Extracts.
Monday, December 25, 2000, updated at 12:39(GMT+8)
Vietnamese President Arrives in China for Official
Visit
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong arrived in
Beijing Monday (Dec. 25) morning for a five-day
official goodwill visit at the invitation of Chinese
President Jiang Zemin.
Jiang is to hold talks with Luong later today.
This is Luong's first China tour after he assumed the
presidency. Besides Beijing, he will also tour
Shanghai and Xiamen.
****
Monday, December 25, 2000, updated at 10:07(GMT+8)
Chinese State Councilor Concludes Visit to Iraq
Chinese State Councilor Ismail Amat and his
accompanying delegation concluded a three-day visit
to Iraq and is expected to leave Baghdad for home
December 24 evening.
During his meeting with Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein on Saturday morning, Amat expressed "deep
sympathy from the Chinese government and people for
the Iraqi people under sanctions."
"We are willing to continue to make efforts for an
early settlement to the Iraqi issue," he said.
China cherishes the friendly and cooperative
relations with Iraq and is willing to expand
bilateral cooperation in political, economic,
cultural and other fields, said Amat.
Amat also handed over a letter from Chinese President
Jiang Zemin to Saddam Hussein.
For his part, Saddam reiterated Iraq's long-term
policy of developing relations of friendship and
cooperation with China, and expressed belief that
there will be broad prospects for bilateral
cooperation.
The Chinese official also held separate talks with
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Deputy
Prime Minister Tareq Aziz on Saturday, and visited a
children's hospital in Baghdad to have a better
understanding of the sufferings of the Iraqi people
under decade-old U.N. sanctions.
Iraq has been under stringent United Nations
sanctions ever since it invaded neighboring Kuwait in
1990.
Amat and the 70-member delegation arrived in Baghdad
Friday afternoon by plane, which also brought 10 tons
of humanitarian aid to the sanctions-stricken
country.
****
Monday, December 25, 2000, updated at 10:21(GMT+8)
"One Country, Two Systems" Successful in Hong Kong,
Macao
The success of China's "one country, two systems"
policy in Hong Kong and Macao proves the policy is a
great one, said Russia's consul-general in Hong Kong,
Konstantin Vnukov. "The policy is proceeding smoothly
in Hong Kong and Macao, leading to an obvious
improvement in Macao's social security and growth in
its economy for the first time in four years," said
Vnukov.
He has just returned to Hong Kong from Macao where he
attended the celebrations marking the first
anniversary of the Special Administrative Region
(SAR).
He said the successes in Macao show the "one country,
two systems" policy, under which two different social
systems co-exist and complement each other, is a wise
and healthy strategy.
Hong Kong is an international commercial, financial
and IT centre, Vnukov said. "To continuously push
forward the relationship between Hong Kong and Russia
is of great importance to the future development of
both sides," he said.
Figures show that since the founding of the Consulate
of the Russian Federation in Hong Kong in 1994, trade
between the two has grown by 40 per cent each year.
In 1997, bilateral trade reached US$1.3 billion.
Vnukov noted that there is still room for more
development as the figure is too small compared to
the mammoth trade between Hong Kong and other places,
such as the United States and Europe.
"We still have a long way to go when it comes to
trade relations between Russia and Hong Kong, but we
have already made a good start," the consul-general
said.
Vnukov, who lived in Beijing for 15 years and served
three terms at the Russian Embassy there, is an
expert on China-related issues and can speak fluent
Chinese.
Although now stationed in Hong Kong, he visits
Beijing every month and says the changes he sees in
the capital are very impressive. "Recently, I went to
Wangfujing Street in Beijing and found it was
completely different," he said.
"There are so many new buildings and there are also
many buildings financed by businesses from Hong Kong.
I am happy to see the ties between Hong Kong and the
Chinese mainland getting closer and closer," Vnukov
said.
The changes taking place in China since the nation's
reform and opening-up policy was introduced are also
amazing, said Vnukov. And he said the biggest change
is that living standards are much higher.
Vnukov said that 25 years ago, when he came to China
for the first time, the country was experiencing
extremely tough economic difficulties, and
commodities were few and far between.
"As a foreign diplomat, I could only buy towels from
the Friendship Department Store, the only shop in
Beijing open to foreigners," he recalled. "That may
sound unbelievable to people now."
China's economy has made rapid progress since the
reform and opening up policy was introduced and China
is now playing an increasingly important role in the
international arena, Vnukov said.
The nation's success is a direct result of the
policy, which, although it has strong Chinese
characteristics, can be seen by other countries as an
example.
Russia, which shares a 4,300-kilometre-long boundary
with China, has many similarities with it in terms of
its history and natural conditions. So China's
successful experiences in reform and opening up can
also be used for reference by Russia, Vnukov said.
China is an important trade partner for Russia and
trade between the two countries is expected to be
US$7 billion this year, according to Vnukov.
The two countries are also important political
partners, he said, noting that contact between the
two governments was further strengthened this year.
Leaders had six meetings and there were more than 40
ministerial visits.
The two countries are considering signing a new
bilateral agreement next year, which will make
co-operation even better, Vnukov said.
****
Sunday, December 24, 2000, updated at 17:56(GMT+8)
Top 10 Domestic News of 2000
Following are the top ten major domestic news events
of the year 2000 selected by Xinhua News Agency:
1. During his inspection tour of south China's
Guangdong province, Jiang Zemin, general-secretary of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China, put forward that the CPC will remain
successful and enjoy the heartfelt support of the
people of China so long as the party always earnestly
represents the development requirements of China's
advanced social productive forces, the progressive
course of China's advanced culture, and the
fundamental interests of the Chinese people.
Jiang's directives represent a new development of
Marxist party-building theory.
2. The Ninth Five-Year Plan was accomplished ahead of
schedule, which means that people's living standards
in China has generally reached a relatively
comfortable level.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 15th Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
examined and approved the Proposal of the CPC Central
Committee for Formulating the 10th Five-Year Plan
(2001-2005) for National Economic and Social
Development.
3. The ideological and political work conference of
CPC Central Committee was convened in Beijing, in
which Jiang Zemin clarified the historical mission of
the ideological and political work in the new century
and expounded a series of fundamentals, important
theoretical and practical issues related to the new
situation.
Jiang's remarks were considered a programmatic
document in fostering ideological and political work.
4. National economy has shown a major turn for the
better featuring a growth rate of over eight percent.
The falling of growth rate and deflation were
effectively checked.
5. 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.
SOEs are expected to report a profit of 230 billion
yuan (approximately US$28 billion) in 2000; Over 80
percent of the state-owned large and medium-sized
SOEs have set up a modern enterprise management
system.
6. China has basically hit the target of eradicating
poverty by the end of this year. The number of
poverty-stricken people has been reduced from 80
million in 1993 to about 26 million at present.
7. China launched a severe strike against corruption
which saw Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,
and former deputy governor of Jiangxi province Hu
Changqing sentenced to death. Major smuggling cases
like that in Xiamen were exposed and those offenders
implicated punished. All this shows that the efforts
to build up a clean and honest government and the
struggle to combat corruption have paid off.
8. China now ranks fourth in the world in terms of
gene sequencing capacity, thanks to its active
participation in the Human Genome Project (HGP) and
successful completion of one hundredth of the
project.
9. A project on chronological list of China's ancient
dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou, a key national
scientific and technological research program for the
9th Five-Year Plan period (1996--2000), has been
appraised and ratified. The chronological list
extends China's chronological annals by more than
1,200 years from 841 B.C..
10. Chinese athletes wrapped up 59 medals, including
28 golds, 16 silvers and 15 bronzes, in the Sydney
Olympic 2000.
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