The World Journal reported that China will sign an agreement with North Korea on February 15, 2011, to jointly extract North Korea’s mineral deposits.
Source: World Journal, February 7, 2011
http://gb.worldjournal.com/view/aChinanews/11295144/article–ifbase4-base164-JUU1JTgzJUI5JUU1JTgwJUJDNi0zJUU1JTg1JTg2JUU3JUJFJThFJUU1JTg1JTgzLSVFNCVCOCVBRCVFNSU4
RiVBRiVFOSU5NiU4QiVFNyU5OSVCQyVFNSU4QyU5NyVFOSU5RiU5MyVFNyVBNCVBNiVFOCU5NyU4Rg~~?
instance=chin
In order to implement the State Council’s requirements for increasing control over social stability, the Chinese Ministry of Health recently released a Guideline on assessing the risks of health related social emergencies. The Guideline includes seven features: (1) acknowledging the importance of health related risk assessment; (2) the basic requirements of the assessments; (3) the scope of the Guideline, especially for events triggering large scale social emergencies; (4) key assessment areas such as “controllability;” (5) the organizational and responsibility structures of the assessment system; (6) the fundamental procedures for the assessment process; (7) measuring the quality of the assessment. The Ministry requires all the branches under its administration to move rapidly to implement the Guideline. According to the Guideline, those responsible for triggering large scale group petitions or other group events will be punished.
Source: Ministry of Health, January 5, 2011
http://www.moh.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/mohbgt/s3589/201101/50484.htm
Beijing News reported that, on February 3, 2011, the first day of the Chinese New Year, around 66,000 Beijing residents visited Yonghegong Lamasery, the largest Tibetan Buddhist lamasery temple in inner China. Most of the visitors came to pray for blessings and to make wishes. In order to light the “first stick of incense,” some people started waiting in line outside the lamasery at 10 p.m. the night before, despite very cold weather in Beijing. There were 4.8% more visitors this year than last.
Source: Beijing News, February 4, 2011
http://news.bjnews.com.cn/2011/0204/107514.shtml
Xinhua reported that the Committee Chairman of the African Union (AU) recently visited the construction site of the AU Convention Center, which China’s African Aid program funded. A Chinese construction company also did the work. The AU appreciated the “gift” from China and was satisfied with the progress made on the project. It is one of the key projects under the African Aid program. The Convention Center is located in Ethiopia. The construction started on June 16, 2009, and is expected to reach completion by the end of the year 2011.
Source: Xinhua, January 21, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-01/22/c_121011695.htm
A recent official survey shows that many Chinese are not willing to go home for the Chinese New Year. Among 1000 questioned by China Youth Daily, 41.1% considered themselves to be “those who dare not return to their parents’ home” for the Chinese New Year. The reasons include the expenditures for gifts (70%), the heavy traffic (38.2%), the fear of being asked why they have not married (37.2%), exchanging debts of gratitude (36.6%), and endless parties and dinners (26.1%). 69.4% do not want to go home because they were unable to show themselves off as successful and rich men or women in front of their parents, relatives, and friends.
Source: China Review News, January 18, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/7/3/2/101573259.html?coluid=154&kindid=0&docid=101573259&mdate=0118130902
In an article published on February 1, 2011, the CCP Central Committee journal Qiushi explained the leadership mechanism in China’s education system – the school president assumes overall responsibility under the leadership of the Party committee.
“First, the Party committee is the core of the school’s leadership and is responsible for the school’s direction. Second, the school president is a university’s or a college’s legal representative, and is in charge of the school’s teaching, research, and other administrative functions under the leadership of the school Party committee. Third, the school Party committee shall be accorded collective leadership, and must support the school president in exercising power independently.”
Sources: Qiushi, Feburary 1, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2011/201103/201101/t20110128_64923.htm
The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention of China announced that it made a “significant achievement” last year in preventing officials from using public funds to make overseas trips. “Compared to the average from the three years from 2006 to 2008, the number of government tourist groups going abroad, the number of person-trips involved, and public funds used for this purpose in 2010 registered a decline of 47.1%, 43.9%, and 32.6% respectively.”
However, a local newspaper, Beijing News, pointed out that, compared to 2009 figures, the above three measures actually increased by 1.9% for tourist groups, 1.6% for person-trips, and 5% for public funds.
Sources: Xinhua and Beijing News, February 4 and 6, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-02/04/c_121050638.htm
http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/html/2011-02/06/content_198562.htm?div=-1
Days after Chinascope published this translation, Qiushi website took down the original Chinese and then restored the article with an additional sentence added at the end: “The above article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position or views of Qiushi Journal or this site.” Chinascope has kept a Google cached copy of the original article. To read that copy, please click here.] [1]