Extracts.
Monday, December 11, 2000, updated at 09:10(GMT+8)
China to Build Popular United Front
China will strengthen the united front work, a magic
weapon of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in the
new century, said the top official in charge of CPC
united front work.
Wang Zhaoguo, head of the United Front Work
Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in an
interview that it is not enough to solely rely on the
60 million CPC members to develop the socialist
democratic politics, promote socialist culture with
Chinese characteristics, and realize the
reunification of the motherland.
Therefore, it is necessary to consolidate and develop
the most popular patriotic united front and to fully
activate all walks of society to achieve more
victories, said Wang, who is also vice chairman of
the National Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference.
The society has become more diversified since China
started its reform and opening up drive in the late
1970s. A diversified China requires a more
comprehensive united front work to obtain unity to
utmost.
The national conference on united front work of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) opened in Beijing last
December 4.
Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee and Chinese president, made an important
speech at the conference, stressing that the Party's
united front work should be consolidated in the 21st
century.
****
Monday, December 11, 2000, updated at 10:36(GMT+8)
ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting Opens in Vientiane
The 13th ASEAN-European Union (EU) Ministerial
Meeting (AEMM) kicked off Monday, December 11, in the
Lao capital of Vientiane.
The AEMM brought together ministers of 10 ASEAN and
15 EU member countries and the European Commission.
Aiming to further strengthen the links between ASEAN
and Europe, the ministers will discuss regional and
global political-security issues, exchange views on
the regional and international economic situation and
review cooperation between the two regional
groupings.
All the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers attended the
meeting while only four of their 15 European
counterparts, those from Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany
and Finland, are present because EU leaders are
meeting in France to discuss crucial issues such as a
plan to increase the powers of the biggest member
states and the setting up of a Rapid Reaction Force.
The rest of the EU delegation is comprised of
ministers in charge of development affairs,deputy
foreign ministers, permanent secretaries or
ambassadors.
Dialogue between ASEAN and the EU has been stalled
for the past three years because of the EU's
objection to Myanmar's participation.
The EU criticizes Myanmar's human rights record and
other practices.
Myanmar remains the only ASEAN country that has yet
to sign the ASEAN-EU Cooperation Agreement, a
framework that allows the signatories to participate
in various cooperative schemes.
The other two new members of ASEAN, Laos and
Cambodia, became signatories to the agreement at the
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok in July.
Myanmar announced on Saturday on the sidelines of a
meeting in preparation for the AEMM that it has
agreed to a visit to the country by top officials
from the European Union in January next year.
****
Chinese Vice-Premier Visits Russia's Samara Oblast
Visiting Chinese Vice- Premier Li Lanqing reiterated
in Samara Sunday, December 10, the importance of
closer cooperation between the localities of China
and Russia in promoting the Sino-Russian strategic
partnership of cooperation.
Li, who arrived in Samara Oblast on the final leg of
his ten-day visit to Russia, met with Governor
Konstantinov Titov of Samara on Sunday.
During his talks with Titov, Li said that the
Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation
should be advanced in all dimensions. Not only the
cooperation between the two countries' central
governments should be strengthened, but also those
between the localities, he added.
Echoing Li's view, Titov said that the Samara Oblast
attaches great importance to deepening its
cooperative relations with the Chinese side and
especially with its Chinese partner -- Henan
Province.
Li, who started his visit in Moscow last Sunday,
expressed satisfaction with his Russian trip during
which the Chinese and Russian governments set up a
vice-prime minister-level cooperation committee to
promote bilateral cooperation in fields of education,
culture, public health and sports.
****
Monday, December 11, 2000, updated at 07:52(GMT+8)
China Fights Tax Fraud to Achieve Sound Foreign Trade
Growth
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has called for continuing
with the export tax rebates policy so as to achieve
sound growth of the country's foreign trade.
While mounting the fight against tax fraud, a good
work should be done to push ahead normal export tax
rebates to shore up the rapid growth of foreign
trade, Zhu stressed at a meeting on combating tax
fraud held Saturday, December 9, in Nanjing, capital
city of east China's Jiangsu Province.
Officials from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian provinces
and Shanghai Municipality, in east China, reported
the latest developments in the cracking down on tax
fraud.
Zhu noted that the nationwide fight against tax fraud
is an important task. He urged local governments to
take as strong and quick action against tax-related
crimes as they did against smuggling. The State
Council will send special panels to inspect key
areas.
Zhu said that governments at all levels and relevant
departments must support law enforcement
organizations to investigate individual cases no
matter who is involved in. All localities should
break local protectionism and unite to investigate
and prosecute criminal activities.
Mass supervision and supervision by public opinion
will be strengthened to help fight economic crimes.
Investigations into several typical cases will be
made public as a warning to others, he said.
Zhu said that construction of China's E-taxation
system will be accelerated so as to practice an
across-the-board supervision. The systems of
anti-counterfeiting, certification, cross-check, and
check assistance will be put into operation during
the first half of next year.
He said that China's foreign trade has maintained
rapid growth since the campaign was initiated.
Total export volume for the January-October period
this year reached US$205.1 billion, up 32.2 percent
over the same period last year. The figure for the
January-November period was US$227.2 billion, up 30.1
percent compared with the same period of last year.
Zhu noted that banks should provide loans to those
enterprises with good records, but have been
temporarily affected in working funds by the ongoing
examination.
The premier emphasized that the crackdown on crimes
involving export tax rebates is important for
improving macro-control, warding off tax losses,
promoting healthy development of the national
economy, regulating the order of the socialist market
economy,and punishing the corrupt.
****
Palestinians Vow to Continue Uprising Against Israel On the occasion to
mark the 13th anniversary of the 1987 Palestinian intifada (uprising)
against Israel Saturday, December 9, Palestinians vowed to carry on the
ongoing Al Aqsa Intifada until the establishment of an independent state.
Fatima, widow of Isam Mohamed Hamoud, whose killing by an Israeli truck in
1987 sparked the first Palestinian Intifada against Israel, said "It is
time to end the 33-year Israeli occupation at any cost."
Fatima said that her five-member family had a "very comfortable" life
before the death of Isam who could earn about US$500 a month. And now,
Fatima and her children, who were still living in the shabby building at
the Jabalia refugee camp in western Gaza Strip, can only get 100 dollars a
month from the Palestinian National Authority's Jihad (holy war) Fund.
But Fatima stressed the Palestinian people have gained relative safety,
freedom and national dignity within the Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian first uprising against Israel broke out in Gaza following
the killing of Isam and three other Palestinian workers by an Israeli truck
at the Erez crossing point on December 9, 1987.
The intifada had been raging until Israel and the Palestinians signed the
Oslo peace accords in 1993 and the PNA gained self-rule over some areas in
the West Bank and Gaza.
The 13th anniversary of the first Palestinian intifada came amid raging
bloody clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians, which were
triggered by Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to a
disputed site in East Jerusalem on September 28.
The Palestinians termed the current defiance against Israel Al Aqsa
Intifada, during which nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed and
thousands more injured, in addition to 2 billion dollars in economic loss
to the Palestinians.
To observe the first Intifada, tens of thousands of Palestinians staged a
peaceful march in Gaza.
Riyad Abdel-Khalik Dawood, 23, a law student at the Al-Azhar University in
Gaza, expressed his disappointment with the peace process negotiations
which did not give the Palestinians any access to full independence.
"It is right to choose the peace process but it is wrong to pin our hopes
on it as Israel only knows force and uprising," said Riyad, who was also
living at the Jabalia camp. He could not attend his classes because of the
Israeli closure of the Palestinian territories.
"Israel only wants its own peace, shrugging off the Palestinians'
legitimate rights," said Riyad. "Just peace acceptable to both parties can
get foothold," he added.
Many of the demonstrators were determined to carry on the uprising until
their long-cherished dream of an independent state with Jerusalem as its
capital could be realized.
The Palestinians want the Arab East Jerusalem seized by Israel in the 1967
Mideast war as the capital of their future state while Israel has claimed
the whole Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided capital."
The Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations have been stalled since last
July mainly due to the dispute over the status of Jerusalem and the current
clashes have further damaged the fragile trust between the two sides.
_______________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
_______________________________________________________
Kominform list for general information.
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anti-Imperialism list for geopolitics.
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________________
