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WTO
Ministerial Conference tomorrow
China urges substantive progress
in WTO talks
Bureau Report
BEIJING—China looks to the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks to
achieve substantive progress as the Hong Kong meeting approaching.
“China firmly supports the WTO talks on the Doha Development Agenda,
hoping the imminent Hong Kong meeting will achieve substantive
progress,” said Zhang Xiangchen, director of the Department for WTO
Affairs under the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
China hopes this round of talks will end by 2006 as scheduled and that
the Hong Kong meeting will get “early harvest” in areas where the
members have reached broad consensus, Zhang said. The sixth WTO’s
ministerial meeting, the international organization’s top
decision-making body, is scheduled from December13 to 18 in Hong Kong.
The Doha Development Agenda was kicked off as a new round of talks to
liberalize trade in November 2001 during a WTO members’ meeting in the
Qatari capital, Doha. The original aim of the Doha Round was to conclude
a treaty by January 1, 2005, but now the members hope to make it by the
end of 2006.
An impasse over farm trade is believed to be the crux of the Doha Round
talks, according to analysts. Developing countries want developed
countries, including European Union, the United States and Japan to cut
down their farm subsidies and import tariffs. However, the latter are
unwilling to do so in the excuse that their governments are faced with
great pressure from domestic agricultural organizations. Meanwhile, the
developed countries demand the developing ones to cut tariff on
manufactured goods and to open up service sectors to wider international
competition. In early November, the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy
proposed a readjustment of vested goals, essentially a tune-down, for
the upcoming WTO’s ministerial conference because progress at the moment
was insufficient to produce a package that could comprehensively address
all major issues in the Doha Round. Is it a time that the 148 members of
WTO have to take a cold-eyed perspective at what can realistically be
achieved in Hong Kong?
The MOFCOM official Zhang acknowledged it as pragmatic to set a lower
expectation for the Hong Kong session, however he encouraged the WTO
members to keep their ambition in promoting the Doha-Round negotiations.
“All members try to consolidate what they have achieved in previous
talks, and at the same time, press forward in a step-by-step manner.”
said Cheng Guoqiang, researcher with the Development Research Center of
the State Council. Yet no one will put the cards on the table until the
last minute, he noted. According to an analysis released by the World
Bank, if the Doha round negotiations can meet its goals, the total
returns on global trade is likely to increase by 300 billion US dollars.
It is estimated that of the 8 trillion US dollars world trade volume,
only a small portion of 700 billion were on agricultural products with
high tariff rates. But there is great potential for increasing returns
through a cut of tariffs. At present, the world average tariff rate
levied on agricultural products is 62 percent. The rate is even set at
700 percent to 900 percent for some products in certain members such as
rice in Japan. China’s average rate of tariffs stays at 15.3 percent, a
comparatively low level. Only four members adopted lower rates than
China. According to sources with the Ministry of Commerce, China
supports to urge the developed countries to substantially reduce all
kinds of domestic support that distort the global trade and to call off
their export subsidies in various forms before 2010.
“Fundamental corrections should be made to change the long-distorted
international trade on agricultural produce. Those exerting high tariffs
and subsidies ought to do more to this end,” said an official with the
MOFCOM, who declined to be named. For the participating members to the
Doha round talks, their difference is actually not only confined to
agricultural issues. Gap remains in addressing non-agricultural
problems, service trade and relevant rules.
China reveals report on deadly siege
SHANWEI—Hundreds of villagers incited by a few instigators violently
attacked a wind power plant on December 6, and assaulted the police, the
Information Office of the city government of Shanwei in south China’s
Guangdong Province said here the other day. In an investigation report
of the incident, the office called the armed assault a serious violation
of law. According to the official recount, the instigators led by Huang
Xijun engineered and organized some villagers in Dongzhoukeng and
Shigongzhai to illegally besiege and attack a local wind power plant at
noon on December 5 and December 6. The first assault on December 5
caused a seven-hour suspension of the plant’s power generation.
In the second onslaught, over 170 armed villagers led by instigators
Huang Xijun, Lin Hanru and Huang Xirang used in the attack knives, steel
spears, sticks, dynamite powder, bottles filled with petroleum, and
fishing detonators. Police moving in to maintain order were forced to
throw tear shells to break up the armed besiege, and arrested two
insurgents.
However, Huang Xijun mobilized over 300 armed villagers to form a
blockade on the road to Shigongzhai Village to obstruct the return
passage of the police, in attempt to threaten the police to release the
arrested insurgents. For a moment, many besiegers intended to quit
following the persuasion shouted by the police. However, they were
forced to stay in protest under the threat reinforced by the
instigators, according to the report.
Instigator Lin Hanru shouted through a loudspeaker that they would throw
detonators to the police and blow the wind power plant, if the police
refused to retreat. It became dark when the chaotic mob began to throw
explosives at the police. Police were forced to open fire in alarm. In
the chaos, three villagers died, eight were injured with three of them
fatally injured.
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
China blasts Japan over
Koizumi’s shrine visit
KUALA LUMPUR—China and South Korea are putting more pressure on Japan as
they once again criticised Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s
non-stop war shrine visits on the eve of an annual summit of Asian
leaders.
The leaders are expected to address issues ranging from free trade to
bird flu at the summit on Monday and Tuesday. China is vigorously
pushing for a free-trade agreement with 10 ASEAN countries.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing lashed out at Koizumi’s
controversial visits to a Tokyo war shrine. “The current difficulties
between China and Japan are the sole responsibility of a key Japanese
leader and his own wrongdoings,” Li said on the sidelines of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering.
China has cancelled the customary three-way meeting with the leaders of
Japan and South Korea at the ASEAN summit and pulled out of a scheduled
meeting of their foreign ministers.
Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which memorializes top war
criminals among the war dead, have strained ties with nations that Japan
invaded in the 20th century and which see it as a symbol of militarism.
“Regretfully, the Japanese prime minister... over and over again, has
been paying respects to the war criminals who initiated the invasions,”
Li said. “This mistake is unacceptable”.
Seoul has also harshly criticized the visits, but South Korean Foreign
Minister Ban Ki Moon met his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso here on
Saturday as ASEAN diplomacy moved into high gear. “It is unfortunate we
were not able to hold the Japan-China-South Korea talks,” Ban told Aso.
“I want you to understand that I am put in a difficult position as the
man responsible for our diplomacy, because of comments from the Japanese
leadership,” Ban said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, while the so-called
“plus-three” format brings in China, Japan and South Korea.
The ASEAN summit and plus-three gathering Monday and Tuesday will be
followed by the first-ever East Asia Summit, which also includes
Australia, India and New Zealand to form a new 16-nation bloc. Russia
has been invited as a guest.
Discussions are expected to try to tackle a wide range of issues from
pollution haze to the threat of bird flu, as well as hopes of creating
an eventual free-trade zone that would cover half the world’s
population.—Agencies
China’s
Blogosphere is on fire
CHINA’s blogosphere is ‘on fire’
experts say, with thousands added everyday. So what drives bloggers to
spend hours on net? And will they ever put journalists out of jobs?
When US President George W Bush stepped into Beijing’s Gangwashi church
last month, local blogger Mr Bu was there to write about it. When
Harbin’s water supply was cut off last week, blogger Rainbow sister
wrote about what happened.
Three years after its introduction to the country, the Chinese
blogospere is moving fast. China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are
on fire — the fastest growth in the blogosphere is happening though out
Asia, with china taking the lead, said blog Monitor Company.
Writing about blogging is a day to day activity, says Hong Kong
University Journalism Professor Mr Chen Rong. A magazine article can be
out of date between the time the research is done and its publication.
Veteran Hong Kong blogger Mr. Song, 56, agrees that we’re witnessing an
ephemeral situation. Blogs, once treated as teenager diaries, are being
taken seriously, says the founder of the EastSouthWestNorth blog.
In June, the Ministry of Information Industry took stock of the changes,
requesting all blogs and websites register with them by the end of the
month.
Technorati estimates about 10 percent of Chinese netizens now routinely
read the over 14.2 million Chinese blogs. The number of bloggers doubled
over the first nine months of the year.
In October, a raft of celebrities leapt online to take part in Sina.com
is Chinese Blog Competition. Super Girl runner-up Zhang Liangying,
actress Xu Jinglei, authors Yu Hua and others all posted photos and
stories.
In early November, hundreds logged off for the first Chinese Bloggers
conference in shanghai. This weekend Hongkong bloggers met for their own
conference.
But the boom’s social impact is still being debated. Ex-CNN China
reporter-turned-blogger, Rebecca Mackinnon, thinks blogging is
potentially a very Chinese thing.
Social networking and relationship-building are at the core of today’s
most exciting Web innovations, she says. The Chinese happened to be the
most natural and skilled social net workers on earth. Expert Chinese
Internet users to seize upon new web tools as a way to expand and deepen
their human relationships. Blogs can enhance both personal live and
businesses.
Another shanghai participant, blogger Big Teahouse argues blogs can
divide as well:
To some extent, blogs in china build up walls that separate people and
jail them into small groups that further strengthen their shared view
points, interests and values. Exchanges among different groups are not
the norm but the exception, Nationalistic, Chinese go to anti-Japan
forums, pro-western Chinese have their own sites and chat forums.
Blog technology is neutral, he sys, the way people us it makes a real
difference. Blogs and other online communities are great tools for
Chinese to share information that once was held by only a small umber of
people. The potential is very big but not so far brought into full play.
While Chinese bloggers are more lifestyle and entertainment-oriented,
But Chinese bloggers are more willing to express themselves than
American bloggers, according to China’s blogcn’s 27-year-old founder and
chairman Mr. Hu, overseas they are being called the citizens media.
The new relationship challenges traditional top-down media. Blogs allow
people who in the past may not have made it past media gatekeepers at
newspapers, TV stations and book publishers, to express themselves to an
audience, explained by a senior researcher.
Big media are worried though: two weeks ago, News Corp Chairman Rupert
Murdoch predicted a gloomy future for newspapers, as the Internet grows.
However they will make people more picky about the type of content
they’re willing to pay cash for. Which will make the publishing business
less fun and lucrative for many journalists.
China to promote rural
culture
Bureau Report
BEIJING—The Chinese authorities have called for efforts to boost
cultural development in rural areas, stressing it concerns the national
endeavor to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. A
document jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of
China Central Committee and the State Council, which was made public
Sunday says boosting cultural development inthe countryside is a major
part of the national effort to create aharmonious society in the
country.
It is “an effective way” to build a socialist new countryside and meet
the needs of rural residents for spiritual and cultural products, and is
of great importance to enhancing the Party’s governance capabilities,
promoting economic growth and social progress in rural areas, the
document says. The main problems hindering cultural development in the
countryside lie in backward infrastructure facilities for
culturalactivities, insufficient cultural products and imparities in
cultural development between urban and rural areas, it says.
As for the targets, it says that after five years of efforts, cultural
infrastructure facilities will become comparatively complete and public
cultural services will be enhanced, with the rural cultural work system
straightened out and existing cultural resources effectively used.
The problem that farmers find it difficult to have books to read, stage
shows, films and TV programs to watch and radio programs to listen to
will be basically solved, the document says.
Job training for 40m Chinese rural labourers
BEIJING—China will offer free job training to 40 million migrant workers
from rural areas in the next five years, according to the Ministry of
Labour and Social Security (MLSS). The education of rural residents is
fundamental to the rural economy and should be incorporated into the
country’s overall vocational training program, according to MLSS.
As the 11th Five-year Program for China’s economic and social
Development (2006-2010) states, MLSS will also train 1.9 million
technicians and 7 million technical workers, provide vocational training
to 20 million laid-off workers and to carry out vocational qualification
assessment covering 50 million people. Besides free training, MLSS also
offer subsidies and vocational instructions to migrant workers.
A recent survey financed by National Social Science Fund shows that in
China’s middle income stratum, migrant workers have become the principal
part of the middle class in rural areas. Migrant workers are more
wealthy and active compared with the farmers who remain working on
farmland, the survey said, so educating them would promote not only
employment but also agricultural industrialization. China has a rural
laborers totaling 480 million, of which 420 million only received
primary education or below.—Agencies |
