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Xi recognizes Kissinger as 'trailblazer'

Six months before his first state visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping sent a message about China's willingness to strengthen cooperation and dispel misunderstandings, when on March 17 he met a key figure who helped establish formal Sino-US relations in the 1970s.

Xi told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in Beijing that both sides should manage differences and sensitive issues in a constructive manner and grasp the important opportunity to enhance the relationship.

Hailing Kissinger as the "trailblazer of this relationship", Xi said China needs a peaceful environment for development and would like to work with the US to protect the relationship and implement the consensus reached before.

Kissinger said both sides share concerns about global peace, progress and development. The creation of a new model of a major-country relationship shows vision and is in the interest of both.

In 1972 Kissinger, a national security adviser at the time, accompanied then president Richard Nixon on his ice-breaking China visit. That trip ended 25 years of mutual silence and paved the way for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between China and the US in 1979.

Huayi Brothers clinches US films deal

China's largest private film company has reached an agreement with an unnamed United States company to co-produce and distribute at least 18 feature films by the end of 2017.

The agreement, reached through Huayi Brothers Media Corp's wholly owned US subsidiary, signals that the Chinese entertainment conglomerate aims to increase involvement in major screen markets globally.

Under the agreement, Huayi will take a direct share of global revenues, profits in proportion to its equity in the films, and the distribution fees. It also retains distribution rights in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore.

It is the first such formal agreement between a Chinese company and Hollywood and the first time a Chinese film company will take proportional profits at the global box office.

It will also pave the way for Huayi to make further inroads into the international market and strengthen the operation of its film business.

Third-party audit for SOEs' overseas assets

China is to launch a comprehensive audit of the overseas assets of its state-owned enterprises in an attempt to tighten oversight of their international operations.

The country's top state-asset regulator issued an invitation on March 17 for tenders to audit the assets.

It is the first time that the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has decided to audit overseas state assets through a tender offer.

Analysts said the move underscores the government's intention to improve transparency of the auditing system by inviting independent third parties to take part in the process based on market principles.

The auditing initiative will involve 12.4 million yuan ($2 million) from the fiscal budget, and the bidding result will be announced on April 7, the commission said in a statement.

To avoid a potential conflict of interest, organizations eligible for the bidding must not have provided accounting or auditing services between January 2012 and December last year to SOEs or their overseas subsidiaries inspected by the commission, the statement said.

Accounting firms that are eligible must be incorporated in China and have licenses issued by government agencies and ministries, it added.

Trilateral meeting of foreign ministers

China, Japan and South Korea announced on March 17 that they will hold their seventh trilateral foreign ministers' meeting later this month, resuming the annual top diplomats' gathering after a two-year hiatus.

Following the sixth gathering in May 2012, Japan damaged its ties with China and South Korea because of historical and territorial issues.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the meeting was scheduled for March 21 in Seoul. It would bring together Foreign Minister Wang Yi, his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida and South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se.

They would look at the progress of trilateral cooperation, and views would be exchanged on topics such as "the principles that the three countries should subscribe to for cooperation as well as the directions of future development", Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

Observers responded with guarded optimism, partly because Tokyo continues to downplay wartime atrocities, which may diminish its hope of quickly mending its fragile trust with Beijing and Seoul.

Shanghai prepares for clean air

Shanghai plans to invest 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in its environmental protection drive for the coming three years, expecting to reduce the concentration of PM2.5 by at least 20 percent from the level in 2013.

Those are part of the targets the municipal government outlined in an action plan for the period between 2015 and 2017.

One of the highlights of the plan, released on March 17, is the increase of capital invested to improve the environment from the annual average of 21.3 billion yuan in the past 15 years to an average of 33.3 billion yuan committed for the upcoming three years.

Improvements in air quality, water and the ecology will be the focus of the plan.

Measures to fight smog include shifting coal-burning boilers and industrial furnaces to cleaner fuels, transforming power generators to reduce their emissions, phasing out highly polluting vehicles and putting in place further controls on dust at construction sites.

Those efforts are expected to help reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 20,000 metric tons, nitrogen oxide by 40,000 tons and volatile organic compounds by 100,000 tons.

Domestic seaplane nearing takeoff

A major part of China's first domestically developed seaplane rolled off the assembly line on March 17 in Chengdu, Sichuan province, indicating the world's largest amphibious aircraft is nearing its completion.

The 9.5-meter-long front fuselage is manufactured by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group and will be delivered to China Aviation Industry General Aircraft in Guangdong's Zhuhai for the AG-600's final assembly, planned to start around May, said Huang Lingcai, chief designer of the aircraft at the Zhuhai company.

The seaplane's debut flight will take place in the first half of 2016, he added.

The two companies are owned by Aviation Industry Corp of China, the country's leading aircraft maker.

"The AG-600 will meet China's urgent need for such equipment in forest fire control and maritime search and rescue, and it will form an important part of the country's emergency response and rescue system," Huang said. "It can carry nearly 60 people during a search-and-rescue mission. To extinguish a forest fire, it can pick up 12 tons of water from a nearby lake or sea within 20 seconds and pour it on the fire."

Forger's drawings used in most fake notes

More than 96 percent of the counterfeit money confiscated in recent years was printed using copies of original artwork produced by a forger in Shantou, Guangdong province.

Peng Daxiang, who is in his 70s, drew master artwork for the whole series of yuan bank notes.

He was jailed for life in 2013 after a major counterfeiting case, but copies of his drawings are still in use today, said Dong Yongxian, who is in charge of a laboratory that deals with fake money at the Ministry of Public Security.

A set of artwork for the 100-yuan note is worth more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000; 15,000 euros).

However, no fake bank notes carry all the anti-counterfeiting features found on real notes, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Counterfeiters buy paper, stamp in the foil security line, print layers of colors, cut the paper and press the fake money manually or with a machine to add a sculptural feel.

Technicians who can produce colors that are very close to those used in real notes are highly paid.

There were two major cases involving more than 223 million yuan of fake currency in Guangdong last year.

(China Daily European Weekly 03/20/2015 page2)