Extracts.
China's Development No Threat to Any Country: Li Peng
China is a force for peace and its development will by no means constitute
any threat to any country, especially its neighbors, visiting Chinese top
legislator Li Peng said in New Delhi on Thursday.
"As a developing nation, China will wholeheartedly concentrate on its
economic development and social progress," Li, chairman of the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC),
China's top legislature, explained during his meeting with Krishan Kant,
Indian Vice President and chairman of Rajya Sabha, or the upper house of the
Indian parliament, in New Delhi Thursday afternoon.
Li, who is on a week-long official goodwill visit to India as a guest of
Kant and Speaker of Lok Sabha, or the lower house of the Indian parliament,
G.M.C. Balayogi, arrived at New Delhi earlier Thursday.
Li, who paid a visit to India in 1991 as Chinese premier, told Kant that he
was very happy to visit India again.
"With our two countries being close neighbors, our two peoples have a long
history of friendship. My current visit aims at adding more impetus to the
development of friendly ties between the two countries," Li said.
As mankind has just entered the new century and the world is faced with new
opportunities and challenges, statesmen of both China and India should be
far-sighted and focus on the future cooperation between the two countries
for the benefits of both peoples, Li said.
"We should always put friendship and cooperation at the first place," said
Li. "As to the existing problems and differences, I think we can try to
resolve them step by step through more dialogue and exchanges."
Extending gratitude for India's support to China on the human rights issue,
Li pointed to the fact that China and India share many common grounds on the
international affairs and have maintained a fine cooperative relationship
with each other.
On behalf of Rajya Sabha, Kant extended a warm welcome to Li's visit.
Kant said that he believes the 21st century should be Asia's century, and
that as Asian nations, India and China can join hands and strive for the
reinvigoration of Asia, thus playing a bigger role in the world.
The vice president said that India welcomes China's achievements in economic
development, while the country itself is also seeking faster growth.
Voicing his approval of Li's views on India-China relations and the global
situation, Kant said that India also hopes to see a world with multiple
centers, or a multi-polar world, instead of a world with only one single
country as its center.
India is willing to continue its cooperation with China on international
affairs, including in the human rights area, said Kant, adding that he
sincerely hopes India and China become permanent friends.
During their talks, Li also briefed Kant on the basics of the Chinese NPC
and invited him to visit China.
Li's wife Zhu Lin and Kant's wife were present during the meeting, which was
also attended by Vice-Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Buhe and other
members of Li's entourage.
****
Hu Jintao: China Supports Just Cause of Arabs
Hu Jintao Starts Visit to Syria
------------------------------------------------------------------------Visi
ting Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao said in Damascus January 10 that the
Mideast issue must be solved in accordance with UN resolutions and the
existing Arab-Israeli accords.
At a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hu said China pays close
attention to the region's situation and the development of the peace
process. He expressed China's deep sympathy with and worries over the bloody
clashes between the Palestinians and Israel.
China firmly opposes and condemns Israel's use of violence against
Palestinian civilians, Hu said, adding China has done its due effort as a
member of the standing committee of the UN Security Council towards a
relaxation of the region's tension.
The only way to solve the Mideast issue is through honest dialogs on the
basis of relevant UN resolutions, the accords already reached between Arabs
and Israelis, and the "land for peace" principle, Hu said.
Syria is an important party in the Mideast issue and if without it's
participation, there will be no real peace in the region, he said.
China appreciates Syria's strategic decision of seeking solution to
conflicts through negotiations, holding that the Golan Heights is an
inalienable part of Syria's territory. Hu reiterated China's support to
Syria's effort to retrieve its land occupied by Israel.
China will continue to firmly support Arabs' just cause and will make its
contribution to the peace and stability in the region and the Mideast peace
process, he said.
Bashar highly appreciated China's principled stand regarding the Mideast
peace process, expressing his thanks for China's firm support to Arabs' just
struggle and Syria's efforts to get back the occupied land.
On bilateral relations, the Chinese vice president said they have stood the
test of history and volatile situations, only to become stronger and more
stable. He described Sino-Syrian relations as a good example for the unity
and cooperation between developing countries.
It has been proven that high-level exchanges and enhanced cooperation in
various fields between the two countries are in keeping with the fundamental
interests of the two peoples as well as conducive to peace and development
of the region and the world as a whole, Hu pointed out.
He said that both China and Syria are developing countries who are faced
with the same opportunities and challenges in the context of the world trend
of political multi-polarization and economic globalization.
Strengthened and expanded bilateral cooperation and enhanced understanding,
together with mutual trust and support, will help the two countries in
playing their important roles in the establishment of a new political and
economic order in the world, he said.
The Chinese Vice President said the world is experiencing the most profound
changes since the Cold War. Although the overall international situation
tends to be eased up, the forces of hegemony and power politics are still
there, he said. And these forces, with the underpinning of their economic
and hi-tech power, are attempting to gain control over the world, posing
threat to regional and world peace and stability.
China and Syria, Hu continued, have identical or similar views on major
international and regional issues. They used to have good cooperation in
international affairs in the past and they will carry it on to the future,
he added.
Echoing Hu's views, Bashar said Syria is willing to further its close
relationship with China and expand cooperation for the benefit of the two
peoples.
Bashar also vowed to support China's righteous struggle to safeguard its
national sovereignty and territorial integrity. He reiterated Syria's firm
stance to respect the One-China principle and support China's great cause of
reunification.
The Chinese vice president is on a three-day official visit to Syria. He had
visited Iran in his five-nation visit, which will also take him to Jordan,
Cyprus and Uganda.
****
Smuggling Crackdown Successful in East China
Customs official in Fuzhou City, capital of east China's Fujian
<http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/fujian.html> Province,
successfully cracked down on 579 smuggling cases in 2000.
According to statistics announced January 10 by customs officials and
anti-smuggling forces, the goods involved in the cases are worth over 1.11
billion yuan.
An official of the city's customs, involved in the crackdown campaign on
smuggling, said Fuzhou City was got involved in the year-long anti-smuggling
campaign that started from the early 2000.
Customs collected a total of 21.88 million yuan in fines and 85.37 million
yuan in taxes. Police also detained or arrested 70 suspect smugglers, 14 of
them were sent to serve imprisonment.
Among the smuggling cases, seven involve the illegal trafficking of
foreign-made cigarettes, with a total volume of 11, 680 boxes.
****
Third Korean Reunion Proposed for Late Feb.
The ROK <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/rok.html> Red Cross (KNRC)
Wednesday spoke to DPRK <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/DPRK.html>
Red Cross Central Committee chairman Jang Jae-Eon by telephone, calling for
the third round of reunions of families separated between North and South
Korea to be held in Seoul and Pyongyang on Feb. 26-28.
KNRC asked the North to have red cross liaison officers from both sides meet
at Panmunjom at 10:00 a.m. Friday to discuss a schedule and exchange lists
of potential reunion participants. It also proposed that the two sides
negotiate how to proceed with the already agreed identification and location
of displaced persons in January and February and the initiation of mail
exchanges beginning in March.
On Thursday, a subcommittee of the South Korean
<http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/rok.html> red cross is to be
convened at its central hall in Seoul to select the candidates for the third
set of reunions. KNRC officials here will work out the criteria for choosing
300 candidates and computer will make the final choices on Friday.
****
Goal Set for Tourism Industry in 10th Five-Year Plan
The National Tourism Administration has set the goal for China's tourism
industry development during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), which
is put into practice at the beginning of this year. Following are the main
points of the plan.
General Goal
By 2005, the number of overseas tourists to China will reach 85 million
(person/time, same below), including 34.5m overnight tourists, earning
foreign exchange to the tune of US$2.2m. The number of domestic tourists
will hit 1.1 billion, bringing about an estimated earning of 500 bn yuan
(about US$62.5bn). Chinese tourists going abroad will amount to 16.36m in
number, the industry, as a whole, will yield 750bn yuan, equivalent to 5.8
percent of GDP.
Efforts will be made to universalize tourist consumption, perfect the mode
of development, serialize tourist products, standardize service quality,
diversify sales promotion methods, employ hi-tech equipment, organize
industrial groups, legalize macro management; modernize enterprise
management, and introduce orderly economic operation. As China is to advance
from an Asian tourist power to a world tourist power, the synthesis of the
above 10 aspects embodies the overall competitiveness of a country's tourist
industry, and eventually constitutes the general goal for building up a
tourist power.
Industry Scale
By the end of 1999, China had boasted 237,000 lodging facilities, including
889,400 rooms in 7035 hotels for foreigners, 7,326 travel agencies, of which
1,256 were international travel services, as well as 292 tourist vehicle and
shipping companies. There were 209 tourist universities and colleges and
regular institutes of higher education opening tourism departments
(specialties) and 978 secondary technical schools.
By 1999, the number of China's overnight tourists and foreign exchange
income ranked fifth and seventh in the world respectively, setting down
China's position as an Asian tourist power. The tourist industry, if
developed smoothly in the coming five years, will earn China a foreign
exchange revenue of over US$90bn, add more than 3,000 billion yuan to the
GDP and create job opportunities for more than 8 million people.
Major Gap
The total output of world tourist industry accounted for 10.7 percent of
world GDP aggregate, world people's expenditure on tourism for 11.3 percent
of the total expenditure, and capital investment in world tourist industry
for 11.9 percent. In comparison, China's current level is less than half of
the above-mentioned indexes.
Development Focuses
First is the need to formulate general policies and various specific
policies for all-out and serial support of tourism development. Second is,
on the one hand, the need to comprehensively straighten out the tourist
management system so as to reduce or eliminate overlapping functions between
departments in tourism management; and on the other hand, the need to
comprehensively reform and construct a micro foundation for the operation of
tourist economy, and cultivate a new-type market mainstay. Third is the need
to form and develop a new regional growth level through the large-scale
development of the western region. And fourth is to deepen market sales
promotion.
Industrial Structure
There is the need to strengthen weak links, raise the ability to provide
auxiliary items, promote balanced development and intensify promotional
functions. Regarding this, travel services should control quantity, readjust
structure, reform mechanism and improve quality; there is the need for
tourist accommodation departments to fill up gaps, improve structure, enrich
types and conform to the trends; for tourist catering trade, it is necessary
to standardize the market, improve quality and give prominence to their
distinguishing features; for tourism shopping, it is necessary to strengthen
government direction, as well as the combination of production and
marketing, designing strength, specialized technique and sales service.
Tourism Products
In accelerating the transformation from the advantage of tourism resources
to industrial advantage and socio-economic advantage, we must regard the
prominent development of products as the center, higher level of planning
conception as the foundation, development and innovation as the lead,
supplementation and perfection as guarantee and market expansion as the aim.
We must improve old products and develop new ones; we must manufacture
State-level super-quality products, create world-level products, strengthen
national connotation, give prominence to construction of unique features and
realize systematized development in accordance international standards.
Regional Tourism
Consideration should be given to the adjacent state of geography, the
continuity of culture, the complementarity of products as well as the
connection of market. The focus of development is: for east China to raise
its level, central China to expand its scale and west China to engage in
large-scale development. This means promoting a balanced development of the
three major regions; at the same time it is necessary to bring about
breakthrough development in key tourist areas; coordinated development in
key tourist sphere; accelerated development in key tourist belts; vigorous
development in key tourist lines; and high-level development in key tourist
cities.
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