02/10/2009 Source: www.chinaview.cn

Steel giants from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed a strategic cooperation pact Tuesday.

Beijing-based Sinosteel Corp. President Huang Tianwen and Lin I-shou, chairman of Taiwan’s E-United Group, signed the agreement.

Sinosteel will set up a branch in Taipei for better coordination and cooperation with E-United.

Sinosteel is the largest steel service provider on the mainland. It is involved in trading, developing and processing, while E-United is one of Taiwan’s largest steel makers. It also has medical, education and estate development operations.

Sinosteel will offer E-United service in providing raw material, fuel and equipment and add it to its steel sales network, said the agreement. The companies will also step up cooperation in marketing and technology.

During a meeting with the two executives, also on Tuesday, Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, said their cooperation amid the economic crisis reflected forward-looking strategies and would promote cross-Straits economic cooperation.

02/06/2009   Source: Xinhua

Thousands of Chinese wrote to the Ministry of Education in the past month to offer advice on the education plans for the next decade, according to a ministry official on Friday.

The Ministry of Education received about 1.1 million pieces of proposals in the past month, said Tian Huisheng, said a ministry official in charge of processing the public opinions.

People sent e-mails, letters and left posts on the ministry’s Web site since the draft of the long-term plan on education reform and development was announced to solicit public opinions on Jan. 7.

The plan will be the country’s first education development plan in the 21st century. It will include major guidelines and policies about education before 2020.

People from various backgrounds wrote to the ministry, including teenage students, retired teachers and pedagogy experts, said Han Jin, director of the education development planning division under the ministry in charge of drafting the plan. “The ministry has never ever received so many proposals.”

Han recalled a letter from a 91-year-old retired teacher. He suggested the schools to improve training on students’ handwriting as more and more young people are using computers.

“The proposals were about a wide range of topics but many focused on the biggest challenges in today’s education service,” Tian said.

Based on the proposals, the ministry made a list of top 20 problems people cared most about education service.
The top ten problems were: How to improve the number and quality of teachers in rural areas; how to realize quality education; how to reform the administration of educational institutions; how to reform the enrollment exams of all levels; how to improve preschool education; how to reduce the homework of primary and middle school students; how to fully implement the nine-year compulsory education program; how to reform higher education; how to improve the education service to rural residents and children of migrant workers; and to enable people to enjoy equal access to education.

“We will not leave out any valuable proposals. A team made up of dozens of education experts were processing the proposals round the clock,” Tian said.

Education has long been one of the most talked about and controversial social problems among Chinese.
A survey by the National Bureau of Statistics issued in early 2008 showed that education was the fourth most important issue to the Chinese people, following health care service, social morality and social security.

“Education is relevant to every citizen. Students are from different backgrounds and interest groups. That’s why an education development plan must be discussed widely in the society to reach a common understanding,” said Prof. Yang Dongping, a pedagogy expert with the Beijing Institute of Technology.

The agenda of the public education policy should be set through such discussions, he said.

“We hope more people continue offering their ideas about the top 20 problems we announced today, especially practical proposals,” Han said.

The proceeding to solicit public opinions will end by the end of this month.

Date: 02/06/2009  Source: www.chinaview.cn

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council (the Cabinet) announced Friday rules for Hong Kong and Macao journalists’ reporting on the mainland, allowing them to interview anyone who consents, rather than having to seek government permissions beforehand.

Reporters from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SARs) are able to do so from now, as long as they hold press cards or press cards for resident reporters obtained from the liaison offices of the central government, according to the regulations released by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

“Hong Kong and Macao journalists wishing to interview organizations or individuals in the mainland need to obtain their prior consent and need to present their press cards” when conducting interviews, the rules said.

This marked a contrast from regulations before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, which required reporters to seek government permission before conducting reporting in the mainland, said an official with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, who declined to be identified.

China implemented the temporary rules for the Olympics, held in August, as part of its pledge to give the international media greater freedom. The rules took effect on Jan. 1, 2007.

Hong Kong and Macao journalists enjoyed treatment similar to that of foreign reporters and journalists from Taiwan during the Olympics.

Soon before the regulations expired in October 17, China announced it would extend the rules to foreign media. The government again announced greater media freedom for Taiwan journalists in early November.

The rules issued Friday said press cards for Hong Kong and Macao journalists would be issued by the Beijing-based All-China Journalists Association and could be obtained from the central government’s liaison offices in Hong Kong and Macao.

“The regulations aim to provide greater convenience to Hong Kong and Macao journalists who either travel to the mainland for coverage or are based in the mainland,” said the official.

However, the reporters may not carry out activities incompatible with their profession, said the regulations.

“Journalists from Hong Kong and Macao must abide by national laws and journalism ethics and should carry out coverage objectively and fairly,” the regulations said.

02/02/2009 Source: www.chinaview.cn

About 20 million of China’s migrant workers have returned home after losing their jobs as the global financial crisis takes a toll on the economy, said a senior official in Beijing on Monday.

Chen Xiwen, director of the office of the central leading group on rural work, said about 15.3 percent of the 130 million migrant workers had returned jobless from cities to the countryside.

The figures were based on a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture in 150 villages in 15 provinces, carried out before the week-long Lunar New Year holiday which began on Jan. 25.

His remarks came a day after the central government issued its first document this year, which warned 2009 will be “possibly the toughest year” since the turn of the century in terms of securing economic development and consolidating the “sound development momentum” in agriculture and rural areas.

The country’s economic growth slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, dragging down the annual rate to a seven-year low of 9 percent.

The document urged local and central government departments to adopt measures to create jobs and increase rural incomes.

Companies were asked to take on more social responsibilities and give rural migrant workers more favorable employment treatment. Flexible employment policies and more training chances were also encouraged.
Meanwhile, local government departments should increase investment to provide favorable tax and fee policies to those who lost jobs in cities and expect to find new work in their hometowns.

The government also urged departments to map out basic pension insurance measures suitable for rural conditions and migrant workers to ensure their rights.

02/01/09  Source: People’s Daily

The annual legal report “Law and Order Affect Life – 2008 Blue Book on China’s Legal System,” sponsored and compiled by the Procuratorial Daily was released recently. It analyzes the significant events regarding law and order in 2008 and reveals four major trends in China’s legal system.

Firstly, anti-corruption efforts continued to expand in scope and depth. A series of measures were adopted, including the central government’s five-year plan for castigating corrupt systems, the “seven requirements” for strictly supervising senior management of state-owned enterprises and the judicial interpretations made to strictly combat commercial bribery.

Secondly, the trend of passing more laws regarding people’s livelihoods gained momentum. The Law on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, the Law on Protecting Against and Mitigating Earthquake Disasters, and the Patent Law were amended timely. In particular, because of the introduction of a series of laws and regulations including the Regulations for the Implementation of the Labor Contract Law, livelihood-related issues now have now more and more representation in the law.

Thirdly, democracy rapidly expanded in the Internet. In 2008, which could be called the Year of the Chinese Internet, General Secretary Hu Jintao exchanged ideas with netizens on the Internet and the Secretary of the discipline inspection commission in Zhuzhou City used his real name on the Internet to advocate anti-corruption documents. Democracy is extending inside the Internet in an unprecedented fashion.

Lastly, the rise of grass-root culture urgently required legal regulation too. The phenomena frequently addressed by netizens with the hot phrase “shanzhai”, which refers to products imitating famous brands, had to be normalized, as well as the phenomenon of on line grass-root journalists. The term “shanzhai”, literally meaning“mountain stronghold”in reference to historical warlord holdouts that were outside of government control, has become a popular expression to identify products realized outside of government regulations such as the numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today. The term “shanzhai” can also pinpoint things that are improvised or home-made and are generally crude in both form and function (the closest English equivalent would be “ghetto”).

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Procuratorial Daily published the Blue Book on China’s Legal System.

01/19/2009   Source: China Daily

Local authorities in Shanghai and the Walt Disney Company have reached an agreement on major issues behind the building of the first Disneyland theme park on the Chinese mainland, Shanghai mayor Han Zheng said over the weekend.

“The municipal government started thinking of a Shanghai Disneyland more than a decade ago,” Han said at a press conference after the closing ceremony of the annual session of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on Saturday.

“A team from Shanghai has been in contact with Disney since then and constant and pragmatic discussions have been held,” he said.

“An agreement was reached recently. But the State Council has the final say on the project and we will make arrangements according to its decision,” Han said.

Rumors of a Disney theme park in Shanghai have been circulating for years but neither of the two sides had confirmed it until recently.

On Jan 9, Disney told The Wall Street Journal in an e-mail it had worked on a joint application report with the Shanghai government, which would soon be submitted to the central government for review.

The $3.59 billion park is slated to be built by 2014 and will be sited on the east bank of Shanghai’s Huangpu River, bordering Pudong district’s Chuansha town and Nanhui district, the journal cited unidentified sources close to the project as saying.

Previous reports said 10 sq km of land has been set aside for the park. Its first phase will reportedly include a theme park, a hotel and a shopping center, covering an area of 1.5 sq km.

The mayor also said at the press conference that an ongoing project to extend the city’s maglev rail was making headway.

“The project is expected to connect the city’s two airports and will serve not only Shanghai, but also the whole Yangtze River Delta region and the country,” Han said.

“We have been listening to opinions from experts. Professionals from around the country are still comparing the available plans once they reach a conclusion, we will focus on feedback from the public,” he said.

01/19/2009   Source: China Daily

Local authorities in Shanghai and the Walt Disney Company have reached an agreement on major issues behind the building of the first Disneyland theme park on the Chinese mainland, Shanghai mayor Han Zheng said over the weekend.

“The municipal government started thinking of a Shanghai Disneyland more than a decade ago,” Han said at a press conference after the closing ceremony of the annual session of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on Saturday.

“A team from Shanghai has been in contact with Disney since then and constant and pragmatic discussions have been held,” he said.

“An agreement was reached recently. But the State Council has the final say on the project and we will make arrangements according to its decision,” Han said.

Rumors of a Disney theme park in Shanghai have been circulating for years but neither of the two sides had confirmed it until recently.

On Jan 9, Disney told The Wall Street Journal in an e-mail it had worked on a joint application report with the Shanghai government, which would soon be submitted to the central government for review.

The $3.59 billion park is slated to be built by 2014 and will be sited on the east bank of Shanghai’s Huangpu River, bordering Pudong district’s Chuansha town and Nanhui district, the journal cited unidentified sources close to the project as saying.

Previous reports said 10 sq km of land has been set aside for the park. Its first phase will reportedly include a theme park, a hotel and a shopping center, covering an area of 1.5 sq km.

The mayor also said at the press conference that an ongoing project to extend the city’s maglev rail was making headway.

“The project is expected to connect the city’s two airports and will serve not only Shanghai, but also the whole Yangtze River Delta region and the country,” Han said.

“We have been listening to opinions from experts. Professionals from around the country are still comparing the available plans once they reach a conclusion, we will focus on feedback from the public,” he said.