China's State-owned Sinochem Corporation, one of the world's top 500 companies, had profits of more than eight billion yuan (US.1 billion) in 2007, up 95 percent over the previous year, the firm said on its web site.The Beijing-headquartered company didn't elaborate on these figures. Preliminary estimates showed that revenue topped 200 billion yuan, up 19 percent. Total assets exceeded 100 billion yuan. Sinochem, which began as a trading company in 1998, is involved in a range of businesses including agriculture, energy, chemicals, finance and real estate.Sinochem International, one of its subsidiaries, said last month that it would buy part of the business of Monsanto Company, a US-based agricultural company.Under the terms of the agreement, Sinochem will purchase the assets related to Monsanto's pesticide business and certain other assets in China's Taiwan Province and countries including the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A special assistance center was set up in Beijing Prison recently where policewomen, who are also qualified counselors, provide help for special "clients", male prisoners who are serving long sentences, Beijing Youth News reported on July 5. A policewoman counselor chats online with an inmate at a counseling and education center in Beijing Prison. [ynet.com] The police use computers with Internet access and chat through web cameras with lifers to help ease their psychological problems especially with those who have difficulty communicating. A short message service is also available for them to contact their families. The newly-established center is composed of policewomen. Due to regulations in prisons, the policewomen are not allowed to communicate with prisoners face-to-face, according to Lu Yanyan, the director of the center for counseling and correctional education in the Beijing Bureau of Prison Administration. "The work of counseling used to be the responsibility of policemen," explains Lu. "But because they are also officials who enforce correctional education on the prisoners, those who have psychological problems are reluctant to open their hearts to share their troubles. That's why policewomen fill this need." Wearing civilian clothes, not uniforms, the five policewomen appear much closer to the people they counsel. Though not face-to-face, the prisoners encounter a friendly and kind smile and feel more relaxed to talk openly about their feelings and emotions. A prisoner who was sentenced to life imprisonment seldom talked as he was abandoned by his family. But when a counselor surnamed Ren started to make appointments with him, he "became happier than before," as Ren put it. The special short message service is free for lifers. They can send as many messages as they want, but every message is checked by the officers. The quantity of messages sent and received currently is about 1,500 a day. Another prisoner told the reporter, even though he was concerned about his child's education and could not solve the problem himself, he felt more comfortable after he poured out his troubles to the counselor. As the counseling and correctional education director explains, it is important to provide counseling for those with long sentences, Lu says crimes are always the result of psychological problems and the prisoners are also disturbed by depression and anxiety in confinement.
XI'AN -- Lawmakers in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province enacted a law on Saturday that is intended to improve protection of the Qinling Mountains, a habitat of endangered giant pandas.The law, which will take effect on March 1, is aimed at preserving biodiversity, preventing soil erosion (which averages 84 million tons a year) and promoting harmony between man and nature in the mountain range, which is a divide between China's north and south.It requires all future development projects in the Qinling Mountains to be assessed for their possible impact on the ecology and bans real estate projects and polluting industries in nature reserves, where the ecology is more vulnerable.The law also bans mining and resource exploration in nature reserves and forest parks.Local governments must ensure immediate demolition of existing projects that are potentially harmful to the ecology, it says.The Qinling range, which largely spans Shaanxi Province, covers more than 50,000 square kilometers.The range is home to approximately 300 Qinling pandas, a sub-species of giant pandas on the verge of extinction, and many other rare animals under state protection, such as golden monkeys, the red ibis and antelopes.
Another two closed-end stock funds have received official approval from China's securities regulator, Xinhua learned from a company source here on Friday. The China Nature Asset Management Co. Ltd's Tianzhi Fund and the Dongwu Fund run by Soochow Asset Management Co., Ltd received regulatory approval from the State Securities Regulatory Commission Friday. The Tianzhi stock fund will open through China Communication Bank, China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial Bank Co., Ltd, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, CITIC Bank, Minsheng Banking Corp., Ltd, and with big brokers. The Dongwu fund is to be issued by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Postal Savings Bank, Huaxia Bank and qualified individual brokers. Both companies declined to say how much they expected to reap from the listing. Four stock funds launched by Bank of China Investment Management Co., Ltd. and AXA SPDB Investment Managers, CCB Principal Asset Management Co. and China Southern Fund Management Co., respectively, received official approval in the first half of February. Of the four, CCB Principal Asset Management's Jianxin Fund and the Nanfangshengyuan Fund run by China Southern Fund Management Co. made their debut on Feb. 18. Market analysts said the launch of these funds was expected to bring a new round of fresh capital into the sliding stock market. China's securities watchdog suspended the launch of new funds late last year in reaction to the surging domestic stock market. The Shanghai Composite Index nearly doubled last year.
LAS VEGAS -- Three men enslaved more than 20 members of a Chinese acrobatic team, feeding them little, paying them next to nothing to perform and confiscating their passports and visas, US authorities said. A woman who worked as an interpreter for China Star Acrobats escaped late last month and contacted authorities, the FBI said. She told police she and 20 teammates -- including five teens ages 14 to 17 -- were being held against their will. Social workers interviewed 14 of them Friday, according to a criminal complaint. "They literally hugged the investigators when they arrived," said FBI spokesman David Staretz. You Zhi Li, 38, Yang Shen, 21, and Jun Hu, 43, were arrested this week on slavery charges. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 13. The acrobats said Li promised them 0 (euro220) to ,600 (euro1,174) a month to perform with the China Star Acrobats, a team that traveled and performed at schools across the United States. "It's a cultural program," said Anthony Wright, Li's court-appointed defense attorney. "Chinese folks get to come over here and learn about America." Prosecutors said the acrobats were forced to stay in Li's home, where up to six lived in each bedroom. Most had been brought to Las Vegas months ago. The acrobats told authorities they were fed minimal amounts of instant noodles, rice and vegetables twice a day. They said they sometimes had to perform twice a day, were awakened early and did not get to sleep until very late. According to the complaint, Li confiscated visas and passports and told them their phone calls home would be monitored. One girl who performed as a contortionist told authorities she was being paid (euro36) a month, while a boy who said he had been traveling with the troupe for two years said he received 0 (euro73) per month. The acrobats are now being provided shelter, food and medical attention, said Terri Miller, director of the Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, a task force formed last year in the Las Vegas Valley.
China's Labour and Social Security Minister Tian Chengping urged the country to accelerate legislation over social insurance on Saturday.Addressing a national social security forum in Beijing, he said the country's social security work still lacks laws or high-level laws to go by.Gao Fengtao, deputy director of the legislative office of the State Council, said at the forum that the social insurance law is being drafted and will be submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberation as soon as possible.A senior NPC official said earlier the NPC Standing Committee will deliberate the draft of social insurance law this year, noting a sound social insurance law is important to ensuing social stability.
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The Bank of Communications (BoCom), China's fifth largest lender, said its net profit reached20.3 billion yuan (2.86 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, up 65 percent from 2006. By the end of 2007, total assets of BoCom stood at 2.1 trillion yuan, up 22.7 percent from a year earlier, according to its 2007 annual report released on Wednesday. Net interest rate income rose 36 percent to 54.1 billion yuan and fee income from credit card sales and asset management products surged 137 percent to 7.1 billion yuan. The Shanghai-based bank and HSBC Holdings Plc., which holds a roughly 19 percent stake in BoCom, are preparing to establish a credit card company and a pension fund company, according to the report. BoCom, which listed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2005, returned to the mainland's A share market in April last year. Its shares rose 2.77 percent to 10.39 yuan in Shanghai on Wednesday.
China has sent rescue ships to search for a cargo vessel missing in the East China Sea with 17 Russian crew on board.The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on Friday it launched a search and rescue emergency plan soon after a rescue center in Russia's far east informed it of the missing boat on Thursday.The Cambodia-registered ship went missing on its way from Japan to Hong Kong.The vessel failed to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday as scheduled, and the last radio contact was made with the ship on Sunday, when it was 212 sea miles (391 km) east of Shanghai.Russian rescue officials then informed rescue centers in China, Japan and South Korea of the Captain Uskov's disappearance."Our rescue ships have started searching," Zhai Jiugang, a senior official with China's search and rescue center, said.Vessels sailing in the East China Sea have also been informed by the center's branches in Shandong and Shanghai of the disappearance of the ship, and were asked to assist in the search, he said.The center is also using maritime satellites to help search for the vessel. But by Friday afternoon, there was "no clue about the missing boat, and we will continue to search", he said.The boat, with a cargo capacity of 5,200 metric tons, was built in Japan in 1982. It flew a Soviet flag and was later sold to a private shipping company and registered in Cambodia.
English graduate Chen Xia has never been short of admirers but the 25-year-old Nanjing native has chosen to tie the knot with a soldier who has neither a college degree nor a fat pay packet. Her mother, who married a soldier more than 30 years ago, well knows what Chen has in store. "Married but alone, you have to handle most domestic affairs yourself, as your husband is mostly away," said Zhang Yufen, Chen's mother. Zhang had several frank discussions with her daughter but the two ended up in agreement. "You can be free of anxiety while marrying army men. They are always reliable and loyal to the family," said Chen. In an era when young people are depicted as calculating and materialistic when choosing spouses, Chen is one of many who are keen on a partner in military uniform. A recent survey found that nearly two in three of 1,500 respondents would like to marry servicemen and women. Personal integrity, marital fidelity, stable jobs and increasing salaries are the top reasons given for the choice, according to the poll conducted by China Youth Daily. "The survey results are perhaps one of the best gifts for the August 1 Army Day," said a 26-year-old soldier surnamed Wu in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province. "It makes me more confident of finding a dream girl." Marrying a soldier was popular before the 1980s, which meant not only a decent job but also glory to the whole family. "Many friends envied me when I married Chen Xia's father. He was a heroic figure in our eyes," said Zhang. But as the country turned more peaceful and prosperous, soldiers now live reclusive lives in camps and campuses. It has also become difficult for them to get a spouse as they are confined to a small social circle and don't enjoy a high pay. "Frankly speaking, I hesitated while Chen Xia planned to get married; afraid that she would suffer the same loneliness and economic pressure than I used to," said Zhang. "But I guess she knows the merits of marrying an army man."
BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Financial operations of loan growth in China was steady in February with increasing individual deposits, the People's Bank of China reported on Wednesday. Outstanding renminbi deposits among the country's financial institutions reached 40.49 trillion yuan (5.70 trillion U.S. dollars) in February, up 17.22 percent in comparison to the same period last year. The growth was 2.10 percentage points higher than January, the central bank said in a statement. In February, the outstanding value of all renminbi loans of financial institutions hit 27.22 trillion yuan, up 15.73 percent compared with the same period last year. The growth was 1.01 percentage points lower than January, the central bank said. China's M2, the broad measure of money supply, reached 42.10 trillion yuan in February, up 17.48 percent from a year earlier. The increment was 1.46 percentage points lower than the number in January. The narrow measure of money supply, M1, rose 19.20 percent to 15.02 trillion yuan, but the increment was 1.52 percentage points lower than January.