BEIJING -- China's economy in 2008 will maintain a robust and stable momentum despite uncertainties ahead, according to signs revealed during the country's top legislative and political advisory sessions. Liu Shucheng, a political adviser and director of the Economic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), believes it is almost out of question for China to score 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year."China's economy has maintained a long period of continued and stable growth, which is unprecedented since the founding of New China (in 1949)," he said.Justin Yifu Lin, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and the World Bank's chief economist, holds a similar view, saying China's economy would be affected little by the U.S. subprime crisis."The demand by the United States, China's second largest trade partner, would not decrease by a large margin as most of Chinese exports to it were low- and middle-end," Lin said.Despite the sound economic expansion on the whole, Zhang Quan, an NPC deputy and head of Shanghai environmental protection administration, held that China should be fully prepared for the uncertainties ahead."Risk prevention capability should be further strengthened. Just as an old Chinese saying goes: be prepared for danger in times of safety," he said.In his government work report at the NPC session, Premier Wen Jiabao said, "There are quite a few uncertainties in the current economic situation home and abroad, so we need to keep close track of new developments and problems, properly size up situations and take prompt and flexible measures to respond to them while keeping our feet firmly rooted in reality."China's GDP in 2007 reached 24.66 trillion yuan, an increase of 65.5 percent over 2002 and average annual increase of 10.6 percent. However, the consumer price index (CPI) in 2007 rose 4.8 percent year-on-year, the highest since 1997 and well above the 3 percent target, mainly due to rises in food and housing costs. In January this year, monthly CPI rose 7.1 percent, the highest monthly surge in the past 11 years.Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rate six times in seven months. The European Central Bank (ECB) held key interest rate steady for fears of further inflation in the eurozone as inflation remained a record high of 3.2 percent since the beginning of the year.In general, the impact from U.S. subprime crisis on global economy is not clear. And there is no consensus on how international oil price and price hikes would impact on inflation.Under such circumstances, Premier Wen called for the appropriate pace, focus and intensity of macroeconomic regulation to sustain steady and fast economic development and avoid drastic economic fluctuations.The premier said China would strive to keep this year's CPI increase at around 4.8 percent while following a prudent fiscal policy and a tight monetary policy.As the U.S. newspaper International Herald Tribune observed from the premier's report, the price hike has become the top concern of Chinese government. The main task is to rein in growing inflation and prevent the economy from being overheated.China's top economic planner, central bank governor and financial minister gathered at a press conference on Thursday to explain government measures to regulate macro-economic growth and contain rising inflation.To prevent fast economic growth from becoming overheated growth and keep structural price increases from turning into significant inflation, the People's Bank of China raised the reserve requirement ratio by half of a percentage point to 15 percent on January 25, the highest since 1984. In 2007, the central bank had raised the ratio ten times and benchmark interest rate six times.Economists believe the measures is to ensure sound economic growth and stabilize market anticipation of inflation. The central government has regarded curbing price hikes as the "rigid lever" for this year's macroeconomic regulation while saving room for economic structure adjustment.For low-income earners, who are affected most by growing inflation, a protective umbrella will be provided by the government that advocates "putting people first"."I believe the government will make greater efforts to solve social issues and improve people's livelihood through increasing fiscal revenue and making use of other resources," said Jia Kang, a political advisor and director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance.Indeed, Premier Wen's report showed unusual concern on the issue of prices, and came up with nine measures, short- and long-time, to increase effective supply and curb unreasonable demand.These measures include expanding production, especially the production of the basic necessities of life such as grain, vegetable oil and meat as well as other commodities in short supply, speeding up improvement of the reserve system, promptly improving and implementing measures to aid the low-income sector of the population and to make sure that the prices of the means of production, particularly agricultural supplies, do not rise rapidly.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has called a halt to all TV and radio programs on plastic surgery or sex-change operations.The administration issued a notice on Thursday that forbids programs with such "indecent themes and bloody and explicit scenes".As the decision states, it is forbidden to plan, program or broadcast any programs about plastic surgery or sex-change operations.The decision came as growing numbers of local TV stations decide to broadcast such programs, which have attracted complaints from many viewers.For example, Sun Min, a viewer in South China's Guangdong Province, said she found the scenes of plastic surgery in "New Agreement on Beauty", broadcast by a local TV station, to be "horrifying and sickening"."Ongoing programs of this kind should be stopped immediately," said the notice. "Any party that violates the rule will be punished."The administration has already stopped broadcasts of "New Agreement on Beauty".In response, He Yi, an official with the Guangdong TV Station, said that the program's production team understands the administration's decision and would abide by it.The administration's move came a week after it banned "The First Heartthrob", a local talent show broadcast in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, due to its vulgar content.The program caters to "low-grade interests", with the judges and songs on the program often featuring bad language.The administration said this seriously damages the image of the television industry and has a negative social influence.The director of the program has already been fired by Chongqing TV station.
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.
Central China's Hubei Province has banned pearl farming in all lakes, rivers and reservoirs in an attempt to prevent water quality from worsening, local aquatic products administration said Saturday.Pearl farms have covered a total area of 13,000 hectares in the province, and the annual output has exceeded 400 tons, a spokesman with the administration said.Some farmers resorted to pesticides and manure to farm the pearl oysters, which has caused swathes of algae to bloom in the water, and turned the water stinky, he said.The administration said it would not approve new applications to establish such farms, and has ordered all water areas used to cultivate pearls to be cleaned.Over the past several months, blue-green algae outbreaks, usually caused by pesticides runoffs and other pollutants, have been reported in Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake and the Dianchi Lake in southwestern China, endangering domestic water supplies.Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), unveiled a set of tough new rules early July to tackle worsening pollution in the three lakes.The rules include a ban on all projects involving discharges containing ammonia and phosphorus. He also ordered all fish farms to be removed from the three lake areas by the end of 2008.
The Chinese government on Tuesday expressed indignation and opposition to the resumption of "diplomatic relations" between St. Lucia and Taiwan. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement that the resumption of "diplomatic relations" between St. Lucia and Taiwan was a flagrant violation of the declaration on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and St. Lucia. It also constituted interference in the internal affairs of China, Liu said. He said the embassy of China in St. Lucia had already lodged a strong protest to the government of St. Lucia. He said the government had instructed the embassy to request the St. Lucian government live up to the principle of the declaration that the two countries issued on the establishment of diplomatic links in 1997. It also instructed the embassy to request St. Lucia return to the rightful stance of recognizing one-China. "Otherwise, the government of St. Lucia will be responsible for the consequences incurred," Liu said. Liu said the Taiwan authority's attempts to pursue "money diplomacy" and create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" had no support in the international community and would not succeed.
KUNMING -- A gas blast in a private coal mine has killed at least seven miners and injured five in southwest China's Yunnan Province, sources with the local government said Saturday.The blast occurred around 6:00 a.m. Saturday in the Shunxing Coal Mine in Fuyuan Township of Qujing City, in eastern Yunnan. Twenty-seven miners were working underground, and fourteen people managed to escape.More than 400 rescuers struggled to pull out seven bodies and five miners alive. One miner remains missing.The injured workers are being treated in a local hospital.The coal mine, which was built in 1984 with a designed production capacity of 90,000 tons, had been ordered to suspend operation and go through renovation after county coal mine administration staffs inspected the mine on Friday, but coal mine managers secretly organized the miners to work in the night.Local officials are investigating into the cause of the accident.
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BEIJING -- China will continue to spend more on education next year and spread the free nine-year compulsory education to urban children, said finance minister Xie Xuren.The government would continue to improve the funding system to guarantee free nine-year compulsory education currently enjoyed by 150 million rural children, while spreading it to their urban counterparts next year, Xie told an annual conference of the Ministry of Finance in BeijingStarting from the spring term, China would increase the funding for free textbooks used for the national compulsory courses, and the local governments would provide more money for free textbooks for local compulsory courses, he said. Local governments would also provide scholarships to cover the living costs of boarding students from poor families. The central government would provide half of the education funding for areas in Central and West China, while provincial governments in those areas would cover the rest of the costs.Local governments in East China would provide all education fees with some supplementary funding from the central government.Xie said the government would issue new standards for per capita expenditure of students in primary and middle schools, and put those standards into effect within the next two years.He said the allowance for maintenance and refurbishing of rural schools in Central and West China would also be raised with special financial support to high-altitude and cold areas.In addition, the government would continue free education for students taking courses for teaching careers at normal schools and provide scholarships for poor undergraduates and students at vocational schools.According to Xie, the first 11 months saw 557.8 billion yuan (about 74.3 billion US dollars) of fiscal expenditure used for education, up 32.7 percent compared with the same period last year.As a result of the implementation of scholarships for the poor, about four million college students and 16 million secondary vocational school students had benefited.
Four people were sentenced to between 15 and 24 months' imprisonment Tuesday in Shanghai for money laundering in the first such case since the anti-money laundering law took effect in January.The Shanghai Hongkou District People's Court sentenced Pan Rumin to two years in jail and fined him 60,000 yuan (,000) for the crime. Accomplices Zhu Suzhen, Li Daming and Gong Yuan were sentenced to between 15 and 16 months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan each.The case was the first in the country to turn on the new anti-money laundering law. Before the law took effect, suspects in money-laundering cases were charged with operating illegal businesses or disordering financial markets.The four parties had collectively laundered more than 1 million yuan by withdrawing money and transferring funds over the Internet, through ATMs and over the counter at bank branches.The Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China eventually grew suspicious, and police arrested the suspected launderers in Hongkou on July 24 last year.The authorities have been drawing up legislation to fight money laundering. The National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the new anti-money laundering law in October, last year.
BEIJING -- American chip manufacturer Intel Corp. said here Monday that it had settled a copyright infringement dispute with China's Shenzhen Dongjin Communications Technologies Co. Ltd. after more than two years of legal battle. The two companies said in a joint statement that given their developing strategies and business operations, pursuing the lawsuit was not in the best commercial interests of each company. Intel Corp. sued Shenzhen Dongjin, a private Chinese company, in 2004 for alleged copyright infringements relating to its Inter Dialogic System Release 5.1.1 software (SR5.1.1) and demanded compensation of 7.9 million US dollars. In compensation terms it was the biggest IPR case to be heard at the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, a boomtown in south China's Guangdong Province. At the request of the American multinational, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court seized and sealed all of the disputed products and relevant reference materials on January 20, 2005. In April 2005, Shenzhen Dongjin, through its subsidiary company in Beijing, countersued Intel for technology monopoly at the No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing. The two companies said the out-of-court settlement respected the Chinese law on IPR protection and the positive efforts made by Chinese courts. The details of the settlement were kept confidential. He Jiannan, general manager of Shenzhen Dongjin, said the settlement demonstrated the progress made by China in technology innovation, company management and IPR protection.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The election was held this morning during the business session of the 144th annual meeting of the academy, and brought the organization's total number of active members to 2,025. Foreign associates are non-voting members of the academy. The 18 newly elected, from 12 different countries, brought the total number of foreign associates to 387. Two Chinese scientists, Zhang Qifa and Li Aizhen, were among the new foreign associates. Professor Zhang is the director of National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, in central China's Wuhan. Li is from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the advance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act signed by Abraham Lincoln. The act calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology