Saturday, September 20, 2008

Chinese President urges CPC members to learn from latest security incidents

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday urged all the members of the Communist Party of China to put people's interests first and learn the bitter lessons from the latest security incidents.

Addressing the opening ceremony of a seminar for the country's ministerial-level leaders in Beijing, Hu, also the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said that the major accidents on work and food safety which occurred in some places of the country this year had incurred severe losses of people's lives and property.

These accidents had indicated that some leaders lacked a sense of responsibility and had a loose governance, he said.

These accidents also showed some of the leaders paid no attention to people's problems and complaints and were insensitiveto the problems which threats people's life security, said Hu.

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday addresses the opening ceremony of a seminar for the country's ministerial-level leaders in Beijing.
He urged all the leaders to fully understand the serious consequences of the accidents and learn the bitter lessons from the accidents.

Those accidents reminded us once again that only by solving the problems emerged from the Party leaders ... and putting people's interests first, could the Party better lead the people towards the building of a well-off society, Hu said.

The President also urged more efforts from the leaders to realize and safeguard the fundamental interests of the people.

Leaders should strive hard to do practical and good things for the people and ensure that people benefits from the country's developing economy, he noted.

More efforts should be made to mobilize people to be involved in the cause of the country's scientific development, and leaders should collect people's ideas and listen to their opinions in the process, he said.

Source:Xinhua

China's Cabinet urges efforts to save babies stricken with tainted milk powder

China's State Council, or Cabinet, on Friday urges all-out efforts to save babies stricken with tainted baby milk powder, orders to check all dairy products and rectify the dairy industry in an all-round manner.

Medical authorities should provide free examination and treatment for infants who have developed kidney stones after drinking tainted milk, and screening efforts should be beefed up in the countryside and remote areas, according to a circular issued by the State Council.

The medical expenses would be temporarily covered by local finance, and later be compensated by the enterprises which were found responsible, read the circular.

The circular also ordered quality supervision authorities to have an all-round check on the dairy products and asked enterprises to recall all the tainted products.

"Local authorities should rectify the dairy industry so as to bring a fundamental change to the dairy market and products." it said.

The State Council then urged efforts to ensure sufficient domestic milk supply and vowed to punish enterprises, monitoring departments and government leaders held accountable for the scandal.

Baby formula tainted with the chemical melamine, which makes the protein content of the milk appearing higher than it actually is, has so far killed four babies and left more than 6,200 infants to develop kidney stones.

Dairy giant Sanlu based in the northern Hebei provincial capital of Shijiazhuang was the first company exposed in the scandal.

Source:Xinhua

Euro-China Forum ends with calls for further dialogue

The Seventh Euro-China Forum ended Friday in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, as participants called for further dialogue and cooperation between China and Europe.

In the three-day forum entitled "Silk Road of the 21st century," nearly 200 politicians, academicians, economists from Europe and Asia discussed Sino-Europe relations and economic cooperation.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said China has made great achievements in its economic development and "Ukraine is willing to learn China's successful experiences and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China."

China has just successfully hosted the 2008 Olympic Games and its scale and level was impressive, the president said in a message to the forum.

Addressing the forum, former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said that apart from economic cooperation, the Europeans and Chinese should enhance their cultural exchanges to know each other even better.

"The economic and trade relations is the core of the Europe- China cooperation. We, Europeans and Chinese, should seize every opportunity to smoothen out potential frictions and to bridge the gap between the intensification of our commercial relationship and the weakness of our intellectual exchanges. In this respect, the Euro-China Forum plays a crucial part. And its influence keeps growing." he said.

Fabius also noted that Europe in the past called China "a sleeping giant" and the giant is now waking up.

"The success of the Beijing Olympic Games showed China's vigor and enthusiasm," he said.

Chinese ambassador to Ukraine Zhou Li said that Ukraine is an important country in Europe and the Chinese government attaches great importance to developing relations with Ukraine and Europe.

The bilateral economic and trade relations between China and Ukraine have developed steadily in recent years, he said.

"I believe the friendly cooperative relations between China and Ukraine will see a more brilliant future thanks to bilateral joint efforts," Zhou Li said.

The non-governmental forum was initiated by China Europe International Business School to foster unofficial exchanges between the two sides of the Eurasian continent. The forum was first held in 2002 in Barcelona, Spain.

Source:Xinhua

Official: Sino-Bangladesh relations boosted through Bangladesh gov't head's visit

The recent visit of Chief Adviser of the Bangladesh caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed to China has boosted bilateral ties between the two friendly countries, a senior official said here on Friday.

The Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury of the government said this Friday in a press statement of the foreign ministry.

He said the chief adviser held official talks with China's President Hu Jintao, Vice President Xi Jinping, and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The discussions underscored the fact that Bangladesh-China relations were "time-tested" and "all-weather," and that they symbolized a "comprehensive partnership for cooperation," he said.

The foreign adviser said some new potential areas for cooperation also came up, including the construction of future seventh and eighth friendship bridges, collaboration on nuclear power technology and on the production of hybrid seeds for expanding agricultural production.

The two sides also discussed a future road linking Bangladesh and China through Myanmar.

"The visit most certainly strengthened the ties that bind our two Asian and developing countries. China is important for us, as Bangladesh is for China," said the foreign adviser.

"I have every confidence that all governments to follow will bear this in mind, and that close ties with China will be an eternal pillar of Bangladesh's foreign policy," he said.  

Source:Xinhua

Turkmenistan-China natual gas pipeline to go into operation on schedule

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has said the pipeline designed to transport Turkmenistan's natural gas to China would go into operation as scheduled, according to news reports from Ashgabat Friday.

Berdymukhamedov made the remarks Thursday when inspecting the pipeline project, Turkmenistan's state news agency reported.

Turkmenistan and China, with their leaders in closer contacts over the past years, have expressed their willingness to broaden mutually-beneficial cooperation, especially in the energy field, he said.

The pipeline will bring substantial economic benefits for the two countries, as well as the whole region, the president added.

In June, China and Turkmenistan jointly launched the pipeline project. The pipeline, starting from Turkmenistan's Amu-darya River region, passing through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and winding its way to east and south China, has a designed length of some 10,000 km.

Upon its completion, the pipeline will have an annual transmission capacity of 40 billion cubic meters which will last for 30 years.

Source:Xinhua

PLA to cement cooperative ties with Thai military

China is willing to work with Thailand to strengthen substantive cooperation in all fields and promote bilateral friendship between the two nations and militaries, according to Defense Minister Liang Guanglie here Saturday.

He made the remarks when meeting with visiting Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Defense Winai Phattiyakul, a guest of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Liang spoke highly of the Sino-Thai relations, saying the two countries have maintained close coordination in regional and international affairs and achieved fruitful results from the substantial cooperation between the People's Liberation Army and the Thai armed forces.

"We would like to keep intense contact and cooperation with the Thai side so as to bring up friendly ties between the two countries and militaries to a new height."

Winai added the Thai and Chinese armed forces have cooperated smoothly in various fields in the past.

"Thailand values the friendly relations with China and hopes to push forward the relations together."

In July, special forces from the two countries held a joint anti-terrorism training exercise in northern Thailand's Chiang Mai Province, aiming to cement cooperation in non-traditional security areas and safeguard regional peace and stability.

In July 2007, the two countries held their first joint training in south China's Guangdong Province. It was the first such training China had held with another country.

Source:Xinhua

South China city unveils world's largest sci-tech museum

China's better-off southern city of Guangzhou on Friday night unveiled a sci-tech museum, the largest of its kind in the world.

With a floor area larger than Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, the steel-structured main building of the Guangdong Science Center features a blooming kapok flower.

The museum seats on Xiaoguwei Island, known as the university town of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

To be officially opened to the public on Sept. 27, the center offers eight exhibition areas, four science cinemas, two open laboratories and a digital "family experience" hall.

Outside the main building, there is an 80,000-square-meter artificial lake for water-theme exhibitions and an outdoor sciencesquare.

The museum cost 1.9 billion yuan , all on government funding, to have been built over five years, said Zhang Ming, deputy head of the Guangdong science and technology bureau at the center's unveiling ceremony Friday night.

He said the center would demonstrate China's newest fruits on science and technology. Among 400 items of such exhibits in the center, more than half would be on their debut show.

He said the outdoor area of the non-profit science center would be ticket-free.

Zhang added the provincial government hoped that the center would become an attraction for the promotion of new science and technology and a venue for academic exchanges.

Visitors to the interactive science center can also experience simulated earthquake and typhoon environments, or a satellite launch process, and play with a robot.

Source:Xinhua