News from Asia:

&$ &$Soldiers carry the body of a victim at the site of a landslide at Shuanghuyu Village in Zizhou County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, March 11, 2010. The landslide, which occurred early Wednesday, has left 23 people dead and 5 others missing, according to local government. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)&$&$ &$ &$A police covers face with hands ...

Chinese lawmakers and political advisors Thursday urged Google to abide by Chinese laws and regulations, saying the online search giant should be no exception in the current Internet clean-up campaign. The comments came a day after Google said it was firm in the decision to "stop censoring search results in China" and that it was "prepared" to leave the country if that was the option. Chen Zhonglin, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, told Xinhua tha ...

Six people died and three were injured Wednesday after a construction site collapse in east China's Shandong Province, said local authorities Thursday. The accident happened at around 10 p.m. Wednesday when a newly-built concrete work platform and scaffolding of an underground construction collapsed at Qiujiadian Town, Taishan District, in Tai'an City, according to a spokesman with the district government. Six construction workers, who fell from the 15-meter-high platform, were taken to h ...

China was watching closely the results of the general election in Iraq, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said here Thursday. Qin said at a regular press briefing that China was paying close attention to current process of vote counting and the conduct of the general election in Iraq last weekend. Qin said no matter what the results would be, China hoped that Iraq would realize peace, stability and development. "We hope Iraq's sovereign rights will be respected," Qin said. "We hope t ...

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay an official visit to China from March 17 to 21 at the invitation of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang made the announcement at a regular press conference on Thursday. &$&$Source: Xinhua&$&$ ...

China's Chief Justice Wang Shengjun said Thursday that courts will take actions on judicial corruption to prevent abuse of judicial power after a former vice president of the supreme court was jailed for life two months ago. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) will "strengthen capacity building and act as a model for local courts," Wang, SPC president, told nearly 3,000 lawmakers at the annual parliament session when delivering a work report. The pledge came after Huang Songyou, former SPC vi ...

China will attach more importance to cultural development, and conduct cultural exchanges with foreign countries more actively, so as to enhance the international influence of Chinese culture, Premier Wen Jiabao stated in the government work report March 5. Meanwhile, "soft power" has become a key word at China's 2 Sessions (NPC and CPPCC), so we interviewed several experts and scholars about how to improve China's soft power. China's soft power is on the rise. The term soft power was coin ...

Five children died Thursday after an outdoor wall collapsed at a primary school in east China's Fujian Province, said local authorities. The accident happened at 11:41 a.m. when a bulletin board wall collapsed at Jinsha Central Primary School at Langqi Town in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, according to a spokesman with the publicity department of the Fuzhou city committee of the Communist Party of China. Four children died at the scene. Three injured were taken to hospital, where one die ...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao lit up public expectations for an improved medical system that charges less and offers easier access to services by encouraging development of private hospitals. The high cost and poor availability of health services have been among the loudest complaints of the Chinese public, prompting the central government to launch healthcare reform, with the most difficult part being the reforming of government-run hospitals. In a government work report to the annual parlia ...

A total of 11 Siberian tigers died over the past 3 months in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province, local animal protection officials said Thursday. All the tigers were from Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in the provincial capital. The tigers might have died of malnutrition rather than infectious diseases, officials with the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station told Xinhua. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

China is going to tighten supervision over medical practices of hemodialysis, in response to recent cases of hepatitis C infections, the Health Ministry announced Thursday. The ministry would require hospitals to report information on each hemodialysis case three days after the treatment is performed from May 1. The ministry would designate quality control centers to analyze the data and to publish their results on a regular basis. In December 2008 and January last year, 16 patients rec ...

China's chief justice Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), delivered a report on the work of the SPC Thursday afternoon to the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress. Following are the highlights of Wang's report extracted from the text distributed to the media before the opening of the fourth plenary meeting of the annual parliamentary session: In 2009, -- the SPC dealt with 13,318 cases of various types and concluded 11,749 cases, up 26.2 percent ...

China's Procurator-General Cao Jianming delivered a report on the work of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Thursday afternoon at a meeting of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress. Chinese leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang attended the meeting. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

China should be equipped with 100 helicopters every year in air emergency rescue system during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), suggested Feng Peide, member of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Feng, also a CPPCC member, said helicopters have obvious advantages in rescue, transportation and detection, which played a pivotal role during the rescue work of May 12 Sichuan earthquake. The helicopter can get to all sites, where rescue teams can not get to very quickly, and they can assist ...

&$&$ On Women's Day this year, 8 girls with colorful masks handed out leaflets on a street in Guangzhou. They only gave the leaflets to male passers-by, and said "eyes on me" to them in gentle language at the same time. Guess what they were doing? Yes, they were advertising for life partners. Soon, all the leaflets were handed out. If you think that was the end the whole thing, then you are wrong. With the rock mu ...

Outgoing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday met Chinese special envoy Yin Weimin, who is China's minister of human resources and social security. Yin, who was invited to attend the inauguration ceremony of Chile's new president, conveyed warm greetings from Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to Bachelet. He spoke highly of her contribution to the development of Chinese-Chilean relations. On behalf of the Chinese government, Yin once again expressed condolences ...

China's supreme court examined more than 13,300 cases last year, up 26 percent from the previous year, according to a report to be delivered by the chief justice at the annual session of the parliament on Thursday. Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court, is to deliver the report on the work of the Supreme People's Court to nearly 3,000 lawmakers at the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

China's courts at all levels tried and concluded 767,000 criminal cases last year, down 0.2 percent from the previous year, according to a report to be delivered at the annual parliament session Thursday. Last year, the courts convicted 997,000 criminals, down 1.1 percent, it says. The courts strictly controlled the number of death sentences and prudently used death penalties, it says. The courts implemented the policy of "tempering justice with mercy," it says. Wang Shengjun, presid ...

Chinese courts laid special stress on facts and evidence in the trials of suspects involved in the riots in Lhasa in 2008 and in Urumqi last year, said a report delivered by the country's chief justice to the parliament Thursday. The courts handled the cases in the principle of "to punish only a handful of criminals but unite, educate and win over the majority", said the report. Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court, delivered the report to nearly 3,000 lawmakers at the Th ...

China's top judge Wang Shengjun started to deliver a report on the work of the Supreme People's Court at a meeting of the annual parliament session Thursday. Chinese leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang attended the plenary meeting of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

China's courts at all levels tried and concluded 527 cases against mafia-style gangs last year, up 13.8 percent from the previous year, according to a report delivered by the top judge at the annual session of the parliament on Thursday. The courts convicted 3,231 criminals in these cases last year, up 16.6 percent, it says. Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court delivered the report on the work of the supreme court to nearly 3,000 lawmakers at the Third Session of the 11th ...

China's procuratorate conducted graft probes against 2,670 officials above county level last year, including eight at the provincial or ministerial level, according to a report to be delivered at the annual session of the parliament Thursday. The eight high-ranking officials include Huang Songyou, former vice president of the Supreme People's Court and Wang Yi, former vice president of the state-run China Development Bank. Also on the list are Chen Shaoji, former top political advisor of s ...

Sun Zhihui, CPPCC member and director of State Oceanic Administration, said March 10 in an interview that the home-developed manned submersible, the first of its kind worldwide has been successfully tested in the South China Sea 20 times at depths of 1,109 meters in 2009. The vehicle's maximum operational capability at that depth is 7,000 meters. As a result, China becomes the world's fifth country after the U.S., Russia, Japan and France to possess the technology of developing a manned subm ...

In a fresh effort to curb financial risk-taking, China's regulators are tightening controls on pay for its top bankers. The China Banking Regulatory Commission announced in a statement Wednesday that lenders shall withhold a minimum 40 percent of bonuses for top executives for up to 3 years, and can recover bonus payments if their poor performance leads to losses later. "We should learn advanced ideas from other countries around the world after the financial crisis to reform the remunerati ...

Some lawmakers from the French parliament and Paris council Wednesday called for stopping the practice to raise the "Tibet flag" in the Paris city hall on March 10. They told a press conference that the action does not represent the collective view of the country's lawmakers or people and is unpopular. The legislators also saw the move as an offense to China. "We are opposing Paris city hall's choosing this provocative way to deal with the Tibet issue," said Senator Yves ...

Scholars overseas are focusing their attention on China's measures to improve employment, education, health care, and housing for the people as deputies to China's top legislature gathered in Beijing to debate how to address these issues. Improving people's well-being is the fundamental goal of economic development, Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday in his government work report to the annual session of the National People's Congress. "Everything we do is to ensure that the people live a happ ...

Thirteen people died and six were injured after a bus plunged off a bridge in southwest Guizhou Province Wednesday, police said. The bus, carrying 19 people, rolled down a 37-meter mountain slope in Guiyang city en route to Guiyang Airport at 6:20 p.m., said a statement of Guiyang Municipal Publicity Security Bureau Thursday. Four people died at the scene, one died on the way to hospital and eight others, including the driver, died later in hospital. Six injured people are receiving tre ...

The governments of Xi'an and Xianyang, two major cities in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, have been fined a total of 500,000 yuan (73,530 U.S. dollars) for polluting a tributary of the Yellow River, China's second longest waterway, the local environment watchdog said Thursday. The two cities are the first to be penalized by the provincial environmental protection department since new measures to curb water pollution took effect on Jan. 1, said Li Xiaolian, deputy chief of the department. ...

On March 10, 2010, Vice Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an stressed that issuing Safety Certificate of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is evaluation and recognition of scientists' work of transgenic biotechnology research and its results, and it is not the same as permitting commercial production. He said that, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, there needs to be an examination of regional testing and pilot production more rigorous than ordinary crop varieties, as well as ...

Zhang Jianwei, a 22-year-old hairdresser in Beijing, has never been inside the Great Hall of the People and takes little interest in TV news or newspapers. But events in the Hall have been the center of discussion during his meals and leisure time over the past week. "I only read Internet news and gossip about the two meetings," Zhang says, referring to the dual annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Nation ...

Some lawmakers from the French parliament and Paris council Wednesday called for stopping the practice to raise the "Tibet flag" in the Paris city hall on March 10. They told a press conference that the action does not represent the collective view of the country's lawmakers or people and is unpopular. The legislators also saw the move as an offense to China. "We are opposing Paris city hall's choosing this provocative way to deal with the Tibet issue," said Senator Yves Pozzo di Borgo. ...

Yu Minhong, the CEO of New Oriental and a CPPCC member, said because of insufficiency in life experience and communication ability, it is not necessary for college students to start their own businesses just after graduation when he answered questions by reporters March 11. Yu believes it would be a pity if a person does not have an opportunity to open a business once in their life. However, regarding new graduates difficult job hunting situation, Yu said it was inappropriate for them to star ...

China will launch the "Tiangong I" space station and the "Shenzhou VIII" spaceship in the first and second half of 2011 respectively, conducting China's first rendezvous and docking test, said Niu Hongguang Wednesday, deputy commander-in-chief of the China Manned Space Program. China will also launch the "Shenzhou IX" spaceship and the "Shenzhou X" spaceship in the first and second half of 2012 respectively, realizing rendezvous and docking between the spaceships and the space station and mak ...

The four Chinese who lost their lives while serving the UN mission in Haiti will be remembered for forever, China's envoy to the United Nations said on Wednesday. Li Baodong, China's permanent representative to the UN, made the statement after meeting the families of the four Chinese UN peacekeepers who were killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. "The four martyrs gave their precious lives for China's interest and the diplomatic cause, and also for the maintenance of world peace," Li s ...

&$ &$Rescuers are busy working on the site where a landslide occurred in Zizhou county of Yulin city, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on March 10, 2010. At least 17 people were dead in the landslide occurred on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)&$&$ The death toll of a landslide in northwest China's Shaanxi has risen to 17 by Thursday morning, as 11 others were still missing. The landslide that occurred at 1:30 a ...

&$ &$People gather at the site of a bus accident near Shanshulin Bridge between Longli and Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, March 10, 2010. A bus carrying 19 passengers lost control before overturned down a slope leaving 10 people dead and nine injured. (Xinhua/Chengjie)&$&$&$ 【1】 Gang boss stands trial in southwest China's mob crackdown

An alleged ringleader and his 32 gang members stood trial Wednesday on gang-related charges in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Shen Chao, the alleged ringleader, faces seven charges, including organizing and leading a criminal gang, gambling, murder, intentionally injuring people, causing social disturbance, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. Shen denied all the charges except for gambling, saying that he was "too busy investing in coal mines in Shaotong city to commit t ...

Two giant pandas have now "settled down" in central China's Hubei Province after their old home was damaged in the Wenchuan Earthquake that jolted southwest China in 2008. The two male pandas, Xi Wang and Wei Wei, came to Wuhan Zoo in Wuhan city, capital of Hubei, in June 2008 and have lived there since. They had now officially settled down in Wuhan, said Li Desheng, vice director of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan's Wolong nature reserve. Experts from th ...

More than 80 ships were delayed or had their trips canceled due to a severe snowstorm that has battered ports in east China's Shanghai since Tuesday. Strong winds blasted Shanghai on Monday and a snowstorm followed hitting Tuesday night, with snow turning into floating ice chunks in the sea, said the police at Yangshan Frontier Inspection Station at Yangshan port, Shanghai. The affected ships accounted for about 70 percent of the number of ships passing through Shanghai's ports daily. T ...

A stronger Chinese navy will not seek to build military bases overseas, a retired senior officer has said amid media reports that the country harbors such "ambitions". Zhang Deshun, who was till recently the deputy chief of staff of the PLA navy, said a naval force with advanced armaments and enhanced capabilities will contribute more to UN-led anti-terrorism, anti-piracy and disaster-relief missions. A larger navy with a greater reach does not mean it will seek to play the role of "world ...

Around 10 o'clock Wednesday morning, incense smoke enveloped the Drepung Temple in the holy city of Lhasa. Pilgrims, most in traditional Tibetan costumes and with prayer wheels, kowtowed along the streets outside. Inside the temple, lamas were chanting scriptures while pilgrims kowtowed in front of the statue of Buddha. One pilgrim sat in front of a lama, receiving blessings. Some Tibetan construction workers were also there, busy renovating a major hall in the temple. &$ ...

The 11th Panchen Lama, Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, promised to speak on behalf of the people as a political advisor to the Chinese government on Wednesday. He made his remarks during his first public speech at the ongoing annual session of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body. "As political advisors from the religious circle of the CPPCC, we should live up to the trust of the government and the people," h ...

Thirty-two-year-old Sun Ling is not a heavy smoker. But for 10 years, Sun, a civil servant in Shanghai and a father of a 5-year-old, has become used to indulging himself with one or two cigarettes after lunch at work. However, within one year he might have to find a new after-meal habit, and maybe a healthier one, too.. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which China signed in 2003 and ratified in 2005, the country will ban all t ...

China has selected its second batch of astronauts, including five men and two women, the first time women astronauts have joined the country's space mission. The two women astronauts, both pilots from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, might take part in manned docking of China's future space lab, said Zhang Jianqi, former deputy commander of the country's manned space program. "In the selection, we had almost the same requirements on women candidates as those for men, but the o ...

Yan Qi, who runs a booming restaurant chain in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality, was surprised to see her eatery's website, www.cn-taoranju.com, was attacked by hackers. That happened just days after Yan, also a member of the national advisory body, or the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), unveiled her proposal to the advisory body's annual session that all Internet cafes be run by the government, in order to effectively keep teen ...

A hostage was rescued Wednesday afternoon in Beijing and her kidnapper seized by the police, municipal police said. The suspect surnamed Zhang, who was in his twenties and claimed to have come from east China's Shandong Province, took a waitress hostage with an imitation gun in a spa club room in Beijing's Chaoyang District at 2:30 p.m., said a Beijing police spokesman Police took the suspect by surprise, safely rescuing the hostage at around 5:00 p.m. by breaking into the spa club room th ...

While many in the international community are watching with anxiety to see if Washington moves to repair its ties with Beijing, a reckless decision by an American city is rubbing salt into the unhealed wound of the world's most important bilateral relations. The city of Portland, Oregon, proclaimed Wednesday, March 10, their "Tibet Awareness Day" despite strong opposition from the Chinese government. While most people and most countries in the world recognize Tibet as part of Chin ...

A gas leak has resulted in a blast killing one person Wednesday in a residential building in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local authorities said. The person was rushed to hospital but died later, said Wushen Banner Government in a statement. The explosion happened in Galutu town, Wushen Banner. Surrounding houses were damaged in the blast, it said. Police are relocating the people affected. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

Regulating the "grey income", a new term that appeared in the government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao last week to the National People's Congress (NPC), has sparked heated debate among lawmakers. "We must outlaw illicit incomes and regulate grey incomes to gradually develop an open and transparent income distribution system", Wen said. The term "grey income" was coined in China after the country ushered in the reform and opening-up policy in 1978. It describes gains above o ...

Although the negative impact and the shadow of the March 14, 2008 riot in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, will always remain, it won't affect the region's development, the mayor of Lhasa told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. "We are prepared to face more disturbance and sabotage from the Dalai Lama clique but we won't let them disrupt the region's development," said Doje Cezhug, mayor of Lhasa. On March 14, 2008, under the planning and guidance of th ...

The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) announced Wednesday that it had allocated 4.23 billion yuan (620 million U.S. dollars) of donations to the country's quake-hit southwestern areas as of the end of last year. About 3.5 billion yuan of the donations was transferred to quake-hit regions of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Ningxia, Guizhou for relief and post-quake reconstruction. Another 180 million yuan was spent on emergency rescue missions and purchasing relief materials, a ...

Italy will be showcasing a temporary exhibition of 265 innovation projects at the Shanghai Expo to promote the country's technological excellences and know- how, officials said Wednesday. Italian Public Administration and Innovation Minister Renato Brunetta and government supervisor for the Shanghai Expo Beniamino Quintieri presented the initiative "The Italy of Innovators," which is set to feature at the Universal Exposition from July 24 to August 7. The Italian pavilion, dubbed "Man's Ci ...

Russia's China experts are positive on Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's appraisal of China-Russia ties, a Russia daily reported on Wednesday. On the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, Yang told a press conference that the Sino-Russia strategic partnership of coordination is a model of international relations, especially of relations between big powers. China-Russia relationship is mature, stable, healthy and full of vigor at th ...

Chile and Haiti will participate in the Shanghai World Expo, which opens on May 1, as scheduled though powerful earthquakes caused heavy casualties and damages in the two countries, a Chinese official said in Beijing Wednesday. "As far as I know, the earthquakes have not affected their plans to participate in the World Expo," Wan Jifei, executive director of the Shanghai World Expo Executive Committee, told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People's Poli ...

A Chinese legislative official said in Beijing Wednesday that the top lawmaking body would speed up legislation on "education and correction of illegal acts" this year in an effort to "reform and standardize" the country's reeducation through labor system. The draft law on education and correction of illegal acts is listed in this year's legislation plan, said Li Fei, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, while sp ...

&$ &$A villager shows the seedless wheet ear due to the severe drought in Panxian, southwest China's Guizhou Province, on March 10, 2010. A severe drought in southwest China, which local people say is the worst in a century, is forecast to linger till the start of the rainy season in May, according to two provincial meteorological stations. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)&$&$ &$ China mulls legislation of officials' personal asset declaration: lawmaker

A senior Chinese lawmaker said on Wednesday that legislation requiring public officials to declare their personal assets is under consideration and seen as a move to prevent corruption and improve government transparency. "We are researching the issue, since the legislation requires mature consideration of all conditions," said Li Fei, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National People' s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. Li noted that the legislation should be as ...

From the very beginning, people have sensed a strong "smell of gunpowder" in and out of this year's sessions of National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, as participants and the public have been involved in heated debates on some topics. On March 7, NPC deputy Lu Zushan, also governor of Zhejiang Province, questioned deputies from local education departments, demanding "I'm asking you, do you want to reform (on educatio ...

The 11th Panchen Lama, Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, promised to speak on behalf of the people as a political advisor to the Chinese government in Beijing Wednesday. He made his remarks during his first public speech at the ongoing annual session of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body. "As political advisors from the religious circle of the CPPCC, we should live up to the trust of the government and the people," ...

A Chinese lawmaker on Wednesday proposed naming peony as the national flower to fill what he called an embarrassing vacancy. Su Fugong, a deputy to the nation's top legislature, said more than 100 countries have named their own national flowers, which leaves China as an embarrassing exception. Naming peony as the national flower is an urgent issue, he said. Peony has become China's de facto national flower for many national and international occasions. It was also widely used at the 200 ...

China's Vice Agriculture Minister Wei Chao'an said Wednesday that it is a "bottom line" for China to produce an annual grain output of 500 billion kilograms. China needs this amount of grain to be self-sufficient, Wei told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual parliamentary session in Beijing. This year, grain consumption in China is estimated at more than 525 billion kilograms, he said, emphasizing that it has always been China's top priority to feed its large populati ...

Internet search giant Google expects an outcome "soon" from its talks with Chinese regulators over Internet regulation and an alleged hacking dispute, the company's chief executive Eric Schmidt said Wednesday. Google threatened in January to shut its operations in China, raising the eyebrows of many and causing the ire of Chinese Internet users for its arrogant attitude towards China's government. "I'm going to use the word 'soon', which I will not define otherwise," Schmidt told journalis ...

China's annual peak policy-making sessions have drawn attention from global mainstream media because of China's unique role, according to RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev. The annual sessions of the National People's Conference (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference began in Beijing last week. The most influential media across the world, particularly those of Europe and the United States, had been covering the two sessions ...

China's ongoing annual parliamentary plenary sessions has collected growing attention from overseas media and the draft amendments to electoral laws have topped their focus list. The centerpiece of the amendments seeks to grant equal representation to the country's legislatures at all levels, ensuring equal representation among people, regions and ethnic groups, said an article published on the U.S. web site of the Qiaobao newspaper. The article hailed the amendments as a way to eliminate ...

China has selected its second batch of astronauts, including five men and two women, the first time women astronauts have joined the country's space mission. The two women astronauts, both pilots from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, might take part in manned docking of China's future space lab, said Zhang Jianqi, former deputy commander of the country's manned space program. "In the selection, we had almost the same requirements on women candidates as those for men, but the ...

Chinese lawmakers lashed out at an annual speech delivered by the Dalai Lama Wednesday, saying no matter what new wording he used, his ultimate political attempt of sabotaging ethnic solidarity and splitting China has never changed. "He simply wants to continue to delude the whole world by inviting us Tibetan officials to visit their communities (in India's Dharamsala)," Padma Choling, the newly-elected chairman of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Regional Government, told Xinhua while atte ...

China's top legislature will review a draft revision to the Budget Law in August, which aims to improve the budgetary work and make government budgets more transparent to the public, a legislator said on Wednesday. Revising the Budget Law is an important part of the legislative work of the 11th national People's Congress (NPC), said Gao Qiang, vice chairman of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee and director of the NPC Standing Committee's Budgetary Affairs Commission, on the sid ...

&$ &$A villager shows the seedless wheet ear due to the severe drought in Panxian, southwest China's Guizhou Province, on March 10, 2010. A severe drought in southwest China, which local people say is the worst in a century, is forecast to linger till the start of the rainy season in May, according to two provincial meteorological stations. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)&$&$ &$&$Source: Xinhua&$&$ ...

President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders joined lawmakers Wednesday in discussions on the work report of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. &$ &$Chinese President Hu Jintao (R, front) joins a panel discussion with deputies to the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress from central China's Henan Province in Beijing, China, March 10, 2010. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)&$&$ In the ...

A Chinese legislature official said here Wednesday that the top lawmaking body was improving procedures of inquiries and interrogations of cabinet officials. Questioning ministerial officials face-to-face about government work is a concrete and important step for the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee to exercise supervision of the government, Li Fei, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, said on the sidelines of the annual ...

A senior Chinese official said on Wednesday that the government was confident of achieving the target to cut emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent from 2006 to 2010. Zhang Lijun, vice minister of environmental protection, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the top legislature. The ministry said emissions of sulfur dioxide reached 22.14 million tonnes in 2009, down 4.6 percent from a year ago. And that for ch ...

Developing countries are the biggest victims of climate change, Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said Wednesday. Xie, one of China's leading negotiators for climate change talks, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature. Developed countries are mainly responsible for the climate change, which is caused by increasing greenhouse gas emission i ...

China will release the development of its emission cutting action every two years, Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Wednesday. Xie, one of China's leading negotiators for climate change talks, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature. China announced in November it aimed to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross ...

Zhang Shiping, committee member of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), recently released a special survey of the income of workers, partly based upon analysis of the annual reports of listed enterprises. Statistics show that the average income of senior executives is nearly 18 times as much as the income of grassroots workers in 208 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and 20 percent of workers have not enjoyed a pay increase for 5 whole years. Zhang said that the ACFTU had conducted ...

Over-supply of labor in China's vast rural areas will continue now and for years to come, as China's migrant workers numbered about 230 million in 2009, Vice Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an said in Beijing Wednesday. Wei told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, that he saw contradictions between current reports about "labor shortage" in coastal cities and massive underemployment in rural areas. " ...

&$ &$The fourth plenary meeting of the Third Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2010. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)&$&$ A Chinese political advisor said Wednesday the government should communicate more with Internet users and make better use of the online platform to promote ...

The "new generation migrant workers" have become an inseparable part of urban cities. 89.3 percent of urban youngsters agree that a city would not operate efficiently without migrant workers, and those who disagree occupy only 6.4 percent, according to an online survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily as of 7 pm March 9. The term "new generation migrant worker" was coined in the 2010 Central Document No.1, and immediately aroused the interest of the media. "As I talk ...

&$&$ Breaking things to vent frustration is a normal phenomenon when people get upset, but usually such behavior would be stopped by others. Recently, a Shenyang shopping mall opened a special store for people to break all kinds of things to relieve pressure and bad mood for a minute in Shenyang. But beware! It's for women only! &$&$Real TV sets and cell phones&$&$ &$

China urges more efforts from U.S. to tackle climate change

The United States, as the world's largest developed nation, should exert more efforts to tackle climate change, Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said Beijing Wednesday. Xie, one of China's leading negotiators for climate change talks, made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

Chinese artist finishes 640 portraits of corrupt officers

&$ &$The portrait of Sun Shanwu (the ex-CPPCC Vice Chairman of Henan Province, bribery crime, stay of execution). Photo by HuaShang Newspaper.&$&$ It has been an entire year since Zhang Bingjin, a Chinese artist finished his studies in the U.S. and came back. Since then he started to draw portraits of Chinese corrupt officers. All the pictures have the same background color of 'Renminbi red' as well as a red seal. ...

Taiwan marks 19th anniversary of SEF

A tea party was held to celebrate the 19th anniversary of Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taipei, March 9. SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and Koo Yen Cho-yun, the widow of former SEF Chairman Koo Chen-fu, joined the celebration. In his speech, Chiang pointed out that the cross-Straits trade volume has developed from 8 billion U.S. dollars in 1991 when SEF was established to 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. There have been four rounds of consultations and 12 agreements have been signed wi ...

Private new-energy vehicle buyers to enjoy subsidies

Private new-energy vehicle buyers will be entitled to subsidies, said both the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) March 8 during the "2 Sessions." Zhang Shaochun, vice minister of the MOF, said that the specific amount of the subsidy is still under consideration. Li Yizhong, minister of the MIIT, disclosed that a low subsidy will serve no use, so the subsidy for per new-energy vehicle is likely to amount to thousands of yuan. In regards to ...

China never approves GM seed imports for commercial plantation: official

&$ &$A press conference on the development of China's agriculture and rural economy is held on the sidelines of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2010. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)&$&$ China's Vice Agriculture Minister Wei Chao'an said in Beijing Wednesday that his ministry had never approved the import of any genetically modified seeds for commercial plantation ...

Wild animal numbers in Hoh Xil continue recovery

Tibetan antelope along with other wild animals in the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve are now pregnant. The patrol team members of the Management Bureau of Wild Animal Protection in the reserve were in high spirits over the pregnancy of the Tibetan antelope, Tibetan wild donkeys, wild yaks, Tibetan gazelles and other female animals, which are all in good condition. Wild animal numbers will continue to recover in 2010. The reserve's 2010 winter "Operation Hurricane" launched January 1 successfully conc ...

CBRC chairman: inflation beyond moderate level unlikely

Chairman Liu Mingkang of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) recently held an exclusive interview with Xinhua news agency, talking about hot issues in the banking sector this year. Q: 2009 is the most difficult year for China's economy in the new century, and 2010 is seen as the most complex and uncertain year, what initiatives are the CBRC considering in 2010? A: In 2009, China's banking sector's performance was very good, new yuan loans amounted to 9.59 trillion yuan, almost 3 ...

Can you do like she does?

&$ &$A 93-year-old woman does the splits at her house in Changzhi, a city in Shanxi province, on March 9. She stays healthy by exercising regularly every morning. [Photo/CFP]&$&$ &$ 【1】 【2】 【3】

Three killed, about 20 missing in NW China landslide

At least three people are dead and about 20 are missing after a landslide buried more than 10 homes in northwest China's Shaanxi Province Wednesday, local authority said. The landslide occurred at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in Zizhou county of Yulin city. As of 10:40 a.m., a total of 20 buried villagers were rescued. Ten injured were rushed to hospital, and three died there. Rescue efforts are continuing. &$&$Source:Xinhua&$&$ ...

Cowpeas from S China tested safe after pesticide scandal: official

A cover-all monitoring and testing network has been established to ensure all the cowpeas shipped to the inland from south China's island province of Hainan are safe, a senior agricultural official said Wednesday after a pesticide scandal triggered worries. All the cowpea wholesalers are now put under the monitoring network to ensure no unchecked or tainted cowpeas are sold to the inland, said Vice Agriculture Minister Wei Chaoan. The government's measures to improve food safety have taken ...

Severe drought in SW China regions likely to linger till May

&$ &$Villagers drive mule down the mountain to fetch water in Huize County of Qujing City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, on March 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Qin Qing)&$&$ A severe drought in southwest China, which local people say is the worst in a century, is forecast to linger and extend till the start of the rainy season in May, according to two provincial meteorological stations. The meteorological stations in Y ...

Political advisor slashes empty talks among officials

A political advisor on Wednesday slashed empty talks among some government and Party officials, saying these officials care more about their own careers than the interests of the people. "Stereotyped meetings and red tapes are full of cliches, nonsense, empty talks, political jargons, and lies," said Zhu Zhenzhong, chairman of the Guangzhou municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Some officials only care about how to impress their superiors in ...

Man wanted for shooting dead one policeman in NW China city

Lanzhou police in northwest China's Gansu Province on Wednesday offered a reward of 100,000 yuan (14,600 U.S. dollars) for a man who shot dead a policeman. The suspect has been identified as Fu Xiaolin, a vegetable wholesaler from the outskirts of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. He sold vegetable at a wholesale market in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu. Police said Fu fired at the policeman Dou Yong with a handgun and fled. Dou was among a group of policeman sent to inve ...

1st batch of C919 still adopt imported engines

The aircraft engine issue is always the bottleneck of China's aviation manufacturing industry and large China-made aircraft which will be launched in 2016 will adopt imported CFM engines, but will adopt China-made engines in the future, said Yi Zeyong, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and an aircraft engine expert, March 9 to the Netease Money website. Yi said that there is no question that China's f ...

CNOOC and Sinochem win bid for Iraqi oilfield

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Iraqi officials said that a consortium led by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is expected to win the bid for Missan oilfields in southern Iraq. The consortium had accepted the price offered by the government of Iraq. The oilfield has reserves of about 2.5 billion barrels. An Iraqi official said, the Iraqi Oil Ministry has ended negotiations with CNOOC and its partner Sinochem International Co., Ltd. on matters relating to development ...

Two years after riots, Lhasa regains some vitality

Nyima Tashi escorted his third foreign tour group of the year to the Potala Palace early in the morning. The five American tourists stood out in the crowd of pilgrims along the stairs leading to the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, perched atop a craggy hill in the heart of Tibet's capital Lhasa. In fluent English, Nyima Tashi explained to the tourists the legendary structure, its functions and history. He is one of the 500 English-speaking tour guides in the plateau region. Barbara ...

Official: modifying electoral law to promote democracy in Tibet

"Modifying the electoral law not only shares the consistent with characteristics of current times, but also promotes the social harmony, equity and justice and speeds up the urbanization process," Pasang Dondrup, CPPCC National Committee member and vice-chairman of the CPPCC Tibet Regional Committee said on the panel discussion of 3rd session of 11th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing. The draft to provide for the urban and rural deputies elected by the same proportion of the population high ...

"Brother Sharp" returns home

&$ &$''Brother Sharp'', dubbed the "most handsome" vagabond for his astute sense of style, holds an umbrella for his mother in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, after receiving a psychological consultation last Saturday.(Zhang Jianpei / China Daily)&$&$ A mentally unstable homeless man who turned into an Internet sensation overnight after his photographs were posted online has returned to his family. Known as "Brother ...

Chinese student breaching security at U.S. Newark Airport accepts sentence

&$ &$Jiang Haisong, a Chinese student of the Rutgers University who breached security to give a farewell kiss to his girlfriend at the Newark Liberty International Airport on Jan. 3, receives interviews from reporters outside a Newark court, New Jersey, the United States, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua/Wu Kaixiang)&$&$ Chinese student Jiang Haisong, who breached security in January at Newark Liberty International Airport, ...

Dalai Lama's representative arrested in Nepal

The Dalai Clique's attempt to attract attention by stirring up trouble March 10 has been curbed by the Nepal government, according to a report by Global Times March 9. March 10, 1959 was the date on which the Dalai Clique launched a revolt in Tibet, but Tibetans in exile and their supporters, western media agencies, prefer to call it "uprising day." Over the past several years, some Tibetans in exile have surrounded China's embassies in European countries and the U.S. to protest on this sensi ...

Earthquake experts calm nerves on the mainland

&$ &$Students at the Experimental High School in Zouping county, Shandong province, take cover under their desks during an earthquake drill on Tuesday.[Dong Naide/For China Daily]&$&$ Seismic activity on the Chinese mainland will remain at an average level despite a recent spate of disastrous earthquakes worldwide, the China Earthquake Administration said. So far this year, the mainland has been hit with four e ...

Joint efforts against water pollution

&$ &$Fish are released into Taihu Lake close to Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, to cultivate local fishery resources and purify the lake water. [Su Min / For China Daily] &$&$ Authorities in the Yangtze River Delta are calling for cross-region environmental legislation to achieve better water quality in Taihu Lake, China's third-largest freshwater lake, that has been plagued by pollution for years. Legis ...

Interview: AU official hails China-African cooperation

A senior African Union (AU) official on Tuesday hailed the friendly cooperation between China and Africa while dismissing the comment made by some western countries that China's sole aim in Africa is to get resources. In an exclusive interview with Xinhua in the AU headquarter, John Kayode Shinkaiye, Chief of Staff of Bureau of the Chairman, said that Africa do not hold the same view that China's main purpose in Africa is for resources because "we know that China has been a great friend of Af ...

China legislature session open to Danish parliament delegation

&$ &$ Danish delegation attends the third plenary session of the National People's Congress as observers at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. (Feng Yongbin / China Daily)&$&$ China's on-going session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, was open to more than 10 members of the Danish Parliament Education Committee on Tuesday. The delegation went to the Great Hall of the ...

Chinese president bids farewell to famous educator

Chinese President Hu Jintao Tuesday paid his final respects to renowned educator and social activist Sun Qimeng as his body was taken away to be cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing. &$ &$Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with a relative of renowned Chinese educator and social activist Sun Qimeng at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2010. Sun died in ...

China, India give nod to climate deal

China joined India Tuesday in giving qualified approval to the Copenhagen climate accord which calls for voluntary limits on the greenhouse gas emissions. A one-sentence note from China's top climate change negotiator, Su Wei, authorized the addition of China to the list. More than 100 countries had earlier replied to a query by Denmark whether they wanted to be "associated" with the accord. India also sent a note Monday saying that it "stands by the contents of the accord." The Copenha ...

CPPCC memmber: Beware of English invasion

&$&$Preventive measures needed to preserve purity of Chinese&$&$ BEIJING: With more and more publications mixing Chinese with English, measures and regulations should be adopted to avoid English invading Chinese, suggested Huang Youyi, director of the China International Publishing Group. "If we don't pay attention and don't take measures to stop the expansion of mingling Chinese and English, Chinese won't be a pure language in a couple of years," said Huang, who is also a member o ...

British foreign secretary to visit China next week

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will pay a visit to China next week on bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang Tuesday. Miliband is due to visit China from March 14 to 17 as a guest of his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, said Qin at a regular news briefing. Qin said Miliband is expected to meet with the Chinese leader and hold talks with Yang during his visit, which will also take him to China's financial hub Shanghai. "The ...

China stresses diplomatic effort in Iran nuclear issue

China reaffirmed on Tuesday that dialogue and consultation were the best method of resolving the Iran nuclear issue and should not be abandoned lightly. "There is still room for diplomatic moves," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference. He said China had always advocated resolving the issue through peaceful means, which was in the interests of all parties. "China has played a responsible role on the Iran nuclear issue and will continue to keep in touch wi ...

China, Canada kick off celebrations of 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties

&$ &$Chinese Ambassador to Canada Lan Lijun (C) and President of the Treasury Board of Canada and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway Stockwell Day (R) cut the ribbon for an exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the Sino-Canadian relation ties in Ottawa, capital of Canada, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua)&$&$ China and Canada have officially kicked off a series of celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the establi ...

100 mln USD spent on Xinjiang blizzards relief work

A total of 690 million yuan (101 million U.S. dollars) has been used to cushion the impact of the blizzards that have hit China's northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region since last December, the regional government said Tuesday. The money was from central and local fiscal and donations. A total of 38,700 tonnes of coal and 40,000 winter coats were also distributed to the affected population, said Qian Zhi, deputy chairman of Xinjiang government Freezing weather and heavy snowstorms have l ...

Mental illnesses among the young rising

The mental health of China's youngsters is on the decline, with 60 percent of college students feeling isolated and 80 percent feeling injustice and subdued, according to a national survey. Those inflicted students often find their expression through irregular behavior, skipping classes, autism and rebellion, and have also led to psychological problems like Internet addiction and even suicide, the Bejing-based China Daily quoted the China Population Communication Center as saying. "The cur ...

Cabinet officials to face inquiries

Legislature seeks to increase oversight of government Beijing: China's top legislature will demand State Council officials to attend its regular legislative sessions to face inquiries and interrogations from legislators, a move to improve supervision of the central government. "Inquiries and interrogations are legal means by which people's congresses oversee governments, courts and procuratorates," Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said ...

UN official praises China's achievements in promoting gender equality

The chief of the United Nations (UN) Theme Group on Gender Abhimanyu Singh here on Tuesday praised China's efforts and achievements in promoting gender equality. Addressed a media conference for a UN regional human development report, Singh said China is on track to achieve the specific millennium development goals (MDGs) on gender equality. The report, titled Power, Voice and Rights--a Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific, identified three key areas where policy inter ...

DPRK nationals in Russia seek asylum

Two lumberjacks of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) working in Russia's Far East on Tuesday asked for political asylum at a South Korean consulate, Russian news agencies reported. The two workers climbed over a wall of the South Korean consulate in the city of Vladivostok and requested political asylum, unidentified diplomatic sources were quoted as saying. The South Korean consulate has so far declined to comment on the report. Several hundred of DPRK citizens are curre ...

Labor unions help relieve employment pressures during crisis

Chinese labor unions have made great contributions to ease the country's employment pressures during the global economic crisis, a senior trade union official said Tuesday. Efforts have been made to protect employees and avoid massive lay-offs since the worst global financial crisis in decades hit China, according to Zhang Mingqi, vice chairman of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). He made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress ...

Severe drought hits Guizhou, no tap water for 50 days

&$ &$Wang Fu, a villager of Ketuo Village, unloads water that he transported from 5 kilometers away, in Puding County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, March 9, 2010. The villagers here had no tap water for 50 days because of severe drought. The scope and intensity of the drought in Guizhou since last July broke the record of the extreme weather in history. (Xinhua/Yang Ying)&$&$ &$

China's economy issue tops Congress meeting agenda

The year 2009 has witnessed China's economic success against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. With the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, the Chinese economy is under intense scrutiny these days, both from domestic and overseas economists. Despite the achievements, China still faces daunting challenges in the coming months, and this year's NPC meeting may prove to be more substantive than past ones, said a foreign expert. ...

Official urges more reforms for China's income distribution to narrow income gap

&$ &$A press conference on the function of Chinese trade unions during the transformation of the pattern of economic development is held on the sidelines of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress in Beijing, China, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua/Yuan Man)&$&$ A senior official said on Tuesday that the Chinese government should exert more effort to reform the income distribution mechanism and bridge th ...

Chinese president appoints new ambassadors

Chinese President Hu Jintao has formally appointed five new ambassadors to foreign countries, according to a statement from the Standing Committee of National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Tuesday. Hu made the appointments in line with decisions made by the NPC Standing Committee. Liu Hongcai, former deputy head of International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, was appointed ambassador to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D ...

British foreign secretary to visit China next week

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will pay a visit to China next week on bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang Tuesday. Miliband is due to visit China from March 14 to 17 as a guest of his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, said Qin at a regular news briefing. Qin said Miliband is expected to meet with the Chinese leader and hold talks with Yang during his visit, which will also take him to China's financial hub Shanghai. "Th ...

Two years after riots, Lhasa regains some vitality

Nyima Tashi escorted his third foreign tour group of the year to the Potala Palace early in the morning. The five American tourists stood out in the crowd of pilgrims along the stairs leading to the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, perched atop a craggy hill in the heart of Tibet's capital Lhasa. In fluent English, Nyima Tashi explained to the tourists the legendary structure, its functions and history. He is one of the 500 English-speaking tour guides in the plateau region. Barbara M ...

China stresses diplomatic effort in Iran nuclear issue

China reaffirmed on Tuesday that dialogue and consultation were the best method of resolving the Iran nuclear issue and should not be abandoned lightly. "There is still room for diplomatic moves," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference. He said China had always advocated resolving the issue through peaceful means, which was in the interests of all parties. "China has played a responsible role on the Iran nuclear issue and will continue to keep in touch w ...

Farmer lawmaker pushes for green ideas in more eco-aware China

Compared with some colleagues' motions on important state affairs, Chen Fei, a 55-year-old farmer lawmaker, came to the annual legislative session with a proposal on how an ID card can be eco-friendly. "An ID card has information on both sides. When you want to photocopy it, you have to use the photocopy machine twice," he said. He handed in a proposal that all key information should be printed on only one side of the card during the annual full session of the National People's Congress, t ...

Hailstorm hits east China, damages ancient town

Hail and heavy rains in the north of east China's Fujian Province from Friday to Monday affected more than 300,000 people and more than 15,000 hectares of crops, local government sources said Tuesday. The extreme weather has killed two people and injured 51. One town with a history of 1,000 years reported damage to its ancient structures. According to local government sources, the hail and heavy rain affected 227,100 people and 12,000 hectares of farmland in Nanping city, with 99,300 build ...

Number of occupational diseases in China is some 100 thousand

The number of occupational disease cases stood at 100,000 or so, said Zhang Mingqi, deputy president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) Tuesday. In recent years occupational diseases displayed the following features in China. First, the number is large, about 100,000; Second, there is a short interval from workers' exposure to toxic and hazardous jobs to suffering from disease, said Zhang Minqi. The rate of occupational disease has been on the rise since 2005. More worker ...

Online travel booking users exceeds 30 million in China

China's online travel booking users in 2009 reached 30.24 million, increasing 77.9 percent from the previous year, according to a report released recently by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Ctrip, the one-stop China travel service, also says its number of members has reached 30 million. Online travel booking in 2009 saw rapid development and has become a highlight of the tourism market. According to statistics released by the CNNIC, online travel booking users in 2009 in ...

China's top legislature to step up oversight of work on economy, people's well-being

&$ &$Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), delivers a work report of the Standing Committee of the NPC during the third plenary meeting of the Third Session of the 11th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) &$&$ China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said Tuesday that the National People's Congress (NPC), the t ...

China's top legislature to step up oversight of work on economy, people's well-being

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said Tuesday that the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, would improve oversight of economic work and the handling of issues affecting people's well-being in 2010. The NPC Standing Committee needs to carry out oversight of economic work focusing on accelerating the transformation of the economic development pattern and improving and upgrading the industrial structure, said Wu, chairman of the committee, in a work report delivered at the on ...

Top legislator: China to ensure socialist legal system shaped this year

&$ &$Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), delivers a work report of the Standing Committee of the NPC during the third plenary meeting of the Third Session of the 11th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)&$&$ China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said Tuesday that the top legislature would ensure the goal o ...

Celebrants warned of fire risks ahead of China's Tomb-Sweeping Day

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs Tuesday warned of fire risks on the upcoming Tomb-Sweeping Day, especially in southwestern provinces where severe drought has hit millions of hectares of farmland. Dou Yupei, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, said the country faced "severe challenges" in fire prevention in those regions and urged local civil affairs bureaus to step up cooperation with publicity departments, the police and firefighting agencies to work out plans for emergencies. It is a tradi ...

Public donations channeled to China's 2008 quake zone: ministry

Donations exceeding 5 billion yuan (732 million U.S. dollars) have been allocated to reconstruction in the area hit by the 8-magnitude May 12 earthquake of 2008, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced Tuesday. The ministry had received quake-relief donations of 5.06 billion yuan by Oct. 31, 2009, all of which has been channeled into the southwest China quake zone, said a statement on the ministry's website. More than 4.5 billion yuan had been channeled to the governments of quake-hit prov ...

Yangtze delta dredging program to be completed this month

China's costliest water transport project, a shipping channel dredging program to boost trade in the Yangtze River Delta area, is due to be completed in the middle of this month, a senior official with the Ministry of Transport said Tuesday. The 12-year program, with a total cost of 15 billion yuan (2.42 billion U.S. dollars), involved a 92.2-km-long, 300-meter-wide shipping channel. The channel starts at Waigaoqiao, in Shanghai, and ends where the Yangtze River enters the East China Sea. ...

Highlights of NPC Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo's work report

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo delivered a report on the work of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Tuesday afternoon to the parliament's annual session. Following are the highlights of Wu's report: &$ &$Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), delivers a work report of the Standing Committee of the NPC during the third plenary meeting ...

All Shanghai Expo projects nearly finished, Expo Village completed

Counting from March 8, there are only 54 days before the opening ceremony of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Currently, all Expo projects are wrapping up. The pavilion construction tasks headed by their respective hosts will be completed by the end of March. As of now, 95 percent of the Expo projects headed by the organizer have been completed. The Expo Cultural Center, which was the last project of the "1 axis and 4 pavilions" to start construction, has been completed and is being decorate ...

China's top legislator delivers NPC Standing Committee work report

Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo is delivering a work report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), or the top legislative body, at the third session of the 11th NPC Tuesday afternoon. Chinese leaders Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang attended the third plenary meeting of the 10-day session with nearly 3,000 lawmakers in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing. &$&$Source:Xinhua& ...

Chinese couples seven-year itch

On Mar. 8, People's Court of Haidian district, Beijing, released a survey result about Chinese couples' marital problems. According to the statistics, divorce cases accepted by this court in last year increased exponentially, and couples married for 6 to 8 years are more likely to divorce. &$&$Couples married 6-8 years have highest divorce rate &$&$ According to the survey, the court accepted 1,585 divorce cases in 2008, and 3,020 in 2009, an increase of 90.5 percent year-on-year. B ...

Political advisor seeks louder "China Voice" on line

China should use the Internet as an important platform of diplomacy to boost the country's online voice and lift its international image, a political advisor said Tuesday. Wang Xianpeng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks on the sidelines of the top political advisory body's annual session. "The importance of the Internet has been on the increase to influence international opinions and compete for greater s ...

Tibet drawing up plan for development in next 5 years 　

A plan for the development in Tibet Autonomous Region, southwestern China, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) is now in the pipeline, said a senior official of Tibet in Beijing. "The 5th National Work Conference on Tibet has brought a glimmer of new hope to Tibet," said Padma Choling, deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) National Committee and also chairman of the Tibet Regional Government. "Tourism, Tibetan medicines, mineral products and farm and live ...

70,000 in Yunnan's Tibetan area lifted out of poverty

&$ &$Photo shows a Tibetan woman talking to her cell phone in Shangri-la County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Xinhua Photo)&$&$ To date, 70,000 people in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, have been lifted out of poverty. The prefectural government has improved the poor people's livelihood by accelerating rural infrastruc ...

China's gold reserve ranks fifth in the world

China's gold reserve amounts to 1,054 tons, ranking fifth in the world, said Yi Gang, central bank vice governor on Tuesday. China is the largest gold producer in the world, with a more than 300 tons of gold produced annually. China is also a world's second largest gold consumer, with a consumption of over 400 tons of gold a year, second only to India. It is conservatively estimated that there are far more than 3000 tons of gold accumulated among Chinese people. &$&$By People's Dai ...

Official: Overseas hot money is flowing to China

&$ &$Yi Gang&$&$ Global speculative hot money is slipping into China, disguised as foreign direct investment, and the country's foreign exchange reserves are currently"diversified at an appropriate level", said the chief regulator of China's foreign exchange Tuesday. Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a news conference in Beijing that China's currency, the yuan or RMB, faces ...

"NPC & CPPCC sessions" a major event in China's politics, ambassadors

March is often thought to be China's political month as law makers and political advisers from overall the country gather in Beijing to discuss ways to solve the prominent social and economic problems and draw new plans for 2010. Ambassadors and diplomatic envoys to China expressed their strong interest in this year's sessions. In their words, NPC deputies and CPPCC members represented broader sections of the Chinese people, and the annual sessions were a major political event in China. & ...

China's fastest super computer to have China-made chips

China's fastest super computer "Tianhe-1," ("Tianhe" meaning Milky Way), is to be equipped this year with China-made central processing unit (CPU) chips, replacing the only part of the computer that is currently imported. Zhang Yulin, president of the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) which developed the computer, told Xinhua Monday that the chips, also developed by the NUDT, are customized for this super computer. "The new CPUs will greatly raise the peak speed and computin ...

Int'l scientists to launch environmental studies on "Third Pole"

International scientists are preparing to launch a joint study on the environment of the "Third Pole" region centered on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and neighboring areas, a Chinese scientist said Monday. Like the South and North Poles, environmental changes in the "Third Pole" has attracted increasing worldwide attention against the backdrop of concerns over global climate change, said Yao Tandong, director of the Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

Political advisor renews calls for rating China's film animations

China should work out a rating system for its animation products "as soon as possible" to protect children from exposure to pornography and excessive sex and violence, a political advisor said in Beijing Tuesday. Zhu Yilong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the proposal on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the top political advisory body. Zhu said the current problems in China's animation industry were the lack o ...

Chinese students in South Korea hold forum on Tibet's development

The representatives of the Chinese students and teachers in South Korea held a forum on Tibet's development in Seoul on Saturday. Attending were 150 people including Xing Haiming, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, and Ai Hongge, counselor of education of the Chinese Embassy in South Korea.　 Addressing the forum, Xing Haiming said that Tibet in southwest China has been part of China since ancient times and that Great achievements have been made in Tibet's moderniz ...

Detention centers to open to public

BEIJING - With a rising level of public supervision, China's top police department will make more effort to rid the detention houses under its power of a daunting public profile, reported the China Youth Daily on Monday, quoting an official in direct charge. The official made the remark as security issues for detention centers holding criminal suspects has aroused enormous public concern in the wake of an inmate's unnatural death early last year. Authorities will increase the transparenc ...

Women should cherish their lives: Scholar

BEIJING - If a woman's happiness index includes the four areas of work, marriage, children and parents, few can be happier than Chen Yunying. In addition to academic achievement, she has been blessed with a happy marriage to a powerful man as well as children. Yet few women probably also share her sorrow over political barriers preventing her from seeing her elderly mother in Taiwan as often as she would like. After graduating in 1987 with a doctorate in education from George Washington ...

Voices from the sessions

"It will be difficult to tackle property requisition with a regulation. To move the legal procedure forward, we will need the NPC to pass a law on it. We should not define public interest too strictly, otherwise it may not be able to meet the challenges brought by future development. More attention should be paid to the rules about compensating homeowners." Wang Liming Member of the NPC law committee and vice-president of Renmin University of China "In the process of urbanization, we ...

Microblogging carries the sessions to the Internet

He Shuifa, a member of the country's top political advisory body, finds a quiet spot outside of meeting rooms whenever he can. At this year's CPPCC sessions, He keeps himself busy sending short messages to online readers through his mobile phone. "We discussed the speech delivered by Jia Qinglin and members in my group enthusiastically raised the issues that concerned them," He, from Zhejiang province, wrote about the CPPCC National Committee chairman's speech. He, 46, is one of a growi ...

Pressure blamed for official suicide in SW China

Work pressure was to be blamed for the suicide of a county official in southwest China's Yunnan Province, local authorities said on Monday. Li Jianrong, 36, was head of Lufeng County's water conservation bureau, when he jumped off from his sixth floor office at 6:25 p.m. on March 3. He died after first aid treatment. Li killed himself for being over-stressed with drought and quake relief work. No evidence of murder was found, according to a statement by a joint investigation team of local ...

Chinese lawmaker proposes single system to protect people's equal rights to vote

A Chinese lawmaker proposed Monday the establishment of a single system that includes all basic information about every individual, as China acted to amend its electoral law to protect people's right to vote. Wu Xiaoling, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, made the proposal at a panel deliberation of the draft amendment to the Electoral Law, which was tabled at the ongoing NPC annual session for a third reading Monday. The amendments seek to grant eq ...

Obesity competition to celebrate Women's Day

&$ &$Participants attend an obesity competition for female to celebrate the International Women's Day at a shopping mall in Shenyang, Liaoning province March 8, 2010. Monday marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. [China Daily/Agencies]&$&$ &$ 【1】 【2】

China promises speedy visa processing, more hotel rooms for Shanghai Expo

&$ &$Zhou Hanmin, member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), speaks during a news conference held by the Third Session of the 11th National Committee of the CPPCC on the 2010 Shanghai World Expo in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2010. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)&$&$ China will provide speedy visa processing for visitors to the upcoming World Expo, as wel ...

China plans to tighten demolition guidelines

BEIJING: Forced urban housing demolition, which caused several deaths and injuries last year and snowballed into a major controversy, will be strictly supervised thanks to a proposal to better protect the rights of property owners, a senior official has said. But forced relocation will be used if necessary so that the self-interests of a handful of people will not hurt the interests of the majority, said Zhang Qiong, deputy director of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office. Zhang, a ...

Li Yizhong: Google must obey China laws to stay

&$ &$Li Yizhong&$&$ Global Internet giant Google must obey Chinese laws if it still wishes to continue to operate in the country, a senior government official said. Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, told reporters Monday in Beijing on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress, or parliamentary session. "If Google still plans to continue its operations in China, it mu ...

Recent frequency of earthquakes within normal scope: Chinese seismologists

The recent number of earthquakes above 7-magnitude in 2010, though slightly more than average, was still within normal scope, said the China Earthquake Administration Monday. The administration cited that the frequency of the quakes were uneven. "It is a normal phenomenan of earth movement," it said. Some panicked netizens linked the recent spate of earthquakes to Doomsday Day as depicted by Hollywood disaster film "2012" shown in 2009. China is an earthquake-prone country, witnessing a ...

Chinese troupe performs in Toronto

&$ &$Chinese dancers of a troupe on a tour of North America perform at the Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, on March 7, 2010. A dazzling performance was staged by the Chinese troupe to celebrate the Spring Festival and show Americans the appealing power of Chinese culture. (Xinhua/Zou Zheng)&$&$ &$ 【1】 China supports nuclear power development in orderly way: official

Nuclear power should be developed with due regulations and in an orderly way thanks to its strict requirement for human resources, technology, security and quality, a Chinese official said Monday in Paris at the international conference on civilian use of nuclear energy. Nuclear power, a clean, safe and economic energy, "plays an important role in energy conservation, environment protection and the strive to cope with climate change," Deputy Director of China' s National Energy Administration ...

Chinese leaders underlines scientific development, stability

&$ &$Chinese President Hu Jintao talks with deputies to the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) from Tianjin Municipality, in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2010. (Xinhua)&$&$ Chinese President Hu Jintao urged scientific development of the Binhai New Area, an economic powerhouse in north China, when joining a panel discussion with lawmakers from Tianjin Municipality. It is urgent to ...

Hostesses for World Expo start trainning session

&$ &$Girls stand in line during the opening ceremony of a training camp in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, March 8, 2010. Nearly 300 girls from across China began a 2-month trainning session Monday in Hangzhou and Shanghai in preparation for their work as hostesses during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)&$&$ &$

Chinese President stresses scientific development of N China economic powerhouse

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday urged scientific development of Tianjin Binhai New Area, an economic powerhouse in north China, when joining a panel discussion with deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) from Tianjin Municipality. Hu said it was urgent to accelerate the transformation of economic development pattern and promote growth led by innovation and driven by internal impetus. Lying between Beijing and the Bohai Gulf, the Binhai New Area, with a population of 1.4 mil ...

Banker: Talk of giving up on dollar is nonsense

Any speculation that China might stop supporting the U.S. dollar in the next few years is "absolute nonsense", a top government banker said. Li Ruogu, chairman of Export-Import Bank of China, a lender tasked with supporting the country's foreign investments, said in a group interview in Beijing Sunday that a collapse in the dollar's value would damage Chinese interests. China should focus instead on trying to stabilize the dollar and on preserving its status as the leading global currency, ...

Toyota cuts prices in China

"Price can be discussed, and now you do not have to queue up, there are cars available now," a FAW Toyota sales consultant in Shanghai told First Financial Daily reporter on March 7, 2010. On the same day a FAW Toyota dealer in Beijing claimed that they can reduce the price by 8,000 yuan if you buy RAV4 from their store. Consumers can still clearly remember that, just over two months ago, if you wanted to get a RAV4 in time, you must pay an additional 6,000 to 10,000 yuan otherwise you mus ...

Rice on the menu at Shanghai KFC

After the successive introduction of porridge, fried dough sticks, and sesame seed cakes, the global fast-food giant KFC is speeding up their efforts of "going local" in the Chinese market. Kentucky Fried Chicken is introducing two new rice recipes in eight restaurants in Shanghai. If the sales go well, KFC may start selling rice across the country. It is understood that these two new dished on the KFC menu are "Bacon Mushroom Chicken Rice" and "Ingenious Spicy Chicken Rice". Comparatively sp ...

China's parliament starts reading draft amendment to electoral law

&$ &$The second plenary meeting of the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2010. Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, made an explanation of a draft amendment to the Electoral Law, which provides legal guarantees for elections of deputies to people's congresses, during the meeting on Monday. (Xinhua/Li ...

Int'l media keep close watch on China's economic development plans

Overseas media have been paying great attention to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report on sustaining a healthy and rapid economic development in 2010. Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said in an editorial that people can see from Wen's report that China is aiming to promote a sustainable economic development and protect social fairness and justice in the new year. China is pursuing an economic transformation from the original export and investment-driven economy to a domesti ...

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