Diplomatic Pouch: With Mike Peters

The British and Chinese governments joined forces last week to boost agricultural technology transfer to low-income countries at the second Africa-Britain-China Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries in Beijing.

The program will create programs in agricultural development with the governments of Malawi and Uganda to improve agricultural productivity and food security for poor people.

The British embassy says the program, which runs from now until March 2016, will also support researchers from Africa, Southeast Asia, China and the UK to work jointly to develop innovative solutions to agricultural productivity improvement.

The program was jointly launched by Niu Dun, vice-minister of agriculture of China; Sebastian Wood, British ambassador to China; Zerubabel Nyiira, minister of state for agriculture of Uganda; and Bright Kumwembe, director of finance and administration, ministry of agriculture and food security of Malawi.

The Greek embassy in China announced that the author Sotiris Halikias, a scholar fluent in ancient Chinese who has translated Confucius and Mencius from the original texts, is teaching a three-month cycle of postgraduate courses at the University of Athens.

Halikias, an architect and urban planner by training, became fascinated with the changes in China during the 1960s, adding that initially he studied "the great texts of French Sinology" and then decided to learn the Chinese language itself.

"A common element of all spiritual tendencies in Chinese culture is the perception that human society remains an integral part of the general flow of the world," he said last week, noting that a fundamental consequence of this viewpoint is that people cannot live independently of nature and cannot downgrade it by merely exploiting its resources. "Obviously, the global ecological crisis that has taken up dramatic dimensions makes the Chinese perspective very timely." Halikias has lived in Brussels for years but returned to Greece to lead the postgraduate seminars.

France's Ambassador to China Sylvie Bermann celebrated the 94th anniversary of the 1918 armistice, and paid tribute to all who died for France, on Nov 11 during a wreath-laying at the embassy in Beijing. The ceremony, hosted this year by the defense mission, was attended by ambassadors and defense attaches from 37 countries.

The holiday season is approaching, which means German expatriate women in Beijing are putting the finishing touches on craft gift items and decorations to be sold at the embassy's charity bazaar on Dec 1. The indoor/outdoor Christmas fair has become one of the biggest in the capital, with gift shopping, bratwursts and gluehwein, and a little culture on the side that all support various local charities.

The Friendship Communication Organization of Ambassadors and Madams on Knowing Chinese Culture recently hosted a tour of Rugao, a city famed for the longevity of its residents. Diplomats and wives from about 25 embassies joined the trip to see local people, culture and folk art. The organization will escort the group on a tour to Urumqi next month.

Send embassy and consulate news to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/16/2012 page31)