News » Society » Rain, snow to hit S China

News » Society » Rain, snow to hit S China

Rain, snow to hit S China

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:27 PM PST

RAIN and snow will sweep south China in the coming three days, weather authorities said today.

Strong precipitation is expected to hit the eastern part of southwest China, the Yellow River and the Huaihe River valleys and areas south of the Yangtze River from Tuesday to Thursday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement.

Moderate to heavy snow will fall on parts of those regions, according to the statement.

It also said moderate to heavy rain will hit southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, central China's Hunan Province, and Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in the east, with torrential rain expected in some areas.

The NMC also forecast heavy snow in northern and western parts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region over the next three days.

VIDEO: Gangnam style in China for Christmas

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 05:50 PM PST

All around the world hundred of millions of people are celebrating, or are about to celebrate, Christmas in a host of different ways.

Africa and China: Workers face clash of cultures

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 04:14 PM PST

Do Africans and Chinese understand each other?

Father's 'surprise' gift of life

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:16 AM PST

Wan Jinqiang and his two-year-old son Wan Kefan are pictured in Beijing yesterday before they left a hospital where they had undergone the nation's first liver transplant between a father and son with different blood types on November 20. The father is type AB while the son is type B. The boy was diagnosed with liver disease in June and doctors said only a transplant could save his life. The father persuaded doctors to do the surgery in the hope of a "surprise success" despite the high risk of rejection.

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China to raise farmers' land compensation

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:11 AM PST

China is considering raising compensation for farmers whose collectively owned land is taken from them - a move aimed at cutting the number of land disputes that threaten the social stability of a country with a rural population exceeding 656 million.

A draft amendment to the Land Administration Law will remove the current ceiling for calculating compensation which has been judged to be too low and also ensure money is paid out before land is expropriated.

Currently, the ceiling is 30 times the land's average annual output in the three years before it is taken.

Chinese farmers do not own their fields. Instead, rural land is owned collectively by a village, and farmers get leases that last for decades.

The compensation ceiling, set in 2004, is not in accordance with today's economic situation and many localities have seen compensation standards exceed it, says the draft submitted to the National People's Congress for its first reading yesterday.

It also proposes a rule that no land can be taken without first settling on compensation, as well as increased compensation to cover farmers' rural residences, relocation allowances and social security fees.

"Illegal expropriation of rural land frequently occured in some regions. It has become a prominent problem endangering social stability," Song Dahan, head of the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office, said when submitting the draft yesterday, Xinhua news agency said.

Song said current legal compensation methods had deficiencies including "low compensation standard, rigid regulations and a lack of guarantee for the farmers' long-term livelihood and social security."

He said there were loopholes in procedures and insufficient compensation.

"The standards are too low and rigid, and cannot sustain the long-term well-being of farmers."

The draft amendment, which focuses on Article 47, proposes to give "fair compensation" to farmers to "ensure their living standards improve and their long-term livelihood is guaranteed" after their land is taken.

"China is still at the stage when a rural land market has yet to be formed," Song was quoted.

"Fair compensation" means the standard should be set by taking more factors into consideration such as location, supply and demand, level of economic and social development, and social security fees instead of only taking into account the annual output of the land before it is expropriated, Song said.

"The draft amendment sets down the principle of 'compensation and relocation first, expropriation later'," Song said.

Farmers whose land is expropriated and who then find it hard to find a new job will be given training, employment guidance and other help in looking for work, he said.

Large-scale rallies

Song said land expropriation reforms aim to balance urbanization and farmland protection, better protect legitimate rights or farmers and restrict government taking land from farmers.

Farmers' protests over land seizures have occurred across the country in recent years, prompting calls for better protection of property rights.

Last year, Wukan, a village in south China's Guangdong Province, made international headlines when its residents staged three waves of large-scale rallies in four months to protest at government officials' illegal land grabs and violations of finance rules.

Peace was later restored after the government promised to investigate and villagers were allowed to choose their own representatives.

Earlier this month, a house that had stood in the middle of a new road for more than a year was finally demolished in east China's Zhejiang Province, ending a long dispute over compensation. The bizarre sight in Zhejiang's Wenling City also made headlines worldwide after photographs were posted online.

11 children killed in van crash

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:11 AM PST

Eleven children died after a minivan carrying them to kindergarten plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of eastern China yesterday.

Three children died at the scene of the accident in Guixi City in Jiangxi Province and another eight died later in hospital, said an official. Four children survived.

The accident is the latest in a string of deadly crashes in China involving school children.

Police detained the driver for questioning and were investigating the cause of the accident, Xinhua news agency said.

The minivan belonged to Chunlei kindergarten, which doesn't have a government license to operate, according to the website of China Central Television. Its report said that the van was traveling too fast and had swerved to avoid a parked vehicle.

Photos on the website showed pairs of tiny shoes and brightly colored schoolbags lined up on the ground near the scene and an injured child being treated.

The van was said to have a capacity of seven people but had 17 onboard. A teacher was also on the vehicle at the time.

Overcrowding on school buses is common in rural China, where the education system is short of funds and children are forced to travel far to get an education because of school closures.

Last year, a nine-seat private school van overloaded with 62 kindergarten children and two adults crashed head-on with a truck in western China, killing 19 children and the adults. The accident caused public uproar and Premier Wen Jiabao pledged more support for school bus safety and said central and local governments would bear the cost of bringing buses up to standard.

Chinese finding their own ways to celebrate Xmas

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:10 AM PST

AT Christmas, Chinese youngsters embrace the festival like Westerners but not for religious reasons or family reunions.

Young people have found a "Chinese way" to celebrate. For them, Christmas is more like an excuse to have a break from their busy lives.

Liu Ping, a postgraduate student from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, spent last Christmas having dinner with her boyfriend and enjoying the sales.

"I had a great time, and I'm planning to do the same this year," Liu added, recalling she spent 10,000 yuan (US$1,604) on the day.

In many department stores across the country, Christmas decorations, trees, Santas and jingle bells can be found, luring shoppers with the promise of seasonal bargains.

The sales volume on Christmas Eve is the highest for the whole year, Kang Wei, sales director of Guidu department store in Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province, said.

Some experts believe more Chinese youngsters have started celebrating Christmas due to the pressures of life and seize any opportunity to have fun.

"Carrying a lot of pressure, the young seek to relax, providing moneymaking opportunities for merchants," said Ma Zhichao, of the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

While some are celebrating Christmas in a commercial way, others are celebrating the festival's original meaning.

On Sunday, Chen Kejia was baptized and became a Christian.

"I chose to be baptized on that day. To spend a real Christmas with other Christians," said Chen, a nurse at a hospital in Beijing.

At the South Cathedral in Beijing, Catholics were attending Mass last night.

One of them, surnamed Yang, said: "Christmas is a day to remember the birth of Jesus. It moves me and gives me power." He said Christmas had been commercialized in China, which had nothing to do with religious belief.

"It's completely different from our real Christmas," he said.

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Blogging, taping at trials barred for fairness

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:58 AM PST

PARTICIPANTS or bystanders in legal proceedings cannot record or videotape trials, nor can they broadcast the court's activities live via e-mail, microblog or other forms of media, China's top court said yesterday.

Journalists who have permission from the courts are still allowed to report on trials, according to a judicial interpretation of the amended Criminal Procedure Law issued by the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

Participants are also forbidden from applauding or taking other actions that could disturb the trial.

The prohibitions are aimed at ensuring proper trial procedure and guarding litigants' rights, an SPC official said.

Some courtroom participants have used computers or mobile phones to broadcast trials, disturbing the independent and fair judgment of the courts, the official said.

Such practices also indicate that some participants have not fully concentrated on the legal matters at hand, violating professional ethics and impairing the legitimate rights and interests of litigants, the official added.

The presiding judge has the right to seize media or equipment used by participants to broadcast trials without permission, said the interpretation.

The lengthy interpretation mainly targets newly added or revised provisions of the amended law and explains relevant provisions that need to be further defined, according to a statement from the SPC.

The Criminal Procedural Law was amended in March during the annual session of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, to include the phrase "respecting and protecting human rights" in the law's first chapter.

The revised law stresses protecting suspects and defendants from "illegal restriction, detention and arrest."

According to the interpretation, collegiate benches should listen to the defense counsel during the review of a death sentence if the defense counsel wishes to express its opinion.

For witnesses who refuse to appear in court without a proper reason, the chief justice may sign a decree to force the witnesses to appear.

To better protect the safety of witnesses, courts should refrain from releasing names, addresses or other private information regarding the witnesses, as well as avoid exposing their voices and faces, the interpretation read.

The interpretation also forbids forcing defendants to confess by torturing them physically or mentally.


China to get tough on abuse of online personal details

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:40 AM PST

CHINA is cracking down on the theft, sale or abuse of personal information with the country's top legislature deliberating a draft decision to tighten online security and protect Internet users' privacy.

China will protect digital information that could be used to determine the identity of a user or that concerns a user's privacy, according to the draft decision submitted to the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress yesterday.

The draft bans individuals or companies from sending business information to cell phones or e-mail accounts without their owners' permission. Punishments for violators have not yet been announced.

Meanwhile, Internet users will be required to identify themselves to service providers, including Internet or telecommunications operators, before they can publish any information on their online platforms, according to the draft. Internet users may use nicknames when publishing information online but only after they complete the identity checking process.

"Such identity management could be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when publicizing information," Li Fei, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as telling lawmakers yesterday.

The draft decision aims to enhance social management on the Internet and ensure the safety of information online, Li said.

The move to protect personal information, filter spam messages and establish an online identity policy follows a surge in online scams, fraud and identity theft in recent years.

According to one report by a major anti-computer virus company, more than 257 million people in China had been the victims of Internet crime in the 12 months since July last year.

The report said these crimes had caused direct economic losses of 289 billion yuan (US$46.3 billion).

Many suspects had not identified themselves to service providers or simply used false details, making it hard for the authorities to collect evidence, China National Radio reported.

The lack of a law banning Internet users from publishing information without their identities being checked had made illegal online activities easier, CNR reported.

The draft follows a regulation issued in Beijing last year which required local microblog operators to register users with their real names in a bid to stop online rumors.

A nationwide real name registration policy for mobile phones took effect on September 1, 2010, enabling police to track down spammers once the senders' numbers were reported to them.

Legislators consider program to limit administrative power

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:40 AM PST

THE top legislature is considering a pilot program in south China's Guangdong Province to further limit administrative power by suspending or adjusting a list of governmental examination and approval items.

The list consists of 25 examination items set by national laws, including settings for special business entities, qualifications for health care facilities for work-related illnesses and architect registration.

Once adopted, Guangdong would be given special authorization to temporarily cancel administrative approval items or assign them to authorities at lower levels, Minister of Supervision Ma Wen said yesterday while briefing legislators in Beijing.

It would also mark the first such decision made by the top legislature after the country declared it had successfully established a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics in March 2011, as previous authorizations were often made to address the absence of major legislation.

Guangdong was chosen for the program because of its position at the forefront of reform and its relatively high level of market development, Ma said, adding that economic and social developments in Guangdong had created an urgent need for further administrative reform.

In 2011, Guangdong's per capita GDP was US$7,819, ranking seventh among China's 31 provincial regions on the mainland, according to the provincial statistics bureau.

Guangdong has pioneered many cutting-edge reforms, including those used to promote transparent policy-making and increase the government's operational efficiency.

In October, the Guangdong government pledged to create a better commercial environment by cutting 40 percent of administrative approvals at multiple levels by 2013, as well as cut the amount of time required for reviewing procedures in half by 2017.

Since 2001, the government has made six attempts to clean up the administrative approval system, which is said to have caused unnecessary intervention in small business, power abuses and corruption.

Figures from the State Council show that a total of 2,497 administrative approval items had been rescinded or adjusted in the past 10 years, accounting for 69.3 percent of the total.

However, "our reforms are still lagging far behind the country's economic and social development," said Ma. She said the Guangdong program is expected to create experience for future reforms in other areas.

If the program is successful, laws will be amended to make the program universal. But it will be terminated if unsuccessful, Ma said.

According to the draft, 15 government approval items targeted for suspension will be handed over to professional associations outside the government.

"Governments should refrain from handling issues that citizens, corporations or other organizations can handle independently, that a market competition mechanism can effectively adjust or that industrial groups and agencies can manage," according to a State Council statement issued on August 22.


Busy week for lawmakers

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:39 AM PST

CHINA'S top legislature started to review nine draft laws, amendments and revisions yesterday, including a draft decision on Internet management.

At a session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, lawmakers were briefed on draft revisions to the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and the Law on Funds for Investment in Securities.

They will also deliberate amendments to the Land Administration Law, the Labor Contract Law and the Trademark Law during the Beijing session which ends on Friday.

Amendment targets use of famous trademarks

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:39 AM PST

CHINA plans to crack down on "malicious" trademark registrations, after a series of cases in which international brands and individuals had their names or copyright misused.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan was one of the latest to accuse a company of using his name without permission, and French luxury group Hermes and Apple have also faced trademark problems.

The proposed amendment will offer protection to major international brands, giving copyright owners the right to ban others from registering their trademarks or from using similar ones, even if such trademarks are not registered, Xinhua news agency reported.

The draft increases the ceiling for fines imposed on trademark violators from 500,000 yuan (US$80,179) to 1 million yuan in the event that financial losses and gains from the infringement cannot be determined.

The fines were raised with the consideration that the owners of trademarks that are infringed upon often spend great sums of money in taking violators to court.

Basketball star Michael Jordan filed a lawsuit in China in February against a Chinese sportswear company, accusing the firm of unauthorized use of his name.

The former Chicago Bulls star said Qiaodan Sports, a company in southern Fujian Province, had built its business around his Chinese name "Qiaodan" and jersey number without his permission.

France's Hermes International SCA also had problems in China with its trademark, and in July Apple Inc agreed to pay US$60 million to Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to end a protracted legal dispute over the iPad trademark in China.

Poor farms profit growing crop from Andes

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:12 AM PST

RATHER than abandoning his rural home in the mountains of Shanxi Province to do hard, manual labor in a big city, Mao Cunlin, 57, farms at home, earning more than his migrant worker son.

Quinoa, a grain-like crop from the Andes known for its nutritious edible seeds, has brought prosperity to Mao and other farmers in the Luliang Mountains.

Known as "a food for the poorest of the poor," quinoa has been a staple in Latin American and South American countries for thousands of years. The so-called "Mother Grain's" nutritional value, however, was not fully appreciated until the 1980s, when it was found to be rich in protein, magnesium and iron, as well as a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus and calcium.

The high-protein food, related to spinach and beets, gained worldwide popularity as appetites for organic and whole foods have expanded in recent years. Bolivia, for example, raked in US$64 million from quinoa exports in 2011, spurring a cultivation boom.

Mao grew up in one of the poorest regions in northern China, where generations of people have suffered from poverty largely caused by the harsh environment. He spent much of his life not even knowing about the Andes.

In the pursuit of wealth, waves of Luliang residents have migrated to cities over the years, but quinoa cultivation is enabling some to stay.

Mao has already earned 50,000 yuan (US$8,000) from the 1.2 hectares of quinoa he planted in May - a sum that is nearly double what his son makes as an urban laborer.

The crop can survive in the Andes as well as the Luliang Mountains, freeing people in both areas from the geographic constraints that prevent conventional profitable farming, said Hao Lijun, the head of Suopo Township, who encouraged villagers to try cultivating the alien crop two years ago.

The quinoa in Shanxi has been planted on the 1,600-meter-high mountain slopes. The crop guarantees profits four times that of potatoes, Hao said, basing his estimates on how much it cost to buy quinoa online.

"More and more middle class Chinese in cities have begun to know this healthy food," said Wu Xiangyun, manager of Shanxi Jiaqi Agricultural Technology Co Ltd. "It has very strong market potential."

The growing wealth and changing appetites of urban Chinese have been driving changes in countryside farming techniques, presenting more opportunities for farmers.


Report: Famous snacks made in dirty conditions

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:11 AM PST

AN undercover investigation has alleged that Qiaqia, a famous snack brand, allows unhygienic conditions and altered production dates in its workshops making bestselling products such as roasted seeds and nuts.

Workers in the Hefei, Anhui Province-based Qiaqia Food Co were found to process seeds and nuts without wearing disposable gloves and gauze masks, City Sun newspaper reported yesterday.

While processing the seeds and nuts, some of the Qiaqia workers chatted and sneezed, according to the findings of an undercover reporter for the newspaper.

However, the report did not find the company mixing substandard, years-old sunflower seeds with fresh ones - as found in a report in May by the China Business News.

Qiaqia Food Co replied yesterday on its website that it had launched investigation over the accusation.

The City Sun said that some Qiaqia workers, fearful of having their paychecks docked, picked up dirty seeds and nuts accidentally dumped on the ground, and simply removed hair stuck in the food before packing.

They also added flavor essence with altered production dates to roasted sunflower seeds, the report alleged.

But Qiaqia explained in an online statement that the flavor essence was from the best supplier in China and the products complied with national standards.

The report also accused the company of altering the production dates of imported pecans and recruiting workers without health certificates.

Qiaqia admitted later yesterday that five of its workers were hired without the document but said it has punished employees be responsible for the negligence and helped the five acquire the certificate.

Teacher fired over photo of 7 students kneeling

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:07 AM PST


A PICTURE that circulated online of seven students kneeling in a school courtyard was not physical punishment, but was taken as the students kneeled to seek forgiveness for bullying a student, education authorities in east China's Anhui Province said yesterday.

However, a report in the Beijing News says the students were forced to kneel for an hour on a chilly afternoon and threatened if they told anyone about it.

Despite authorities' explanation, the teacher was still sacked because of her "improper handling" of the situation since she didn't stopped the students in time, said Huang Yan, section chief with the Yingdong District Education Bureau in Fuyang City.

"The teacher criticized them in the playground and asked them to call their parents to school. These students felt frightened and one suddenly kneeled down and others followed him," Huang said.

In the picture, the seven eighth-grade students at the Jingjiu Experimental Middle School were seen kneeling below a banner that read, "Welcome leaders to inspect our school."

The banner has been hung for several months, according to anhuinews.com.

The school was ordered to rectify management loopholes, the website reported. The privately run school hired many temporary teachers, and some did not have proper training, education officials said.

Yum Gets Regulators’ Support on Safety

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:49 AM PST

Source: Wall Street Journal By Colum MurphySHANGHAI—Shanghai regulators gave Yum Brands Inc. some shelter from criticism by China's state-run media of its food-safety practices, saying chicken sampled from the U.S. restaurant company's KFC arm complied with government limits on antibiotics.

But pressure remains as authorities pledged to press ahead with further investigations of potential food-safety violations by Yum. The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration also said that tests showed what it called suspicious levels of an antiviral drug that will prompt additional attention. Yum, which has said it is working with authorities and is committed to food safety, didn't respond to requests for comment over the weekend.

The agency said in a statement dated Friday that 32 samples from eight batches of KFC chicken seized last week passed tests for antibiotics and steroids. The tests followed a report from China Central Television, China's powerful state-run national broadcaster, accusing KFC of purchasing raw chicken with unapproved levels of antibiotics from two poultry suppliers.

On Thursday the agency said that eight out of 19 batches of chicken samples sent for laboratory testing by Yum in 2010 and 2011 had higher than acceptable levels of antibiotics and that authorities will investigate whether Yum took appropriate steps in response to those laboratory results. It wasn't clear over the weekend what happened to those earlier batches of chicken.

But the agency also said Friday that last week's tests showed suspicious levels of the antiviral drug amantadine in KFC chicken. Shanghai authorities have sealed off the batch in question and have asked Yum to recall related products from its KFC restaurants.

Branches of SFDA in the Shanghai area will conduct additional checks, and any violations will be subject to "severe punishment," the statement added. The finding doesn't necessarily mean KFC violated China's food-safety laws. The SFDA said that because there is no national standard for measuring amantadine, it needs more time to confirm the results with experts and evaluate the food-safety risk posed.

Amantadine is commonly used to fight influenza, but experts say its misuse in raising animals and poultry increases the risk of it becoming ineffective in treating or preventing illness in humans.

In a statement filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, Yum reiterated its earlier position that it was "cooperating fully" with the Chinese government, adding: "These suppliers represent an extremely small percentage of product to KFC. As such, we do not anticipate a shortage of product supply. Recent publicity has resulted in moderate sales impact the past few days."

The allegations come at a challenging time for Yum. In late November, it warned of falling same-store sales in China, a market that accounted for around 44% of its revenue last year.

KFC has suffered food-safety scandals in China before, including in 2005 over the use of a controversial food dye in chicken wings.

This scandal is the latest in a slew of national food-safety scares involving such products as infant powder milk and yogurt that have left millions of Chinese consumers fearful for their health.

Reaction following the SFDA statement on Sina Corp.'s SINA -2.99%Twitter-like Weibo microblogging site was mixed, with some consumers vowing to stay away from the fried-chicken restaurant chain. "I will never go to KFC again. It's so harmful," wrote one user.

Others questioned the authorities' handling of the situation.

"How come our supervising departments always do things after the problem has already happened? What did they do beforehand?" asked another user.

The Rise of Golf in China

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:45 AM PST

Source: Yahoo By Sheri Fresonke Harper

Golf in China is beginning to rise, with an increased number of golf courses, amateurs and professionals winning major golf tournaments and several tour companies offering trips to China along with packages to play at Chinese Golf Clubs.

Brief History of Chinese Golf

Golf in China began as a game known as Chuiwan, according to a YouTube cartoon made from a mural in the monastery in Shanxi Province.

Pu Yi, China's last Emperor learned to play golf from his tutor in the 1920s according to Golf Today.

The China Golf Association was founded in 1985 in Beijing.

Swiss Watchmaker Omega sponsored the China Tour in 2005. The China Golf Association replaced that tour in 2010 with the Chinese Pro Golf Championships, according to Reuters.

Who are the Hottest Male Golfers in China? (ranking listed by the China Golf Association)

•1. Liang Wen-Chong won the 2012 China Masters and recorded two wins in the 2010 One Asia tour according to the Associated Press. A member of the Guangdong Zhongshan Hot Spring Golf Club, he turned professional in 1999 after winning the 1996-1998 Amateur Golf Open.

•2. A Shun Wu

•3. Zhang Lian-Wei, a member of the Shenzhen Golf Club Limited turned professional in 1994, won the 1989, 1991, 1994 Amateur China Championship, won the 1995, 1996 Malaysia and Thailand Masters Championship, 1995 China Open and China Tour Championships, 2000 Ontario Open, 2001 Macau Open along with others according to the Official China Olympic webpage.

•4. Wuwei Huang

•5. Wei Wei

•6. Yuan Haio

Male Rising Golf Stars from China

Professional golfer Zhou Xunshu is an up and comer from the pro circuit in China.

After winning the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in 2012, Guan Tianlang will become the youngest golfer to play at the Masters in 2013, according to Pakistan Today and Golf Digest, following the route set by Andy Zhang in 2012 as described by the BBC.

Who are the Hottest Women Golfer's in China?

Shanshan Feng, 22, is currently ranked sixth worldwide by LPGA.com won the Omega Dubai Ladies Championship in 2012, Rolex First Time Winner and a Wegman's LPGA Championship and is the appointed Omega Ambassador for China according to Bettor.com and China Daily after winning the Ladies National China Championship. She was invited to play a women's professional Helong Cup in 2004 after winning the National Youth Championship Group A in 2003.

China Women Rising Stars

At 13 years old in 2011, Shi Yuting, member at Huangshan Pine Golf and Country Club in Anhui, came in second in the China Ladies Golf Open, setting a new record, according to a CCTV.com YouTube video.

Feng Simin, a 17-year-old amateur won the Wuhan Challenge in 2012 and Liu Yu, a 17-year-old amateur, won Chengtou Ancheng Cup Chongqing Challenge in 2012, a China LPGA event, according to China Daily.

Where to Play Golf in China

GolfToday has a terrific directory of all the golf courses in China, with one or more golf courses in each of 29 provinces. Beijing province has 60 golf courses, followed by 33 in Guangdong Province and Shanghai with 21 for a total of 395, with 100,000 members but ready to support 300,000 according to the USC US-China Institute. Mission Hills Golf Club in China showcases world famous golf designed golf courses.

Have You Heard…

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:44 AM PST

Have You Heard…


Li Keqiang: A man who puts people first

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:57 AM PST

Source: Xinhua

BEIJING – His toughness in advancing complex reforms, as well as his social warmth and scholarly temperament have made him a major figure in China's political arena.

Calling reform "the biggest dividend for China," Vice-Premier Li Keqiang has used different occasions to facilitate reforms since being re-elected in mid-November as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

"Reform is like rowing upstream. Failing to advance means falling back," he said at a symposium on advancing comprehensive reforms.

"Those who refuse to reform may not make mistakes, but they will be blamed for not assuming their historical responsibility," he said.

China's new wave of reform has begun with curbing bureaucracy in meetings. When presiding over meetings, Li forbids officials to read prepared speeches, encourages them to take the floor freely and asks incisive and persistent questions to get to the bottom of matters.

In a meeting on China's HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, he encouraged representatives from nongovernmental organizations to talk more about their problems, even though this delayed his appointment with other officials.

Li has also emphasized that only reform can improve Chinese people's living standards and that future reforms must ensure equal rights and opportunities for the people and ensure that everybody adheres to the rules.

From secretary of a village's CPC branch to member of the CPC's highest leading body, Li, 57, has continuously maintained a down-to-earth work style and the principle of putting people first.

His curriculum vitae reflects his rich governance experience. Li served as secretary of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) committee of Peking University. He was a member of the Secretariat of the CYLC Central Committee and the Party chief of Henan and Liaoning provinces.

Confident, smart and eloquent in public, Li is frank, amiable, resolute and responsible at work, according to his acquaintances.

After 10 years of study at Peking University, Li earned a bachelor's degree in law and master's and doctorate degrees in economics. He has excelled in China's officialdom due to his academic accomplishments and international perspective.

Li first joined the highest leading body of the CPC five years ago at the first Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee. A few months later, he became China's youngest Vice-Premier in nearly 20 years.

Tenacious reformer

Li has garnered much attention by tackling complex reforms over the past five years, during which time China has faced multiple challenges, including the deadly Wenchuan earthquake and the international financial crisis.

Macroeconomic adjustment was the first challenge the Vice-Premier had to face in 2008.

When there was no agreement on a proper way to manage the repercussions of the international financial crisis, Li asked the State Council's fiscal and economic planning departments to adopt a proactive fiscal policy with the precondition of keeping the deficit below 3 percent.

The decision gave the Chinese economy a boost that was strong enough to avoid complications such as the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the "fiscal cliff" in the United States.

Li also chaired more than 40 meetings to deliberate on and make arrangements for an affordable housing program for the needy, which is the biggest of its kind in China and has helped boost domestic consumption amid a slowing world economy.

Over the past few years, China's fiscal spending on affordable housing construction has reached a record high. With 17 million government-subsidized apartments already built, nearly 100 million Chinese have moved into comfortable, high-quality homes, and another 13 million apartments are currently under construction or being renovated.

Another reform that has thrust Li into a widening spotlight relates to medical and health care services, a worldwide challenge.

After Li took over as head of the State Council's leading group for medical and health care reform, the country quickly set a goal of turning medical and health care into a basic public service accessible to all, taking a progressive approach to prioritizing the basic needs of the people and the need for institutional improvement.

The central government has issued 14 documents to inspire local experiments since 2009. All relevant tasks are being implemented efficiently.

Under this regimen, the government has built the world's largest medical care system in more than three years, effectively easing public concern in this area.

US scholar Robert Lawrence Kuhn said he considers this reform to be the greatest achievement China has scored in the past decade.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, has called the achievement hard-won.

John Langenbrunner, the World Bank's chief health economist, described the results achieved by the reforms as unprecedented.

Li was also credited with seizing the opportunity presented by the 2008 financial crisis to propel complex fuel tax reforms involving multiple stakeholders.

The initiative has helped eliminate redundant fuel fees, inspired energy conservation and emission reduction, improved the refined oil pricing system and accumulated experience for future reforms.

This year, Li went to great lengths to tackle another bottleneck in tax reform. He conducted field surveys and led relevant departments to institute reform plans that replace turnover taxes with value-added taxes. After Shanghai spearheaded a pilot program, the tax burdens of the local service industry and small enterprises have been largely eased.

A prelude to the much-expected structural tax cut, the pilot program has now been expanded to nine provinces and municipalities as a significant institutional innovation for facilitating economic restructuring, boosting economic growth and improving people's living standards.

Li also led the formulation of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), which provides both overall guidance for the country's future development and specific guidance in nearly 100 areas.

Although Li was familiar with China's agricultural and industrial development as head of Henan and Liaoning provinces, he has gained a broader understanding of China's national circumstances after being put in charge of development and reform, fiscal affairs, urban-rural construction, environmental protection, land and resources and public health for the State Council.

He knows China's potential in economic and social development as well as the opportunities and challenges the country is facing.

To formulate a sound plan, Li conducted field surveys in a number of places and governmental departments, solicited opinions from lower-level officials, industrial experts and entrepreneurs and presided over symposiums to brainstorm plans concerning the tertiary and energy industries.

In-depth research was carried out for more than two years on significant issues, such as expanding domestic consumption in a sustainable manner, narrowing the urban-rural gap, designing an urbanization path and steadily improving people's living standards.

US economist Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate, said the 12th Five-Year Plan is very complicated but clear. Its effective implementation will turn China into the most significant player in transforming economic growth patterns and rebalancing the world economy, he noted.

Joseph Stiglitz, also a Nobel laureate, said the development plan charts the direction of China's economic restructuring, with China's central task being to open up and better integrate with the outside world.

New responsibilities and opportunities will abound and the country will be more involved in reshaping the world economic order, he said.

Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, noted the plan's important implications for the global economy. "Its key feature is to shift official policy from maximizing GDP growth toward raising consumption and average workers' standard of living," he noted.

Known as a tough troubleshooter, Li has regularly appeared where he has been needed most.

When food safety scares cropped up in 2010, Li was asked to head the State Council's food safety commission, orchestrating multisector cooperation.

"Food safety concerns every family and each person. Giving food safety offenders a knock-out blow is a must," Li stressed.

By including food safety in the performance assessment system for local governments, as well as cracking down on offenders, China has begun to see progress in curbing food safety scandals.

In early 2009, the world was caught off-guard by a new influenza A virus, with the World Health Organization issuing its highest influenza pandemic alert.

Not long after its outbreak in North America, the virus was transmitted to China, throwing the Chinese into a panic reminiscent of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003.

Li decisively implemented joint prevention by all relevant departments and urged the quick development of vaccines, which stopped the spread of the virus and minimized its impact on China.

This triumph has been lauded as an exemplary emergency response to a sudden public health incident.

As China's current reforms involve a more complicated problem of interests, analysts say knowledge and a broad horizon are as important in Chinese leaders as courage and resources.

People first

Li's tenacity and decisiveness were shaped by his early days.

In March 1974, when China was being ravaged by the Cultural Revolution, 19-year-old Li was dispatched to Fengyang, a poverty-stricken county in east China's Anhui Province, to take up farming.

It was there he came to understand poverty and starvation.

He tilled the land during the day and read books at night. Admiring Li's spirit and his capacity to endure hardship, members of Dongling Brigade, Damiao Commune, chose him as Party chief.

"He was always the first to work, self-disciplined, down to earth and kind. As Party secretary, he never made people suffer, harmed no one and bullied no one," villagers recalled.

When the country resumed college entrance examination in 1977, Li took the exam and was accepted by the Law School of Peking University. Soon, he was elected chief of the university's Student Union. Upon graduation in 1982, he remained at Peking University to head its CYLC committee.

Three years later, the 30-year-old was chosen as a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CYLC, an organization of advanced young people under the leadership of the CPC.

While working with the CYLC Central Committee, Li devoted his spare time to studying the Chinese economy. His doctoral dissertation, "On the Tri-structure of China's Economy," won him the Sun Yefang Prize, the top honor for economic sciences on the Chinese mainland.

During his tenure at the CYLC Central Committee, he chose the site for the country's first primary school of Project Hope in Jinzhai County, east China's Anhui Province. Project Hope, co-launched by the CYLC Central Committee, is a charity dedicated to helping children in poverty-stricken areas access education.

He said he hoped the Hope School could bring hope to children in the CPC's revolutionary bases.

The move inspired other philanthropic actions, such as Youth Volunteers.

When Li left Beijing for Henan Province in June 1998, he set a record by becoming the country's youngest governor with a doctoral degree.

In seven years, Li avoided unnecessary social activities and devoted himself to solving problems concerning Henan's development. Given that the province had learned a bitter lesson from pomposity, Li instructed local officials to keep a low profile, say little and do much.

Breaking Henan's stereotypical image as an agricultural province, Li pursued industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. In 2003, he formally proposed the concept of "the rise of the Central Plains" and put it into practice in Henan.

The Central Plains refer to regions comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces.

His proposal and practices became a prototype for the rise of central China, which is home to one-fourth of China's population and accounts for one-fifth of the country's economic output.

Apart from consolidating Henan's advantages as China's granary, Li facilitated the upgrade of local industries to extend the province's industrial chain. He also proposed the construction of an industrial corridor linking the provincial capital of Zhengzhou with the cities of Kaifeng and Luoyang, along which a number of pillar industries and conglomerates have been formed.

He urged local government officials to introduce capital, technology, experts, advanced management experience and mechanisms from eastern coastal provinces, which have been in the forefront of China's economic expansion, as well as strengthen cooperation with western provinces to seize bigger market share.

Using such tactics, Li figured out how to shift Henan from an agricultural province to an emerging industrial province.

Li also facilitated the province's urbanization by incubating city clusters in the Central Plains as new growth points.

He carried out an urbanization experiment through the development of the Zhengdong New District.

Instead of a sprawling area based on an old town relying on a single industry, the new district is an energy-efficient and livable place with finance, upscale commerce, logistics and tourism as its pillar industries.

For seven years, Henan maintained a growth rate 1.63 percentage points higher than the national average. The province climbed from 20th to 17th in national per capita GDP ranking, and its overall GDP ranked as the country's fifth largest and the first among western and central regions.

But more complicated challenges followed.

After more than 10 years of latency, HIV broke out in a number of places in Henan, aggravating the province's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Li visited the worst-hit villages to see patients, surveying the difficulties they faced and staying on top of the situation. Gao Yaojie, a retired doctor and AIDS activist, was invited to his office to report on the situation.

When he served as Party chief of the province in 2002, Li immediately put HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment at the top of the agenda.

In Henan, he oversaw the country' s first provincial census on HIV/AIDS.

A total of 38 hard-hit villages received assistance directly from provincial governmental departments.

To ensure that HIV and AIDS patients could live decent lives, he instituted a policy that provided them shelter, food, clothing and basic medical insurance. Those who contracted the deadly disease from selling blood on the black market could receive free treatment, free physical exams and free services to control maternal-infant transmission of the virus. Orphans, as well as children of those with HIV/AIDS, could go to school free of charge.

By 2004, the HIV outbreak had been contained. Yin Yin Nwe, then representative of the United Nations Children's Fund for China, said Henan is a model both for China and the world and its experience is worth being popularized.

When Li was elevated to the central government, he was the chief of the State Council's AIDS prevention commission and made efforts to bring social forces into play.

He visited nongovernmental organizations to talk with volunteers and HIV/AIDS patients to encourage them to play a bigger a role in HIV/AIDS prevention.

In a congratulatory letter sent to Li on his re-election as member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in November this year, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe recognized the progress China has achieved in AIDS prevention and thanked Li for his leadership in this regard.

When Li was transferred to northeast China's Liaoning Province in 2004, he faced a different challenge.

There, Li was stunned to learn that nearly a thousand people in one town were sharing one toilet.

"The government will not hesitate to spend everything to help you move out of slums," Li vowed.

In March 2005, a renovation plan was released. Within three years, 1.2 million residents had moved into new apartments and the shantytowns had been relegated to history.

During the shantytown renovation, Li repeatedly emphasized the need to "put the people first," which later evolved into the essence of his governance philosophy.

Apart from housing upgrades, Li also explored ways to tap new growth points for the old industrial base.

He capitalized on the central government's Northeastern China Rejuvenation Plan and the national policy of further opening up the country's east coast to develop Liaoning's coastal areas. In this way, he worked to offset the province's disadvantages stemming from its reliance on heavy industrial manufacturing for growth.

In 2009, the province's coastal economic belt designed by Li became a national strategy and played a key role in the rejuvenation of the northeastern industrial base.

Scholarly temperament

Born in 1955 in east China's Anhui Province, Li spent his formative years studying sinology, or Chinese language and culture, from Li Cheng, a master of Chinese culture with the Anhui Provincial Research Institute of Cultural History.

This rare experience, combined with his later education at Peking University, turned him into a learned, eloquent person with a quick wit.

"I came here not only for knowledge, but also to cultivate my temperament and foster a learning style," Li once wrote in an essay to explain his love of Peking University.

In August 2011, he gave a speech in both Chinese and English at the University of Hong Kong, impressing participants with his scholarly temperament, discretion and friendliness.

The erudite leader has also shown enthusiasm and open-mindedness in foreign affairs. Early last year, he visited Spain, Germany and Britain, attending 46 activities in nine days.

He contributed signed articles to influential media in each host country to explain China's development and conducted in-depth exchanges with foreign statesmen to facilitate Sino-European cooperation.

In October 2011, Li led a delegation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

It was the first time a Chinese leader had visited the two countries back-to-back, as well as a significant diplomatic maneuver taken by China to facilitate peace in northeast Asia.

During his April trip to Europe, which included stops in Russia, Hungary, Belgium and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Li gave speeches, attended economic activities and conducted exchanges with foreign statesmen.

At the first EU-China Urbanization Partnership High-Level Conference, Li and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso signed a joint declaration to cement cooperation on sustainable urban development.

During his meeting with then Russian President-elect and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Li proposed a mutually beneficial solution emphasizing upstream and downstream integration, which injected new momentum into China-Russia oil and gas cooperation.

All these activities offer a glimpse into his foresight and capability in coping with foreign affairs.

Li Keqiang reads English works in his spare time and monitors the latest economic and technical developments around the world.

A few years ago, he instructed think tanks of the State Council to study the concepts of the "middle-income trap" and "inclusive growth" as proposed by the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.

"The Third Industrial Revolution" authored by Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, also caught Li's attention. He has asked the National Development and Reform Commission and the Development Research Center of the State Council to pay close attention to this research and made his latest instruction early November this year.

After a leading overseas science magazine published research predicting that combustible ice in the sea could become a revolutionary substitute energy source, Li instructed the Ministry of Land and Resources to follow relevant studies.

Li loves books and has a good memory. Through divergent thinking, he can link the research of many frontier issues with classical Chinese works, according to sources close to him.

He also prefers to make impromptu speeches, talk face-to-face, ask in-depth questions, find the nature of problems and develop solutions on the spot if possible.

Reading has not only broadened Li's horizons but has also cultivated his character. He always lives an honorable life and never allows his family or staff to seek personal gain using his name, said one of his colleagues.

Cheng Hong, Li's wife, is an English professor at the foreign language department of Capital University of Economics and Business. The couple have one daughter.

Xi Jinping: Man of the people

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:08 AM PST

Source: Xinhua

It was a pleasant early December morning in a verdant park in Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province. Early risers, carrying on their usual morning exercise, did not expect to see a big name.


The park was not cordoned. There was no red carpet nor were there people waving welcoming banners.

A middle-aged man in a dark suit, and a tieless white shirt, laid a wreath at the park's statue of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Then he walked into the surrounding crowd and began a casual chat.

The visitor was Xi Jinping, the newly elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

During his visit to Guangdong, Xi called on the entire Party and people from all ethnic groups to unswervingly adhere to the path of reform and opening up and put greater focus on pursuing reform in a more systematic, integrated and coordinated way. Xi vowed no stop in reform, and no stop in opening up.

In his first visit outside Beijing as the top CPC leader, Xi went to Guangdong, the forefront of China's reform and opening up, following the route Deng had toured 20 years ago when the country was at a crossroad.

Media reports remarked that Xi is a leader who brings a fresh breeze to the country's political life, unswervingly pushes forward reform and opening up, and is beginning to lead the Chinese nation in realizing the China Dream.

Xi, 59, who was elected to his new role at the first plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee on Nov. 15, is the first top Party leader born after 1949, the year the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded.

He now leads the 91-year-old CPC, the world largest political party with more than 82 million members, as it rules China, the world's second largest economy.

The whole country and the world are putting their eyes on Xi:

– What will he do to lead the CPC to better serve the people?

– What will he do to lead China's 1.3 billion people to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in 2021? Furthermore, what will he do to lead the people to achieve the goal of building an affluent, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious modern socialist country by the time the PRC marks its centennial in 2049?

– What will he do to lead the country to make its due contribution to world peace and development?

As he met the press on the November day the new leadership was formed, Xi summed up the CPC's mission as comprising three responsibilities — to the nation, the people and the Party.

ADVOCATE OF CHINA DREAM

"The people's longing for a good life is what we are fighting for," Xi said in his first public speech as general secretary on Nov. 15.

Shortly after taking office, Xi and the other six members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee visited the exhibition "The Road Toward Renewal" at the National Museum of China. The comprehensive display illustrates the huge challenges China has surmounted on the road to national revival since 1840.

"Nowadays, everyone is talking about the China Dream," he said. "In my view, realizing the great renewal of the Chinese nation is the Chinese nation's greatest dream in modern history."

To achieve this sacred goal, Xi has clarified his positions on various aspects of the country's development:

On the country's economic development, Xi opposes a blind focus on growth and upholds the principle of scientific development, which seeks sustainability in terms of both resources and the environment.

On political development, he stresses the idea that all power belongs to the people, and calls for active and steady political reform while adhering to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He also stresses the rule of law and exercising state power according to the Constitution.

On cultural development, he highlights developing human talent and fostering a Chinese national spirit, especially as typified by the words of the national anthem: "We will use our flesh and blood to build our new Great Wall."

On social development, he proposes continuous efforts to safeguard and improve people's lives through economic development. He also supports building a harmonious society and realizing a good life for the people based on hard work, while taking into consideration the country's practical circumstances.

On ecological progress, he emphasizes a national strategy of resource conservation and environmental protection and a sustainable pattern of development.

From the Loess Plateau to the southeast coast, from localities to the central leadership, Xi has had a well-rounded political career and has developed a deep understanding of the conditions of his country and people.

In 2007, he was promoted to the nine-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th CPC Central Committee, after working for decades in various locations, including Shanghai Municipality, the provinces of Shaanxi, Hebei, Fujian and Zhejiang, as well as serving the army.

He served concurrently as a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and as president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. In 2008, he was elected the country's vice president.

Over the past five years, he has participated in the creation of major policies for the Party and the country, and has gained rich leadership experience in all respects.

During that time, Xi was in charge of Party affairs and attached great importance to Party building. He reiterated that the Party must police itself with strict standards as well as listen to the call of ordinary people.

Beginning in 2008, he worked intensively on the campaign to study and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development. The year-and-a-half campaign further made the Scientific Outlook on Development a consensus of the whole Party and country, and a driving force for economic and social development.

He also led a group of officials in drafting the 17th CPC Central Committee's report to the 18th CPC National Congress and the amendment to the CPC Constitution, which were adopted at the congress and have become important guidelines for China's future.

Xi has had a connection with the armed forces since his early days. After graduating from university, he worked at the General Office of the Central Military Commission (CMC) for three years, a job that deepened his affection for the army.

In the following years, he served concurrently as Party chief for military subareas in addition to holding his Party and government titles. He was familiarized with grassroots military affairs.

He became CMC vice chairman in 2010 and was named CMC chairman at the first plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November 2012.

Xi is also familiar with work related to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. His 17 years in Fujian gave him a deep understanding of Taiwan and enterprises from Taiwan. The first Taiwan chamber of commerce on the mainland was established in Xiamen when he worked in Fujian. He solved many problems for Taiwan compatriots, and has been seen as a good friend by many of them.

As a top leader in charge of Hong Kong and Macao affairs, Xi helped work out a number of important policies on the long-term stability and prosperity of the two special administrative regions.

In 2008 and 2009 when Hong Kong and Macao were seriously hit by the international financial crisis, Xi visited the cities to show his support.

In 2008, Xi was also tasked with heading up preparations for the much-anticipated 2008 Olympic Games and the subsequent Paralympics, both in Beijing, playing a key role in China's hosting of these high-standard events with distinctive features.

MAN OF THE PEOPLE

Xi has expressed his deep feelings for the people on many occasions, saying for example, "How important the people are in the minds of an official will determine how important officials are in the minds of the people." His love of the people stems from his unique upbringing.

A son of Xi Zhongxun, a Communist revolutionary and former vice premier, Xi Jinping did not live in comfort as a boy.

Beginning in 1962, when his father was wronged and fell in disgrace, Xi experienced tough times. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), he suffered public humiliation and hunger, experienced homelessness and was even held in custody once.

At the age of 16, he volunteered to live in a small village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province as an "educated youth."

That area, part of the Loess Plateau, was where the Communist revolutionaries, including his father, rose to found New China.

Life there was tough for an urban youth. In the beginning, fleas troubled him so badly he could not even fall asleep. In the Shaanxi countryside, he had to do all sorts of harsh labor, such as carrying manure, hauling a coal cart, farming and building water tanks.

As time passed, tough work became easy. Xi became a hardworking capable young man in the villagers' eyes. By gaining their trust, he was elected village Party chief.

He led the farmers to reinforce the river bank in a bid to prevent erosion, organized a small cooperative of blacksmiths in the village, and built a methane tank, the first in landlocked Shaanxi.

He was once awarded a motorized tricycle after being named a "model educated youth." However, he exchanged the tricycle for a walking tractor, a flour milling machine and farm tools to benefit the villagers.

Although he was not in school, Xi never stopped reading. He brought a case of books to the village and was always "reading books as thick as bricks," recalled by villagers of Liangjiahe.

He formed close ties with the villagers during his seven years in the province. After he was recommended for enrollment at Tsinghua University in 1975, all the villagers queued to bid him farewell and a dozen young men walked more than 30 kilometers to take him to the county seat for his trip back to Beijing.

Xi has never forgotten the folks in the Shaanxi village. Even after he left, he helped the village get access to power, build a bridge and renovate a primary school. When he was Party chief of Fuzhou City, he returned to the village, going door by door to visit people. He gave senior villagers pocket money, and schoolchildren with new schoolbags, school supplies and alarm clocks. When a farmer friend got sick, Xi, then a senior provincial official of Fujian, at his own expense, brought him to Fujian for better medical treatment.

Years of toiling alongside villagers allowed him to get to know the countryside and farmers well. Xi has said that the two groups of people who have given him the greatest help in his life are the older revolutionary generation and the folks in the Shaanxi village where he lived.

He arrived in the village as a slightly lost teenager and left as a 22-year-old man determined to do something for the people.

Xi's affection for the common people influenced him as he made a number of critical decisions. In the 1980s when many of his contemporaries were going into business or leaving to study abroad, Xi gave up a comfortable office job in Beijing and went to work as deputy Party chief of a small county in north China's Hebei Province. Later he became Party chief of Ningde Prefecture in southeast China's Fujian Province, one of the poorest regions at the time.

The people weigh most in Xi's heart and grassroots units are where he pays most visits.

In Ningde, he sometimes traveled for days on the mountain roads to reach the farthest corner of the prefecture. The roads were so bumpy that he often had to take a break to recover from back pain before arriving at destinations. He once walked nearly five hours on a rugged mountain road to get to a township called Xiadang, which was not accessible by highway, and received the most passionate welcome from local residents, who said Xi was "the highest-ranking official who has come to the village."

He also helped thousands of farmers in Ningde renovate dilapidated thatched huts and guided fishermen to live better lives on the land.

When working as Party chief of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, he took the lead in the country in establishing a mechanism for officials to meet with petitioners face to face. He introduced the same mechanism in places where he later served.

Once, he and other senior officials in Fuzhou met with more than 700 petitioners in two days.

While working in east China's Zhejiang Province, he went down into a coal mine nearly 1,000 meters underground and walked more than 1,500 meters along a narrow and inclined shaft to visit miners and see their working conditions before the Spring Festival in 2005.

Xi attaches importance to communication with the people via news media. He wrote a popular column for the Zhejiang Daily, using the pen name Zhexin. In his 232 columns, he discussed everyday problems of interest to the common people.

As mild a person as Xi is, he is very tough in policing officials and preventing them from harming the interests of the common people. In an investigation into illegal housing construction by officials in Ningde, he grew angry and pounded the table, saying, "Shall we offend hundreds of officials, or shall we fail millions of people?" Also, a number of officials in Zhejiang were punished during his tenure of leadership for failing to fulfill their duties.

His work style earned him the nickname "secretary of the people."

"Officials should love the people in the way they love their parents, work for their benefit and lead them to prosperity," Xi said.

LEADER WITH FORESIGHT

On several recent occasions, Xi showed a strong sense of responsibility towards the future of the nation and declared his determination to push forward reform and opening up.

Throughout his political career, people have seen his foresight and resolve as well as his willingness to sacrifice personal gain and one-time fame for a bigger cause.

When working in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian, he took charge of drafting a development plan for the city from 1985 to 2000 and lobbied for preferential policies from the central government, both of which benefited the city long after he left the province.

When working in Zhengding, Hebei Province, he saw potential business opportunities when he learned that the crew of "The Dream of Red Mansions," a popular novel-turned-TV drama, was looking for a filming location.

He then proposed building in Zhengding a large residential compound featured within the novel. The compound, which was used by the TV crew, later became a tourist attraction. Tourist income from the compound exceeded 10 million yuan the year it was completed, paying back more than the investment. The compound has been used as the set for more than 170 movies and TV dramas, with up to 1.3 million tourists every year.

In Fuzhou, after intense deliberation and discussion, he and his colleagues devised a strategic development plan for the city for the coming three, eight and 20 years. All the main targets set by the plan were achieved years ago, and a number of enterprises that were set up or brought to Fuzhou when Xi served there remain the industry leaders, playing a significant role in the city's development over the past two decades.

Working as Fujian governor, he was the first in the country to launch a campaign to crack down on food contamination.

In 1999, he first put forward the idea of improving IT infrastructure and introducing information technology to help the public. Fujian had been the only province in China where all hospitals were linked by computer networks and shared digital medical records by 2010.

In 2002, Fujian launched the reform of the collective forest property right system, becoming the first in the country.

During Xi's tenure, Fujian was among the first provinces in China to adopt special policies to restore ecological balance and protect the environment. This has made Fujian the province with the best water and air quality as well as the best ecology and environment in the country.

After his transfer to Zhejiang Province in 2002, Xi put forward numerous development targets for the economy, public security, culture, the environment and the rule of law.

He initiated local industrial restructuring, transforming the province's extensive, less-efficient growth pattern, and encouraged quality enterprises from outside the province to invest in Zhejiang.

In addition, he proposed a development mode that would give equal weight to both manufacturing and commerce, a mode based on Zhejiang's own conditions. He also supported enterprises' efforts to expand overseas and supported start-ups by ordinary citizens.

At the same time, he encouraged more cooperation among Zhejiang, neighboring Shanghai Municipality and Jiangsu Province in order to tap their potential as an integrated economic powerhouse.

In 2004, under Xi's leadership, Zhejiang made an attempt to improve grassroots democracy. Villages there set up residents' committees to supervise the village Party committee and administrative committee on public affairs, a move that received a positive response from the public.

Village supervision committees, which sprang from the Zhejiang model, were later introduced in an amendment to the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees in 2010 by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, the top Chinese legislature.

Shanghai was Xi's last local post before he was promoted to the central leadership. Despite a relatively short term in the country's financial hub, he left his mark by promoting the economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta and enhancing Shanghai's leading role in the region.

Xi added "enlightened, sagacious, open-minded and modest" to the official wording of the Shanghai Spirit slogan, which previously had just read "inclusive and sublime." The Shanghai Spirit was intended to capture the essence of the city. Media in Shanghai remarked that these emendations helped present Shanghai to the rest of the world in a deeper, more thoughtful way. These changes were also noticed by people outside Shanghai.

BEING IN FRONT RANKS REQUIRES SOLID WORK

"Making empty talk is harmful to the nation, while doing practical work can help it thrive," Xi said during a visit to "The Road Toward Renewal" exhibition in Beijing on the 15th day after his election as the CPC's new helmsman.

To put "practical work" in place, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that adopted eight measures to improve Party work style and tighten the bond with the people. The measures include more meetings with the people, traveling light with a small entourage and using fewer traffic controls, shortening meetings and speeches. The new measures have earned acclaim both at home and abroad.

"Only solid work ensures that one will take the lead," Xi has said. He has demanded concrete effort to tackle issues the people care about most. He believes that without implementation, the best blueprint will be nothing more than a castle in the air.

When he served in Zhengding County, Xi said that developing human resources was the key to shaking off poverty and backwardness in the county. He attended to the job himself by inviting professionals to the county and drawing up recruitment advertisements for talented personnel from across the country.

In the winter of 1983, he traveled to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang to invite a cosmetics expert to work in Zhengding. Without a detailed address for the expert, he went door to door asking where the expert lived and finally found him at night after yelling his name near his home. Xi and the expert talked until midnight and Xi finally persuaded the man to work in Zhengding. The expert later created more than 300,000 yuan in revenue for the county within the first year.

In the same year, Xi decided to publish nine ways for recruiting talented personnel, something that was rare at the time and became a front-page story in the Hebei Daily. He wrote more than 100 letters to experts and scholars, as well as colleges and research institutions, and paid visits to dozens of experts. Within two years, Zhengding attracted 683 talented personnel and hired 53 well-known experts as economic counselors.

Xi, together with his colleague Lu Yulan, then deputy Party chief of Zhengding, despite heavy pressure, told superior authorities about the excessive burden faced by the county due to compulsory grain purchases. The issue was eventually resolved.

In Ningde, Xi was also practical and realistic. He pooled resources to implement aquaculture of the large yellow croaker, a local specialty, and greatly increased the income of local farmers.

He also ordered Party and government offices to make things convenient for the people. When serving in Fuzhou, he advocated the principle of "special procedures for special issues, and do things now" to make the government more efficient. This principle was attractive to numerous Taiwan enterprises and helped boost the local economy. He also proposed the compilation of two handbooks on government procedures for residents and overseas businesspeople.

In 2000, Xi initiated a move across Fujian to make the government more efficient. He proposed changes in government functions and procedures to reduce the number of matters that require government approval. By the end of 2001, the number was reduced by 40.4 percent, or 606 items.

In 2001, Fujian became the first province in China to enact a policy making government affairs public.

In August 2002, Xi published an article on a major newspaper on "The Experience of Jinjiang," which emphasized the importance of the private economy in the development of the county. Also in 2002, he published an article on Nanping City's effort to send officials to work in villages. The practice of Nanping was later introduced all over the province, thus enhancing ties between officials and farmers and making officials more oriented towards grassroots achievement.

In Zhejiang, Xi stressed provincial development in the fields of public security, the environment, culture, the rule of law and the marine economy.

To achieve these goals, he made an individual case study in addition to making overall arrangements. In order to know how the localities were affected by provincial policies, he went five times to a less-developed mountain village called Xiajiang within less than two years.

He paid special attention to the marine economy. In December 2002, he put forward the goal of building Zhejiang into a province with a strong marine economy, followed by guidelines and plans to realize this goal. The marine economy in Zhejiang has since developed quickly, with annual growth of 19.3 percent. It accounted for nearly 8 percent of the Zhejiang economy in 2005.

He pushed for the integration of Ningbo and Zhoushan harbors. In 2006, Ningbo-Zhoushan harbor had 420 million tonnes of cargo throughput, ranking the second in China and among the world's top three.

He also pushed for the construction of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, an icon of cross-sea bridges in China and once the world's longest cross-sea bridge.

In 2003, Xi proposed that rural communities should be more like urban communities, and efforts should be made to reduce the urban-rural gap in quality of life.

Zhejiang had realized the development targets one by one during Xi's tenure. The province had the highest rating in ecology and the environment among all provincial-level regions in 2005. In 2006, 94.77 percent of the people were satisfied with the province's public security, making Zhejiang one of the safest provinces in the country.

When Xi was in Zhejiang, the province's GDP exceeded 1 trillion yuan in 2004, GDP per capita exceeded 3,000 U.S. dollars in 2005 and stood at nearly 4,000 U.S. dollars in 2006. The province ranked the fourth in sustainable development in 2006, next to Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.

Furthermore, all the province's poverty-stricken counties and townships shook off poverty during the period.

In 2007, Xi was appointed secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.

Within a month of his appointment, Xi conducted research on the people's livelihood, development, the Shanghai World Expo, and the fight against corruption. The ninth Shanghai municipal congress of the CPC was successfully held, which invigorated local officials, rebuilt Shanghai's image and set forth a blueprint for Shanghai for the next five years.

Xi has said that a county Party chief should visit all the villages within the county, a city Party chief all the townships and a provincial Party chief all the counties and cities.

He visited all the villages in Zhengding. In Ningde, he visited nine counties within the first three months, and traveled to most townships later on. After he was transferred to Zhejiang in 2002, he visited all 90 counties in just over a year. During his tenure in Shanghai, he visited all 19 districts and counties in seven months. After he came to work in the central authority, he visited all the 31 provinces, regions and municipalities on the mainland.

STATESMAN AIMING FOR BETTER EARTH

During a recent meeting with foreign experts working in China, Xi said that China, as a responsible country, will not only manage its own affairs, but also properly handle its relations with the rest of the world, so as to foster a more favorable external environment and make a greater contribution to world peace and development.

"China needs to know more about the world, and the world also needs to know more about China," Xi said. Whether working at the local level or in the central leadership, Xi attaches great importance to international exchange and making foreign friends. He has taken every opportunity to meet foreign guests visiting China.

Within the past five years, he traveled to more than 40 countries and regions across five continents and has had extensive contact with people from all walks of life. He frankly and honestly introduces to foreign friends how the Chinese people view their own country and the world, and is always willing to listen to them as well. In the eyes of many foreign dignitaries, Xi is a confident, sagacious and amicable leader.

He often tells foreign friends that the international community has increasingly become an integrated one with a common destiny. China's continuous rapid development depends on world peace and development. It also provides opportunity and room for other countries, so together they may achieve win-win results and common development through mutual respect and pragmatic cooperation.

At a World Peace Forum organized by Tsinghua University in July 2012, Xi noted that a country must let others develop as it seeks its own development; must let others feel secure as it seeks its own security; must let others live better when it wants to live better itself. In a meeting with Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Xi said not all strong countries will seek hegemony. China will stick to the path of peaceful development, a win-win strategy of opening up and the pledge of never seeking hegemony, now or in any future generation.

Xi's foreign visits have sent out signals that countries should work together to establish a more equal and balanced global partnership, so as to safeguard the common interests of all human beings and make Earth better.

During his five-day visit to the United States, Xi participated in 27 events and engaged in exchange with U.S. politicians and the public alike. "As long as the Chinese and U.S. sides grasp the thread of common interests, they can explore a path of new partnership for major powers to live in harmony, engage in positive interaction and achieve win-win cooperation." His remarks elicited positive feedback from many in the U.S.

In a recent meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Xi called for more "positive energy" for the China-U.S. partnership.

During his visit to Russia, Xi showed the strong importance China attaches to developing bilateral relations. The Sino-Russian strategic partnership of coordination has become the closest, most dynamic and most profound between major powers, and developing relations with Russia is always a priority of China's foreign relations. Xi attended the second meeting of the dialogue mechanism between the Chinese and Russian ruling parties, and had extensive and in-depth discussions with leaders of various parties in Russia, further enriching Sino-Russia relations.

Xi highly values relations with developing countries. He has said consolidating and developing relations with developing countries is the starting point and object of China's foreign policy.

In South Africa, Xi attended the fourth plenary session of the China-South Africa Binational Commission, looking forward, together with the South African side, to a bright future of bilateral cooperation.

In a speech delivered at a seminar marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Xi underscored China's friendship with Africa, emphasizing that "a friend in need is a friend indeed."

In Saudi Arabia, he said a more prosperous and open China will bring great development opportunities to the Middle East and countries in the Gulf.

In Chile, he proposed that China and Latin America should be good partners in the fields of politics, economics, culture and international affairs, when speaking of the relationship over the next decade.

Xi has been pragmatic and efficient on the international stage. In the course of only one day, while attending the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, Xi exchanged ideas with leaders from more than 20 countries and international organizations. During his visit to Germany and four other European countries, Xi attended five signing ceremonies for economic and trade agreements, six economic and trade forums, and pushed for the signing of 93 cooperation agreements involving a total of 7.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Xi has also emphasized the role of cultural exchange in the building of a harmonious world. When addressing the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009, he said that through exchanges between different cultures, people from different countries have come to know Confucius from China, Goethe from Germany and Shakespeare from Britain. Pushing forward world cultural exchange creates important momentum for human progress and the world's peaceful development.

During his visit to Russia, he launched the "Year of Chinese Language" in Russia, side by side with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. He said in his address, "Culture is enriched, hearts are linked up, and friendship is deepened through exchange."

Xi is good at drawing wisdom from Chinese culture and presenting ideas clearly in a straightforward and humorous way. During his U.S. visit, he borrowed a line from the theme song of the popular Chinese TV drama "Monkey King" to ease the gravity of the bilateral issue. "The road is right under our feet," he said when describing the "unprecedented" relations between China and the U.S., displaying the confidence and courage of Chinese leaders.

When facing questions about China's human rights situation, he said there is "no best, only better." Xi said every country's condition is different and path is different. "Whether the shoe fits or not, only the wearer of the shoe knows."

Amity between people is the key to sound relations between states. Xi has said the level of state-to-state friendship depends on amity between people. He has humorously said to foreign ministry officials on diplomatic trips that life lies in motion and diplomacy lies in activity. In other words, diplomats should travel widely and make friends broadly and deeply.

During his visit to Laos, he specially arranged a meeting with children of the late Lao leader Quinim Pholsena. Xi joined several children of Pholsena, who had lived and studied in Beijing, in recalling their days at Beijing's Bayi School. He even remembered the nickname "Chubby Boy" for Pholsena's second son.

During his U.S. visit, Xi traveled to Iowa to join a dozen of his old acquaintances for tea and conversation at a house in an Iowa farm community. Most of the people at the gathering were friends Xi had made during a 1985 visit to Iowa as a member of an agricultural research delegation.

In Russia, he visited a children's center that had cared for Chinese students who were affected by the devastating Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and expressed his gratitude to the staff.

He kicked a Gaelic football in Dublin's Croke Park when visiting Ireland and watched an NBA game in the U.S. The media described both activities as evidence of his amicable image.

"He succeeded in not only demonstrating his personal manner and bearing, but also the charm of China's economic development and social progress," an overseas media outlet remarked.

SON OF REVOLUTIONARY FAMILY, CARING HUSBAND

Xi Jinping's father Xi Zhongxun was a Party and state leader. The senior Xi served as chairman of the Shaan-Gan Border Region, a CPC revolutionary base of the 1930s, and was called by Mao Zedong a "leader of the people."

Xi Zhongxun had suffered political persecution for 16 years beginning in 1962. However, he never gave in to adversity and ultimately helped clear the names of other people who were persecuted. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he served as Party chief in Guangdong, the forefront of China's reform and opening-up drive, making important contributions to the establishment of special economic zones in the province and their rapid development.

Xi's mother Qi Xin, nearly 90 years of age, is also a veteran cadre and Party member. As a filial son, Xi takes walks and chats with his mother, holding her hand during the process, after he finds time to dine with her.

The Xi family has a tradition of being strict with children and living a simple life. Xi Zhongxun believed if a senior Party official wanted to discipline others, he should begin first with himself and his family. Xi Jinping and his younger brother used to wear clothes and shoes handed down from their elder sisters. After Xi Jinping became a leading official, his mother called a family meeting to ban the siblings from engaging in business where Xi Jinping worked.

Xi Jinping has carried on his family's tradition and has been strict with family members. Wherever he worked, he told the family members not to do business there or do anything in his name, or else he "would be ruthless." Whether in Fujian, Zhejiang or Shanghai, he pledged at official meetings that no one was allowed to seek personal benefit using his name and welcomed supervision in this regard.

Xi married Peng Liyuan, a renowned and well-liked soprano and opera singer. In 1980, Peng, on the behalf of the Shandong provincial delegation, caused quite a stir while attending a national art performance in Beijing.

She was the first in China to obtain a master's degree in national vocal music. She is a representative figure of national vocal music and one of the founders of the school of national vocal music.

Her most famous works include On the Plains of Hope, People from Our Village, and We Are Yellow River and Taishan Mountain.

She was the winner of many top awards at national vocal music contests. She played the leading roles in the Chinese national operas The White-haired Girl and Mulan, among others. She also won the highest theatrical award in China, or the Plum Blossom Prize, and the highest performance art award, the Wenhua Prize.

Peng has attributed her accomplishments to the people and said she should contribute all her talent to the people. Over the past 30-plus years, she has given hundreds of free performances for people from all different walks of life across the country as an expression of gratitude or appreciation. These included performances in impoverished mountain areas, coastal areas, oil fields, mines and barracks, as well as in deserts and the snowy plateau. She also performed in Wenchuan after the devastating earthquake of 2008, in Beijing's Xiaotangshan after the SARS outbreak and in flood-hit Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province.

To better introduce Chinese national vocal music and national opera to the world, Peng took the lead to play a solo concert in Singapore in 1993. She has also performed in more than 50 countries and regions representing China, becoming a world-famous Cultural Ambassador for China.

She produced and played the leading role in the opera Mulan, which was performed at New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and at the Vienna State Opera House in Austria.

Peng is currently shifting her focus from performance to education, aiming to nurture more talented people and produce more masterpieces.

Peng is very much committed to charity work. She is a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, a national AIDS prevention advocate, and an ambassador for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and for tobacco control. At a recent World AIDS Day activity raising awareness about AIDS, she was called "Mama Peng" by AIDS orphans.

Xi and Peng fell in love at first sight in 1986 and got married the same year. Although they were often separated due to work, they have understood and supported each other and continuously shown concern for each other.

As a member of the People's Liberation Army, Peng was often tasked with staging performances in remote areas. These tours sometimes kept her on the road for two to three months at a time. Being concerned about his wife, Xi would phone her before bedtime almost every night, no matter how late it was.

On Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, Peng would often perform in the Spring Festival Gala presented by the China Central Television. Xi would make dumplings while watching the show and would wait for her return to begin cooking the family feast.

In the eyes of Peng, Xi is a good husband and a good father. She always shows care and consideration for him. Peng takes every opportunity to get together with her husband, cooking for him dishes of different styles.

In Peng's eyes, Xi is both different from anybody else and also an average person. He favors home-made cooking in the Shaanxi and Shandong cuisines, and also drinks a bit during parties with friends. He likes swimming, mountaineering, and watching basketball, football and boxing matches. Sometimes he stays up late to watch televised sports games.

The couple have a daughter, Xi Mingze. Mingze in Chinese implies "living an honest life and being a useful person to society," which is their expectation for her and also a symbol of their family's simple style.

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