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Competitors have fun during a traditional race to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival at Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong on June 2. Edmond Tang / China Daily

Accusations by Abe, Hagel rejected

Wang Guanzhong, the highest ranking military official in the Chinese delegation at an Asia-Pacific security forum, returned fire at the joint Japan-US attack on China on May 31 at the Shangri-La Dialogue Forum.

The lieutenant general diverted from his prepared speech about midway through the speech, saying he felt forced to respond to Tokyo's and Washington's finger-pointing at China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened the forum on May 30 with a speech full of thinly veiled comments targeting China.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel went further the next day by directly accusing China of "destabilizing" the South China Sea and by backing Tokyo's pursuit of a more muscular military role as a counterweight to Beijing.

"The speeches made by Mr Abe and Mr Hagel gave me the impression that they were coordinated with each other, they supported each other, they encouraged each other and they took the advantage of speaking first at the Shangri-La Dialogue and staged provocations and challenges against China," Wang said.

Calling such rhetoric unacceptable and unimaginable, Wang said: "China has never taken the first step to provoke trouble. China has only been forced to respond to the provocations of others."

China may lower green card thresholds

China is considering lowering the application and approval thresholds for permanent residency.

Authorities have drafted regulations on permanent residence for foreigners and will consider more flexible and pragmatic application standards, the Organizational Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China said.

Launched in 2004, China's green card policy provides permanent residency for high-end foreign experts, people with large investments or outstanding contributions to the country.

More than 4,700 foreigners managed to get green cards by 2011, a small number compared with the 600,000 foreigners living in China at the time.

Brazil looks to shine as World Cup starts

Rio de Janeiro's majestic setting will be in the spotlight as the World Cup kicks off in Brazil on June 12, but the ultimate goal in hosting the event is to show that the country's many attractions go beyond fun and sun, for visitors and investors alike.

"Obviously, we are taking advantage of the event to promote something beyond football," said Valdemar Leao, Brazilian ambassador to China.

"Brazil is a country with diverse culture, food and beautiful scenery. The northwest has more people of indigenous extraction, while the east coast has more of a cultural mixture, including those of African, indigenous and European descent. I think people visiting Brazil will be completely immersed in that unique, rich diversity."

Twelve cities will host matches, giving the world a glimpse of the country's spectacular scenery and its urban energy as the country enjoys the economic upturn of recent years, the ambassador said.

Yuan clearing bank to open in London

A yuan clearing bank will be officially appointed in Britain this month, said Mark Boleat, policy chairman for the City of London Corp.

"There will be a clearing bank in London. In due course, there will be an announcement."

The news will be an endorsement of London's efforts to become an offshore yuan center. Other European financial centers in the race to become a yuan center include Frankfurt, Paris, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

An official clearing bank facilitates efficient clearing of offshore renminbi transactions, achieved through the appointed bank's direct cooperation with the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.

Manufacturing reaches highest level

Growth in China's manufacturing sector continued to accelerate last month, rising to the highest level this year and adding to signs of a stabilizing economy, recent data indicate.

The Purchasing Managers Index, a gauge of manufacturing activity, rose to 50.8 in May, from 50.4 in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The monthly reading, continuing to inch above the 50-point level, indicated that the manufacturing sector and the economy as a whole are picking up.

This is the third consecutive monthly rise in the index, seen as one of the key indicators of economic performance, following three months of decline that ended in March.

Foreign technology firms 'pose threat'

Foreign technology services providers such as Google and Apple can become cybersecurity threats to Chinese users, security analysts said, one week after China announced that it will put in place a security review on imported technology equipment.

Other major technology companies, such as Yahoo, Cisco, Microsoft and Facebook, were required by the US National Security Agency to transfer their users' information, said Wan Tao, founder of Intelligence Defense Friends Laboratory, an institution focusing on cybersecurity in China.

Wan said online services have become a major way for the US to steal information globally.

Ning Jiajun, a senior researcher at the Advisory Committee for State Informatization, said, "Previously, the US asked companies to install wiretapping software on their technological products, but if users found and shut down related functions, its 'plan' would fail," he said.

Universities fall short inrecruitment of students

Universities in some provinces are failing to meet their student recruitment targets, a survey has found.

At least seven provinces and one region did not meet their recruitment goals in 2013, according to the College Enrollment Report released on Wednesday by eol.cn, one of the country's largest education portals.

The provinces are Henan, Shandong, Fujian, Anhui, Hebei, Guizhou and Qinghai, along with the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. They are the only areas that have disclosed such figures in the past year, eol.cn reported.

Universities in Shandong, for example, planned to recruit 529,900 students in 2013, but only 466,300 were enrolled. Only 536,000 students were admitted by universities in Henan last year, short of the target figure of 606,600.

Shandong has failed to meet its recruitment targets since 2011, while Henan and Anhui have not done so for the past two years, the report said.

Abducted tourist freed unharmed

Two women, including a Chinese national, who were kidnapped on the Malaysian island of Borneo in early April have been freed with no ransom demanded by the abductors.

The two women, a Chinese tourist and a Philippine hotel worker, were released from an island in the southern Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. Philippine police then took a speedboat to transfer the women to Malaysian waters. The women, abducted by a group of gunmen from a Semporna resort in Sabah, were freed after negotiations involving Malaysian security officers.

The Chinese tourist, Gao Huayun, arrived in Kuala Lumpur, and an official of the Chinese consulate in Malaysia said Gao was in good health.

Reserve ratio cuts to tackle slowdown

The central government will not shift its policy direction amid the economic slowdown, but will intensify targeted financial easing in coming months, the State Council said in a statement.

The statement, which followed an executive meeting of the council, said the government will strengthen the "targeted reduction" of the reserve requirement ratio - the amount of money banks have to set aside as reserves.

The statement said banks that have lent "a certain portion" of their total loans to agriculture-related firms, small and micro-sized enterprises and other companies that cater to economic restructuring demand would enjoy the ratio cut. It did not specify the portion required.

Xi endorses increase in jobs for Xinjiang

The central government has pledged to boost employment in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a move that experts say is crucial for improving livelihoods and maintaining stability.

President Xi Jinping said authorities in Xinjiang must make improving employment their top priority, urging them to help residents gain more skills, to find jobs or to start their own businesses.

Xi addressed a two-day, top-level conference in Beijing about Xinjiang attended by nearly all senior Chinese officials.

He said the number of Xinjiang residents going elsewhere in China to study, find work or to settle should be expanded.

Xi asked the government to allocate more education funding to Xinjiang and said schools should push bilingual education.

Surge tipped for cross-border trade

Cross-border trade volume at Horgos Port, a border station connecting China and Kazakhstan, is expected to grow by 14 percent by the end of this year as Central Asian and European countries vie for larger footholds in the Chinese market.

Horgos is a land entry port, also known as a border station, in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Its history can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), when the port served as part of the Silk Road trade routes.

The center, on which construction began in 2011 and is now nearly complete, is built across the border between the two countries and is located near the town of Horgos in Xinjiang. Exactly 3.43 square kilometers of the center is located in Xinjiang, and the rest, 1.85 sq km, lies in Kazakhstan. It serves as a free trade zone, an industrial innovation park and a cross-border logistics hub.

Longer fishing halt for Bohai, Yellow seas

The annual fishing ban in the Bohai and Yellow seas that started this month will last until Sept 1, one month longer than in previous years. For enhanced surveillance, the border patrol in Yantai city of Shandong province for the first time will use marine radar, which will let guards monitor the seas 24 hours a day.

China, Kuwait sign energy agreements

China and Kuwait inked energy deals on June 3 ahead of an annual forum of China and Arabian countries in Beijing this week.

Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah officiated at the signing ceremony after an hourlong meeting.

Under the agreements, the National Energy Administration and Petro China Co Limited, China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, will deepen cooperation with the Gulf country.

China also won support from Kuwait, which is chairing the Gulf Cooperation Council and the League of Arab States this year, in the promotion of the establishment of an Asian investment bank - a multilateral bank to develop infrastructure projects - a proposal that China has long advocated.

Pandas look into their crystal balls

A crack team of baby pandas will be used to predict World Cup scores, according to reports, in a Chinese answer to deceased soccer soothsayer Paul the Octopus.

The cuddly creatures will predict match winners by picking food from a choice of baskets and by climbing trees at the country's foremost panda breeding base in Sichuan province.

China hopes the pandas will be odds-on to match the worldwide fame achieved by Paul, the German octopus that correctly predicted the results of an impressive string of games at the 2010 World Cup using its tentacles.

Punished jaywalkers pass the baton

Jaywalkers who are caught in Hanyang, Central China's Hubei province, are required to stand watch on the street until they catch another jaywalker, according to a new regulation enacted by local chengguan, or urban management officers, Xinhua reported.

Local authorities said they have seen a 50 percent drop in jaywalking incidents since the new rule took effect.

Bosses get heavy with former staff

Workers have been paid their salaries in over 50,000 coins one month after they finished their project in Nanning city, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

A worker named Peng and his fellow workers were hired for a renovation project at a shop in March and agreed to be paid their wages of about 52,000 yuan ($8,300) when they finished. In the end, they had to resort to the local labor department for help. They finally received what they were owed but were given more than 50,000 coins weighing more than 300 kilograms. The employers said they were angry because the workers' behavior hurt the company.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily European Weekly 06/06/2014 page2)