News » China » China says six-party talks needed to resolve DPRK nuclear issue

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• China says six-party talks needed to resolve DPRK nuclear issue
• Xinhua Insight: China's Wen takes bow leaving a promising nation
• Joint effort key to curb poaching
• Premier calls for <em>hukou</em> reform to be speeded up
• Tibetan 'exile-govt' called two-faced
• China's Wen takes bow leaving a promising nation
• Vietnam-China sea tourism service completes trial run
• Performance drops in China's logistics sector
• Missing baby killed in NE China
• Missing baby killed in NE China
• Japan detains Chinese boat near Okinawa
• China ups spending related to quality of life
• Chinese fleet returns after S China Sea patrols
• Xi orders courage to help deepen reforms
• Panel discussions of 1st session of 12th NPC
• Interview: China's progress is of benefit to the world
• China's leaders attend panel discussions of 1st session of 12th NPC
• Population policy to be improved
• China urges peace, stability on Korean peninsula
• Chinese fleet returns after S China Sea patrols

China says six-party talks needed to resolve DPRK nuclear issue Posted: 05 Mar 2013 10:27 AM PST China on Tuesday called for the resumption of the six-party talks, regarding the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the board of governor meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) in Vienna.

Xinhua Insight: China's Wen takes bow leaving a promising nation Posted: 05 Mar 2013 10:26 AM PST At 9 a.m., the 70-year-old premier of China Wen Jiabao began delivering his last government work report to the top legislature that opened its annual session on Tuesday. It took him nearly 100 minutes.

Joint effort key to curb poaching Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST The war against wildlife trafficking cannot rely on any single country; it needs strong international cooperation. That's according to one of China's leading specialists in wildlife protection, who said the illegal trade in wildlife is now a "transnational crime" and only the joint efforts of "origin, transit, and destination countries" will result in effective control. Wan Ziming, director of law enforcement and training in China for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said the illegal trade in wildlife, as well as its parts and products, is estimated to be worth $7.8 billion to $10 billion per year. The figures make wildlife trade the world's fourth-largest smuggling activity, after drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking. He used elephant tusks as an example of how a wildlife crime chain might work, explaining the main problems often involve a lack of integrated data between countries affected by a chain, strict local law enforcement, and international coordination. "There are often many countries involved in the whole process, from when an animal is first poached, to how it's transported, and where and how it is sold," he said. "We cannot expect too much from any single country, especially if that country does not have sufficient law enforcement support." Wan also compared the illegal trade in high-value wildlife parts, such as rhino horn, shatoosh (a shawl woven with the down hair of the Tibetan antelope) and ivory, to that of drugs in that both are intricate and require international cooperation to be effectively tackled. Daniel M Ashe, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, told delegates at the 16th meeting of CITES member states, being held in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday that there is a new generation of wildlife traffickers across the world, and law enforcement capacity should be stepped up through joint efforts by countries right along the chain. A recent operation held in China illustrated just the kind of international cooperation that officials want to see. The monthlong clampdown on wildlife crime, dubbed "Cobra", was held at the start of the year and brought together police, customs and wildlife officers from 22 countries in Asia, Africa, and North America. It was targeted at some key species that have been subject to illegal wildlife trade in the past, such as Asian big cats, elephants, great apes, pangolins and rhinos, and resulted in a large number of arrests and seizures. According to Wan, Cobra's plan was started at last year's China-ASEAN Technical Consultation on CITES Enforcement Cooperation. China has since taken the lead by chairing an International Coordination Team, to coordinate operation teams at all regional and national levels. One of its members is Adan Alio from Kenya, an officer with Lusaka Agreement Task Force. He said the main efforts are to track and dismantle criminal networks. "Until the top criminals behind the chains are taken down, the poaching and illegal trade will continue," he said. Wan added: "We applied the experiences from previous operations by the International Criminal Police Organization (better known as Interpol), and the World Customs Organization to the current situation. "By using the communication networks of all relevant sub-regional, regional and international partner institutions, we were able to coordinate forces from each country to exchange information, intercept goods, and carry out investigations." Tens of thousands of wildlife, customs and police officers in all the countries participated in the Cobra operation, which helped launch more than 200 wildlife criminal cases, and arrest more than 100 suspects, as well as confiscate huge numbers of wildlife and plants. Uttam Kumar Karkee, a senior superintendent from the Nepal police, said international cooperation such as this is vital in fighting wildlife crime. "Operation Cobra proved itself to be an excellent model for fighting trans-national crime," he said. Wan added: "Confidentiality is crucially, as is speed — efforts like this have to be done quickly and over a short space of time. "That's why all the member states agreed not to disclose any information to the media before the cases were wound up." On the Chinese side, up to 10,000 wildlife, customs and police officers were involved in the operation, resulting in 90 arrests connected to 80 individual cases. Within each member country, too, similar locally targeted efforts were made A World Wide Fund for Nature report released last year, the Wildlife Crime Scorecard, assessed the performance of 23 countries on their compliance to the CITES's commitment at protecting against crime involving tigers, rhinos, and elephants. Many countries were scored "red", indicating major deficiencies in compliance and enforcement, mostly for regulatory deficiencies and lack of enforcement resources regarding domestic ivory markets. In Asia the red countries included Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The report suggested various ways to improve domestic compliance, including the introduction of national policies, strengthening law enforcement, greater international coordination, improved data collection for wildlife crime analysis, and the introduction of heftier penalties that would constitute a credible deterrents and raise public awareness. "Educating the public is also essential, and has proved very effective in the past," Wan said. Pu Zhendong contributed to this story.

Premier calls for <em>hukou</em> reform to be speeded up Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST Premier Wen Jiabao called for efforts in his Government Work Report on Tuesday to advance urbanization "actively yet prudently" by speeding up reform of the household registration system. "Urbanization is a historic task in China's modernization drive, and urbanization and agricultural modernization complement each other," Wen said during the opening of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress on Tuesday. To advance urbanization, the government should register eligible rural workers as permanent urban residents in an orderly manner, and expand the coverage of basic public services in urban areas to migrant workers and other permanent residents, he said. In his final Government Work Report as premier, Wen said he made his suggestions "based on an understanding of the work of the past 10 years, especially of the past five years" as part of the country's efforts to promote integrated urban and rural development. Wen also advised the new government to keep megacities and large cities at an appropriate scale to drive development of surrounding areas and strengthen the ability of small- and medium-sized cities to develop industries, provide public services and increase employment. In 2012, China's urban population accounted for 52.57 percent of the population, up 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier, and the rate is expected to rise to 53.37 percent in 2013, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Experts said China's urbanization is becoming an engine to fuel domestic demand and economic growth, as increasing numbers of urbanites offer huge potential for consumption. But urbanization also forces a large number of farmers to become migrant workers, with most of them without hukou, or household registration, therefore often excluded from social services and opportunities. Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Leading Group on Rural Work of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said urbanization should be a natural process rather than a new, fast-tracked step forward. He said the process, which draws rural labor to cities and assimilates new recruits, needs all factors to be considered, including economic development, social welfare and environmental problems. "There are benefits from urbanization's potential to boost domestic consumption and increase labor productivity, but it will also lead to serious consequences if the pace and nature of urbanization are disregarded," he said while attending the first group discussion at the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee on Monday. He said migrant workers should be covered by the urban public service network in the fields of housing, employment and education, which needs the support of local government. A 2013 report by Renmin University of China on migrant workers shows they feel lonely despite increased incomes, as they are an isolated group and seldom interact with urban society during their stay in cities. Wu Hong, a member of the CPPCC National Committee, said: "Migrant workers should be treated as equals to city dwellers so they will not come back and forth from cities to their hometowns." Wu, also the deputy director of the Zhejiang province forestry department, said the Government Work Report this year mapped out the path for advancing urbanization so that migrant workers can expect to be able to settle down in cities and hopefully contribute more to local consumption.

Tibetan 'exile-govt' called two-faced Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST A senior official of the Tibet autonomous region said the "Tibetan government-in-exile" in Dharamsala, India, is two-faced because it claims to discourage self-immolation but actually fans extremism in China. "What is the use of them calling on Tibetans to stop self-immolations but instigating people to do so at the same time?" Padma Choling, chairman of the standing committee of the Tibet autonomous regional people's congress, or the regional legislature, told China Daily exclusively on Tuesday. Padma Choling said the "government-in-exile" is not doing what it said, but is using self-immolators as tools to split China. "I learned that it is mobilizing and orchestrating mass group self-immolations. What does that mean?" "The international community has started to become concerned about the problem of self-immolations," he said. A series of self-immolations began in 2011 in regions inhabited by the Tibetan ethnic group in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. Police and courts found cases showing the "government-in-exile" and the "Tibetan Youth Congress" are behind the instigation of extremism. However, the "government-in-exile" is attempting to deny its role and blames China for the tragedies. Though the "government-in-exile" continues to "repeatedly appeal to the Tibetans in Tibet to refrain from such drastic acts, sadly, the self-immolations continue," the "government-in-exile" said in a statement on Feb 14. More recently, on Feb 26, a chief leader of the "government", said in the Canadian Parliament that his stand on self-immolation is the same as that of the 14th Dalai Lama, who has always "discouraged drastic actions by Tibetans". Contradictorily, the chief leader of the "government-in-exile" also said Tibetans are bound by duty to honor the sacrifices. "And as a Tibetan, we support the aspiration of the Tibetan people inside Tibet, including the self-immolators," the chief leader said in Canada on Feb 26. "Once a protest takes place, it becomes our sacred duty to support it," he recalled saying when he became head of the "government-in-exile" in Dharamsala on Aug 8, 2011. "I take the same stand on self-immolations," he was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post. Padma Choling said he learned the international community has raised concerns over the self-immolations. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Feb 15 called on "those who are immolating, or those who might be considering this, to think hard about whether it's the best way to express yourself". US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Friday: "We urge Tibetans to end self-immolations." A report in The New York Times said: "A quiet debate has been under way among Tibetans who are anguished over the deaths of the young men and who question how the acts reconcile with Buddhist teachings." Padma Choling said the government of the autonomous region will work harder to improve people's lives and educate them to cherish life. He added there are no local residents, monks or nuns in the autonomous region who have self-immolated so far, and the local administration is "not facing any pressure".

China's Wen takes bow leaving a promising nation Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST BEIJING - At 9 am, the 70-year-old premier of China Wen Jiabao began delivering his last government work report to the top legislature that opened its annual session on Tuesday. It took him nearly 100 minutes. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivers the government work report to the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 5, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua] Wen has served the Constitution-limit two terms and will leave office when the legislature's annual session decides his successor later this month. After his decade-long premiership, Wen announced in his last government work report that "we now envision an ever-brighter future for our great country." On March 18, 2003, Wen became the sixth premier of the People's Republic of China. He vowed in his debut press conference that day to "devote his life to the task until death and live up to expectations." He assumed the premiership again in 2008. Five years on, Wen stressed "development" the most in the government report on Tuesday. He said the past half decade was "an extraordinary period of time in the course of China's development." Wen continued, "Development is still the key to solving all our problems." He also said, "Without economic development, nothing can be done." In the past 10 years, China overtook Britain, France, Germany and Japan to become the second largest economy in the world, now only behind the United States. It's the global top exporter and holds the largest amount of foreign reserves For Wen, it has been a decade with a State Council executive meeting every less than ten days. In these meetings, decisions were adopted to abolish the long-standing agricultural tax, which lifted Chinese farmers from a multi-thousand-year-long burden, and establish a medical insurance network in rural areas. Meanwhile, China achieved great breakthroughs in manned space missions, lunar exploitation programs, super computers and high-speed railways. The country hosted the Olympic Games and the World Expo. However, "unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development remains a prominent problem," Wen straightforwardly pointed out the problems of China in the work report. Yet, he also said, "China remains in an important period of strategic opportunities during which much can be accomplished." The report set a number of economic goals: 7.5 percent annual GOP growth rate, an inflation target of 3.5 percent, adding 9 million new jobs, and a deficit increase to 1.2 trillion yuan (about 191 billion U.S. dollars). As he left the podium for his seat after delivering the report, Wen bowed three times to nearly 3,000 national lawmakers in the largest auditorium of the Great Hall of the People, who responded with a round of warm applause. A microblogger user who goes by the name of "Luoyiwen" posted online, "In the eyes of many people, Grandpa Wen is a responsible and amiable premier, who has always devoted himself to his duty. As he will retire in a couple of days, he can enjoy a life like an ordinary old man."

Vietnam-China sea tourism service completes trial run Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST HANOI - The trial run of the sea tourism route connecting China's Beihai and Vietnam's Ha Long Bay completed successfully on Tuesday. The Beiyou speedboat 16 of China's Xin'ao Corporation carrying 22 crew members docked at Tuan Chau port in Vietnam's northeastern Quang Ninh province, Vietnam's state-run news agency reported. After the trial run, the sea tourism route is scheduled to be put into operation in early April this year with frequency of two times a week, carrying around 800 passengers each time. The opening of the sea route is expected to boost sea tourism service between China and Vietnam. Some seven million tourists came to Quang Ninh Province known for its World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay resort last year, up 8 percent over the previous year, with international tourists accounting for around 2.4 million, according to Quang Ninh Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Performance drops in China's logistics sector Posted: 05 Mar 2013 11:09 AM PST BEIJING - China's logistics industry experienced a downward trend in February largely due to holiday factors, according to a new index that debuted Tuesday. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) launched the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), showing the index for February at 50.4 percent, down from 51.3 percent in January and 53.8 percent in December. A reading above 50 percent indicates expansion from the previous month, while a reading below 50 percent indicates contraction. The federation attributed the drop mainly to the week-long Spring Festival holiday last month. The Spring Festival, or China's lunar new year, is the country's most important holiday. As the index was still above the boom-bust line, the federation said the sector was maintaining a momentum of steady growth. "The index has stayed above 50 percent since December 2011 with an average of 54.4 percent, indicating that China's logistics sector is generally in a cycle of steady and relatively fast growth," said Cui Zhongfu, vice president of the CFLP. The federation finished a report on compiling the LPI in 2010 and began data collection from more than 300 logistics companies in December 2011.

Missing baby killed in NE China Posted: 05 Mar 2013 06:50 AM PST A missing baby, who was left in a car that had been stolen on Monday morning in northeast China's Jilin Province, died after being strangled, local police confirmed Tuesday evening.

Missing baby killed in NE China Posted: 05 Mar 2013 06:35 AM PST A missing baby, who was left in a car that had been stolen on Monday morning in northeast China's Jilin Province, died after being strangled, local police confirmed Tuesday evening.

Japan detains Chinese boat near Okinawa Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:52 AM PST The Chinese consulate general in Japan's Fukuoka confirmed Tuesday that a Chinese fishing boat was detained by Japanese authorities for alleged illegal fishing in the waters near Okinawa.

China ups spending related to quality of life Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:50 AM PST China's central budget for 2013 features notable spending increases in areas closely related to quality of life, including education, healthcare, social security and public housing.

Chinese fleet returns after S China Sea patrols Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:22 AM PST A Chinese patrol team returned to Guangzhou on Tuesday after covering 2,455 nautical miles in the South China Sea to carry out regular observation and patrol operations.

Xi orders courage to help deepen reforms Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:06 AM PST Communist Party of China (CPC) chief Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for courage like "wading through a dangerous shoal" to help deepen reforms in the country's development.

Panel discussions of 1st session of 12th NPC Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:03 AM PST Deputies to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) from east China's Jiangxi Province take part in a panel discussion in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2013. A panel discussion of the Jiangxi delegation to the first session of the 12th NPC was open to media on Tuesday.

Interview: China's progress is of benefit to the world Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:03 AM PST A well-known Cambodian scholar said that China's progress has been contributing to developing global economy and tackling global issues such as poverty.

China's leaders attend panel discussions of 1st session of 12th NPC Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:03 AM PST Zhang Dejiang (2nd L), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, joins a panel discussion of deputies to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) from east China's Zhejiang Province, in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2013. The first session of the 12th NPC opened in Beijing on March 5.

Population policy to be improved Posted: 05 Mar 2013 03:51 AM PST Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday the country will progressively improve its population policy and solve related problems to promote long-term and balanced growth.

China urges peace, stability on Korean peninsula Posted: 05 Mar 2013 03:51 AM PST China on Tuesday called for efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula when responding to a joint military drill between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States.

Chinese fleet returns after S China Sea patrols Posted: 05 Mar 2013 04:51 AM PST A Chinese patrol team returned to Guangzhou on Tuesday after covering 2,455 nautical miles in the South China Sea to carry out regular observation and patrol operations.

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