18th October 2010
The Lion Awakes
Daily News, Culture & Current Affairs about China
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China Daily
China rejects US clean energy probe
BEIJING - China hit back on Sunday at US plans to investigate its clean energy policies, calling the move "groundless and irresponsible".
The US decision is "unjustified and groundless", Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, told a media conference on Sunday.
If Washington insists on an investigation, it will "hurt the US itself ", Zhang said.
See Kaixin's 'GREEN CHINA'
Green targets to be met as Five-Year Plan effective
BEIJING - China is expected to achieve its target of a 20-percent cut in energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) in the five years to 2010 as planned, Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, said on Friday.
With efforts in the fourth quarter, the energy efficiency goal for 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) would be met, Li said.
Li also forecast energy consumption per unit of industrial value-added output would decline 6 percent this year from a year ago.
Reform leading to good governance: scholars
BEIJING - China will start a new round of governance reforms in democratic decision-making, as the Communist Party of China (CPC) goes to work on a roadmap for the next five years, according to a major political theorist.
The work will take place at the 17th CPC Central Committee's fifth plenary session, which opened in Beijing on Friday for the purpose of discussing the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).
Wang Yukai, a professor at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Governance, commented that the next five-year plan will be a major step on the road to building an effective and accountable government and that "good governance is a guarantee for the CPC to remain in power."
The challenge of millions on the move
BEIJING - Small could be beautiful on China's road to urbanization. Some 400 million people are set to move from rural areas to cities over the next 15 years, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
There are fears that already crowded big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing will not be able to cope with ever more rural migrants.
Many from the government downward believe the only solution will be to create a new generation of smaller cities, many of them satellites to existing cities.
No redistribution, no 'Xiaokang'
The widening wealth gap in the nation with the world's largest population and second largest economy is obviously an obstacle on the road to what has been called a xiaokang, or "moderately prosperous", society.
And that poses real challenges for the top leaders because the next five years are crucial for a xiaokang society.
"Economic growth over the next five years won't be a problem," says Professor Ding Yuanzhu, deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Governance's Policy Advisory Department. "The thing is that China needs to change its mode, as well as social development, standard of living, environment protection and energy efficiency if it wants a xiaokang society."
The xiaokang idea came fromthe late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and early 1980s while he was working on the country's developmental blueprint.
The government's goal now, for 2020, is to make sure that xiaokang is everywhere and the people are well-off, in a way that is similar to developed countries in the West.
China's largest trade fair opens
GUANGZHOU -- Canton Fair, China's largest trade fair and a key barometer of its trade and economic development, opened Friday amid growing concerns that a stronger yuan would weigh on the nation's exports.
In addition to business opportunities, the multitudes of sellers and buyers at the fair, officially known as China Import and Export Fair, are watching closely the latest developments in the yuan exchange rate dispute.
"We are under great pressure. Should the exchange rate rise rapidly, many of us will be out of business," said Dai Chao, export manager of Wanjiale Gas Appliances, a medium-sized private company that sells gas appliances to east European and south American countries.
For the love of langurs
Once caught in fishing nets for their bones as a cure-all for human diseases, the white-headed langurs are now a fiercely protected species, thanks to Professor Pan Wenshi. Li Xing reports
Few expected Professor Pan Wenshi would embark on a new crusade to conserve biodiversity when he arrived in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the mid-1990s. By then, Pan had already won wide international recognition for the studies he and his students had carried out in the Qinling mountains, in southern Shaanxi province.
Their exhaustive research results, collected over years, unraveled the mysteries of the giant pandas living in the wild - their habits, eating patterns, family and community life.
Ancient Qing Dynasty vase smashes auction record
BEIJING - A 300-year-old vase fetched HK$252.6 million ($32.5 million) in Hong Kong on Thursday, a world record auction price for Chinese porcelain.
The yellow-ground famille-rose double-gourd vase, made during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was among a selection of rare works from four major private collections that went under the hammer at Sotheby's autumn sales.
Part Two
Chinese Zodiac
Jewellry
Global Times
The Nobel committee owes China an apology
If Western governments truly intend to integrate China into the international community, the award-ing of the Nobel Peace Prize this year is doing just the opposite.
The Chinese public is largely enraged by the Nobel committee's decision, though the award has received wide acknowledgment from the West.
A survey done by the Global Poll Center over the weekend indicated that the majority of Chinese citizens are against the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. It is hoped the Nobel committee will reflect on their poor choice and apologize to the Chinese public.
The Nobel committee has no reason to believe their political judgment is better than that of 1.3 billion people. The West has no authority to overrule Chinese people's values and judgment.
Perhaps, the Nobel committee expected China's strong reaction, which would reinforce the committee's influence in the West. But the choice comes at the wrong time, and to the wrong person. The award is not a scarlet letter over China's forehead as the committee intended to see.
China has displayed strength and vitality in the new century, and its sincerity to opening up to the world.
The Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to be a global award, to which end, the committee should accept and promote the diversity of political systems. But the award suggests the contrary. The Nobel committee, fueled by the fear of the end of Western forms of government, espouses the most conservative Western values.
The Cold War, which was bitterly fought between the East and the West, was a dark period in world history.
The Nobel committee has just provoked a serious ideological clash between China and West. Instead of promoting peace, the Peace Prize this year deepens misunderstandings and hostility between China and the West.
We are calling for the Nobel committee to seriously consider the reaction of the Chinese public and what the impact of the award is doing to world peace.
Between the interest of a small group of Western elite and the good-will between China and the West, the committee should make the right choice.
The committee should apologize to China. They should do this not out of the pressure from the Chinese government, but to demonstrate a challenge to the ideological containment of the West to China.
The Nobel committee has never questioned or criticized Western thoughts and ideology. We look forward to seeing a Nobel committee that truly belongs to the world.
Kaixin OpEd - ' .. small group of Western elite ...' This statement sums it up. It is a small group of self-important people who like to think of themselves as elite. Rather, they have, in a spectacular display, shown just how ill-informed they are. An elite they are not.
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