BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to "brainstorm for measures" to help travelers over the annual Spring Festival travel peak. The ministry's website on Thursday reported a message from Hu, saying, "This year's Spring festival is facing a tougher supply-demand imbalance and the ministry has to brainstorm for measures to promote passenger convenience and open the measures to public. The ministry has to ensure a smooth and safe transportation during the peak season." Passengers head for their trains at the Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing Jan. 15, 2009. China's annual Spring Festival pessenger rush is getting started these days as the Spring Festival comes close Senior officials Zhou Yongkang and Zhang Dejiang have also urged the ministry to investigate ticket shortage problems and take actions to guarantee tickets. In response to the instructions, Vice Minister of Railways Wang Zhiguo said the ministry had ordered to suspend cargo services to allow more passenger trains in the busiest southern and eastern regions. Short-distance passenger trains would be suspended for more long-distance trains. Hard sleepers would be changed to seats. The ministry will also transfer passenger trains serving northeast and northwest areas to south and east China and improve schedules of temporary trains, especially those for students and migrant workers. Meanwhile, tickets will be sold only in the railway ticket sales network, except for group tickets for students and migrant workers. Hotels, restaurants and travel agencies are ordered to halt ticket booking services, and major stations will adopt 24-hour sales. Stations have to set up counters for students and send staff to sell tickets in schools and places where migrant workers gather. Sales staff are prohibited from buying tickets for others, from carrying cash and mobile phones during work hours, from keeping personal belongings on the sales desk. Wang also apologized to passengers who had reacted angrily to a video posted online, which showed a sales lady in Beijing Railway Station printing 130 tickets for trains running to cities in the northeast. Passengers had accused the station of scalping tickets. People queue up to buy train tickets at the Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing Jan. 15, 2009. China's annual Spring Festival pessenger rush is getting started these days as the Spring Festival comes close. "On behalf of the ministry, I have to apologize to passengers for their unpleasant feelings and misunderstandings the incident has caused," Wang said. "The action was immediately investigated and turned out it was part of advance preparations to save time for passengers. There was no rumored collusion between railway staff and ticket scalpers." He said the ministry pledged to crack down on scalpers and exert strict supervision on booking systems, including sales outlets and online booking. Last December a nationwide campaign was launched to tackle ticket counterfeiting and scalping. As of Thursday, the authorities had detained 2,393 people in 2,009 scalping investigations and seized 78,237 tickets, of which 60,000 were counterfeit. MOR spokesman Wang Yongping said insufficient transport capacity resulted in the short supply and scalpers made it worse. Almost 188 million people are expected to travel by train in the holiday season, up 8 percent or 13.73 million from last year. The daily rail traffic will grow by 340,000 people to a record average high of 4.7 million. From Jan. 1 to 10, the number of passengers leaving Beijing increased 29.4 percent year on year. The figure for Shanghai was 22.7 percent and Guangzhou 25.8 percent. The Spring Festival rush started on Jan. 11. The first four days saw 18.15 million travelers nationwide, 4.538 million a day, up 8.5 percent from a year earlier. Wang said the ministry had arranged a record 2,208 temporary trains, 253 more than the same period last year, and more were yet to come into service, but the supply was still far from enough, he added. Wang Zhiguo said the ministry would start construction on up to 30,000 kilometers of new lines with investment of more than 2 trillion yuan (292.5 billion U.S. dollars) in two years. Operational railways would stretch 110,000 kilometers by 2012 when the difficulty of obtaining a ticket would be much eased, he added. People queue up to buy tickets at the Changsha Railway Station in Changsha, capital of central-south China's Hunan Province, Jan. 8, 2009. The Spring Festival travel period, known as Chunyun in Chinese, began to see its passenger peak in Changsha as the college students and migrant workers started to return home.
BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, disproved Saturday the allegations by a U.S. Treasury official that China is manipulating the exchange rates of its currency, saying the statement is untrue and misleading. Su Ning, vice governor of the central bank, said that the allegation could sidetrack the effort to track the real cause of the financial crisis. "President Obama -- backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists -- believes that China is manipulating its currency," the U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner wrote to the Senate Finance Committee in documents released on Thursday. "Also, we should avoid any excuse that might lead to the revitalization of trade protectionism. Because it will do no good to the fight against the crisis, nor will it help the healthy and stable development of the global economy," Su said. Yi Xianrong, a researcher with the financial research center of the CASS, told Xinhua on Friday if the U.S. labeled China as a "currency manipulator," it would hurt the concerted action of fighting the global financial crisis. It would also hamper the global efforts to shake off an economic slowdown as the Sino-U.S. economic tie had become one of the world's most important bilateral economic ties, Yi said. According to China customs statistics, Sino-U.S. trade hit 333.74 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 10.5 percent year on year. With a 9-percent rate, China contributed more than 20 percent of global economic growth in 2008, while the U.S. remained the world's largest economy, Yi said. Geithner's comment was just aiming to try out the Chinese government's response, said Zuo Xiaolei, senior analyst with the Beijing-based Galaxy Securities. Yuan appreciation and the pace of appreciation should not only be decided by trade surplus but also the status of domestic economic development, Zuo said. "The price advantage of Chinese exports may not be a result of currency issues, but the country's lower costs of labor, resources and land," she said. In July 2005, China abandoned a decade-old peg to the U.S. dollar and allowed its currency to appreciate by 2.1 percent. Since then, the yuan has strengthened further, rising more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar.
BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The latest test found that Chinese baby formula milk and other milk powder products met the new temporary restrictions on melamine, the country's top quality control agency said on Thursday. It was the 13th test on the industrial chemical following the tainted baby formula scandal that killed at least three infants and sickened more than 50,000 others, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). The latest test covered 60 batches of baby formula milk powder from 14 brands in five major cities nationwide, and 68 batches of other milk powder products from 22 brands in 12 cities, the agency said. At present, 1,336 batches of baby formula from 74 brands and 1,935 batches of other milk powder from 178 brands produced after Sept. 14 were tested and all were in line with the limit, it added. Melamine, often used in the manufacturing of plastics, was added to sub-standard or diluted milk to make the protein levels appear higher. China set temporary limits on melamine content in dairy products earlier this month. The limits were a maximum of 1 mg of melamine per kg of infant formula and a maximum 2.5 mg per kg for liquid milk, milk powder and food products containing at least 15 percent milk.
BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Vice-Premier Li Keqiang visited the 2008 China Beijing International Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Exhibition on Monday. Li, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, spoke highly of the achievements made by the country and the national capital in terms of energy efficiency and pollution reduction. LI said China has large potential in the resources and environmental sector and it should focus on energy efficiency and environmental protection. Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (C) visits the 2008 China Beijing International Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 20, 2008. Accompanied by Liu Qi, member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and secretary of the municipal Party committee of Beijing during his visit, the vice premier took in exhibits on solar powered houses, earthquake-proof and energy-saving houses and wind-powered generators. The exhibition, which was held October 17-20, was co-sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Government and the State Development and Reform Commission.
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares dropped 1.97 percent on Friday, the month's last trading day. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.97 percent, or 34.82 points, to close at 1,728.79. The Shenzhen index was down 1.19 percent, or 70.33 points, to close at 5,839.33 points. The combined turnover was 35.23 billion yuan (5.03 billion U.S.dollars), compared with 49.35 billion yuan on the previous trading day. Losses outnumbered gains by 656 to 199 in Shanghai and 576 to151 in Shenzhen. Almost all sectors fell except industries related to aircraft making after the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (CACC) announced Chinese indigenous regional jets would be sold to the United States, analysts said. CACC is not a publicly traded company. Coal companies suffered the most losses. Kailuan Clean Coal Co.lost 7.21 percent to 10.3 yuan. Taiyuan Coal Gasification Company fell 4.34 percent to 7.50 yuan. "I don't think the fall was related to recent mine accidents. It was a reflection of diminishing global energy demand," said Alex Xue, analyst with JL McGregor & Company. The finance sector also dropped by an average of 3 percent. CITIC securities lost 2.46 percent to 17.84 yuan. Bank of Communications fell 4.20 percent to 4.33 yuan. According to estimates from Friday's China Securities News, third-quarter profits of the country's 1,466 listed companies would fall 10.17 percent from the same period a year ago and 18.41 percent from the previous month to 206.09 billion yuan. Operating net cash flow fell 51.75 percent to 827.4 billion yuan in the first three quarters. Analysts said rising material costs and weakening demand led to slumping profits. The country's industrial output value growth slowed to 11.4 percent in September, the lowest rate since April 2002, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Thursday. Despite the latest rate cut, which was viewed as helpful to stabilizing the stock market, analysts said the market could possibly continue falling. The long-term affects from the rate cut are yet to been seen.
BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Thursday started to review a draft law on food safety, which sets stricter food quality standards and demands greater government responsibility. The draft, which was revised after the recent contaminated dairy products scandal, would ban all chemicals and materials other than authorized additives in food production. Health authorities are responsible for assessing and approving food additives and setting their usage. "Only those proved to be safe and necessary in food production are allowed to be listed as food additives," the draft says. Food producers must strictly stick to the food additives and their usage approved by authorities, according to the draft In the tainted dairy products scandal, melamine, often used in the manufacturing of plastics, was added to sub-standard or diluted milk to make protein levels appear higher. At least three infants died and more than 50,000 were sickened after drinking the contaminated milk. The draft also prohibits food safety supervision authorities from issuing inspection exemptions to food producers. China began exempting companies producing globally-competitive products from quality inspections in 2000 to help them avoid repeated examinations and reduce their burden. The practice encountered severe criticism when it was discovered that many of the companies producing and selling melamine-tainted dairy products had national inspection exemption qualifications. The draft was tabled to lawmakers at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC).
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BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush exchanged congratulatory messages Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their two countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao(R) meets with U.S. President George W. Bush in Lima, capital of Peru, Nov. 21, 2008. The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States 30 years ago "is a milestone that marked a new chapter in the history of our relations and had a significant and profound impact on the international situation and the world's landscape," Hu said in his congratulatory message. "For 30 years, thanks to the concerted efforts of generations of Chinese and American leaders and people of vision from all walks of life, we have made historic achievements in growing these relations," the Chinese president said. "Our two countries have fruitful exchanges and cooperation in a wide range of areas. Our two peoples are increasing mutual understanding and friendship day by day. The strategic significance and global implications of China-U.S. relations have become all the more evident," Hu said. "These facts have proven that the establishment and development of normal state-to-state relations between China and the United States serves the fundamental interests of our two peoples and go along with the trend of the times. They have not only delivered enormous benefits to our two peoples, but have also greatly contributed to peace, stability and development of Asia and the world at large," Hu said. The world is now undergoing complex and profound changes, Hu said, adding under the new circumstances and in the face of new opportunities and challenges, China stands ready to work with the United States to build on past achievements, sum up and draw on experience in the development of China-U.S. relations, follow the principles of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, and remain committed to the development of a constructive and cooperative relationship. China is willing to further strengthen dialogue and exchanges with the United States on the basis of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, enhance mutual trust and cooperation, and continuously expand the basis for cooperation and common interests between the two countries so as "to promote sound, stable and in-depth growth of our constructive and cooperative relationship", Hu said. In his congratulatory message, President Bush said the decision by the two governments to open formal ties 30 years ago "transcended profound differences in our nations' histories, cultures, and political systems and bridged a seemingly impossible divide." "The peoples of the United States and China have come to know each other well over the last 30 years. Together, we have built bridges between our two nations in every conceivable field – from commerce and trade to education, science, sports, and the arts," Bush said. "Over the last eight years, the relationship between our two governments has become more constructive and cooperative, and we have made progress in addressing global challenges such as terrorism, pandemic disease, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We have worked as global leaders to promote open markets as the best way to foster economic dynamism and development," he said. He hoped that over the coming 30 years "our governments will build on this foundation of goodwill and work constructively together to advance the causes of peace, stability, and development." Bush expressed his confidence that working with common purpose and determination, China and the United States can successfully address global challenges to ensure that "our children inherit a truly better and safer world."
Li Changchun (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, visits a publishing showpiece exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 6, 2008. Li attended on Saturday night a publishing showpiece exhibition and a concert in celebration of 30 years' reform and opening-up. BEIJING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese official Li Changchun attended on Saturday night a publishing showpiece exhibition and a concert in celebration of 30 years' reform and opening-up. The exhibition and the concert were held by China Publishing Group Corporation. Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said during his visit that the company should strive to become a modernized publishing group with international competitiveness and influence. Li Changchun (front, R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, shakes hands with performers after a concert in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 6, 2008. Li attended on Saturday night a publishing showpiece exhibition and a concert in celebration of 30 years' reform and opening-up. More than 100 showpieces of books, newspapers and electronic publications were shown in the exhibition. Liu Yunshan, member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and head of the CPC Central Committee Publicity Department, also attended the event.
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six Chinese infants might have died from consuming melamine-tainted milk powder, the country's Ministry of Health (MOH) said here on Monday. Experts with the MOH and provincial health departments had looked into 11 infant death cases since September across the country, and had ruled out connection to the tainted milk powder in five cases, the ministry said on its website. They could not, however, rule out such possibility in the rest six cases, it said. Four of the six cases occured in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guizhou and Shaanxi Provinces respectively, while the rest two cases occurred in the northwestern province of Gansu. It did not give any further details. Previous reports said three babies, including two in Gansu Province and one in Zhejiang Province, had already been confirmed by the ministry to have died from consuming the tainted milk from May to August. The ministry did not make it clear whether the three confirmed cases were included in the six undecided case. Meanwhile, 861 infants were still receiving treatment for kidney problems caused by tainted milk powder by last Thursday, the ministry said. The figure dropped by about 200 from the previous week, when the number of hospitalized infants stood at 1,041. All together 294,000 infants were found to have suffered from diseases of urinary systems in the ministry's nationwide screening, it said. Among them, 154 had been in serious conditions, but were all stable by Monday. A total of 51,900 children had been hospitalized and 51,039 had recovered and left the hospital. Most of the sick children were found to have only sand-like stones in their urinary systems.
ATHENS, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said here on Tuesday that China hopes to push its ties with Greece to a higher level. The Chinese government has attached great importance to its relations with Greece and has been viewing the bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective, Hu said during his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. China hopes to expand the scope of shared interests with Greece and push forward bilateral cooperation in various sectors, the Chinese president said. He suggested that the two sides set up a guideline for long-term economic cooperation and establish a more effective communication platform for enterprises on both sides. Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) meets with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in Athens, capital of Greece, Nov. 25, 2008 He said that the Chinese government supports competent Chinese enterprises to invest in Greece and carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in telecom, energy, environmental protection, tourism and isle development. He also proposed the two countries pay more attention to cooperation in the oceanic shipping industry. In addition, China and Greece should devote major efforts to strengthening cultural cooperation, he said. The two sides should enhance cooperation in language teaching, the protection of cultural relics, the press and publication, said the Chinese president. Efforts should also be made to advance academic and youth exchanges and to explore cooperation potential in traditional medicine, disaster prevention and relief, as well as in social development, the Chinese president said. Karamanlis said significant progress has been achieved in the Greek-Chinese ties after the two nations formed the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2006. He echoed Hu by saying that the two sides should enhance cooperation in oceanic shipping and tourism. Greece hopes to become a gateway of Chinese commodities into the region and welcomes Chinese people to visit the country, he said. The two sides should also strengthen cooperation within international organizations as the world is faced with major challenges like the current financial crisis, the Greek prime minister said. The two leaders also discussed Sino-European relations. China is willing to work with its European partners to properly handle major issues of common concern and resolve differences in an effort to strengthen strategic mutual-trust, push forward cooperation in all areas and ensure the growth of the Sino-Europe comprehensive strategic partnership in the long run, Hu said. He added that China appreciates the endeavor and contribution by Greece to the development of Sino-European ties and hoped the Greek side will play a more active role in the future. For his part, Karamanlis promised to continue its active efforts in boosting China-EU relations in an all-round manner. Hu arrived in Athens on Monday for a state visit to Greece, the last leg of his five-nation trip. He had earlier attended a financial summit in Washington and paid state visits to Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru, where he also attended the Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima.