are now more elderly people is simply because people are living longer. At the end of last year, the average life expectancy for a Beijinger was 80.2 years, up 2.3 years on 2002.Yang Hui, a researcher with Beijing's Renmin University of China, warned that an aging society puts "great pressure" on the city's medical resources and a "burden" on the workforce."If the city draws too much fresh blood from the outside, it will face anther big problem - a booming population," he said.According to figures released on Thursday by the Beijing statistics bureau, at the end of last year, Beijing's population was 16.33 million, up 520,000 on 2006, the biggest annual increase in six years.Guo said the government had taken steps to prepare the city for its rapidly aging population.Last year, the authorities allocated 11.7 million yuan (.6 million) to build and renovate homes for the elderly. The city now has 336 such properties able to accommodate 38,080 people, Guo said."We want to increase the number of beds to 50,000 by 2010," he said, adding that community services and medical care for the elderly will also be improved.Also at Friday's press conference, Guo said the municipal government will continue to provide low-income families with subsidies to help counter the rising cost of living.In October, the authorities began paying monthly subsidies of 20 yuan to 229,000 of the city's lowest earners.Under the initial plan, the subsidies were to end in February, but Guo said the government had decided to extend them until June to account for possible further price hikes.

福州种植体材料

A Chinese national flag is raised atop a house, standing in the centre of a ten-metre-deep pit dug by the real estate developter, in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, on March 21, a day before the deadline for the owner to move out sentenced by local court. [newsphoto] A photo of the solitary building has been circulating on the Internet, where it has been dubbed "the coolest nail house in history" a translation of a Chinese metaphor for a person who refuses to move from their home. A local court set a deadline of Thursday for the couple to move out. But the house remained intact on Friday afternoon. The owner of the house, Yang Wu, 51, used two steel pipes to climb up to his castle from the construction pit on Wednesday afternoon something most people would have found difficult, but an easy maneuver for the former martial arts champion. Two men walk past a house on a mound in the middle of a construction site in Chongqing on Thursday. A couple has refused to move out of their two-storey home, which is now the only building left standing in a 10-meter-deep pit. APHe carried a national flag and banner reading "No violation of legitimate private property", which he hung from the top of the house. Local residents look at a two-storey home, which is now the only building left standing atop a mound in a 10-meter-deep construction pit in Chongqing March 22, 2007. [newsphoto]With his relatives' help, he also took two gas bottles, mineral water and other necessities. Water and electricity supplies were cut off long ago. Yang's wife, Wu Ping, remained outside the house, answering questions from the media. She said they had not lived in the house for two and a half years. The building, formerly a restaurant with a floor space of 219 square meters, is located in Jiulongpo District. The local government plans to build a shopping mall and apartments on the site. More than 200 households were moved from the area in the past three years to make way for the development. But the couple refused to move because they were not satisfied with the compensation offered: 3.5 million yuan (3,000). Wu said they wanted a property of the same value, because the compensation money would not cover the cost of an apartment of the same size in that location. After negotiations between the couple and the local government reached a stalemate, the government took the matter to court in January. On Monday, the Jiulongpo District court ordered the couple to move out by Thursday. According to the court ruling, the couple would be forcibly removed if they did not move out of the house by the deadline. No action had been taken on Friday. Shanghai-based China Business News said an eviction of this nature would create unwanted attention for the government just after the Property Law was passed. It will come into effect on October 1. Property law expert Zhao Wanyi was quoted by Beijing Evening News as saying he was pleased that citizens were learning to safeguard their rights through the legal system. But he said it was a concern that by refusing to move out without adequate compensation, the couple could be accused of abusing their individual rights. "There is no absolute right," he said. Judge Li, whose court sent the notice, told the media on Thursday evening that the court would "follow lawful procedures to deal with the matter", but he refused to say when.

CHENGDU - About 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas deposits have been discovered in southwest China's Sichuan Basin, with verified exploitable reserves topping 600 billion cubic meters. The reserves were discovered in Dazhou, a gas-rich city in Sichuan Province. By 2010, the newly found deposits will raise the city's gas output to 24 billion cubic meters and sulphur to more than 4.3 million tons, according to a Dazhou official at the on-going Western China International Economy-Trade Fair on Saturday. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, and Sinopec Corporation, China's largest refiner, plan to build five purification plants in Dazhou and are expected to purify a total of 74 million cubic meters of natural gas a day by 2010. Dazhou City, located in eastern Sichuan, covers an area of 16,600 square kilometers with a population of 6.46 million.

福州垂直阻生

GENEVA -- China on Tuesday got its first judge on the  World Trade Organization (WTO)'s highest court, six years after the country joined the Geneva-based body.Zhang YuejiaoChinese lawyer Zhang Yuejiao was formally appointed by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) as a member of the seven-person Appellate Body, which issues final rulings in trade disputes, WTO sources said.Jennifer Hillman of the United States, Lilia Bautista of the Philippines and Shotaro Oshima of Japan were also appointed as new members of the top court at a DSB meeting on Tuesday.The appointments were made according to the Dispute Settlement Understanding which stipulates that the Appellate Body shall " comprise persons of recognized authority, with demonstrated expertise in law, international trade and the subject matter of the WTO agreements generally," a WTO statement said.The WTO said Hillman and Bautista would formally join the top court next month, while Zhang and Oshima would join in June. They can serve up to two four-year terms.Zhang, 63, is professor of law at Shantou University in China. She is also an arbitrator on China's International Trade and Economic Arbitration Commission and practises law as a private attorney.Zhang once held positions at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as well as at the Asian Development Bank.

Policemen guard the sea wall at the Yuhuankanmen Port in Yuhuan, east China's Zhejiang Province, August 18, 2007.The Southeast China provinces are girding for the imminent Typhoon Sepat with cancellation of flights, evacuations of ships, boats and more than half a million people.[Xinhua] FUZHOU -- Typhoon Sepat packing winds of 119 km per hour landed in east China's Fujian Province at 2:00 am Sunday, said the Fujian provincial meteorological station. Before the landfall in Chongwu town, Hui'an county of Fujian, Sepat landed in Hualien, the central-eastern part of Taiwan around 5:40 am Saturday, with sustained winds of 180 kilometers per hour.Power cut for thousands of households and downpours were reported in many parts of the island.Sepat also brought downpours to Hui'an with 50-80 mm of precipitation in hours, according to the local meteorological station.Some buildings in Hui'an were damaged, roofs lifted while billboards and trees were toppled down, an official with the Hui'an office of flood control.The official said the typhoon was expected to cause more damages in the county.It rained heavily in the Fujian cities of Ningde, Fuzhou, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou early Sunday morning, according to the Fujian provincial meteorological station.Sepat was moving northwest and was expected to arrive in Jiangxi Province on Sunday afternoon, said an expert with the Fujian meteorological station.More than 900,000 people in the southern Guangdong Province and the eastern provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang have been relocated to safety before the arrival of Sepat.A car wades ahead in the flood water as typhoon Sepat lands with heavy winds and downpours in Cangnan county of the coastal city of Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province on August 18, 2007. [Xinhua] The provincial meteorological station has issued the highest-level warnings for Sepat.More than 540,000 people in Fujian have been relocated to safe places by 7:00 pm Saturday, according to government officials.All entries of expressways in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, were closed, while 109 domestic and international flights at the Fuzhou airport were cancelled on Saturday. Xiamen and Jinjiang cities also cancelled outbound flights.The Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent 3,000 tents to evacuated people in Fujian.Downpours have been forecast to hit the coastal areas of Fujian and neighboring Zhejiang Province starting from Saturday night.Passenger liners shuttling from Fujian to Taiwan have been suspended since Friday afternoon and it is undecided when services will resume.In Zhejiang Province, nearly 300,000 people had been evacuated to safety and 27,704 vessels back to harbor by 6:00 pm Saturday.Rain with precipitations of up to 87 millimeters hit Wenzhou, Pingyang, Taishun between Friday afternoon and Saturday.Three large reservoirs in Wenzhou discharged 17.5 million cubic meters of water in advance to leave room for more rainwater.In Guangdong, around 70,000 fishing farm workers on the sea, fishermen and residents in low-lying areas have been evacuated to safe areas.