Executives of China's major edible oil manufacturers and guild leaders were summoned to Beijing on Monday for a closed door meeting at which the government required them to step up production to rein in the soaring market prices.An official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) who asked not to be identified said it was understandable for the edible oil processing firms to raise prices as the continuous rise in the cost of raw materials had increased their production costs.However, the public had responded strongly to the price hikes of edible oils, coming as they did with rapid rises in the prices of other goods, the official said.Edible oil makers were told to "deepen their sense of social responsibility" and "bear the overall interests of the country in mind".Incomplete statistics from various regions show prices of domestic edible oils rose by 20 percent from November last year to June as the prices of peanuts and other oil-bearing products had risen.In eastern Shandong Province, first grade peanut oil has risen by 28.6 percent from 14,000 yuan per ton in April to a record 18,000 yuan per ton. While supermarkets marked down cooking oils to boost sales, people were reportedly standing in long queues. On Oct. 26 in Shanghai, 15 shoppers were injured after people swarmed in a local supermarket to snap up edible oils on sale only five minutes after the store opened.But the latest weekly market monitoring report by the Ministry of Commerce showed the prices of cooking oils fluctuated only slightly from Oct. 22 to 28, with the prices of peanut oil edging up 0.1 percent from a week earlier, while rapeseed oil was down 0.1 percent, and soybean and blended oils were basically the same.Wang Hanzhong, director of the Oil Crop Institution of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, attributed the price hikes to a shortfall of oil crop output as the acreage under oil crops had dwindled drastically. Major oil crop producer Hubei Province, for example, had found the acreage under rapeseed shrank from 18 million mu to 15 million mu last year. The situations in Sichuan, Anhui and Jiangsu were even worse.Soaring domestic demand that registered an annual average growth of 8.95 percent from 14.54 million tons in 2001 to 22.35 million tons in 2006, had aggravated the problem, turning China into the world's largest edible oil consumer. Domestic edible oil supply met just 40 percent of domestic demand.In a statement after the meeting, the NDRC spelled out five requests including the supply of more small-package oil to meet market demand.Oil processors were not allowed to disturb market order or stoke up fears for price hikes by hoarding raw materials, rigging raw material supply, cutting production or restricting supply.Price hikes must be kept within reasonable margins and be made when absolutely necessary, it said, adding that oil processors must enhance cost controls, improve management and absorb the costs from raw materials as much as possible.The NDRC also warned large cooking oil makers not to collude in setting prices or provide short measures or shoddy products.Under current price conditions, enterprises should transfer part of their interests to the people and cherish their public reputation, it said.Industrial associations were required to provide guidance to firms, make sure they abide by laws and regulations, admonish enterprises in cases of unfair competition, and keep market supervisors informed of the malpractice.If the price hikes exceeded the extra production costs, market supervisors would step in, it warned.Without identifying the participating cooking oil makers, the statement said that representatives from business communities had promised to maintain market order with their actions and contribute to the stabilization of market prices.China's consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, rose by 6.2 percent in September after hitting an 11-year high of 6.5 percent in August, while food prices jumped by 16.9 percent from January to September over the same period of last year, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.The Ministry of Agriculture released 11 measures in late September, including rewards to major oil crop planting counties as well as total subsidies of 300 million yuan for soybean cultivation and assistance of one billion yuan for rapeseed cultivation.The import duty on soy beans was also cut from three percent to one percent. The State Grain Administration released 200,000 tons of state edible oil reserve to meet rising demand prior to the the National Day holiday that fell on October 1.
BEIJING -- For the first time in its history, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has mentioned the word "religion" in an amendment to its Constitution adopted on Sunday at the closing session of the 17th CPC National Congress.To incorporate into its Constitution the principles and policies the Party has formulated for guiding efforts to strengthen the work related to ethnic and religious affairs, among others, is conducive to their full implementation and getting better results in the Party's work in this area, said a resolution on the amendment to the Constitution.It said the insertion has been made in light of the new circumstances and tasks.The CPC is atheistic but allows freedom of religious beliefs. China is home to 100 million religious faithful, largely Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Catholics and Islamites"The Party's secret in handling well China's religious issues lies in its principles and policies," said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs. "Their insertion in the Party Constitution shows the Party is sincere, and capable, of its implementation of policies on the freedom of religious beliefs. "He said religious problems are reported in many parts of the world. "But in China we enjoy peace and quiet because we have the established policies and principles."With the new elaboration on religious work, Ye said the Party is determined to enhance the active role of the religious circle and faithful in boosting social and economic development."I learned of the amendment on the Internet and was inspired," said Living Buddha Dainzin Qoizha in the Shannan Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. He's been watching the week-long Party congress on the Internet.Dainzin Qoizha is a government employee in Shannan. More than half of his colleagues are CPC members."I'm on very good terms with them," he said. "As a non- Communist, I'm in charge of ethnic and religious work. The prefecture's Party committee is very supportive."Hao Peng, vice Party chief in Tibet, described the relations between the Party and the religious faithful as "united, cooperative and mutual respectful".Tibet currently has more than 1,700 religious sites, 46,000 monks and nuns and more than 30 living Buddhas whose reincarnation has been recognized by the central or regional governments.At least 600 Tibetan Buddhist faithful are working at local legislatures, political advisory bodies, administrations of religious affairs and state-owned businesses and institutions.The CPC's tenet of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, featuring prosperity, democracy, cultural advancement and harmony, reflect the common aspirations of Tibet's religious faithful, said Zhukang Tubdankezhub, president of the Tibetan branch of the Buddhist Association of China.As the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China has pledged to offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the Games."A large number of religious faithful will be arriving for the Games," Ye Xiaowen told reporters at a news conference on the sidelines of the 17th Party congress.He said China is working on religious facilities at its Olympic venues with the help of the International Olympic Committee and referring to the practices at previous Games. "Our religious services will be up to previous standards."Ye also dismissed allegations that China restricted the printing and sale of Bibles, which he said receive state subsidies and other preferential policies.China, with 16 million Protestant Christians, has printed 42 million Bibles, he said.
BEIJING -- Chinese investors should be suspicious of phone calls, online messages and websites touting highly profitable stocks, the Ministry of Public Security warned on Tuesday. "As China's stock prices are soaring constantly, there has been a rise in the number of cases of illegal activities in the stock market, which has undermined the normal market order and threatened investor security," the ministry said in a notice on its official website. The government has repeatedly warned investors of illegal securities companies that swindle clients of funds with claims of high returns. The ministry said scam artists used Internet and phone calls to illegally tout stocks, funds or stock ownership to investors. The swindlers charged unwary investors high fees for fake stock tips and then quickly disappeared after having collected a huge sum of money. The funds or stock ownership, which were touted online or by phone, were often nonexistent, the ministry said. Investors were also hoodwinked into buying fake "initial offerings" of stocks that were not listed on the exchanges. Other scams include cases in which investors' shares were stolen and sold by criminals, who had stolen investors' account numbers and codes. The ministry urged investors to be alert and not to trust promoters who touted unrealistic high returns, or accept stock tips from unidentified persons online or on the phone. It also urged investors to be aware of computer security and to stop trading immediately when discovering a computer virus. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has pledged to curb illegal trading and fraud in the stock market. In February, the State Council approved the China Securities Regulatory Commission to lead a cross departmental team to crack down on illegal securities business.
Finance Minister Xie Xuren and his Japanese counterpart Fukushiro Nukaga have agreed to work jointly to end the controversy created by allegedly contaminated China-made dumplings.Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren (L) shakes hands with Japan's Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga at the latter's office in Tokyo, February 10, 2008. [Xinhua]At the first-ever ministerial-level meeting since the food scare in Japan, the two ministers vowed to "keep searching for the real cause" that made 10 people fall ill after eating the dumplings."We must cooperate in the investigation to get to the root of the problem and to prevent such an incident so that it doesn't become an obstacle to our friendship," Nukaga told reporters in Tokyo yesterday. "And he (Xie) said he completely agreed (with the idea)."The two also agreed to hold another dialogue next month in Tokyo. Xie was in Japan to attend expanded discussions and meetings of the Group of Seven financial ministers. Representatives of Russia, South Korea and Indonesia were also invited to the deliberations.The ministerial-level meeting came four days after Lunar New Year's Eve, when Chinese and Japanese officials met in Tokyo and said they were ready to cooperate in the investigation.China is willing to fully cooperate and share information with Japan, Li Chunfeng, head of the five-member Chinese delegation, told reporters after the third round of talks at the Japanese Cabinet Office on February 6.The country had set up a joint investigation team with Japan to get to the truth as soon as possible, Li said, calling for an objective attitude and scientific measures to solve the problem.A joint investigation team that on Tuesday inspected the plant of Tianyang Food, which made the dumplings, did not find any "abnormality" with the production process."The plant (in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei) is very clean and well managed, and no abnormality was detected," Japanese delegation chief Harashima Taiji said on Wednesday.Chinese and Japanese journalists, too, visited the plant, where production was suspended on January 30. The plant employs about 800 people.Also on Wednesday, Japanese Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said someone could have deliberately tried to contaminate the dumplings."Judging from circumstantial evidence, we'd have to think that it's highly likely to be a crime," Masuzoe said in Tokyo.Chinese police and law enforcers in Japan's Hyogo prefecture, where the 10 people fell ill, have already set up a joint task force to probe the case.In a joint announcement, Hyogo police said that after finding large amounts of the pesticide methamidophos on and small holes in some of the dumpling packages they suspected someone deliberately tried to poison the product.Tianyang reiterated it has never used methamidophos and that the dumplings were always packed immediately after coming off the production line.China Daily - Agencies
China warmly welcomes French President Nicolas Sarkozy on a state visit next month, which will "be a great event for China-France relations", Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a joint press conference with his French counterpart Wednesday.Yang and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner discussed the preparations for Sarkozy's visit, and agreed that it would definitely achieve great results.A lot of agreements will be inked between France and China during Sarkozy's visit in areas such as energy, transportation and education, Kouchner said.The French foreign minister is in China to pave the way for Sarkozy's visit, the first since he assumed presidency in May.During their talks, Yang said China is ready to go along with France to deepen strategic dialogue, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and have closer consultation and coordination on major international issues.The two foreign ministers agreed, as two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, to strengthen comprehensive strategic partnership for the benefit of both sides. Such a development will be beneficial to global peace, stability and development, too.On the development of ties between China and the European Union (EU), Yang said their relationship had matured after 30 years of cooperation."The two sides share broad common interests in intensifying mutual political trust, expanding economic and trade cooperation, jointly tackling the challenges of climate change and combating traditional and non-traditional security threat," Yang said.Kouchner ensured Yang that France would double its efforts to solve the pending China-EU problems after his country assumed the rotating presidency of the EU in July 2008.On the Taiwan question, Kouchner said France follows the one-China policy. He said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had made a statement on behalf of EU countries opposing Taiwan authorities' attempt to hold a referendum to move the UN for membership. "France supports the position (of Solana)," Kouchner said.Yang and Kouchner also exchanged views on regional and international matters such as the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula and in Iran, the situation in Myanmar, climate change and the Darfur and other issues in Africa.
RUGAO - Zhou Fenying is a living witness to the dark history that still poisons China's relations with Japan more than 60 years after World War Two. When Zhou was 22, Japanese soldiers came to her village in eastern China, grabbed her and her sister-in-law and carted them off to a military brothel, she says. Now 91, Zhou has broken decades of silence to speak of her traumatic experience as a "comfort woman" -- the euphemism the invading Japanese used to describe women forced into sex slavery. "I hid with my husband's sister under a millstone. Later, the Japanese soldiers discovered us and pulled us out by our legs. They tied us both to their vehicle. Later they used more ropes to tie and secure us and drove us away," she told Reuters in her home village in Jiangsu province. "They then took us to the 'comfort woman lodge'. There was nothing good there," she said, speaking through a local government official who struggled to translate her thick dialect into Mandarin. "For four to five hours a day, it was torture. They gave us food afterwards, but every day we cried and we just did not want to eat it," Zhou added, sitting in her sparsely decorated home. The Chinese government says Japan has yet to atone properly for its war crimes, which it says included massacres and forcing people to work as virtual slaves in factories or as prostitutes. In 2005, a push by Japan for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat sparked sometimes violent anti-Japanese street protests in cities across China, with demonstrators denouncing Tokyo and demanding compensation and an apology for the war. "OF COURSE I HATE THEM" Zhou -- neatly dressed in a dark blue traditional Chinese shirt, her greying hair combed back into a bun -- avoided saying what had happened to her in the brothel, except that she was there with at least 20 other Chinese women. But her son, Jiang Weixun, 62, said she had told him they were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers on a daily basis. This harrowing experience has left a deep scar on Zhou's life. She cannot forget, and nor can she forgive. "If it were you, wouldn't you hate them? Of course I hate them. But after the war, all the Japanese went home. I'm already so old. I think they are all dead by now," Zhou said. Zhou said she had served as a "comfort woman" for two months before a local town official rescued her by paying off the Japanese. She went back to her husband of 10 years, Ni Jincheng, who later died fighting the Japanese. Zhou remarried and lives with her son, Jiang, from her second marriage. Jiang said his mother had been moved to tell her story after learning of the death of Lei Guiying, a well-known former Chinese comfort woman. Lei died of a brain haemorrhage in April. She had gone public with her experiences last year after hiding the ordeal from her family for 60 years. Jiang said he was not ashamed of his mother, one of only an estimated 50 former Chinese sex slaves still alive today. He said her experiences should highlight to the world the extent of the wartime crimes committed by the Japanese. "When my mother told me about this, as her son, I do not hate her for that. The Japanese are the ones I should be hating. The Japanese are those who committed the crimes. The Japanese are responsible for this, they raped all of the women," he said. Tokyo has not paid direct compensation to any of the estimated 200,000 mostly Asian women forced to work in brothels for the Japanese military before and during World War Two, saying all claims were settled by peace treaties that ended the war. Instead, in 1995, Tokyo set up the Asian Women's Fund, a private group with heavy government support, to make cash payments to surviving wartime sex slaves.
长沙seo排名优化
SHENZHEN: Efforts to explain and publicize the new Labor Contract Law have thwarted many attempts to dodge the provisions included in it, but violations still occur, an official of a worker's union said Wednesday."We have been keeping an eye out for any abnormal redundancies and it appears the situation is improving," Xie Liangmin, sub-chief of the legal affairs department of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, said during a visit to this southern city.However, a company in Guangdong Province was recently found to have fired a group of contract workers and then rehired them through a manpower services company, Xie said."All attempts by companies to evade their responsibility to take care of their employees will be punished after the detailed regulations of the Labor Contract Law are issued," he said.The federation is working closely with the authorities to draw up detailed regulations, the release of which is likely to be postponed until the first quarter of next year, Xie said.Although the federation has publicly criticized two companies - IT equipment manufacturer Huawei Technology and retail giant Wal-Mart - for attempting to dodge some parts of the law before it takes effect on January 1, no punishments have been handed down.Dong Ping, an official with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, called on companies to come to terms with the legislation."The law provides an opportunity for companies to develop harmonious and stable working relationships with their employees within a more competitive environment. A successful company always respects its employees and abides by the law," Dong told a forum on promoting the new law.Terry Guo, CEO of Foxconn Technology, a leading IT manufacturer with operations in Shenzhen, said it would give its full support to the Labor Contract Law."The new law will prod companies into becoming more efficient and upgrading their technology. It should help them accelerate their strategic repositioning and restructuring," Guo said.He said Foxconn will work to improve the quality of its staff, save energy and encourage innovation to offset expected rises in its operational costs.The company has also revised its human resources policy and internal regulations to bring them in line with the Labor Contract Law.
NANJING -- Police in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, have nabbed 47 suspects over human trafficking and rescued 40 babies, said senior officers with the Nanjing railway police office on Friday.A group of four women, each holding a newborn baby in arms but never breast-feeding the infants, arouse police suspicion on May 24 on a train from Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, to Nanjing and were questioned.The women, including one identified as Lang Chunyan from Tancheng County of East China's Shandong Province, confessed that the babies were bought from Yunnan and they had been doing so with the help of two other suspects, Dao Xiufen and Ding Fachang, since 2005. While Lang's husband, Shen Yuzhou, was in charge of selling babies with the help of 10 human traders in Shandong.Lang also confessed that they usually buy a baby girl at 1,500 yuan (US0) but sell it for 8,000 yuan, while a baby boy usually costs them 8,000 yuan and can fetch 20,000 yuan for them.The Nanjing railway police set up a special team of more than 10 policemen to investigate the case.The team arrived in Yunnan on May 27 and arrested Dao, Ding and seven other suspects. Shen was later arrested in Shandong.Investigations found that the gang of human traders headed by Shen and Lang have bought 27 newborn babies in Yunnan during 16 trips and then sold them in Shandong.Forty out of more than 60 babies who were trafficked by the gang have been rescued by police so far, while police were trying to find the others.
Land authorities in six Chinese cities including Beijing have illegally charged 1.1 billion yuan (US6.7 million) on enterprises so far this year, adding fuel to the nation's soaring housing prices. This was discovered by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, during examinations of charges on businesses in Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Xi'an, the Beijing News said Saturday. The amount was well beyond the total illegal charges collected by eight departments for the whole year of 2006, said Li Lei, head of NDRC's Price Supervision Department. Quoting estimates by the land authorities, which say land costs account for 20 percent to 50 percent of the housing prices, Li said the behavior of these authorities has made the runaway housing prices worse. Despite by rounds after rounds of government curbs including restrictions on housing ownership by foreigners, housing prices have rocketed in China over the last few years, to the agony of ordinary people. Land authorities are not alone in overcharging enterprises. The commission found in May that urban construction departments have overcharged 216 million yuan (US.8 million) from construction firms. "The illegal charges have added fuel to the rising house price, " Li said. The housing prices in 70 large- and medium-sized cities in China went up by 7.1 percent in June over the same period last year, according to official statistics.
Yichang - Construction of a tunnel under the Yangtze River that will form part of a gas pipeline project running from Sichuan Province to Shanghai was completed Monday.The 1.4-km, 3.08-m diameter tunnel sits 20 m beneath the riverbed and connects two wells on either side of the river in Yichang city, Hubei Province, Liu Juzheng, head of the Hubei section of the pipeline, said.With a total length of 2,203 km, the pipeline will serve as an "energy artery" as part of the West-East gas project, Liu said.The pipeline is expected to channel 12.1 billion cu m of natural gas a year from the Puguang field in Sichuan to central and eastern regions of the country, including Chongqing Municipality, the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Shanghai Municipality.The tunnel, which took 325 days to complete, is the first of five to be built under the Yangtze.Industry experts say the new pipeline, which will cost 62.7 billion yuan (.4 billion) to build, will provide an opportunity to develop western regions based on their rich natural resources.Chen Deming, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said the pipeline will be completed in late 2010 and the gas it transports will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by tens of millions of tons a year.Figures from the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) put Puguang's proven reserves at 356.1 billion cu m. The country has total proven natural gas reserves of about 2.66 trillion cu m.The government has been promoting the use of natural gas to improve energy efficiency and reduce air pollution.Under an NDRC proposal on natural gas development, the government plans to increase the natural gas pipeline network to 44,000 km by 2010 to meet demand.Although China's natural gas output will reach 94 billion cu m in 2010, up from 58.6 billion in 2006, an additional 16 billion cu m a year will still have to be imported to meet demand, Sinopec said.In Shanghai, demand for natural gas soared from 4 million cu m in 2003 to 1.9 billion in 2005.In 2004, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) opened its West-East gas pipeline, which runs more than 4,000 km and channels 1.2 billion cu m of gas a year to Shanghai from the Tarim Basin in the country's westernmost region of Xinjiang.CNPC is to build a second West-East pipeline to carry gas imported from central Asia to the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas. Construction will begin next year with the line, which is designed to carry 30 billion cu m a year, becoming operational in 2010.