News from Official

China launches campaign to clear out unexecuted court cases

China wants to clear up a backlog of court cases during an eight-month campaign which started in Beijing Wednesday. Wang Shengjun, President of China's Supreme People's Court, said the campaign was expected to bring an end to a number of long-running property cases. The specific number of backlogged cases was not released. "Some sentences that have not been carried out remain major concerns of petitioners and the public," Wang said. "Those cases usually draw criticisms an ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

China vows to protect farmers from malpractice in farmland transfers

China's Party and government discipline watchdogs pledged to protect farmers from malpractice in farmland management and rural democracy. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Ministry of Supervision issued a circular in Beijing Wednesday, planning to address problems that harmed farmers' interests. The CCDI and ministry will supervise related government departments so they don't harm farmers interests when they hand ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

U.S. food, drug regulator opens first overseas office in Beijing

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened its first overseas office in Beijing on Wednesday. The office will mainly be responsible for communicating with relevant regulatory departments in China and will help build up the country's food and drug safety supervision, said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "The establishment of this office will further promote and deepen the collaboration between China and the United States in the ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Chinese top legislator meets Slovak guest

Chinese top legislator, Wu Bangguo, met in Beijing Wednesday with visiting speaker of the Slovak National Council, Pavol Paska, calling on the two sides to step up inter-parliamentary cooperation to further boost bilateral relations. Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, highlighted China-Slovakia relations, noting that the ties already entered into a phase of development. Citing Slovakia as one of the fastest ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

CPC delegation leaves for Iran, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Palestine

A delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) left here on Wednesday for good-will visits to Iran, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel and Palestine. The delegation was led by Liu Yunshan, member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and head of the CPC Central Committee Publicity Department. The delegation was invited by the governments of Iran, Bahrain and Israel and Egypt's ruling party, the National Democratic Party and the Palestine National Liberation Movement (FATEH). ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

APEC Ministerial Meeting kicks off in Lima

The 20th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting started in the Peruvian capital on Wednesday, to make final preparations for the APEC Leaders' Meeting on the weekend. The two-day ministerial meeting, held at the National Museum in Lima, will discuss global economic issues, APEC's support for the WTO Doha Round negotiations and the APEC regional economic integration, Peruvian International Trade and Tourism Minister Mercedes Araoz said at the opening session. ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Hu, Abbas exchange messages to mark 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas exchanged congratulatory messages Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. In his message, Hu said the two sides have cooperated with each other in a trustful and supportive way since the establishment of diplomatic ties 20 years ago. China, which attaches great importance to relations with Palestine, is willing to further bilateral cooperation at all ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Chinese president ends visit to Cuba, flies to Peru for APEC meeting

Chinese President Hu Jintao concluded his state visit to Cuba Wednesday and left for Lima, Peru to continue his five-nation trip, in which he will attend the Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Organization (APEC) scheduled for Nov. 22-23. This was President Hu's second state visit to the Latin American country since his first in November 2004. In Havana, Hu held talks with Raul Castro, president of the Council of the State of Cuba, on expanding friendly and ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Chinese official: Clear court cases to maintain social stability

A senior official of the Communist Party of China on Wednesday urged relevant departments to clear up long-delayed court verdicts to maintain social stability in face of the global financial crisis. "To execute the verdicts is in urgent demand for tackling the global financial crisis and to boost economic development," said Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at a tele-conference. It will also help ease social con ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Peruvian press hails Chinese president's upcoming visit

Peruvian newspapers Wednesday hailed the upcoming official visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was due to arrive in Lima later in the day as the first Chinese president to visit the Latin American country. National daily La Republica ran a front-page picture of a smiling Hu waving to a crowd, with two huge red Chinese characters "Huan Ying" (welcome) on the top of page. The paper said the Peruvian government, headed by President Alan Garcia, was looking forward to Hu's visi ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Statistics: Asia-Pacific region more integrated since founding of APEC

The Asia-Pacific region has become more integrated since the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, according to statistics released by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) on Wednesday. "I think we can take some satisfactions" that the region has been more integrated since the establishment of APEC in 1989, Yuen Pau Woo, co-author of the State of the Region Report on Asia-Pacific, told a press conference in Lima, the Peruvian capital. It ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

VP: Chinese president's visit to Peru to boost bilateral ties

Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Peru and participation in the APEC economic leaders' meeting will boost bilateral ties between Peru and China, Peruvian First Vice President Luis Giampietri said Wednesday. Peru and China have kept a traditional friendly relationship, and Hu's visit will be a good opportunity to boost bilateral relations, Giampietri told Xinhua. China is a market with great potential as it has a large population and enjoys rapid economic growth, he ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Report: Global financial crisis top risk to Asia-Pacific economic growth

The current global financial crisis will be the most serious risk facing the Asia-Pacific region in the next 12 months, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) said Wednesday. The financial turmoil, triggered by the subprime crisis in the United Stated, would affect the economic growth in the region, Yuen Pau Woo, co-author of the State of the Region report, told a news conference in Lima, the Peruvian capital, while releasing the report. APEC leaders should ensure abando ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Backgrounder: The Republic of Peru

The Republic of Peru, with an area of 1.29 million square kilometers and Lima as its capital, is located in western South America and is bordered by Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil and Bolivia to the east and Chile to the south. The population of Peru, estimated at 28.22 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Indian-Europeans, Europeans and others. The country's official language is Spanish. Peru has rich mineral resources, with bismuth and vanadium deposits ra ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Report: Food production in developing economies most vulnerable to climate change

Food production in developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region would be the most affected by climate change, said a report released on Wednesday by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). Southeast Asia, parts of China and a number of the Pacific islands are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels because significant agricultural production and food system infrastructure are located in low-lying coastal areas, said the report, which was released during the APEC Leaders' ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Chinese envoy says president's Peru visit to open new chapter in ties

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Peru will open a new chapter in the long-standing friendly relations between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador to Peru said. Since the establishment of their diplomatic ties 37 years ago, bilateral cooperation in such fields as politics, economy and trade and culture has gone through an all-around development, Ambassador Gao Zhengyue told Xinhua in a recent interview. The two developing countries, both boasting ancient civilizations, ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Chinese, Peruvian leaders discuss bilateral relations

Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met his Peruvian counterpart Alan Garcia in Lima on Wednesday for talks on promoting the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and the South American nation. The meeting took place only hours after the Chinese leader's arrival in the Peruvian capital from Havana. In a written statement issued upon his arrival here, the Chinese president said he will exchange views with Garcia and other Peruvian leaders on ways to deepen the bilateral tie ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Taxi operation resumes after brief stoppage in suburbs of China's Chongqing

Taxi drivers resumed work Wednesday afternoon in the Yongchuan suburb of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality after briefly protesting a government plan to increase the number of taxis for fear of competition. Yongchuan authorities set up a meeting for Thursday morning with the nine taxi companies in the district. Drivers went on strike to demonstrate opposition to a proposal by the local government to raise the number of cabs from 330 to 430, saying it would cut in to their ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Hong Kong man given 8-years in jail for running online gambling Websites in SW China

A Hong Kong man, found guilty of running a number of gambling Websites, was sentenced to eight years and fined 20 million yuan (2.9 million U.S. dollars) in southwest China's Yunnan Province. The case, believed to be the country's biggest online gambling case, involved about 8.68 billion yuan in wagered money and more than 278 million yuan in illegal profits, a source of the Yunnan High People's Court said on Wednesday. Tam Chi-wai, a Hong Kong resident, set up a gambling house i ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more

Forest coverage more than doubled in China's largest green project

China has grown and preserved a total of 24.46 million hectares of forest since 1978. That's when the country initiated its largest green project. Since then, the forest coverage rate in affected regions more than doubled to 10.51 percent, according to statistics released by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) in Beijing on Wednesday. The national forest conservation project, covering 42.4 percent of the country's total area from the northwest to the northeast, is scheduled t ...
Publication date: 2008-11-19 more