China :: Commentaries

DEFEATING AL-QAEDA: Assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, John O. Brennan speaks during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, May 2. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTONThe Obama administration released a document that says al-Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11. Called the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, it says in the last two and half years, we have made significant progress against al-Qaeda, and that its recently slain leader was demoralized before his death. The National Strategy for Counterterrorism was posted on the White House website June 29. While the classified version is, of course, not available to the public, the unclassified version explained in simple terms how the president and his closest security advisers view the terrorist threat and how they intend to defeat it. For this administration to a greater extent than its processor, the al-Qaeda...

From its early beginnings, as a party with 50-odd members, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has weathered the storms of the 20th Century to become an 80-million-strong leader of the nation.1949: Founding of the People's Republic of China From Sept 21 to 30, 1949, various political parties, popular organizations, personages without party affiliation and representatives attend the first Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). It elects the Central People's Government Council, with Mao Zedong as chairman, and appoints Zhou Enlai as premier of the Government Administration Council. After decades of warfare and social conflicts and an economy ravaged by high inflation, Mao proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China on the Tian'anmen Rostrum on Oct 1, 1949. "The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was founded today!" declares Mao. More than 300,000 people hail the moment in the Tian'anmen ...

VIENTIANE - China is committed to cooperating with other countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) to the best of its capacity, Assistant Minister of Commerce of China Yu Jianhua said here on Thursday.He made the remarks at the Third GMS Economic Corridors Forum, which opened on Thursday in Laos' capital of Vientiane and attended by ministers and senior officials from the GMS countries as well as representatives from the private sector and development partnersDuring his opening speech, Yu reiterated China's commitment to working closely with other GMS countries and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to take concrete measures to fully achieve common development and prosperity in the region."We should continue to use the forum as a platform for furthering cooperation through coordination by central governments, implementation by local governments, advancement by regional organizations such as ADB, and participation by private sectors," Yu said.The one-day forum discuss...

BEIJING - China hopes to see Egypt maintain social stability and avoid further casualties, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday.Hong made the remarks at a press conference in reply to questions about recent clashes between protestors and police and security forces in Cairo.China has noticed related reports about the clashes, Hong added.Over 1,000 Egyptians were injured in overnight clashes between police and protestors in central Cairo that started Tuesday.

The first high-speed trains to travel on the new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway departed at 3pm today, with one train leaving Shanghai for Beijing and another train making the same trip in the opposite direction. Premier Wen Jiabao attended the railway's opening ceremony in Beijing, boarding the Shanghai-bound high-speed train shortly thereafter. His train is expected to arrive in Shanghai at 8:09pm, while the train bound for Beijing is expected to arrive at 8:02pm. The 1,318-kilometer-long railway links the country's prosperous Pan-Bohai and Yangtze River Delta economic zones, cutting travel time between the two regions to less than five hours. The high-speed railway, which has been operating on a trial basis since mid-May, opened one year ahead of schedule. Although the railway is designed to handle maximum train speeds of 350 kilometers per hour, most of the trains will run at speeds between 250 and 300 kph. He Huawu, chief engineer at the Ministry of Railways, on Monda...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has attended the launch ceremony at Beijing South Railway Station, to mark the inaugural journey on the new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line. The new line links China's municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, across the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu. The journey's length has been reduced to less than five hours. Premier Wen Jiabao met members of the station staff and delivered a speech. He spoke highly of the efforts made by the construction team, and stressed the significance behind the launch of the train. He then boarded the bullet train for its maiden ride, which will take him to the next stop along the line, Langfang city in Hebei province. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has attended the launch ceremony at Beijing...

CARACAS, VenezuelaNo matter what the outcome of the mysterious disease inflicting Hugo Chavez is, it is fair to say that his hold over his followers has weakened. His followers have discovered that Chavezpresident of Venezuela since 1999cares little about their country, having no qualms to ruling it from Havana as if it were a mere colonial outpost of the Cuban Empire. More damaging, they are shocked that their beloved leader is a mere mortal after all, that he might not be there forever to make sure they can keep profiting from the regime. Absent Three Weeks Chavezs mismanagement of the whole situation harks back to Cold War secretiveness in the era of Twitter. With his mysterious absence now in its third week, rumors are swirling around Venezuela that a succession war has begun within the chavismoa left-wing ideology based on Chavez populist credomovement. The latest renewed electricity crisis can only be attributed to the regimes mismanagement of the sector In the meantime, the opp...

TAIPEI -Former Taiwan leaderLee Teng-huiwas indicted Thursday on charges of embezzling from asevurity fund, becoming the island's second ex-leader to run afoul of the judiciary.Prosecutor Chen Hong-ta said Lee and top aide Liu Tai-ying had been charged with embezzling $7.79 million from a secret diplomatic fund.In a statement, prosecutors said Lee embezzled the money to set up a think tank meant to serve his private office after he left political life."Lee Teng-hui pocketed $7.79 million for his own personal use through money-laundering," the statement said. "In order to set up the Taiwan Research Institute, he consulted with his advisers and decided to get the money from a security bureau project fund."Prosecutors began looking into the case after Lee stepped down in 2000, and three years later charged the bureau's chief accountant with corruption. Those charges were eventually dropped for lack of evidence.Lee has repeatedly denied embezzlingthe fund. His o...

SHANGHAI - Despite the repeatedly emerging scandals of Chinese government officials' public and private lives on popular micro blogs, the country's authorities are showing an increasing interest in publicizing their political affairs.With 62 departments already opening accounts on weibo.com, a Twitter-like network operated by popular Chinese Internet portal Sina.com.cn, the government of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, issued a new regulation stating information about "emergent and disastrous events happening in Nanjing" must be posted on weibo within an hour after it happens. Nanjing government demands emergent events across the city be reported to the public on micro blogs within an hour. [Provided to China Daily] "Emergent and disastrous events mean things closely related with people's daily life," said Pan Tao, director of the Internet sector of the publicity department with the Nanjing committee of the Communist Party of China, who introduced the regulat...

BEIJING - An online retailer in Central China's Wuhan was ordered Tuesday to pay 4.3 million yuan ($665,830) in taxes, the first such case disclosed in China.Sales revenue of the Wuhan-based women's clothing store that operates on Taobao.com, My 1 Percent, totaled about 100 million yuan last year via at least two million online transactions, according to Wuhan tax authorities.Although no specific rules on taxes for online stores are available in the country, all transactions that occur in China should pay taxes according to the laws, Wuhan taxation authorities said. But they said not all online stores based in Wuhan are required to do so.Large-sized stores will have to pay taxes, but small ones will temporarily be exempted, according to local taxation authorities.The number of online stores in China hit 13.5 million at the end of last year, with about 158 million online retail users, and online trade topped 513.1 billion yuan, up 97.3 percent year-on-year, about 3 percent of th...

BEIJING - China intends to create 45 million new jobs for urban residents and 40 million jobs for rural laborers over the next five years, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said Wednesday. Related readings: More arbitrators needed as labor disputes soarThe target ceiling for registered unemployment rate is 5 percent, according to the ministry's plan concerning the development of the human resources and social security network during the 2011-2015 period.To achieve the above goals, the government will adopt more active policies including measures to encourage entrepreneurship, promote employment for the needy and strengthen vocational training as well as create a unified, standardized labor market to promote employment services.During the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, 57.71 million new jobs were created for urban residents and 45 million jobs for rural workers with the registered urban unemployment rate at 4.1 percent.

Watch Video Play Video Every year from June to July, endangered Tibetan antelopes give birth at the Hoh-Xil Nature Reserve in northwest China's Qinghai Province. Zhou Xiran tells us about a baby Tibetan antelope who became lost but has been finally rescued. Little "Caicuo" was lost by his mother shortly after his birth. But luckily for him, he is being taken good care of. Wang Hailin works at a research station in Hoh-Xil. He found Caicuo, and decided to take him to the local wildlife rescue center. But it's a difficult journey. Just two hours on the road, the car was trapped in mud. Caicuo seems hungry, Wang stops his car and feeds him every two hours. But he can't feed him with too much milk power. After all antelope milk is best. After getting stuck three times in the mud and six stops with engine failure, Caicuo finally arrives at the center in the evening. Caicuo is the first Tibetan antelope the center has received this year. It decides to let the most...

Students wave red flags in front of the Baise Revolt Memorial Hall in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on June 28, 2011. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Guangxi on Tuesday kicked off a one-and-half-year-long "Re-experience of Deng Xiaoping's Road", which millions of students will participate in. The participants will join various activities such as workshops and "red travel" tours. The former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was a reformer and anarchitect of China's economic reform and opening-up. [Photo/Xinhua] Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page

Compared to the first bullet train that will leave Shanghai for Beijing on the new high-speed line, other forthcoming services have received a lukewarm response - at least for now. A reporter from Aljazeera speaks to a video camera near a high-speed train in Beijing, capital of China, June 27, 2011. More than 400 domestic and international journalists Monday were invited to board the high-speed train which will run on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. The railway will officially go into operation on June 30. [Chinanews.com] Rail officials said business travelers and students were most likely to opt for the high-speed train and also "many others would like to experience the journey at the very beginning." The Shanghai-Beijing high-speed rail will have 90 pairs of service along the route each day. At Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, the high-speed trains will leave between 7am and 5:55pm. All the tickets, including luxury seats costing 1,750 yuan (US$270.50), on the 1,...

BERLIN - China and Germany held the first round of inter-governmental consultation on Tuesday, pledging to further boost bilateral ties and cooperation through this mechanism.The consultation, co-chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is a dialogue mechanism aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and China's Premier Wen Jiabao (L) address a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin June 28, 2011. Wen and Merkel aim to boost trade between the world's two biggest export nations to at least 200 billion euros in the next five years, they said at a meeting in Berlin on Tuesday. [Photo/Agencies] During the consultation, Wen said both sides aim to lift bilateral cooperation and exchanges in various fields to a higher level through this mechanism, saying it is in the fundamental interests of both countries and will also make a positive impact on the world.Merkel, for her part, said holding the con...

From Southern Weekend : Recently a registered microblogger under the name of Guo Meimei has brought the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) under the publics scrutiny. The 20 year-old girl flaunted about her luxury cars and bags on her micro blog page, but what brought her and the RCSC under the attention is that Guos microblog occupation is "General Manager of RCSC Commercial Club". Received my gift for 20th birthday. I picked it up in the cold wind2011 is really geilivable ( Chinese internet buzzword, means awesome, cooperative) right?! When exposed, Guo Meimei first defended herself on her microblog , said she is not a staff in RCSC but her company has some business relations with the RCSC. "Our company put personal i! nsurance and medical appliance advertisements on the Red Cross medical vehicle. Therefore its called RCSC commercial club." Later she deleted this entry and posted another entry saying she had nothing to do with RCSC at all. Her title is just a ...

Fijis military ruler, Commodore Frank (Voreqe) Bainimarama. The Commodore is reportedly furious that both Samoa and Tonga have shown support to Lt Colonel Ratu Tevita Mara, Fijis fourth highest military officer, who escaped Fiji. (FILippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images) A diplomatic row is building amongst Pacific nations over the defection of a high level military commander from Fiji to Tonga. The former Fijian commander is proposing a plan for democracy in Fiji, a move the Samoan Prime Minister has also publicly supported. Lieutenant Colonel Ratu Tevita Mara, as Fijis Royal Military Force chief of staff, was the fourth highest military officer in Fiji when he began to criticise the rule of Commodore Frank (Voreqe) Bainimarama. Under the threat of arrest for attempts to overthrow the government, Colonel Mara, the son of former Fiji president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, fled to an outer island where he was rescued by a Tongan navy patrol boat, who claimed they were responding t...

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A sports lottery ticket holder from Jiangbei District in Chongqing Municipality hit a 176.9 million yuan jackpot last night, the largest prize in the history of the China Sports Lottery, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.

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Actress Jennifer Aniston accepts the Decade of Hotness award at Spike TV's 5th Annual 'Guys Choice Awards' at Sony Studios on June 4, in Culver City, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) NEW YORKIn the forthcoming Hollywood comedy Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston takes a turn in character to become an extreme foul mouthed dentist who constantly flirts with her intimidated assistant played by Charlie Day. You dont want to play it safe all the time, said Aniston. Also starring Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey and Jason Sudeikis, the comedy tells of three employees victimized by three horrible bosses. The three friends then conspire to murder their bosses. Aniston has had a repertoire of playing the pretty girl next door throughout her career, the 42-year-old was more than happy to step out of the comfort zone. I felt complete freedom, so that was really fun, Aniston described her role as Dr. Julia Harris. What made it even more fun was picturi...

South China's Guangdong province may reward those who report corruption according to the amount of ill-gotten money involved in the case, xinhuanet.com reported. The report said Guangdong's move is modeled after Chongqing municipality, where reporting a crime can result in rewards of up to 200,000 yuan ($29,740). The Guangdong government said they are planning the project without disclosing the exact amount of rewards. Currently, the provincial governments highest reward for reporting a crime is 30,000 yuan, the report said.

A rainbow towers over a flooded section of downtown on June 25, 2011 in Minot, North Dakota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) The overflowing Souris River flooded the town of Minot, North Dakota, over the weekend, forcing thousands to evacuate. Residents may have to wait several weeks before they can even survey their homes again, according to a report from Reuters news agency. It is going to be a very slow process of drying out these wetted areas over the next probably two to three weeks, Allen Schlag, a National Weather Service worker, told Reuters. Related Articles Historic Floods in North Dakota The floodwaters reached historic proportions after it reached 13 feet above normal, breaking a 120-year-old record. A home is surrounded by floodwater as the Souris River crests as seen from the air June 26, 2011 in Minot, North Dakota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) A home is surrounded by floodwater June 26, 2011 in Burlington, North Dakota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Floodwater nearly covers a st...

LONDON Trade deals worth $4.3 billion, including a $2.46 billion agreement on clean coal between China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group and British Seamwell International Ltd, were signed as Premier Wen Jiabao met British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday.During talks at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister, the two leaders signed 12 agreements and restated their desire to double bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015. China's Premier Wen Jiabao (2nd L) and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron watch as British Foreign Minister William Hague signs a trade agreement with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi (R) in central London June 27, 2011. [Photo/Agencies] Wen said at a news conference that there should not be any "finger-pointing" at China over human rights.Meanwhile Wen said China has had contacts with both sides in the Libyan conflict and called for the Libya conflict to be resolved through "po...

BEIJING - China's top legislature on Monday started reviewing a draft amendment to the country's military conscription law for the first time in 13 years with the purpose of recruiting more college students.The draft amendment submitted to the 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee removed an article that stated that full-time students can defer their military service.China should attract more better-educated recruits to its armed forces, according to a draft amendment to the Military Service Law submitted to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.The draft amendment also stated that college graduates recruits with outstanding performance in the army may be directly promoted to active-duty officer posts.College students enlisted for active service may resume their studies within 2 years of leaving the military, according to the amendment, which also raises the maximum age for recruitment to 24 years old.China's military has featured...

Monday, June 27, 2011 The International Court of Justice found the U.S. guilty in what case on June 27, 1986? On June 27, 1986, the International Court of Justice, under the United Nations, finds the United States guilty of violating international law by supporting and arming paramilitary operations, carried out by the Nicaraguan Contras, in and against the Nicaraguan government. Covert U.S. operations in the 1980s are focused on overthrowing Nicaraguas leftist government. The Court demands Washington pay reparations to Nicaragua, but the United States refuses to recognize the ruling. Domestically, in November 1986, it comes to light that the United States sold arms to Iran, to fund the Contras, as well as secure the release of hostages held by Hezbollah. The Iran-Contra affair remains one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. In 1991, at the request of the Nicaraguan government, the Court drops the case from the Courts list. On Thursday, United States Defense Secretary...