Extracts.
Tuesday, December 19, 2000, updated at 12:23(GMT+8)
Jiang Zemin to Arrive in Macao for Anniversary
Celebrations
Chinese President Jiang Zemin is scheduled to arrive
in Macao by special plane Tuesday afternoon to attend
the celebrations of the 1st anniversary of the
establishment of the Macao Special Administrative
Region (SAR).
Jiang, who is also General Secretary of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and
Chairman of the Central Military Commission, will fly
into Macao from Beijing in the company of SAR Chief
Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah.
During his December 19-21 stay in Macao, Jiang is
scheduled to attend a banquet later Tuesday and a
grand gathering celebrating the SAR's first
anniversary Wednesday morning, and meet with some
local celebrities.
Jiang's upcoming visit to Macao has become a hot
topic for local residents and hit the headlines of
major local newspapers. Large red lanterns and
banners with welcoming words for Jiang are seen in
downtown areas in the coastal city with strong
festive flavor.
Macao returned to the motherland on December 20,
1999, when Jiang attended a ceremony here and
declared that China resumed the exercise of
sovereignty over Macao.
****
Top 10 Chinese News Events of 2000
The editor-in-chiefs and deputy editor-in-chiefs of 11 major Beijing-based
newspapers, 2 national news agencies and 2 national radio stations December
18 selected China's Top 10 News Events of the year 2000.
The following are the events in descending order of significance:
1. The 5th Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China held during October 9-10 mapped the blueprint for the
country's development in the 2001-2005 period.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin pointed out at the plenary session that in
the new century China will build a well-to-do society in an all-around way.
2. A State Council meeting on developing China's western regions was held
from January 19-22. The meeting urged all localities to take every
opportunity to accelerate economic development in China's western regions.
The meeting also initiated the developing the west movement all around the
country.
3. The China-Africa Cooperation Forum -- Ministerial Conference Beijing
2000 was held from October 10-12 and was attended by nearly 80 ministers
from African countries and leaders of about 20
international and African regional organizations.
The documents adopted at the forum mapped out the development course for
the long-term, stable and mutually-beneficial Sino-African partnership in
the 21st century. The forum provided a good opportunity for China and
African countries to coordinate their positions on the challenges of
globalization, promoting world peace and development, and protecting the
interests of developing countries.
4. China wrapped up its amazing Olympic run on October 1 in Sydney with 59
medals, including 28 golds, 16 silvers and 15 bronzes, finishing third
behind the United States and Russia.
5. Cheng Kejie was executed on September 14 by the No.1 Intermediate
People's Court of Beijing after the confirmation and approval by China's
Supreme People's Court.
Cheng, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress, was found guilty of accepting huge sums of bribes, in
collaboration with his mistress Li Ping.
6. Twenty-five separate cases of multi-billion-dollar smuggling scams in
the east China port city of Xiamen were openly handled on November 8.
Fourteen people involved in the cases were sentenced to death.
Investigations found that the Lai Changxing smuggling group and others had
smuggled refined oil, vegetable oil, cars and cigarettes worth 53 billion
yuan (approximately US$6.4 billion) and evaded customs duties of up to 30
billion yuan since 1996.
7. China has basically reached its three-year object of turning its large
and medium-sized state-own enterprises (SOE) from losing money into
profit-making ones, thanks to the government's "pro-active fiscal policy"
and various reform measures, declared Sheng Huaren, minister in charge of
the State Economic and Trade Commission, on December 11.
SOEs are expected to see a yearly profit of 230 billion yuan (approximately
US$28 billion) in 2000; most of the 14 industries such as textiles,
petrochemical, machinery, electronic, pharmaceutical, metallurgy, and
construction material industries all started to make profits; and over 80
percent of the large and medium-sized SOEs have set up a modern enterprise
system.
8. The election of Taiwan's new leader ended on March 18. The Taiwan
Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and
the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council released a statement
reiterating the "One China" principle.
9. Dust, wind and sandstorms hit the most part of northern China during
March and April. The most serious case on April 6 swept through five
provinces of northwest China and 2 provinces in the northeast and southern
provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui.
Frequent bad weather aroused people's awareness of the need to curb
desertification. The country initiated a project to tackle the problem.
10. China's first hominine robot, which has a human-like appearance and is
able to walk and talk like a human, made its debut on December 29.
The robot named "Pioneer", which was independently developed by Chinese
scientists, signifying China's accession into the advanced
international levels of robot technology.
This is the thirteenth for the Domestic News for Overseas Service
Department of Xinhua News Agency to sponsor the annual selection of the top
10 domestic news events.
****
China's Second Largest Impoverished Area Shakes Off Poverty People in
Wuling mountainous region, the second largest poverty-stricken area in
China, have been relieved of poverty thanks to sustained efforts in
comprehensive development.
The region comprises 31 counties and districts in Chongqing Municipality
and Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou provinces. Before China unveiled its national
poverty elimination program, which aims to provide 80 million poor people
with adequate food and clothing in seven years, there were approximately
7.21 million people living in poverty in the region. The annual per capita
net income averaged 228 yuan.
To date, the annual per capita net income in the region has risen to 1,260
yuan and the food grain consumed by each farmer climbed to 425 kg, Wan
Guorui, vice-minister of agriculture, said at a conference on recently in
Chongqing, the largest metropolis in western China.
Wan attributed the achievement to the large scale capital construction of
farming in the area with assistance offered from the central and local
governments, to the construction of more highways and expressways, to more
telephones and power-operated facilities available and to the optimization
of agricultural structure.
****
DPRK Ready to Establish Relations With Western Nations The government of
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ready to establish relations
with all western nations that are friendly to the DPRK and respect its
sovereignty, said a signed article published Monday, December 18, in Rodong
Sinmun, the newspaper of the Worker's Party of Korea.
The article said the DPRK and Britain established diplomatic relations a
few days ago, which are fruits of the two governments' independent foreign
policies and activities.
The article also said the DPRK government believes that relations among
nations should be established on the basis of independence and the
principle of mutual respect, non-interference in each other's internal
affairs, and equality and mutual benefit.
Referring to the DPRK's relations with the European Union, the article said
normalization of relations between the two sides will expand and improve
bilateral relations in various fields and will contribute to the peace and
security in Northeast Asia and other parts of the world.
The DPRK established diplomatic relations long ago with Finland, Sweden,
Denmark, Austria and Portugal. So far, seven EU member states have
diplomatic relations with the DPRK.
Recently, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands have
expressed their willingness to normalize relations with the DPRK, the
article said.
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