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Chinese pessimismover ties with Japan

The impact of the Diaoyu Islands dispute on China-Japan ties is diminishing, but pessimism over relations remains, an opinion poll in both countries has found.

Most of the public continue to see the significance of the relationship but "the proportion of such people is shrinking to a record low on both sides", the pollsters said, 65 percent of respondents in China and 70.6 percent in Japan.

The 10th Public Opinion on China-Japan Relations 2014 survey, co-sponsored by China Daily and the Japanese nonprofit think tank Genron NPO, was issued in Tokyo on Sept 9.

The annual poll, conducted in July and August, gathers responses from a wide spectrum of society, including 1,539 Chinese residents in the major cities, 201 international relations scholars and 813 university students and faculty members at five top Beijing universities. In Japan, respondents included 1,000 members of the public and 628 intellectuals, mostly with experience of China.

Olympian's marriagecreates a fuss

Getting married suggests that the Chinese Olympian hurdler Liu Xiang may soon retire, and his celebrity paves the way for a new career, experts say.

Liu posted a photo of himself and a young woman leaning on a hurdle with a caption reading "My beloveds, her and it" on Tencent Weibo on Sept 9, sparking more than 22 million responses and views in a few hours.

Liu's mother, Ji Fenhua, confirmed that her son had recently married the woman in the photo, identified as Ge Tian, an actress.

Call for US decorumin 'sensitive issues'

Beijing has called on Washington to achieve "proper management and control over divergence and sensitive issues" because President Barack Obama will visit China soon.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi delivered the message when he met the visiting US national security adviser Susan Rice on Sept 8, and he confirmed that the two countries have begun preparations for Obama's attendance at the the APEC leaders' summit in China in November.

Rice has been paying her first visit to China since she became national security adviser in July last year. Yang told her China welcomes Obama's visit and will work with Washington to make it a success.

Drug treatment centersfind success

More than 600,000 drug addicts underwent compulsory detoxification in rehabilitation centers between 2011 and the end of June, and 30 percent of them have overcome their addiction, the Ministry of Justice said.

More than 200,000 drug addicts are receiving treatment in the centers run by local justice departments, said the ministry, including 5,000 who took drugs again after being discharged.

"It's easy for their bodies to get rid of the drug, but it's more difficult for them to get off the drugs psychologically," said a senior ministry official who declined to be named, adding that 70 percent of users take drugs again after they are rehabilitated and discharged.

Tainted Taiwan oilstill on banned list

Tainted oil from Taiwan has met safety standards, the island's public health authority said on Sept 8, but the product will still be banned from sale.

Taiwan's consumers have been gripped by fear and anger after the island's police detained six people on Sept 4. They were selling hundreds of tons of recycled cooking oil made from kitchen waste and grease from leather processing plants.

Chang Guann Co, a well-established cooking oil supplier in Taiwan, bought the recycled oil to make 782 tons of lard, 645 tons of it sold to 971 food companies and restaurants, including a number of leading brands.

Surge in number ofcompany enrollments

There has been a big rise in company registrations, after the government slashed red tape, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce says.

Since the registration reforms were introduced on March 1, more than 1.76 million corporations have registered, 68 percent more than the number of corporations set up during the same period last year, said Zhou Shiping, director of the department of enterprise registration in the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, on Sept 5.

The key reforms introduced in March were Regulations on the Registration of Company Registered Capital, the revised Company Law and the State Council's circular to reform the general system of registration.

"The reforms have significantly lowered the cost of entities entering the market, and shorten the time they have to wait before entering," Zhou said.

Tsinghua, Berkeleyprepare joint institute

Tsinghua University and the University of California, Berkeley, have signed an agreement to establish a joint institute in the economically pivotal city of Shenzhen in South China to promote research collaboration and graduate student education.

The two universities aim to integrate their research programs to address social needs and global challenges through the partnership, said Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the US university, at the signing ceremony.

The Tsinghua-UC Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, to be located on Tsinghua's Shenzhen campus, is due to open by the end of the year.

It will start with research centers in three areas: nanotechnology and nanomedicine, low-carbon and new energy technologies, and data science and next-generation Internet.

US man faces trial in DPRK

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will put a detained US citizen on trial on Sept 14, state media said on Sept 7, less than a week after Matthew Miller made a highly unusual televised plea for help from Washington.

Miller, one of three US citizens being held in the DPRK, was arrested in April after Pyongyang said he ripped up his visa at immigration and demanded asylum.

"The Supreme Court of the DPRK decided to hold on Sept 14 a court trial on American Matthew Todd Miller, now in custody according to the indictment of a relevant institution," the KCNA news agency said.

The statement offered no further details.

Praise for Central andEastern European links

Central and Eastern European countries are well placed to achieve mutual benefits with China by working together on trade, investment and infrastructure building, Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said.

Development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives will also offer huge opportunities, he said.

He was talking in Prague on Aug 28 at the fifth China Investment Forum and the second China-Central and Eastern Europe leaders' meeting. Zhang was with a delegation of about 700 Chinese government representatives and entrepreneurs who attended the two forums.

The forums were organized by the Czech China Chamber of Collaboration and were attended by more than 1,000 professionals and business executives from China and Europe.

Silk Road initiativesin the spotlight

China's initiatives in building a Silk Road Economic Belt and a modern Maritime Silk Road will bring huge benefits to global investment and trade, participants at an international business symposium have been told

Tan Sri Ong Kah Ting, the Malaysian prime minister's special envoy to China, said the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road will be of great importance to boosting investment and trade with Southeast Asia, historically part of the maritime route.

"China and Malaysia have achieved many important milestones over the decades," he said during a symposium on developing the modern trade routes. "I am confident that with our existing close ties, we can achieve more following China's initiative of building a modern maritime Silk Road."

The symposium was held in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Sept 7, a day before the opening of the annual China International Fair for Investment and Trade.

(China Daily European Weekly 09/12/2014 page2)