Digest

FM defends mediation efforts in South Sudan

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has defended China's mediation efforts in South Sudan, rejecting the notion that they were intended to safeguard its own oil interests.

The minister made the remarks at a news conference on Jan 11 with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Karti in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, according to the Foreign Ministry's website.

China has good relations with the oil industry in both Sudan and South Sudan, Wang said, pointing out that it is the people who will suffer most if the industry is affected by the chaos caused by civil war in the south.

He told reporters that China is making efforts at mediation because it is a responsible country, not trying to benefit itself alone.

"China will continue to work toward this goal as a friend of both countries."

He Wenping, a research fellow at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the heavy fighting in the young country has been a setback to its economic reconstruction and development.

Ambitious course set for airliner market

China aims to take one-third of the global market for turboprop airliners with the MA-700, a cutting-edge aircraft currently under development, according to the aircraft's chief designer.

"The MA-700 will make its maiden flight in the first half of 2017 and is set to be delivered to buyers in 2019. At least 50 planes will be made each year," Dong Jianhong, a senior designer at Aviation Industry Corp of China, told China Daily in an exclusive interview. "I am convinced that after the aircraft enters service, it will help us obtain at least 30 percent of the international turboprop airliner market within about 10 years."

He said that compared with its predecessors, the MA-60 family, the MA-700 is a new design with lower operational and maintenance costs and more eco-friendly technologies.

"At present, we are focusing on gaining Chinese authorities' certification, and once the MA-700 is certified in China, we will, and must, strive to have it certified by the United States Federal Aviation Administration, otherwise the plane will not be able to enter Western markets," he said, adding the aircraft's safety standard is the strictest of its kind in the global civil aviation sector.

China to aid Africa in realizing railway 'dream'

China is willing to help Africa to realize its dream of building a high-speed railway network, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his visit to Kenya on Jan 10.

"When Premier Li Keqiang visited the headquarters of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the African Union Commission, said Africans have a dream that all the capitals of African countries can be connected by high-speed railway. As a good friend of Africa, China is willing to make its effort to help Africans realize this dream," Wang said.

A subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corp recently completed the $1.83 billion upgrade of 1,344 km of track across Angola. China Road and Bridge Corp is building a Mombasa-Nairobi railway that eventually will be extended to serve five other countries at a total cost of $13.8 billion.

"The cooperation of China with Kenya and Africa is cooperation for mutual benefit between developing countries and is the mutual support of friends between each other. We should give priority to the needs of Kenya's development and people's wishes. This is a principal that we should insist on," said Wang.

H-bomb work nets scientist top award

Nuclear physicist Yu Min won China's top science award on Jan 9 for his outstanding contribution to the country's hydrogen bomb research.

The award, given annually since 2000, honors scientists who make a major contribution to China's scientific and technological development and achieve key breakthroughs in cutting-edge scientific and technological fields.

Twenty-five distinguished scientists have won the top award since 2000. It is presented to no more than two scientists annually.

Yu, 89, won an award of 5 million yuan ($807,000; 687,000 euros).

(China Daily European Weekly 01/16/2015 page3)