STOCKHOLM, March 22 (Xinhua) -- China has made huge contributions in realizing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in access to safe drinking water, said Joakim Harlin, Senior Water Resources Advisor at the United Nations Development Program based in Stockholm on Monday."According to a joint monitoring report issued by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund last week, 89 percent of the population of 1.3 billion has access to drinking-water from improved sources, up from 67 percent in 1990, This is a huge contribution to MDG," Harlin said in an interview with Xinhua after a seminar on MDG to mark the World Water Day.Johan Kuylenstierna, Chief Technical Advisor for UN-Water, also commented on China's efforts in addressing the mounting water problems from access to safe drinking water to prevention of water pollution."China is an interesting country because you are facing so many problems, but you are also seriously addressing many of them," Kuylenstierna told Xinhua, adding that when a problem is clearly identified, you take action on trying to mitigate it and address it."China can learn a lot from other countries, but I think we can learn a lot from China too in dealing with various environmental problems," Kuylenstierna said.He also said statistics from 2009 showed that China is the biggest country in investing in renewable energy just in one year, and it has passed the United States."Water quality problem is a major global issue, access to clean water for achieving the MDG. If the water is not clean, it is not useful. This is a global problem. We release about two million tons of waste everyday into our waters," said he.2.2 million children die every year from drinking bad water. Five or six million people in total that is because of the poor quality of water. People die every year from diseases that could actually prevented, according to the UN's statistics.
BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The State Council of China Friday issued an urgent notice urging relevant departments and local authorities to settle pay disputes involving migrant workers as millions of them are heading home for lunar new year reunion.The notice asked local governments and relevant departments to prioritize in their work the settlement of migrant workers' back pay dispute with their employers.It underlined the construction industry where back pay disputes often happen.It also ordered local governments to improve the emergency management system to respond to possible mass incidents caused by pay disputes.Two migrant workers were stabbed to death by their employer over a pay dispute Wednesday in central China's Henan Province.The two men asked for wages on behalf of 17 fellow workers and got into a fight with their labor contractor after being told that their monthly payment had been docked by over 100 yuan (about 14.6 U.S. dollars), and then were stabbed in the neck with a fruit knife by the contractor.In China, millions of migrant workers from the countryside make their living in booming cities. Back pay to migrant workers has affected the income of the rural population for a long time and is considered a "chronic illness" undermining social stability.
BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 53.36 million Mu (about 3.56 million hectares) of crops in China had been affected by severe drought by Saturday, said the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. The drought, mostly in China's southwestern provinces including Yunnan and Guizhou, had damaged crops and caused water shortage to both people and livestock.In Yunnan, the worst drought-stricken province, up to 31.48 million Mu of crops had been affected, with 11.53 million Mu seriously damaged and 6.16 million Mu destroyed. About 5.97 million people and 3.59 million livestock are suffering from water shortage.A farmer walks on the cracking bottom of a pond in Shilin County, southwest China's Kunming City, Feb. 2, 2010The drought had also started to affect China's northern regions, as several northern provinces had not seen rainfall for nearly 40 days with signs of drought showing up in farmlands.The Office urged authorities in drought-hit areas to step up efforts in fighting drought and ensure water supply for people and agricultural uses.It would also seek financial support from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance to ensure water supply and improve irrigation facilities for the drought-stricken population, said the Office.About 640 million yuan (93.7 million U.S.dollars) had been allocated with 8.95 million people and 150,000 water trucks mobilized to fight the drought as of Saturday, watering 8.14 million Mu of crops and providing temporary water supply to 6.76 million people and 3.33 million livestock, data from the Office showed. A villager is waiting for water supply in Changkou County, southwest China's Kunming City, Feb. 2, 2010.
BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders joined an evening party Sunday with representatives of intellectuals in Beijing to celebrate the annual Lantern Festival.Hu and eight other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, including top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao, attended the event featuring song-and-dance shows and rice dumplings, a traditional food for the festival. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao (C) talks with delegates from the intelligentsia during a get-together marking the traditional Lantern Festival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 28, 2010. The CPC Central Committee hosted a get-together here on Sunday to mark the Lantern Festival
浙江白癜风初期治疗注意点
BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The move by the United States of selling arms to Taiwan brings chilly air to the warming China-U.S. relationship as well as military exchanges.The U.S. government on Friday announced the plans to sell a package of arms to Taiwan, which include Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and minesweepers. China immediately expressed strong indignation about the sale after the U.S. government notified the U.S. Congress of the plans.China slammed the U.S. move, pointing out it has violated the three Sino-US joint communiques, especially the principles established in the Joint Communique on Aug. 17, 1982, which stated that the U.S. would not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, and intended to gradually reduce arms sale.According to a press release of the Foreign Ministry, China has decided to partially halt the exchange programs between the militaries of the two countries, as well as the vice-ministerial consultation on strategic security, arms control and anti-proliferation, which was originally scheduled to be held soon.The two militaries had been expected to launch more exchanges in 2010, which include U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit to China and mutual visits of warships.Qian Lihua, director of the Defense Ministry's Foreign Affairs Office, on Saturday summoned the defense attache of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to lodge a stern protest."We reserve the right of taking further actions," he noted.The U.S. move cast a shadow over the military ties between China and the Untied States, which have seen a warming trend since U.S. President Barack Obama took office.The two countries held the latest round of defense consultations in Beijing in June, which were suspended for 18 months after the then outgoing Bush administration announced a 6.5-billion-U.S.-dollar arms package for Taiwan.At the first U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held in Washington D.C. in July, the two countries agreed to expand military exchanges at various levels.Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Caihou visited the United States from Oct. 24 to Nov. 3, the first senior Chinese military leader to visit the country since Obama assumed the presidency.These hard-won rising military exchanges resulted from consensus reached by the two heads of state on a sound and healthy development of bilateral ties, but at the same time they require cautiously handling of the sensitive issues like arms sale to Taiwan, the first and foremost obstacle of military ties.When U.S. President Barack Obama visited Beijing in November, China and the United States issued a joint statement, pledging that the two countries would "take concrete steps" to advance "sustained and reliable" military-to-military relations."I am very pleased with the reduction of tensions and improvement of the cross-strait relations," said Obama during a dialogue with Chinese youth in Shanghai.However, the arms sale deal apparently runs counter to the commitments the U.S. side have made.As one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world, a sound China-U.S. relationship not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but is also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.Now the U.S. side should take the responsibility for the halt of military exchanges between the two countries, which may subsequently deal a blow to bilateral ties.
BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang has urged law enforcement departments at all levels to ensure their work practices are just and incorrupt to better solve social conflicts and uphold justice."Currently, our country is experiencing a period when social conflicts are prominent and more and more cases have emerged in the judicial field," Zhou told a plenary meeting for the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee here Monday."More people are expecting to protect their own rights through judicial channels and they also have a higher requirement for just law enforcement," said Zhou, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee."However, many people's ideas, abilities and working styles in the judiciary who enforced the law still left much to be desired," he said, adding that many proposals raised during the just-concluded annual parliamentary and political advisory sessions were about law enforcement.Zhou urged related departments at all levels to "carefully" study these advices and proposals and investigate and correct mistakes.
BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's Education Ministry has asked school authorities to help students ward off influence of pornography on Internet or mobile WAP sites through educational campaigns.The ministry also encouraged students in primary and secondary schools to report Internet links and mobile WAP sites that contain "negative information", especially obscene content.Local education departments and schools should carry out educational activities tailored to different age groups, guide them to "properly handle cyber world", and enhance their understanding of the negative effect of porn websites, online violence and lewd information, the ministry said in a notice on its website.The move was the ministry's latest effort to echo the government's endeavor to crack down on pornography on Internet websites and mobile WAP sites.The ministries of public security and industry and information technology initiated a campaign in August last year to eradicate lewd contents from the Internet.Students should be taught not to make or spread lewd content online; not to enter profitable Internet cafes; not to access websites with "lewd" content; not to play lewd cyber games, the notice said.They were also advised not to use offensive and obscene languages and be careful in making friends on Internet."Lewd" content includes violence, libel, private and other information that violates standards of public decency.Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China, and the government last year began to stamp out WAP porn links to shield young people from online porn.The Ministry of Education also required schools to make regular examinations on school websites and install filter software to students' computers.Teachers should enhance communication with students and give counseling to those who incline to be obsessed in the cyber world, the notice stressed.The notice also advocates school authorities and parents to join hands in helping children establish good Internet ethics."Parents should not leave students alone to use Internet and spend more time to communicate with them." read the notice.China has more than 338 million Internet users, and more than 60 percent are younger than 30, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.