WASHINGTON -- At high-level economic talks that wrap up Wednesday, China is urging frustrated US officials to be patient as the two powers work to manage a delicate trade relationship. The United States, by contrast, is pushing for quick action. The talks began Tuesday and could yield some results, including increased US airline flights to China and a lowering of barriers to sales of American energy technology products in China. Senior US officials have tamped down expectations of major breakthroughs, however, as they described the meetings as strategic discussions, not negotiating sessions. US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the twice-a-year talks are "all about the long-term; developing a common understanding of the future." Still, the US side made a point of noting simmering frustration. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Americans are by nature impatient people; Gutierrez described the "need to make progress in all areas as soon as possible." The urgency is reflected in an increasingly restive US Congress, where lawmakers are considering a spate of bills that would impose economic sanctions on China. Many blame America's soaring trade deficits and the loss of one in six manufacturing jobs since 2000 in part on claims of Chinese currency manipulation and copyright piracy. In blunt words, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cautioned the United States against making accusations. "We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems," Wu said through an interpreter. "Confrontation does no good at all to problem-solving." Wu, known as a tough negotiator, said that both countries should "firmly oppose trade protectionism." She warned that any effort to "politicize" the economic relationship between the two nations would be "absolutely unacceptable." Wu and her delegation were scheduled to meet privately this week with major congressional leaders. The US delegation raised the issue of food safety highlighted by such incidents as the deaths of pets who had eaten pet food made with tainted wheat gluten imported from China. US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, briefing reporters at the end of the first day of talks, said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns had made a forceful presentation to the Chinese about the concerns Americans have about food safety. In response, she said, Chinese officials sought to assure the Americans that they would fully investigate any problems discovered. Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and four other senators urged the Bush administration in a letter to get Chinese commitments to cooperate in investigations into food safety, saying that the way China currently handles the issue is unacceptable. Paulson created the talks last year as a way to get the countries' top policy makers together twice a year to work toward reduced trade tensions. The first meeting was in Beijing last December.
BEIJING - Only 7.6 percent of migrant workers in China are satisfied with their social status, according to a survey carried out by Shanghai's Fudan University.The survey, which questioned 30,000 migrant workers in major Chinese cities, found 68 percent of migrant workers believed urbanites did not fully accept them or accept them at all.The report also showed that working overtime was common for migrant workers - more than 80 percent worked more than eight hours a day and 18 percent worked more than 10 hours.Only 16.4 percent of migrant workers had more than five days a month off and 55 percent had less than two days off a month, it said.Working overtime with little holiday made migrant workers tired so accidents easily occur, it said. Exhaustion prevented them from having time to study thus few opportunities were available, it added.All these factors made migrant workers unsatisfied with their urban life, it concluded.The report also revealed that China's migrant workers' incomes rose in 2007.Their average monthly wage reached 1,200 yuan (US5) in 2007, up 200 yuan over the previous year, said the report.But still 22.2 percent of migrant workers were unable to save money as their incomes were only just enough to cover their living expenses.About 44.6 percent migrant workers hoped to continue to work in cities and 17 percent hoped to find jobs in Beijing or its surrounding areas, it said.China has about 200 million migrant workers across the country.
BEIJING - China's top legislature on Sunday started to read draft amendment to the Law on Lawyer which aims to make lawyers easier to meet criminal suspects, obtain evidences, improve their moral standards and allow them to open individual law firms. The draft amendment to the Law on Lawyer was on Sunday submitted to the six-day 28th session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), or China's top legislature, for the first reading.
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.
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of "unhealthy" content, state television reported. Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance," said a summary of the meeting read on the news broadcast. "Internet cultural units must conscientiously take on the responsibility of encouraging development of a system of core socialist values." In January, President Hu made a similar call to "purify" it, and there have been many such calls before. "Consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological sphere," the party meeting urged, calling for more Marxist education on the Internet. In 2006, China's Internet users grew by 26 million, or 23.4 percent, year on year, to reach 137 million, Chinese authorities have estimated. That lucrative market has attracted big investors such as Google and Yahoo. Authorities have also launched repeated crackdowns on pornography and salacious content. The latest campaign against porn and "rumor-spreading" was announced earlier this month. The meeting also announced that schools and sports groups would be encouraged to use healthy competition as a way to shape youth, the report said. "Sports plays an irreplaceable role in the formation of young people's thinking and character, mental development and aesthetic formation," the meeting declared.
There is growing nationwide debate over whether there is sufficient early intervention help available for people contemplating suicide.According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, some 287,000 people take their own lives every year in China.The Ministry of Health (MOH) puts the number at 25 out of every 100,000 people.In addition, the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center has estimated that between 2.5 million and 3.5 million people every year attempt to end their lives.Among them is a growing number of well-to-do professionals, which sparked the latest round of debate.Last month, Yu Hong, a 50-year-old doctor and teacher at Renmin University of China, took his life by jumping from a 10-story building in Beijing."Giving up life means a kind of courage and self-respect for me, even if it is considered a negative choice," Yu wrote in a blog before his death.Nie Zhenwei, head of the psychological counseling center at Beijing Normal University, told China Daily yesterday that it was a "misconception" that well-educated people with more wealth and social status were able to better cope with the pressures of everyday life."Having strived for wealth and a successful career, some of these people have in turn accumulated a certain amount of mental pressure," he said.Ashamed of their fragile mental state, many vulnerable people turn to self-harm instead of seeking help, he said."People feel they have to follow that path because of the pressure of work, relationships or health issues," Nie said.Zhang Yanping, vice-chief of the research center at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital said research into the incidence of suicide in China goes back only as far as 2000, making it hard to identify emerging trends.He told the Guangzhou Daily that China needed to update its research to determine whether the suicide rate is increasing.People are not getting appropriate treatment for depression and other mental illnesses, he said.Nie said: "We need more mental health experts and society as a whole should provide more channels for people to deal with psychological crises".
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China's consumer price index is expected to rise about 3.3 percent in 2007, moving above the government target of three percent, the State Information Centre said on Wednesday. The forecast came after China's consumer price index (CPI) hit a 27-month-high of 3.4 percent in May, driven by an 8.3 percent rise in food prices, from 3.0 percent in April and 3.3 percent in March. "Consumer inflation in 2007 is to be pushed up by food price increases, and food price increases are the result of a surge in meat, poultry and egg prices," the think-tank said in a report published on the China Securities Journal. The centre is a research body under the China National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency. The report said the rise in meat and other foods would not slow considerably until the last quarter of this year because of high grain and cereal prices. But it did not provide any forecast on policy moves. A surge last month in the price of pork, a staple meat on Chinese dinner tables, raised concerns about inflation. After the May inflation data was released last week, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government was prepared to tighten policy further to restrain the economy and inflation. Various ministries also scrambled to respond in an effort to ease public worries about inflation. The Ministry of Commerce said pork prices in major Chinese cities had dropped slightly in the first 10 days of June. But according to the report, meat and egg prices could rise even further in coming weeks, following a 26.5 percent surge in meat prices in May. Besides food, inflation pressures are under control, the report said. Prices of industrial products are unlikely to rise significantly, and labour cost increases in China have yet to be reflected in consumer inflation. It said the pace of inflation in 2007, although it is exceeding Beijing's target, is still within a range the government can control. Monetary tightening and yuan appreciation in China are expected to have some cooling effects on inflation.
JINAN - Seven fishermen on two boats were rescued on Saturday off east China after their boats lost control in high gales, local rescue sources said. The engine of a fishing boat with six people aboard at the Bajiao offshore area near Yantai city, Shandong Province stopped working around 1:20 p.m. Saturday as its screw propeller was enlaced by aquatic plants amid sudden gales on the sea. A helicopter from the Beihai No. 1 Rescue Flying Squad was dispatched to the site and rescued the six in 20 minutes. The helicopter saved another fisherman on a separate boat on its way back. All the rescued fishermen were sent to Penglai, an island city near Yantai, Saturday afternoon.
BEIJING - The crab trade across the Taiwan Strait has slowed in what should be its peak season due to picky quarantine standards put forward by the Taiwan authorities, said a Chinese mainland official here Wednesday."We hope the related non-governmental organizations from both sides will carry on negotiations so that Taiwan people can enjoy this delicacy at the right time," said Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.Fresh crabs, especially those bred in East China's Jiangsu Province, have become a traditional and popular mid-autumn dish and have sold well in Taiwan.The two sides had reached an agreement on quarantine standards of crabs in July, but in August the Taiwan authorities submitted new standards requiring residues of all drugs to be undetectable, which was too picky and impractical, Li said.The mainland had exported quality and safe food, he said, adding that 99 percent of food exported to Japan and the European Union met their standards."We do expect the two sides to show sincerity and settle this problem for the benefit of consumers," he said. "We have noticed that a certain group in Taiwan is trying to discredit mainland foods. Such politically driven action will greatly harm normal trade across the Strait."In the first eight months of this year, the mainland has found 27 consignments of unqualified food imported from Taiwan. "We handled them according to regulations, but did not exaggerate the situation," Li said.He said the mainland would continue encouraging imports of produce from Taiwan.A 30-member purchasing group from the mainland visited Taiwan this month and signed an initial agreement to buy 2,000 tons of local fruits."We will support more farm produce importers and trade organizations in visiting Taiwan," Li said.Meanwhile, he urged the Taiwan authorities to speed up the talks on opening Taiwan to mainland tourists.Tourism organizations from the two sides had held six rounds of talks on technical issues."The two sides have developed common understanding, but a number of problems remained unresolved," Li said.After the fifth round of talks, the mainland put forward a set of practical solutions, but the Taiwan authorities had made no response for months, he said.
NANJING: Jiangsu province will constantly focus on environmental protection while maintaining strong momentum in economic development in the next five years, acting governor Luo Zhijun said in his work report to the first session of the 11th provincial people's congress on Friday.The province witnessed fast economic growth in the past five years with gross domestic product (GDP) increasing at an annual average rate of 14.5 percent, one of the highest rates in the country, official figures showed.However, such economic development has had a negative impact on the environment, Luo said.Workers try to clean a major moat of algae in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, last July. A massive algae bloom spread out last summer in several of the country's large lakes, including Taihu lake in Jiangsu and Dianchi lake in Yunnan province. [China Daily] Last May, more than 1 million residents in the city of Wuxi suffered water shortages when a large-scale, blue-green algae outbreak hit Lake Taihu, one of the city's main sources of drinking water.The algae comprise microscopic organisms that are naturally present in waters. They grow easily in polluted waters and can starve the water of oxygen, killing aquatic life.The water quality of the lake has improved, but the incident was seen to have sent a signal to local government that the economy should not grow at the expense of the environment."We've learned a lesson from the incident, that environmental protection should take precedence over GDP growth," said Mao Xiaoping, mayor of Wuxi and deputy to the provincial congress.The provincial government will allocate more than 2 billion yuan (7 million) to clean up Taihu lake this year, Luo said in his report.Over the past five years, the provincial government has made strenuous efforts to protect the environment while speeding up economic development, Luo saidAll over the province, 2,713 small chemical factories, one of the main sources of pollution, have been ordered to close, while many other heavy polluting enterprises have been urged to upgrade their environmental protection facilities to be up to standards, Luo said.Similarly, 75 sewage treatment plants have been built in the cities with a daily disposal capacity of 3.78 million tons of wastewater, he said."We will continue to encourage technology renovation and push forward industrial restructuring in the next five years," said Luo.The authorities will also support research of technologies to improve water and air quality, Luo said.At the same time, the province will promote the use of energy-saving devices and recycling, he said.Measures are being taken to ensure that no new projects will be approved before they meet all requirements for environmental protection, Luo added.To that effect, the metallurgy, chemical, building materials, electrical power and textile industries will all be under close supervision, he said.