BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's senior political advisors convened here on Wednesday to discuss the new Party decision on rural reform and advice on the issue. During the four-day third meeting of the Standing Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, political advisors were expected to carefully review the decision made at the third Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee that closed on Sunday, said Jia Qinglin, the CPPCC National Committee chairman who presided over the meeting. The CPPCC had made great efforts to study the issues of agriculture, rural development and improving farmers' life, he said. "We hope political advisors can present their findings, put forward proposals and contribute to the rural reform and development." Jia Qinglin (C), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), addresses the opening session of the 3rd meeting of the standing committee of CPPCC's 11th national committee in Beijing, capital of China, on Oct. 15, 2008 Vice Premier Hui Liangyu was invited to give a presentation of the new CPC decision to the advisors at the meeting. In the decision, the CPC summed up the experiences of the past three decades of rural reform, analyzed chances and challenges the country faced and worked out a guideline for the future, Hui said. Photo taken on Oct. 15, 2008 shows the opening session of the 3rd meeting of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC) 11th national committee in Beijing, capital of China, on Oct. 15, 2008.
BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said Friday the top priority of the country's 2009 agenda on economic development is to maintain a "stable and relatively fast growth", amid the grim global economic downturn. "We will ensure a quality and fast growth of the national economy next year," Hu said while sitting down with personages outside the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) to seek their advice on the country's economic development. He said the country would pursue an "all-rounded and sustainable" growth that stresses both quality and efficiency. The world's fastest growing economy saw its growth slow sharply to nine percent year on year in the third quarter, the slowest pace in five years, as a result of slower export and investment growth. The president said the country would continue to practice "active" fiscal and "moderately loose" monetary policies next year, and would in the meantime strengthen and improve macro controls according to changing conditions. Such proactive policies is a transition made earlier this month against adverse global economic conditions from the earlier "prudent" fiscal and "tight" monetary policies aimed at curbing inflation and averting overheating. He stressed the importance of boosting domestic demands, saying the country would bring consumption to play a bigger role in driving the economic growth, and the expansion of consumer spending would receive more prominent emphasis. China would also increase its investment in rural areas, agriculture, and farmers "by a large extent" to guarantee the development of the agricultural sector and ensure the output of grain and other farm produce, according to the president. Hu said the country would continue to promote economic restructuring. China has been working to reduce its heavy reliance on exports and investment over the past years. "The country needs to take the challenges of the ongoing global financial crisis as opportunities to accelerate industrial restructuring to create new growth and foster other competitive edges," he said. China would continue with its reform and opening up, Hu said. "The country will lose no chance to introduce reforms that can promote the development at the right time, and will take note of bringing the market into full play in allocating resources." The country would actively develop the export-oriented sector and step up the diversification of exporting markets, Hu added. He also said the country would stick to improving people's living conditions and building a stable society. The country would adopt "more active" employment polices next year, Hu said. He pledged to improve urban and rural social security systems and vowed intensified efforts in supervision and inspection of food, drug and work safety. "The country has great potential in economic development and has also accumulated strong capabilities to withstand risks over the past 30 years of reform and opening up," Hu told the non-Communist people. The non-CPC personages said they endorsed the CPC and government's judgment on current situation as well as plans on next year's economic development. They also offered suggestions on economic issues such as the fight against the financial turmoil, and macro control measures.
BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The three warships forming the small fleet that set sail from Sanya in south China's Hainan Province for escort mission off Somali are among the most sophisticated vessels of the Chinese navy. The flagship of the fleet, DDG-169 Wuhan, is a multi-purpose missile destroyer of Type 052B of the People's Liberation Army Navy. It was built by Jiangnan Shipyard of Shanghai in 2002. A ceremony is held before a Chinese naval fleet sets sail from a port in Sanya city of China's southernmost island province of Hainan on Dec. 26, 2008. The Chinese naval fleet including two destroyers and a supply ship from the South China Sea Fleet set off on Friday for waters off Somalia for an escort mission against piracy. With a displacement of 7,000 tonnes, DDG-169 Wuhan is equipped with 16 anti-ship missiles, 48 surface-to-air missiles, close-in weapons system and a helicopter. DDG-171 Haikou, the Navy's latest destroyer model, is one of the two Type 052C destroyers. It was built by Jiangnan Shipyard in2003. Photo taken on Dec. 25, 2008 shows the Chinese Navy's supply ship Weishanhu in Sanya, capital of South China's Hainan Province. The Chinese Navy's three-ship fleet awaiting sail to waters off Somalia has finished its preparations for the overseas deployment, the fleet commander said Thursday. DDG-171 Haikou is equipped with China's first generation of phased-array radar and a vertically launched long-range air defence missile system. It will provide air defense the fleet. The ship displaces nearly 7,000 tonnes. Type 052C destroyers provide the Navy with China's first true aerial defense capability. Both the Wuhan and Haikou have a maximum speed of 30 knots. The supply ship, Weishanhu (pennant number 887) of the Navy's Qiandaohu class, was launched by Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou in 2003. It was commissioned in 2004. Weishanhu is the Navy's first model designed to have round-the-clock supply capacity. Having a displacement of 23,000 tonnes and maximum speed of 19 knots, Weishanhu is the biggest homemade multi-product replenishment ship. Although its primary role is supply, it can also defend itself and take part in offensive operations using its eight 37mm guns. All three warships belong to the South China Sea Fleet, headquartered in Zhanjiang of Guangdong Province. The task force commander is Real-Admiral Du Jingchen, who serves as chief of staff of the South China Sea Fleet. En route to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, the commander told Xinhua that the expedition has not been given any landing plans and Chinese warships will not accept assignment from other countries or regional organizations. "But we will exchange information with other country's escort ships and provide humanitarian help in our power to foreign vessels in danger," Du said. Specification source
BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Canvassers for China's economic census must ensure the validity and credibility of the results to give decision makers better insight into the economy, Vice Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday. The census is vital as it provides a frame of reference for the government to maintain stable, rapid economic growth as the financial crisis deepens, Li said during visits to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and a census data collection site here. "The global financial crisis has not bottomed out but has further hit the world economy, and its adverse impact on China is gradually unfolding," said Li. He urged census-takers to strive for quality and timeliness in their data. Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (2nd R Front) talks with a woman during his visit to China Power Investment Corporation in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 4, 2009. Li Keqiang on Sunday visited the State Bureau of Statistics and China Power Investment Corporation in Beijing for the second national economic census. China started its second national economic census in October and is expected to publish the results at the end of this year. Workers have finished preparations and begun to collect and analyze the data. The NBS started the census in 2004, and it is conducted every five years. The current census will help form the basis of the social and economic development blueprint for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). Statisticians around the nation will survey all enterprises from the secondary and tertiary sectors, including smaller ones that were omitted from earlier annual statistics.
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official called on the country's lawyers to serve their clients wholeheartedly and be a guard for the legal rights and interests of their clients, at Saturday's opening of the Seventh National Lawyers Congress. The congress will last through October 27. He urged Chinese lawyers to strictly abide by the principle of "making facts as the base and law as the yardstick" and follow their code of conduct and disciplines. Lawyers "should take the safeguarding of social fairness and justice as the fundamental pursuit of value in their practice," said Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau and the secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (CPLAC). Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's lawyer system has been gradually improving, while the lawyers' number has kept on increasing and their role has become increasingly clear, according to the senior official. Zhou urged Chinese lawyers to give top priority to the cause of the Party, the interests of the people, and the Constitution and law, and be an adamantine constructor and guard for socialism with China's own characteristics. Chinese lawyers should become a promoter for social harmony, he said, noting that the All-China Lawyers Association (ACLA) should bring into full play of its role as a bridge and ligament between Chinese lawyers and the Party and the government. Present at the opening session were Meng Jianzhu, minister of public security, state councilor and deputy secretary of the CPLAC, Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People's Court, and Cao Jianming, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. According to official website of the ACLA, the congress is its highest governing body. China has some 140,000 lawyers in practice and over 14,000 law firms
重庆那里有心理咨询
LANZHOU, Nov.18 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in northwest China's Gansu Province have put the violent protest under control after a group of petitioners attacked local government buildings on Monday night, said a provincial government official. The protesters have left the government building and the social order has resumed normal in Longnan City, where the unrest erupted, on Tuesday night. More than 30 residents in Dongjiang Town, Wudu District, who faced resettlement, gathered at the city's government around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, asking the authorities for proper solutions concerning their farmland, housing and livelihoods. The unrest resulted from a planned relocation of the city's government which would force the residents to be resettled. The protesters talked with some officials on Monday but they failed to reach any agreement. On Monday night, more people joined them and some of the protesters attacked government buildings, damaged vehicles and facilities, and injured some policemen who tried to maintain order, according to a report of the provincial government. The government's relocation plan has not been approved by the central government yet, the report said.
BEIJING, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares staged a broad-based rebound on Wednesday, making up the previous day's losses after an overnight rally on Wall Street. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finished at 2,017 points, a gain of 6.05 percent. The Shenzhen Component Index rose 6.14 percent to 6,679 points. Combined turnover shrank to 120.81 billion yuan (17.26 billion U.S. dollars) from the previous day's 145 billion yuan. Gains outnumbered losses by 865 to eight in Shanghai and 743 to two in Shenzhen. Almost all sectors rose, with more than 200 stocks up by the daily limit of 10 percent. An investor looks at the electronic board in a stock exchange in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 19, 2008. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index finished at 2,017 points, a gain of 6.05 percent The Shanghai index fell more than 6 percent on Tuesday over fears of a spreading global slowdown, exacerbated by profit-taking. Shares rebounded sharply in the afternoon on Wednesday as investors bought up energy and bank stocks, which had fallen heavily on Tuesday. Oil, telecom and banking sectors led the rise. Sinopec rose by 10 percent to 8.37 yuan. PetroChina was up 7.49 percent, closing at 11.91 yuan. China Citic Bank gained 6.51 percent to 4.42 yuan. Telecom shares surged on reports of an imminent approval of 3G licenses. China United Telecommunications rose 10 percent to 6.03 yuan. A Guangfa Securities note said the rebound showed investor confidence had risen after Tuesday's decline. The sharp rises of energy and banking stocks showed institutional investors were optimistic over market prospects.
BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) issued a policy document on Sunday urging the improved social welfare enjoyed by the country's 900 million rural population. The Decision on Major Issues Concerning the Advancement of Rural Reform and Development was approved by the CPC Central Committee on Oct. 12 in a plenary session. RURAL CULTURE AND EDUCATION The document urged for further cultural development in the country's rural areas, quoting that "rural cultural development is of great importance to building a new socialist countryside." It demanded TV, radio and movies be more accessible in the rural areas, and more community cultural centers to be set up in the villages along with countryside libraries. Cultural products based on rural lives and activities, which the farmers are willing to participate and have easy access to should be encouraged, the document said. It urged urban organizations to go to the countryside to spread scientific and literacy knowledge and offer medical services to farmers, and help them break away from superstitions and build a harmonious society that advocated gender equality and honesty. Local farmers work in the fields in Wenxian County of Longnan City, northwest China's Gansu Province, on Oct. 19, 2008. Reconstruction on agriculture is accelerated in Longnan, the province's most suffered area in the May 12 earthquake that devastated China's southwest and northwest regions The document also said efforts must be made to improve the education level in rural areas, especially for the left-behind children, those whose parents are both working in the cities, and children from economically-challenged families. Professional trainings should be provided in townships to train farmers, while college students were encouraged to go the countryside to work. Quality of teachers in the rural areas would be improved, along with their salaries and working conditions, the document said. SOCIAL WELFARE AND RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE In addition, efforts must be made to ensure all farmers can enjoy basic medicare service by sticking to the rural cooperative medical system, the document said. It demanded every county and township should have its own medical institution, while villages in the rural areas were also encouraged to set up medical stations to provide "safe and inexpensive medical service" to farmers. Endemic diseases, infectious diseases and disease that affects both human beings and livestock must be closely guarded against, with the focus on prevention of such illness. The one-child policy must be adhered to in the countryside to retain a low birth rate in the rural areas, and to deal with a disproportional sex ratio, the document said. It also demanded to accelerate the construction of a comprehensive social welfare system in the countryside. A new old age insurance system in the rural areas should be established in the countryside with the premiums paid by the beneficiaries and the collective and government subsidies. Authorities should find ways to incorporate the system with the urban old-age insurance system, it said. In addition, the livelihood of farmers whose land had been requisitioned must be guaranteed before the requisition procedure, the document said. The rural minimum living allowance system must be perfected with larger subsidies from the central and provincial budget, to cover all applicable with improved benefits. Living standards of those who receive five guarantees, namely food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses provided by local governments for their lack of relatives and working abilities, should be in accordance with the average living standards of the neighborhood, the document demanded. It also urged to improve the relief system to help farmers affected by natural disasters and boost social welfare for the old, the handicapped, the poor and orphans. Prevention of disability and rehabilitation for the disabled must also be strengthened in the countryside, the document said. The document highlighted the importance of infrastructure construction in the rural areas. The committee vowed to ensure villagers to have safe drinking water within five years and townships be connected by cement roads by the end of 2010. Efforts should be made to develop renewable energy resources, including methane, wind and solar energy, it said, adding Internet service would be accessible for more farmers. POVERTY REDUCTION AND DISASTER RELIEF The committee pledged to provide more low-income farmers with financial aid and give more assistance to people in remote areas, revolutionary bases, ethnic minority regions and poverty-stricken places. International cooperation should be enhanced to fight poverty in the countryside, it read. To install an upgraded natural disaster forecasting system and raise farmers' awareness of emergency response and relief was also one of the document's high points. The capacity of forecasting disastrous weather, ecological disasters and monitoring earthquakes should be strengthened and more needs to be done to promote farmers' disaster prevention and relief awareness, it said. The paper also set the direction for public facility safety standards, saying schools and hospital buildings should all be safe and up to construction standards. All-out efforts should be made to restore the agriculture work in the area struck by the May 12 Sichuan earthquake and more measures need to be adopted to heal and improve the ecological conditions in the quake-hit region, it noted. HARMONIOUS SOCIETY IN THE COUNTRYSIDE It also emphasized the importance of maintaining a "harmonious" and "stable" environment in the countryside. More channels should be opened to solicit farmers' opinions and address their complaints and problems, said the paper, adding leaders should pay frequent visits to farmers and solve villagers' problems at the grassroot level. The committee further underscored ethnic relations. The equal, united, mutually-aided and harmonious ethnic relations should be consolidated and developed, it said. Interference with village affairs by any religious groups or clans would be objected; evil cults in villages were prohibited and any mafia-style force would incur severe crackdown, it said. Local farmers work in the fields in Wenxian County of Longnan City, northwest China's Gansu Province, on Oct. 19, 2008. Reconstruction on agriculture is accelerated in Longnan, the province's most suffered area in the May 12 earthquake that devastated China's southwest and northwest regions
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), the country's biggest power supplier, said Sunday that its 2008 net profit fell almost 80 percent year on year due to natural disasters and higher power prices. Net profit was 9.66 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars), compared with 47.1 billion yuan in 2007. Revenue rose 13.8 percent to 1.156 trillion yuan from a year earlier, the state-owned company noted. The power distributor suffered more than 22 billion yuan (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) of direct economic loss in the worst winter weather in at least 50 years in southern China and the May 12 earthquake. China raised the on-grid power price by 0.017 yuan per kwh in June and 0.02 yuan kwh in August to around 0.3 yuan per kwh on average to offset rising costs in power plants. But retail household power prices were capped amid concerns of a higher inflation. The company said it planned to invest 83 billion yuan (12 billion U.S. dollars) in ultra-high voltage (UHV) power lines in 2009 and 2010 to make long-distance transmission more efficient. China's power demand and installed power generating capacity would likely double to 7.4 trillion kwh and 1.47 billion kw respectively in 2020, it forecasted.