2nd round of six-way nuke talks conclude
From Max Lee
The Daily Mail’s
Special Correspondent in Beijing

BEIJING—Chief negotiators concluded their second day discussions of the new round of Six-Party Talks on Thursday regarding North Korea's nuclear issue.
After a series of bilateral discussions in the afternoon, a banquet is being held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in central Beijing to relieve negotiators from debating about how to implement the joint statement reached in September's talks.
Before leaving for the meeting on Thursday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, South Korea's chief negotiator Song Min-soon told reporters he would propose detailed plans on how to implement the joint statement reached in September's talks.
Russia's chief negotiator also told reporters before the second day of meeting that the six nations were getting closer from their respective stances, including between the United States and North Korea.
Also, before the meeting on Thursday morning, Japanese delegation leader Sasae Kenichiro told reporters they would continue discussing the establishment of a working group in their second day of talks.
However, the American envoy, Christopher Hill, urges "the time to stop reprocessing, the time to stop that reactor is now".
On Wednesday, Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei said the main task of the fifth-round of Six-Party Talks is "to outline details, ways and procedures for the implementation of the joint statement adopted in September".
At the last round of talks in September, North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and a security guarantee.
But later, North Korea raised doubts about its willingness to proceed by demanding a civilian nuclear reactor before it disarms ¡ª a move Washington continues to reject.
The fifth round of talks, which involves China, North Korea, the Unites States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, started on Wednesday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Few expect a breakthrough at the ongoing talks, but its smooth start may convey a positive sign for further progress.
The talks will run until Friday and then recess to let diplomats attend an Asian-Pacific economic conference in South Korea held in mid-November.

China trade surplus hits $80.37 billion

BEIJING—China’s soaring exports pushed the trade surplus to a record 80.37 billion dollars in the first 10 months of the year, official statistics showed Thursday. Exports from the January to October period gained 31.1 percent to 614.49 billion dollars compared with the same period last year, while imports rose 16.7 percent to 534.12 billion dollars, the China Customs Administration said in a statement.
October exports surged 29.7 percent year-on-year to 68.09 billion dollars in October, while imports to China jumped 23.4 percent to 56.08 billion dollars, on stronger demand at home.
China’s exports for the first nine months hit 68.3 billion dollars.
Economists believe that, despite strengthening domestic demand, at the current pace China’s trade surplus will be around 100 billion dollars.
The country recorded a trade surplus of 32 billion dollars last year, which opened it to a barrage of US criticism that it keeps its currency, the yuan, undervalued to give it an unfair trade advantage.
The data, which comes ahead of a visit by US President George Bush, who has promised to push China more on currency reform, follows a landmark deal Tuesday between Beijing and Washington to cap exports of Chinese textiles worth up to seven billion dollars.
Standard Chartered economist Tai Hui said China’s trade surplus would renew political pressures on the Chinese to revalue the yuan, especially if US trade figures due out late on Thursday show a widening gap.
According to Washington’s calculation, China’s 2004 trade surplus with the United States was a record 162 billion dollars and, at 126 billion dollars in August, Beijing’s surplus is likely well on track for a new record.
“I think the trade numbers we’ve seen today don’t really help to ease that pressure,” said Hui.
Hui expects both imports and exports to moderate in the next 12 to 18 months, although he puts the surplus at around 90 billion dollars.
“Overall, the theme is that China remains a very strong exporter from all aspects,” he said.—APP

We won’t revalue Yuan, says China
From Max Lee

BEIJING—China will not again adjust the yuan exchange rate as it did in July, and will instead let market forces play a main role in setting its value, deputy central bank chief Xiang Junbo was quoted on Thursday as saying.
Chinese officials have repeatedly rejected market speculation of another one-off currency adjustment even though many economists believe July's 2.1 percent revaluation was too modest.
The United States has also continued calling for a stronger yuan.
"In the future, the renminbi (yuan) exchange rate will be mainly decided by market supply and demand and there won't be another one-off official adjustment," Xiang said in a recent speech posted on the central bank's Web site.
China has let the yuan rise by just 0.3 percent against the dollar since it revalued the currency by 2.1 percent in July, even though in theory the yuan can now rise or fall against the dollar by up to 0.3 percent each day.
China would widen the yuan's trading band at an appropriate time, Xiang said, without saying whether he was referring to the closely watched yuan/dollar trading band.
"The People's Bank of China will adjust the renminbi's floating band when the time is appropriate, based on its consideration of the markets as well as the economic and financial situation," he said.
In September the central bank said the yuan's trading band against the dollar was appropriate, soon after it widened the yuan's daily trading band against non-dollar currencies to 3 percent from 1.5 percent.
"We will manage and regulate the yuan exchange rate according to the maturity of the markets and will make improvements towards a more flexible exchange rate regime while keeping the yuan exchange rate basically stable at a rational and balanced level," he said.
But Xiang stressed that the yuan exchange rate alone was not enough to correct the imbalances in China's balance of payments, and called for greater efforts to boost consumption and promote economic restructuring.
China revalued the yuan by 2.1 percent to 8.11 on July 21, scrapping a decade-long peg to the dollar and putting the yuan under a managed float with reference to a currency basket.
Xiang also repeated a pledge that the central bank would keep monetary policy "basically" stable in 2006 by using monetary tools in a flexible way and improve the yuan's mechanism.

China to provide free 9-year compulsory education
From Max Lee

BEIJING—China aims to provide free nine-year compulsory education in the rural areas in 2010 and for all the students across the country in 2015. Han Jin, director of the development and planning department of the Ministry of Education, said Chinese government will increase investment in education to realize the goal.
At a press conference Thursday, Han said China will provide all students from poor families in acute poverty-stricken rural areas with free textbooks and exempt them from paying miscellaneous fees in 2007. Among them, the boarding students will receive living allowances. At a press conference here Thursday, Han said China will provide all students from poor families in acute poverty-stricken rural areas with free textbooks and exempt them from paying miscellaneous fees in 2007. Among them, the boarding students will receive living allowances.
According to a national report on China's education for all released at the press conference, government investment accounted for 82.7 percent and 76.6 percent of the total costs of primary and junior middle school education in rural areas in 2004, up 16 percent and 14 percent over 2000 respectively. China will improve the mechanism to ensure funding for education, with government investment as the mainstay, said the report.