Bush arrives in China to boost Sino-US ties

BEIJING—US President George W Bush arrived in Beijing Saturday evening for a three-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Bush’s presidential plane Air Force One touched down around 18:40 at Beijing’s Capital Airport, where the US president was greeted by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong and US Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt. Also arriving aboard the presidential plane were Bush’s wife Laura Bush, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Two young Chinese women presented bouquets to Bush and his wife at the airport. This is Bush’s third China trip as US president since 2001 and also his first China visit in his second term of presidency. He will stay for nearly 40 hours here. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are to meet with President Bush, and they will discuss a wide range of issues.
“The two sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and major regional and international issues,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Thursday. “We expect that Bush’s visit will increase consensus, step up mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation and promote Sino-US constructive and cooperative relations in the 21st century in an all-round way,” Liu told a regular news briefing.
Bush described Sino-US relationship as a complex and important one. While the two countries have got increasing trade and dialogue and cooperation, there is still work to be done on intellectual property rights, currency and market access, said Bush in a round-table interview with Asian reporters at the White House prior to his Asian tour.
But Bush acknowledged that the United States and China “do have good cooperation” on trade, and can also work together in the war on terror, on advancing the Doha Round multilateral trade talks and in the areas of energy and fighting avian flu.
China is the third leg of Bush’s four-nation Asian tour. He visited Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) and attended the Nov. 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan of the ROK. He will also visit Mongolia after his China tour.
Bush attended the APEC economic leaders’ meeting in Shanghai in October, 2001, and paid a two-day working visit to China in February 2002. Anti-terrorism co-operation, nuclear stand-off on the Korean Peninsula and Iran, the Taiwan question, trade deficit, intellectual property rights protection, and bird flu.
The wide range of topics on the agenda during US President George W. Bush’s visit to China shows that Washington and Beijing share more and more common interests, according to analysts.
This fact, they predict, will prompt Bush to sound a more positive note while outlining his administration’s China policy in Beijing. Bush was scheduled to fly from Busan, the Republic of Korea, to Beijing on Saturday for a three-day visit, during which he will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
“The Bush visit is largely symbolic, but it will be of real significance to developing bilateral relations,” said Li Xiaogang, a researcher with the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“It will help build the personal rapport between Bush and Hu, strengthen mutual trust at the highest level and stabilize the overall situation of Sino-US ties.”
US Deputy Secretary of State Bob Zoellick made a keynote speech on China policy on September 21, stating the critical need for America to co-operate effectively with an emerging China to safeguard many common interests shared by the two powers. Given China’s growing economic and political influence around the globe, Zoellick asked China to be “a responsible stakeholder” to work with the US to sustain the international system.
“Zoellick’s speech can be taken as a cornerstone for the Bush administration’s China policy, which apparently takes a pragmatic and balanced approach towards China’s peaceful rise,” Li said.
He added that the Bush visit is tantamount to “a public show of his own endorsement of the policy of promoting constructive co-operation” with the world’s biggest developing country and fastest-growing economy.
Noticeably, Bush, in a major speech on his Asia policy during his tour of Japan on Wednesday, dropped the words “strategic competitor” to describe China, a phrase he often used in the early days of his first term.
Li emphasized that such a policy shift signals Washington’s recognition that it can foster co-operative relationship with China to jointly address various global challenges despite their vast differences.  (The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
 

New Bird Flu outbreaks reported, China acting

BEIJING—China reported two new outbreaks of bird flu among its vast poultry flocks as it released dozens of farmers and villagers from medical observation with clean bills of health.
The latest poultry outbreaks were hundreds of miles apart ¡ª in the northern province of Shanxi and the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, the Xinhua News Agency said. All poultry on nearby farms were killed as a precaution. China has reported 15 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry since Oct. 19 and has promised tough control measures to prevent human infections.
The country confirmed its first human cases of bird flu on Wednesday ¡ª a woman who died and a boy who recovered. The boy’s sister, who died, is a suspected case. But dozens of people who had contact with the three patients showed no signs of the disease, Xinhua said.
At least 67 people in Asia have died of bird flu since 2003, when the virulent H5N1 strain became entrenched in poultry populations. Vietnam has reported two-thirds of the human deaths. China’s central and provincial governments have been trumpeting their prevention and surveillance measures while state media has given wide play to the disease and official efforts to combat it.
“In 2003, we triumphed over SARS,” Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted as saying on state television, referring to another deadly disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome. “It shows that we will triumph over bird flu as well.”
Provincial health authorities have also stockpiled 60 million units of bird flu vaccine for poultry, 10 tons of disinfectant and 2,000 sets of protective suits in case of an outbreak, Xinhua said. China has said it is vaccinating all 14 billion chickens, ducks and other domestic poultry.
All local governments have been urged to give timely reports of poultry deaths and hospitals have been asked to open hot lines for consultations or have been appointed as facilities to treat humans infected with H5N1.
In the hard-hit northeastern province of Liaoning, nearly 1 million officials were fanning out to enforce anti-flu controls, which include mandatory poultry vaccinations and twice-daily health checks for all villagers who live near the sites of outbreaks ¡ª 72,000 people in all, authorities said at a news conference this week. Officials have been ordered: “If you get too tired to do your job, close your eyes for a moment and then get back to work,” said Zhou Liwei, a Liaoning government spokesman.
If you are a Beijing resident with a temperature of 38 C or higher, and show other symptoms of flu after having close contact with infected poultry or human cases, you are required to undergo at least a week of medical observation. Doctors in all the hospitals of the capital city yesterday were asked by the municipal health authority to report all cases showing the above-mentioned symptoms.
“Doctors should be responsible for not only the patients they have received, but also epidemic control as a whole,” Jin Dapeng, director of Beijing Health Bureau under the municipal government, was quoted by the Beijing Times as saying.
 (The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)

 

Hu terms 4-nation tours as fruitful

BEIJING—Chinese President Hu Jintao’s four-nation tour and participation in the 13th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting have achieved “fruitful results,” Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Saturday.
During the 12-day tour beginning on Nov. 8, which took him to Britain, Germany, Spain and South Korea, President Hu took part in more than 70 events, said Li, who accompanied the Chinese president throughout the tour. The foreign minister said China and the four countries have broadened consensus and promoted mutual trust, thus strengthening their relations. President Hu and leaders of the four countries exchanged in-depth views on furthering bilateral relations under the current international situation and reached broader consensus, he said.
China and Britain agreed to enhance political dialogues and cooperate in bilateral and international affairs, so as to bring their all-around strategic partnership to a new high, Li added. He said German leaders expressed the willingness to actively boost cooperation between Germany and China and enrich their partnership, which has a responsibility for the world. Sino-Spanish ties have entered a new stage as the two sides issued a joint communique — the first of its kind since they established diplomatic relations — which announced the establishment of an all-around strategic partnership, Li said. Leaders of the three major European Union (EU) countries also reiterated that they will consolidate and advance the all-around strategic partnership between Europe and China, he said. The foreign minister said China and South Korea stressed that they will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, thus promoting the development of the all-around partnership of cooperation between the two close neighbors.
Li said the tour has also deepened the existing cooperation, explored new fields of cooperation, and injected new vitality into the all-around development of bilateral relations between China and the four countries. All the four countries are main trading partners of China, he said, adding that the trade volume between China and the four nations accounted for nearly 15 percent of China’s total trade volume last year. It is of great significance for China’s modernization to broaden trade and economic cooperation with the four countries, said Li. During his visit, President Hu said the continuous, rapid economic growth of China has created broad prospects for the trade and economic cooperation between China and the four countries, he said. The two sides should strengthen complementarity of advantages, facilitate two-way trade and investment, broaden the fields of technological cooperation, and properly handle issues in the rapid development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation so as to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results, he said.
 

China lauds Pak role in war on terror
From Javed Akhtar  (APP)

BEIJING—China appreciated Pakistan's strong cooperation with the international community on anti-terrorism and said it helped to ensure peace and security in region.
"We hope that Pakistan will continue its role in this regard", said a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Liu Jianchao. He told reporters here at a briefing that China-Pakistan anti-terrorist cooperation was going well and could be further strengthened. China and Pakistan are working closely in the field of counter-terrorism. Both sides advocate for addressing the root causes of terrorism, while taking stern action against terrorists. China stressed that the United Nations should play a leading role in the anti-terrorism campaign.
The Chinese government has intensified work on drafting a counter-terrorism law. In a recent statement, a Chinese law expert Zhao Bingzhi, a member of the drafting team, said a draft of the law is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Zhao said China firmly opposes terrorism of various sorts and steadfastly stands at the forefront of the battle to fight terrorism in cooperation with the international community," said Zhao, deputy dean of the law school of the prestigious People's University of China.