Saturday, September 6, 2008

Senior Chinese official underlines "virtue" in selecting officials

A senior Chinese official on Friday stressed the importance of moral integrity in selecting officials.

Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the country's officials should possess moral integrity and professional competence, with virtuous morality being the foremost quality.

They should have unswerving ideals and be loyal to the Party, diligently serve the people and be free of corruption, he told the opening ceremony at Yan'an Cadres College.

Official training institutes should play their due role in nurturing officials' political integrity, urged Li, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Source: Xinhua

China's cabinet urges stricter safety control at chemical plants after blast

China's cabinet on Friday urged the country's chemical plants to tighten work safety control after a fatal blast in the south.

Officials at all levels must "learn deep lessons" from the accident and map out development plans for local chemical industry with specific safety and environmental standards, said an urgent circular issued by the Office of the Work Safety Commission under the State Council, or cabinet.

Disqualified technicians or institutions must be banned from providing designs for technical upgrading at chemical factories, said the circular.

Chemical plants were told to step up safety supervision at dangerous work sites such as storage areas.

Those enterprises failing to find out major hidden safety hazards in time would be punished, starting from next year, it said.

An explosion at a chemical plant killed 20 and injured 60 in Yizhou City of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Aug. 26.

About 11,500 residents in the neighborhood were evacuated. The cause of the explosion hasn't been determined.

The State Administration of Work Safety said on Friday it would conduct a full-scale safety overhaul on all chemical plants in three months beginning from Sept. 10.

Wang Jun, head of the administration, said China still faced a grim situation in terms of work safety though progress had been made.

The country reported 10 major accidents in a row from Aug. 1 to Sept. 4, according to Wang.

"There remain loopholes in our work," he said. "The foundation of work safety is not solid and hidden risks haven't been eradicated."

In the first eight months, deaths in accidents decreased 14 percent from a year ago in China, while coal mine deaths dropped 24.1 percent, the administration figures show.

Source: Xinhua

S. Korean PM: Development of S. Korea-China ties unprecedented

"South Korea and China have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of bilateral ties over the years since they forged diplomatic relations," South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-so said in Seoul Friday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, the prime minister, who will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympics Saturday, spoke highly of the ever-increasing cooperation and exchanges in various fields between China and South Korea.

"The cooperation between the two nations has been rapidly expanding in politics, culture, economy and social aspects in a very short period of time as the two sides only forged diplomatic ties 16 years ago," said the prime minister.

Currently, more than 4 million South Koreans visit China each year and the number of South Koreans who are engaged in Chinese language learning is also growing swiftly, Han pointed out.

"All these facts demonstrate our high attention and friendship toward the Chinese people," he said.

Through such people-to-people communications, the two countries will deepen mutual understanding in culture, customs, economy, society and politics, he added.

The prime minister also highlighted the significance of high-level dialogue between South Korea and China, adding the two sides inked a series of agreements on all-round cooperation in late August when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited South Korea.

"Frequent high-level exchanges between the two sides will not only deepen their friendship and mutual trust but will also facilitate their people-to-people exchanges," said the prime minister.

"I believe that the exchanges in high-level visits between South Korea and China will lay a solid foundation for the development of their bilateral relations," he added.

The prime minister noted that the leaders of South Korea and China agreed in May to elevate their bilateral relations to a strategic cooperative partnership.

"It was a historic landmark in the South Korea-China relations," said Han, who planned to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders during his stay in Beijing.

During their meetings, Han said that he and the Chinese leaders will try to seek approaches to expand their cooperation in various aspects.

Source:Xinhua

China, Cuba urged to exchange more students

Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong on Friday pledged for closer cooperation with Cuba on education, especially the exchange of students and the opening of a Confucius Institute.

Liu made the remarks when meeting with a Cuban educational delegation led by Lissette Diaz Castro, a representative of the Council of State of Cuba.

Hailing the sound development of China-Cuba ties, Liu expressed the appreciation for the efforts Cuban government has taken to train Chinese students.

She suggested the two sides intensify cooperation on the exchange of students and the opening of the Confucius Institute in Havana University, so to lift the bilateral cooperation to a new level.

Liu also conveyed her greetings to Fidel Castro, former Cuban President, and expressed sympathy condolence to the Cuban government and people affected by Hurricane Gustav on behalf of Chinese government.

Castro briefed Liu Chinese students' living and studying situation in Cuba. She also spoke highly of the successful Beijing Olympic Games and thanked the Chinese side for inviting her to attend the opening ceremony of Paralympics.

Source:Xinhua

Japanese PM pledges continued efforts for ties with China

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Friday that he would like to make continued efforts in the future to further develop the relations between Japan and China.

The outgoing prime minister made the remarks during meeting with a Chinese delegation, which is led by Song Jian, president of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Association, at his official residence in the evening.

During the meeting, Fukuda recalled his meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao since taking office a year ago and their consensus on full development of the Japan-China strategic and reciprocal relations.

Fukuda said the bilateral ties significantly improved during his term.

Song highly lauded Fukuda's important contribution in the process of further deepening the bilateral strategic and reciprocal relations.

China would like to work together with the Japanese side to expand friendly communications and properly deal with sensitive issues for the goals of peaceful coexistence, common development and friendship from generation to generation, Song said.

The delegation arrived in Japan Thursday for a six-day visit at the invitation of one of the Japan-China friendship organizations. They are scheduled to attend on Monday a reception celebrating the30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China.  

Source:Xinhua

U.S. envoy calls for verification of DPRK's nuclear declaration

Top U.S. nuclear talks negotiator Christopher Hill on Friday called for verification of the nuclear declaration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea .

"We all agree on what the DPRK needs to do," Hill, assistant Secretary of State, told reporters after meeting with his counterparts from the Republic of Korea and Japan in Beijing on Friday night "to review the situation where we are".

"We need a means to verify the declaration," Hill said, noting that "what we need to do is to verify their nuclear declaration, and we have put together a protocol based on international standards."

Part of the nuclear declaration of the DPRK "is to have verification protocol". "We are prepared to complete our obligations as they complete theirs, but a declaration without a protocol is only half of the obligation," Hill noted.

Hill is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei Saturday morning.

The DPRK handed over the long-awaited nuclear declaration list in late June and then blew up a cooling tower in its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. On Aug. 26, the DPRK said it had stopped disabling its nuclear facilities and considered restoring the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, attributing its move to the U.S. failure to remove it from a terrorism blacklist.

Source:Xinhua

Iranian president leaves for Beijing Paralympics

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left here Friday night for China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games due to be held on Sept. 6-17.

Ahmadinejad was accompanied by Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaii, Physical Education Organization head Mohammad Aliabadi and Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, a senior advisor to the president.

"Paralymipic Games is one of the most important international sport events, which should be considered as important as the Summer Olympic Games," Ahmadinejad told reporters at Tehran's Mehrabad international airport.

Ahmadinejad hoped to meet and confer with Chinese leaders during his stay in Beijing, saying "we will discuss bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest."

Chinese Ambassador Xie Xiaoyan saw Ahmadinejad off at the airport.

Iranian female athletes, with physical disabilities will for the first time participate in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, who will compete in the fields of track and fields, shooting and table tennis, according to the official IRNA news agency on Sunday.

Source:Xinhua