What's news

Rallying call for BRICS on multilateralism

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi has urged BRICS members to unite and promote multilateralism in international relations.

At the fifth meeting of security representatives of the BRICS countries in Moscow, Yang said the unity, mutual respect and support of BRICS countries would give a positive signal to protecting world peace, promoting multilateralism and democratizing international relations.

In 13 years BRICS countries had conquered many difficulties and had become a powerful bloc, he said.

With the responsibility of protecting world peace and common development, BRICS should facilitate the establishment and operation of its development bank and contingent reserve arrangement, Yang said.

Praise for joint work by China and Egypt

Collaboration between Egypt and China has developed well in recent times, and Egypt looks forward to improving its strategic partnership with China, Egypt's Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouli says.

Madbouli made the remarks after his ministry signed an agreement with a Chinese firm under which sanitation will be provided to 260 villages in four Egyptian provinces.

"Egyptian-Chinese cooperation is witnessing a very big development lately," Madbouli said. "If we review the projects in which the Chinese side cooperates with Egypt, we will find they are all what we call national projects."

He cited Chinese projects in Egypt in public service utilities, especially sanitation, urban transport, energy, land reclamation and establishing new towns in Egypt's national reclamation project.

On May 25 Madbouli signed an agreement with China Gezhouba Group on a $1 billion sanitation project, which he said is "extremely important for Egypt" as it coincides with the government's priorities and provides direct services to Egyptians.

China donates medical equipment and supplies

China has donated medical equipment and supplies worth $400,000 to Jamaica.

China's Ambassador to Jamaica, Dong Xiaojun, made the donation on behalf of the Chinese government.

Receiving the donations at Kingston Public Hospital, Jamaica's Minister of Health, Fenton Ferguson, expressed thanks for China's generosity, saying the donation will increase the access of Jamaicans to health services.

Dong and Ferguson greeted a group of Chinese eye doctors who are to perform free cataract operations on 200 Jamaican patients at the hospital as part of the Chinese government's medical aid project Bright Journey.

Albert Lue, an ophthalmologist at the hospital, said the donated medical equipment was badly needed and will reduce risks during cataract operations.

Since 2003, China's Bright Journey project has helped up to 300 million eye patients in more than 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania.

China's role in Ebola crisis receives accolades

China has been praised for its role in helping West African countries deal with the Ebola epidemic.

At the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization held in Geneva from May 18 to 26 the WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, talked of reforms aimed at better emergency responses to Ebola in future, as she reminded audiences that the threat is far from over.

Chan said she was touched by the speed and number of Chinese response teams sent to deal with the outbreak that killed thousands of people in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

As well as sending funds and medical supplies, China dispatched about 1,200 medical workers and experts to conduct medical, social and infrastructure work in the region.

Li Bin, elected as one of the five vice-presidents of the assembly and who is China's Minister of National Health, said health teams that had come to Africa had one goal: to win the battle.

"China supports Africa because the disease knows no boundaries, and is a common enemy for countries across the world."

China, Chile agree on trade growth

China and Chile have agreed to expand bilateral free trade as they celebrate the 10th anniversary of their free trade agreement.

Premier Li Keqiang met with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in Santiago on the last stop of his Latin American visit.

The leaders witnessed the signing of 18 cooperative agreements covering trade, finance, public infrastructure facilities construction, energy, industrial capacity cooperation, astronomy and cultural exchanges.

Li said China's cooperation with Chile can serve as a model for its relations with other Latin American countries.

"We're going to set up a yuan settlement bank in Chile, the first of its kind in Latin America," the premier said. "In addition, we have decided to award 50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion; 7.5 billion euros) of QFII quotas to Chile, in a move to promote financial cooperation." The QFII system enables foreign institutions to invest in China.

Terrorist groups busted in Xinjiang

Police have broken up 181 terrorist groups over the past year as part of a crackdown in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the authorities said on May 25.

According to the regional government, 96.2 percent of the groups were traced before they were able to commit crimes and 112 suspects surrendered to the police.

The anti-terrorism campaign was launched a day after the bombing of a market in Urumqi, the regional capital, killing 39 people in May last year.

Canada to return corrupt officials

Canada will help China to repatriate corrupt officials who have fled there as well as confiscate their assets, the North American country's top envoy said.

"Canada has had close collaboration with the Chinese government to address such issues," Guy Saint-Jacques, the Canadian ambassador to China, said. "We have no desire to harbor fugitives, and we don't want to be known as welcoming fugitives."

He said China and Canada will sign an agreement to share the assets that Chinese fugitives transfer illegally to Canada. Negotiations have been completed and the agreement should be finalized in the next few months, he said.

"It will provide a legal basis for Canada to share the proceeds of forfeited assets with China, once we identify the transferred illegal money belongs to criminals or criminal organizations," he said.

Import tax slashed to boost sales

Import taxes on selected consumer goods are to be cut by an average of more than 50 percent, to encourage more people to spend at home rather than abroad.

The Ministry of Finance said on May 25 it will lower import taxes on products such as Western-style suits and fur garments, boots, disposable diapers and skin care products, starting June 1. The measure is to boost imports, promote domestic consumption and satisfy strong consumer demand for imported products.

The decision comes after the State Council said in April it was considering reducing import tariffs on consumer goods to stoke domestic spending.

Record numbers of middle-class Chinese are spending heavily overseas or buying cheaper consumer products from foreign websites through overseas shopping agents.

According to market consultants Bain & Co, Chinese consumers spent 380 billion yuan ($61.3 billion; 56 billion euros) on luxury products last year. About 55 percent of the purchases were made in overseas markets.

Shanghai OKs draft plan on innovation hub

Shanghai approved a draft plan on May 25 to build the city into a technology innovation center with global influence by 2030.

Construction of the center will further enhance a city that is already establishing an international economic center, a financial center, a trade center and a shipping center, China Securities Journal reported.

In March, Vice-Mayor Zhou Bo said the priority of the city's work agenda this year was "to greatly implement the strategy of innovation-driven development" and "to speed up establishing the technology innovation center", news website thepaper.cn reported.

Zhou said the government will pilot a new immigration policy and special tax rules for angel investors, identify more high-tech enterprises, and establish a strategic emerging industries board.

Ban on coal-fired plants in Beijing

Beijing will ban construction of coal-fired thermal power plants when the last four are replaced by gas-fired facilities, which is expected by 2017, the municipal economic planner said.

"Closures of the coal-fired power plants will greatly improve air quality, as 22 percent of air pollutants are from coal consumption," said Zhang Wangcai, deputy director of the Beijing Development and Reform Commission's Energy Bureau.

Two gas-fired thermal power plants went into operation in October and have reduced annual coal consumption by 3.95 metric tons, he said.

Beijing has also restricted coal consumption by companies and households by supplying gas or other cleaner fuels.

US charges 'reflect fears over technology'

Accusations against scientists and researchers with Chinese backgrounds show the United States' anxiety over China's rising technological capability, experts said.

"I don't know whether the US prosecutors' charges are grounded in fact or not, but recent cases show that the US government has a growing apprehension about China's development in science and technology," Tao Wenzhao, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of American Studies, said on May 24.

"Such a notion has repeatedly appeared in US President Barack Obama's State of the Union addresses and US government department reports, highlighting the possibility that China will surpass the US in science and technology.

"The Americans know exactly how their political and military superiority in the world is based on economic ascendancy, which relies heavily on the nation's leadership in science and technology, so they have spared no effort to make sure such leadership will continue to belong to the US."

Defense Ministry takes to new media

The Ministry of National Defense launched accounts on two leading Chinese social networking platforms on May 26, a move one analyst said will further boost China's transparency on defense issues.

The ministry's accounts were registered on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service, and the free messaging app WeChat.

On May 25, the ministry's first post on Weibo read: "There will be consistent exchanges and interactions with everyone in the future." Within six hours, the account had attracted more than 18,000 followers.

Previously, ministry spokesmen Geng Yansheng and Yang Yujun had interacted with Chinese netizens through a social media account set up by PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People's Liberation Army.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/29/2015 page2)