TOP NEWSCHINA DAILY Friday, December 30, 2016
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of intellectual property rightsfor investors is also covered.
Thegovernmentwillwork tomake it easier for foreign investors and experts to live andwork in China. Foreign investment in the “encouraged categories” in central and westernareas will receive financing,land and taxation incentives.
Li has reiterated the importance of foreign investmentthis year. When addressing theUN General Assembly in NewYork in September, he vowedthat China will carry out a new
FROM PAGE 1 round of openingup.Foreign investment is vital
for China’s economic transformation and structural adjustment, said Chen Fengying, aresearcheringlobaleconomyatthe China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
“Multinational companiesare facing competition fromChinese rival enterprises andrising costs of labor, but themarket potential of Chineseconsumers and China’s advantage in educated talent stillattract overseas investors,”Chen said.
China, which now is encour
aging foreign investments tomove into highend, low carbon and sustainable industries, can improve thebusiness environment andlower market access barriersby introducing negative listsand granting multinationalcompanies national treatment, which may maintain itsattractiveness, Chen added.Negative lists include onlythoseactivities thatareoff limits in a sector, and all otheractivities are considered open.
Contact the writer at zhang[email protected]
Open: Foreign investment vital
for taking bribes of about 20million yuan.
From 2002 to 2014, Xuabused his official positionsto grant favors to enterprisesand individuals in businessoperations and job promo
FROM PAGE 1 tions, the verdict said.The announcements about
the three cases came ahead ofnext week’s plenary session ofthe Central Commission forDiscipline Inspection, China’stop discipline watchdog.
Members of the commission will meet in Beijing
from Jan 6 to 8 to report ontheir work in 2016 and discuss tasks for the comingyear.
Yang Weidong, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said:“The news on the threecases on Thursday shows
that pressure against grafthas not been weakenedand will remain high nextyear.”
Xinhua contributed to thisstory. Contact the writer atzhangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn
Officials: Top discipline watchdog to meet
WHITE PAPER
$500b to boost highspeed rail planGoals include ‘rejuvenating’ western China andcountry’s economy, transportation official says
By SU ZHOU andLUO WANGSHU
In the next five years, Chinawill invest 3.5 trillion yuan($503 billion) to acceleraterailway construction, including expansion of the country’shighspeed rail network to30,000 kilometers, a seniorofficial said on Thursday.
“By 2020, more than 80 percent of China’s major cities willbe connected by highspeedrailways,” said Yang Yudong,viceminister of transportation.
China released a white papertitled “Development of China’sTransport” on Thursday, whichHu Kaihong, director of theState Council InformationOffice’sPressBureau, said is thefirst white paper to review thesector’s tremendous changes inrecent decades and to set goalsfor its future.
In thepast fewyears,China’srailway network, especiallyhighspeedrail, hasundergonedramatic change. From 2011 to2015, China invested 3.58 trillion yuan to build 30,000 kmof railway. By the end of thisyear, the nation’s total railwaylength will reach 124,000 km,including 20,000 km of highspeed railway, accounting for65 percent of the world’s totalhighspeed rail.
InJuly, theNationalDevelop
ment and Reform Commissionissuedanupdatednational railway development plan envisioning a 175,000km railnetwork by the end of 2025,with 38,000 km of highspeedrail.
However, the highspeed railway network still faces challenges, especially in the lessdeveloped western part ofChina. Yang, the viceministeroftransportation,saidheisconfident that lines in western China will eventually becomeprofitable.
“Plus, building highspeedrailway in lessdevelopedregions is not only aboutrecoupinginvestment. It ispartof the big project of rejuvenating the whole region and thecountry’s economy,” said Yang.
The highspeed rail linkingBeijing and Shanghai showeda profit last year, Xinhua NewsAgency reported in July, quoting Tianjin Railway Construction Co, a shareholder ofBeijingShanghai HighSpeedRailway Co.
Yang Hao, a professor of railtransportation at Beijing Jiaotong University, said the economic returns of a highspeedrailway network shouldn’t bejudged solely on whether linesare profitable, since these railways can leverage the development of such industries astourism, logisticsandrealestate.
According to China RailwayCorp, construction began onThursday on a highspeed railline linking Guiyang, Guizhouprovince — a transportationhub connecting members ofthe Association of SoutheastAsian Nations — and Nan
ning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomousregion.
The 482km line will connect the ShanghaiKunmingrailway and the ChengduGuiyang railway to the north andwill also link to southern coastal areas including Hainanprovince and Guangzhou,Guangdong province.
The new railway will accelerate communication betweenChina and ASEAN countriesand play an important role inthe Belt and Road Initiative.
Contact the writers [email protected]
WILDLIFE
Report onZimbabweelephants‘nonsense’By MO [email protected]
China rebutted a recentreport that Zimbabwe hadsent wild animals, including35 elephant calves, to China topay for a military debt, sayingit is “sheer nonsense with anulterior motive”.
The Times newspaper inLondon reported on Mondaythat Grace Mugabe, wife ofZimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, had sent safarianimals to a Chinese wildlifepark to pay for military uniforms for the DemocraticRepublic of Congo.
“Iwanttoemphasizethatthisis a normal commercial activity,which is in line with relevantinternational conventions andlaws in both countries” ForeignMinistry spokeswoman HuaChunyingtoldadailynewsconference on Thursday.
HuasaidthatwildlifeparksinShanghai, Beijing andHangzhou recently imported atotal of 35 African elephantsfromZimbabwe.Paymentshavebeen received by Zimbabweanauthorities, and the money willbeusedfor theAfricancountry’swildlifeprotection,Huasaid.
“It is an international practice for zoos to import foreignsafari animals. The technicalconditions of Chinese animalparks have met internationaldemands and the parks cantake care of the African elephants,” she added.
An anonymous Chinesestaff member directly involvedin the transaction told ChinaRadio International that “allthe payments have beenbrought into the accounts ofthe Zimbabwe Parks andWildlife Management Authority and national parks”.
He also said Zimbabwe’senvironmental protectionminister inspected the wildlifeparks in Shanghai andHangzhou in January andassessed the conditions of elephants that had been imported earlier to Guangzhou.
Li Wentao, an expert on African studies at the China Institutes of ContemporaryInternational Relations, saidthe report unfairly speculatedaboutnormalChinaZimbabwetrade ties when Zimbabwe issuffering economic difficulties.
“The two countries are goodpartners with close cooperation, and China has been providing economic assistance tothe African country. However,this is no reason to make suchspeculation,” he said.
He Wenping, a researcher atthe Institute of WestAsianand African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the misleading reportshows the Western media’slongtime prejudice againstChinaAfrica cooperation.
“Anyonewithcommonsensewill knowsuchareport is ridiculous. Every country couldhave ups and downs, and China and African countries havea consensus on overcomingdifficulties together,” she said.
SPACE
Teens’ minisatellitenow sending signalsBy ZHAO [email protected]
Students at Beijing’s BayiSchool, President Xi Jinping’salma mater, have a new reason to boast: They workedwith space scientists to develop and launch Chinese teenagers’ first satellite, which isnow orbiting hundreds ofkilometers above Earth.
The 2.4kg minisatellite,Bayi Youngsters’ Expedition,was launched atop a LongMarch 2D carrier rocket onWednesdaymorningfromtheTaiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province. Themajor task of the launch wasto lift two commercial Earthobservation satellites that aremuch larger and heavier.
The minispacecraft has adesigned life span of 180 daysin a sunsynchronous orbitand then will be controlled tofly back into the atmosphereto burn out so it won’tbecome space debris, saidZhou Xiubin, a seniorresearcher at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp who oversees theproject.
He said the satellite hasequipment to take pictures ofthegroundandtoconductradiocommunication and audiotransmissionexperiments.
The spacecraft and instruments were designed andassembled by about 40 Bayistudents instructed by morethan 20 experts at the ChinaCenter for Aerospace Scienceand Technology International Communications, whereZhou is a deputy director, aswell as the China Academy ofSpace Technology and Nanjing University of Scienceand Technology.
“Students who were at aground tracking and controlstation in Kashgar (in the
Xinjiang Uygur autonomousregion) received signals sentfrom the satellite as soon as itstarted to orbit Earth yesterday,” he said on Thursday. “Itis working well. Now we cancall the project a success.”
Zhu Kai, vicedean of BayiSchool, said his students planto use the spacecraft toobserve Earth and to transmitChinese songs back to Earth.He said the school will takeadvantage of the satellite topopularize space knowledge.
Bayi School has built aground tracking and controlstation on its campus and istraining its students to usethe facility, according to Zhu.
Before Wednesday’slaunch,PresidentXisenta letter to students at Bayi Schoolwho are taking part in theproject, saying he was pleasedwith their passion and bravery in the exploration of science and technology.
Xi also said he hopes thestudentswill remian interested in exploring new things.
Yang Shangwen, a satellitedesigner who mentored students in the satellite’s development, said that the UnitedStates, Russia and Israel areamong other countries thathave launched satellitesdesigned by teenagers. Hesaid the Chinese studentswere selected from applicants according to their academic performance inscience and innovation.
Xu Yifei, a Bayi studentand member of the development team, said she helpeddesign the satellite’s powersystem. She also has appliedto take part in the trackingwork because “I have beencharmed by the beauty ofspace exploration and wantvery much to continue to bepart of the satellite’s operations”.
124,000kilometers
The nation’s total railwaylength by the end of this year The world’s highest bridge, at 565 meters, opened on Thursday at the border of Southwest China’s Guizhou and Yunnan provinces. By
the end of last year, China’s highways totaled 4.58 million km. HE JUNYI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Development ofChina’s transportationnetwork
• RailwayBy the end of 2015,
China’s railway network totaled 121,000km, ranking second inthe world. It has theworld’s longest highspeed railway network, totaling 19,000
km. By 2020, Chinawill expand its highspeed railway networkto 30,000 km, connecting more than 80percent of its big cities.
• HighwaysBy the end of last
year, China’s highwaystotaled 4.58 millionkm, and the country
ranked No 1 in theworld in expresswayconstruction.
• Civil aviationChina had 210 civ
il airports by 2015,among which 26handle more than10 million passengers annually, and 51handle over 10,000metric tons of cargo
and mail each year.
• PortsAt the end of last
year, China’s portshad more than31,000 quay berthsfor production use,and the number ofberths for 10,000tons or abovereached 2,221.
XINHUA
fact box
On the move
Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children staff members transfer newborns from the center’s old campus to a newone on Wednesday. The 22 infants were moved from the intensive care unit with the help of 24 doctors and 60 assistantsusing five cars. RAN WEN / FOR CHINA DAILY
COOPERATION
Loans to aid three Pakistan road projectsBy ZHANG [email protected]
China will provide about$1 billion in soft loans forthree new road projectsalong the western route ofthe ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, connecting the“shortest route from Gwadarto China”, a senior Pakistaniofficial said.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, chiefminister of Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province, saidChina will invest in new roadsand factories to help smaller
Pakistani provinces integrate intothe project.
The easternand westernroutes of the ChinaPakistanEconomic Corridor“should operatelike two legs of abody”, said Shah.However, moreinvestment andopportunitieshave gone intothe eastern route, where mostof the country’s industrial andfinancial sectors are located,
he said.“The economically smaller
provinces feel deprived andleft out of the project,” he said.“CPEC is a national project,after all, and should improvethe economy throughout thecountry.”
Shah was in Beijing for thesixth ChinaPakistan JointCooperation Committeemeeting on Thursday in Beijing.
It was the first time thatthe chief ministers from all ofPakistan’s provinces wereinvited to discuss industrialcooperation, he said.
Tang Mengsheng, directorof the Pakistan Studies Centerof Peking University, also saidChinaandPakistanbothneeda toplevel government bodyto run the CPEC and “facilitate interconnectivity in policy, infrastructure, trade,currency and people”.
Sun Shihai, director of theChinese Association forSouth Asian Studies, said thatdeveloping the western routenot only will help local economies flourish, but also willensure a robust and convenient trade network as thebedrock of CPEC’s success.
Syed MuradAli Shah,chief ministerof Pakistan’sSindhprovince
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