| Chinese president offers proposals on
strengthening Asian-African cooperation
2005-04-22 People’s Daily
Chinese President Hu
Jintao made a three-point proposal in Jakarta Thursday on
strengthening cooperation between Asia and Africa. Arrived in
Jakarta Thursday afternoon for the Asia-Africa Summit, Hu said
in a speech at the official dinner reception of the Asian-African
Business Summit 2005 in Jakarta that Asian and African countries
must seize opportunities, strengthen cooperation to cope with
challenges in a globalized world and seek common development.
"In the world today, economic globalization is further
developing, which presents Asian and African countries with
rare opportunities as well as severe challenges," he said.
Hu proposed that Asian and African countries proceed from national
conditions while mapping out plans for development. "We
should have full exchange and share of our respective experiences,
draw upon achievements of modern civilization, better grasp
and apply the objective laws on developing economy in the context
of deepening economic globalization and improve the capacity
of self-improvement," he said. The Chinese president also
proposed that Asian and African countries should carry out mutually
beneficial cooperation in all fields on an equal footing. "We
should open up our markets to one another, actively work for
free trade arrangements, and coordinate our economic and trade
policies. We should work together to raise fund for development,
deepen industrial cooperation and guard against financial risks,"
he said. It is likewise important to increase contacts and exchanges
between regional organizations in Asia and Africa with a view
to improving South-South cooperation, said Hu. He stressed that
Asian and African nations should work together to create an
international development environment featuring win-win cooperation.
"A fair and rational new international economic order featuring
mutual benefit is not only the common aspiration of all developing
countries, but a prerequisite for sustainable development,"
said he. He proposed developing countries to strengthen coordination
to urge developed countries to show more concern for the interests
of developing countries and take concrete steps such as debt
alleviation and development assistance with no strings attached.
The Chinese president proposed to promote North-South dialogue
and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,
support the coordinating role of the United Nations on development
issues and bring about an equitable and win-win economic globalization.
Top Chinese legislator meets Austrian Federal Chancellor
2005-04-22 People’s Daily
China will work with Austria
to push forward bilateral relations and cooperation in various
fields, said top Chinese legislator Wu
Bangguo in Beijing
Thursday. Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC),
made the remarks at a meeting with Austrian Federal Chancellor
Wolfgang Schuessel who is here on a week-long official visit
as guest of Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao. Referring to the sound development of bilateral
relations and cooperation, Wu said the two countries boast great
potentials for cooperation as their economies are highly complementary.
( ) Schuessel will also head to south China's island province
Hainan
for the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia and visit
Shanghai
and east China's Jiangsu
Province.
China's education system not to blame for anti-Japan fervor
2005-04-22 People’s Daily
China's education system does not generate the sort of anti-Japan
fervor that led to public demonstrations this month, Chinese
officials say. Despite criticism from Japan
and China observers overseas, officials from the Foreign Ministry
said in Beijing
Tuesday and Wednesday that Chinese students learn in their history
lessons to love their country but not to hate Japan. Media are
also not to blame, the officials said. "Recently I read
an argument that (anti-Japan sentiment) is a consequence of
incorrect conveyance of information about Japan in textbooks
and the media," one official said. "This is purely
baseless and groundless to say that China is engaged in anti-Japan
education." A spotlight is turning on Chinese textbooks
as outsiders look for causes behind a string of anti-Japan demonstrations
that began April 9. Demonstrators criticized Japan for approving
revisions to school textbooks that whitewash Japan's aggression
of China between 1931 and 1945. More than 58 million Chinese
teens study the Japanese occupation of parts of China in the
1930s and 1940s, as part of regular Chinese
history courses. ( ) But it does not nurture hate for other
countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. "Patriotic
education is not anti-Japan education," Qin said. "We
do not want young people to hate Japan." Mou Jianmin, a
Chinese media consultant and former education magazine editor
in Beijing, said media are more to blame than textbooks for
anti-Japan sentiment. Young Chinese do not understand the subtleties
of Japanese politics or society, the left-right political spectrum
or the separation between government and people, he said. "They
need to be told Japan and the Japanese people are not the same,"
he said.
People urged to shun unauthorized marches
2005-04-21 Xinhua News
A spokesman for China's Ministry of Public Security Thursday
asked the public not to attend unauthorized marches and protests
or spread messages that instigate such events. The spokesman
said the ministry fully understands the patriotic sentiments
of the masses of people, including students, that participated
in the recent spontaneous protest demonstrations in Beijing
and Shanghai over Japan's offensive attitude toward its own
aggressive history and behavior that has hurt the feelings of
the Chinese people. We hope Japan will seriously respond to
the concern of the Chinese people, properly handle relevant
issues and stop doing things hurting the feelings of the Chinese
people," he said. The public security departments and other
relevant units have done a great deal to maintain social order
and ensure the safety of Japanese agencies and nationals in
China, and that the masses of people and students in general
marched rationally, the spokesman said. "But a very few
idlers, including some vandals, took the chanceto destroy public
and private property and disrupt social order. Such acts have
impaired China's image and violated the law," he said.
In accordance with Chinese laws and rules on holding parades
and marches, all demonstrations have to be approved by the public
security departments before they are held."Marches held
without approval from public security departments, including
those held not in compliance with the approved plans, and acts
in marches that disrupt public security or seriously sabotage
social order all constitute violations of the law," he
said. It is also illegal to sponsor marches and protests through
spreading messages from the Internet and short message service
(SMS) of mobile phones without approval of the public security
departments, the spokesman said, adding that public security
departments would mete out tough blows at people who conduct
vandalism in marches. Enditem
China congratulates Ratzinger as new pope
2005-04-20 Xinhua News
China congratulated Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany for
his being elected the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church,
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Wednesday. Qin said
he learned that two Chinese Catholic groups -- the Catholic
Patriotic Association of China and the Chinese Catholic Bishops
College -- had sent congratulatory messages and told churches
across China to pray for the new pope as congratulations. While
answering questions from the press on the election, Qin said
China is ready to improve relations with the Vatican on the
basis of the two principles for China-Vatican relations. The
first is that the Vatican must terminate its so-called "diplomatic
relations" with Taiwan and recognize the fact that the
government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate
government representing whole China and Taiwan is an inalienable
part of Chinese territory. The second is that Vatican should
not interfere in China's internal affairs, including any intervention
under the pretext of religious affairs. We hope that under the
leadership of the new pope, the Vaticancan create favorable
conditions for the improvement of China-Vatican relations,"
the spokesman said. It is reported that Ratzinger, who was born
on April 16, 1927, in the Bavarian town of Marktl am Inn in
southern Germany, took the name Pope Benedict XVI as successor
to Pope John Paul II who died on April 2 at the age of 84.
1st group of peacekeepers wrap up mission in Haiti
2005-04-18 PLA Daily
The first group of Chinese riot police has successfully finished
its six-month peacekeeping mission in Haiti. The 95-member police
detachment departed Port-au-Prince for Beijing on Saturday.
UN special envoy in Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, spoke highly
of Chinese officers' performance in peacekeeping operations
led by the world body. The force assisted and trained local
police in law enforcement, as well as dealing with mass public
security emergencies. They were awarded a UN peace medal for
their outstanding work in the crisis-torn country in January.
A second detachment of Chinese riot police are expected to arrive
in Haiti soon.
EU failed to lift arms ban on China
2005-04-18 PLA Daily
The European Union nations on Friday failed to agree on lifting
their 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China. German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer said foreign ministers at their meeting
in Luxembourg failed to generate "a consensus" on
the issue. He said the 25-nation EU would keep the issue under
study and step up discussions with the United States. The proposal
to lift the arms embargo has put trans-Atlantic ties under renewed
strain, with the United States voicing strong opposition to
the action. Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden want
to retain the arms ban, while Germany and France have long urged
fellow EU members to lift the embargo. Earlier, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang says the EU arms embargo on China
is obsolete. He notes the key to lifting the ban is to eradicate
political discrimination against China, which won't lead to
China's large-scale weapons procurement. ( )
|
| Blast leaves 19 workers missing in Chongqing
2005-04- 20 Xinhua News
A chemical factory in Qijiang, southwest China's Chongqing exploded
after being hit by lightning Thursday night, destroying its
three-storey workshop and leaving 19 workers missing and 10
injured, a local report said. A thunder rainstorm happened in
Qijiang, on the outskirts of Chongqing, a major industrial city.
A lightning stroke the emulsification workshop and the whole
factory building exploded and collapsed consequently. Debris
and pieces of equipment were found hundreds of meters away,
according to a China News Service report. Environmental monitoring
found no toxic gas in the air and the possibility of a second
explosion is very small. Local authorities and relative experts
have rushed to the accident site, directing the rescue and searching
operation. Measures have already taken to get rid of the explosive
product. And the cause of the explosion is under investigation.
The factory, established in 1956, is an explosive producer.
It employs more than 200 workers and emulsified explosive is
its newly developed product.
Officials, doctors sent to villages to fight AIDS
2005-04-20 Xinhua News
Central China's Henan Province sent 114 government officials
and doctors to AIDS-hit villages Wednesday in its latest move
to fight the deadly disease. The team, comprising 76 officials
and 38 doctors, will fan out in 38 villages in six cities across
Henan and will stay there for one year, said Wang Jumei, vice
governor of the province. They will replace a 76-member team
sent to these villages last year to help village authorities
in offering free medication to HIV/AIDS victims, free and anonymous
HIV/AIDS tests of villagers and free education for children
orphaned by AIDS, and will take care of the elderly who have
been left childless by AIDS. Prior to their departure, they
had got trainingin AIDS prevention and application of technologies
to help local farmers improve living conditions. Over the past
year, their predecessors offered a free checkup to each resident
in the worst-hit villages, set up medical records for each patient
and provided timely treatment to more than 6,700 patients, said
Wang. They also helped villagers build infrastructure, including
one paved road, a well, a school, a clinic, and a nursing home
for the childless elderlies and orphans in each village. Henan,
a largely agricultural province with a population of 93 million,
saw the country's worst AIDS outbreak when a large number of
needy peasants were infected by HIV virus when selling blood
to illegal dealers before 1995. Official statistics show that
11,844 people have been confirmed HIV-positive in the province,
and 2,026 children have been orphaned by the death of AIDS-infected
parents. The province spent 232 million yuan on HIV/AIDS treatment
and prevention in 2004. China currently has about 840,000 HIV-positive
people, and approximately 80,000 AIDS patients, according to
the Ministry of Health.
|
| Hu Jintao invites Taiwan PFP chairman
to visit mainland
2005-04-18 Xinhuanet
Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), welcomed and had invited James
Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan, to
head a PFP delegation to tour and visit the mainland, announced
Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of CPC and the
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council here Monday, in an
exclusive interview with Xinhua.
KMT official arrives in Beijing
2005-04-18 Xinhua News
Lin Feng-cheng, secretary-generalof Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT)
party, or the Nationalist Party, arrived in Beijing Monday afternoon
to make arrangements for KMT Chairman Lien Chan's upcoming mainland
trip. Lin is scheduled to hold talks with the Taiwan Work Office
of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to finalize
details of Lien's planned trip, according to the Office.
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