MAC读书笔记

纪录片叶玉帛之路曳开播

Shanghai -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed a new era of environmental cooperation between Britain and China on Saturday and called for a renewed drive for a world trade deal.Brown visited a highly efficient gas-fired power station in Beijing and studied the plans for an environmentally friendly town to be built near Shanghai to underline his keenness to cooperate with China on fighting global warming."We now enter this new era of environmental cooperation," Brown told a news conference in Shanghai after listening to a presentation on Dongtan, billed as the world's first eco-city.Construction is due to start early this year at Dongtan, designed by British engineering firm Arup. It will use renewable energy and will not allow gasoline-fuelled cars.It is the first of a number of low-carbon eco-towns being planned by both Britain and China.Brown, who flies to India on Sunday, pleaded for progress in slow-moving talks on a new world trade agreement."I would like the talks which have now been stalled for some months to resume," he said.All sides would have to compromise to reach a deal but the differences can be bridged, Brown said."In the next few weeks I will ... talk to all the potential players as I've done with the Chinese government, as I will do tomorrow with the Indian government, (about) the importance of us moving forward to a trade agreement as soon as possible."

GUANGZHOU: Zhuhai in Guangdong Province and the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) are under threat from a serious saltwater tide that is likely to worsen over the next two months, the provincial water resource department said Thursday.The saltwater tide arrived in Zhuhai in the first half of November, earlier than the usual saltwater tide season from December to February.Last month, the city's main water source, Pinggang Water Pumping Station, was rendered incapable of pumping qualified fresh water for 171 hours. This seriously affected Zhuhai people's daily lives, and the impact extended throughout the Pearl River Delta.Currently, the whole city has stores of 25 million cu m of fresh water, 7 million cu m less than the same period last year.Director of the Guangdong provincial water resource department Huang Boqing said the department and other relevant organizations would do their best to control the saltwater tides and increase the amount of fresh water.Huang said construction of hydropower stations in the upper reaches of Xijiang and Beijang rivers - two tributaries of the Pearl River - should be slowed down, because they would block a large amount of fresh water and worsen saltwater tides in the river's lower reaches.Other provinces in the river's upper reaches diverted about 10 million cu m of fresh water to Zhuhai from November 20 to December 4.In addition, Zhuhai would complete a large reservoir by next October, and construction of another would begin next year and finish in 2010.However, many individuals are dredging river sands from the Pearl River Delta for profits, causing the riverbed to lower."The riverbed of Beijiang River is 30 percent lower than two decades ago," He Zhibo, a senior engineer of Zhujiang (Pearl River) water resource commission, told China Daily Thursday.The lowered riverbed cannot buffer saltwater tides. And if the river sand dredging continues, all government efforts to stem the tides would be wasted, he said.

China has been in the media spotlight for food safety recently, but it has gone all out to ensure that its food products are safe and to restore consumer confidence home and abroad.Its efforts seem to have accelerated with the publication of the first White Paper on food safety on August 17 and the naming of Vice-Premier Wu Yi as head of a high-profile panel on product quality and safety issues. That was followed by a series of efforts by government organs to tighten food safety measures.On August 31, the country's quality watchdog officially introduced the landmark recall system for unsafe food products and toys, making producers responsible for preventing and eliminating unsafe items.Food safety became a big concern in China after a series of food contamination cases were reported from across the country. Last November, the country's food safety watchdog found seven companies supplying red-yolk eggs that contained the dangerous Sudan Red dye, which is used in the leather and fabric industries but is banned from use in food products.The same month, three people were arrested in Shanghai for adding 3-4 grams of banned steroids to each ton of pig feed to increase the proportion of lean meat. The steroids, which prevent pigs from accumulating fat, can be harmful to humans. More than 300 people fell ill after eating meat from pigs that had been fed the steroids.Also last year, carcinogenic residues were found in turbots sold in Beijing and Shanghai markets. Even international fast food giant KFC was accused of adding the carcinogenic Sudan 1 dye to its roast chicken wings.Ministry of Health figures show that in the first half of this year, China reported 134 food poisoning cases, in which 4,457 people fell ill and 96 died.Food is China's biggest industry with last year's output estimated to be 2.4 trillion yuan (5.8 billion), according to the China National Food Industry Association.Bitter stories made the rounds after people fell victim to food poisoning. In June 2006, more than 130 people contracted parasitic diseases after eating undercooked snails in a restaurant. One of them was Yang Fangfang. His family, including his parents, wife and 18-month daughter, fell ill.The Beijing Health Bureau said the infection was caused because the food was not cooked properly and because the restaurant had failed to remove eel-worms in the snails.Although Yang survived, he still complains of pain, sometimes severe, in his lower body and stomach. A gourmet before the incident, Yang now regards food as a potential threat to his life.In overseas markets, substandard exports from China since March - from pet food, drugs, toothpastes and toys to aquatic products and tires - has sparked concern over "made-in-China" products. Diethylene glycol contaminated medicine exported from China was been blamed for dozens of deaths in Panama. Deaths of some dogs and cats in North America were attributed to tainted Chinese wheat gluten.Jing Luyan, 24, who works for a Beijing-based travel agency, says she trusts the government and the media for information on food safety issues."If they say I shouldn't eat something, then I stop immediately, it's as simple as that," Jing says. Many of her colleagues and friends do the same.Pressure from home and abroad prompted the Chinese government to acknowledge that the country's food and drug safety situation was not satisfactory and that enhanced supervision was needed. At a press conference in July, China's food and drug watchdog spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said: "As a developing country, China's food and drug supervision work began late and its foundations are weak. Therefore, the food and drug safety situation is not something we can be optimistic about".The press conference was held jointly by five major ministries in charge of food safety: the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the State Food and Drug Administration.It was a rare attempt by the government to seriously address the issue, and it enumerated a series of measures to be taken. But it failed to offer a convincing mechanism for coordinating work among the five ministries, leaving the murky regulation of food safety unresolved.There have been worries over China's food safety supervision because at least five ministries are in charge of food safety and coordination among them is no easy job.Vice-Minister of Health Wang Longde went on the record as saying that new laws were needed to strengthen food safety supervision and the duties of relevant government agencies had to be coordinated. The government has stepped up efforts since then to address the issue to restore confidence in Chinese food products sold at home and abroad.China's first-ever White Paper on food safety published recently sets forth a series of achievements along with planned measures to improve food quality - from setting up a national food recall system to increasing exchanges with quality officials from other countries.Wu Yi's panel, meant to address the country's problems in food safety and product quality, partly dispelled people's concerns over lax supervision of food safety owing to too many regulators. Analysts say the newly set up panel, headed by Wu Yi, will improve supervision.The government, on its part, has started a four-month nationwide campaign to improve food safety and product quality. Wu describes the campaign as a "special battle" to ensure public health and uphold the reputation of Chinese products. The campaign will target farm produce, processed food, the catering sector, drugs, pork, imported and exported goods and products closely linked to human safety and health.Luo Yunbo, dean of the food science and nutritional engineering school of China Agricultural University, says the White Paper offers authoritative information on food safety, and the latest moves reflect the government's determination to improve product quality.The paper says the percentage of food products that passed quality inspections had risen steadily in recent years, up from 77.9 last year to 85.1 percent this year. As for small food processors, believed to be a major food safety threat in China, the paper says the country will prompt small-scale producers to form larger entities to ensure better food safety.Almost 80 percent of China's food producers operate in small workshops employing fewer than 10 workers. By the end of June, the government had weeded out 5,631 unqualified small producers, forced 8,814 to stop production and asked 5,385 to improve their standard.The number of small food producers will be halved by 2010, the quality supervision administration said after the country published its first-ever five-year plan on food safety in May. Also, the government wants to weed out all uncertified producers by 2012.The government is seriously addressing overseas concerns over Chinese food products. It has shut down the factory that supplied the tainted medicine to Panama, and two firms that exported contaminated wheat and corn protein, which ended up in pet food in the United States, killing a number of dogs and cats in North America.The country's top quality watchdog has announced that all major food exports produced from September 1 have to carry labels showing they have passed inspection to help stop illegal exports and bolster consumer confidence in the quality and safety of Chinese food products.The White Paper says the acceptance rate of Chinese foodstuffs exported to the European Union (EU) was 99.8 percent in the first half of this year, followed exports to the US (99.1 percent).Japanese quarantine authorities found Chinese food exports had the highest acceptance rate, 99.42 percent, followed by the EU (99.38 percent) and then the US (98.69 percent).But food safety cannot be improved greatly overnight, and people seem to differ on what they can do as individuals to bring about lasting change.Take Jing Luyan, for instance, who is fond of tasting different types of food, especially traditional Beijing snacks. But traditional snacks are usually cooked in shabby restaurants in small alleys."I believe that the most delicious food can hardly ever be found in swanky establishments with irreproachable hygienic conditions," says Jing.She has never fallen ill after eating at street corner stalls, she says.

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The second batch of quotas for qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII), a scheme for foreign players to invest in the A-share market, is likely to be about billion, an industry insider, who declined to be named, told China Daily on Friday. The source said that the second batch of QFII quotas was being discussed, and pending approval by the Chinese government, was likely to be about billion, not exceeding that of the last batch, which was billion. Hu Xiaolian, Deputy Governor of the central bank and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said earlier that related rules on the QFII scheme were being amended and the total QFII quota would certainly see an increase in 2007. However, she declined to give a specific sum. China has so far approved 52 overseas institutions as QFIIs to invest in the A-share market, of which 49 have got a combined investment quota of .995 billion from SAFE, near the upper limit of billion as stipulated previously. Industry insiders said the demand for QFII quotas was strong at present and more should be granted. "Despite the excessive liquidity in the A share market, the Chinese government should grant more quotas to QFIIs. Otherwise, they will find other ways, making it more difficult to supervise," She Minhua, an analyst with CITIC China Securities said. Meanwhile, the booming Chinese stock market is attracting more foreign financial firms to set up joint ventures in the investment sector. The Financial Times on Thursday reported that Nikko Asset Management, a QFII approved in 2003, has become the first Japanese fund firm to acquire a 20 per cent stake in a local firm, the Shenzhen-based Rongtong Fund Management Company. Nikko AM bought the stake from Shaanxi International Trust & Investment (SITI), for 3.8 yuan per share, valued at 475 million yuan, according to a statement by the Shenzhen-listed SITI.

The country's trade surplus last month continued its downward trend, with efforts to curb exports paying off and imports rising, authorities said on Friday.Figures from customs authorities showed the trade surplus last month was .49 billion, below December's .7 billion and the record high of .1 billion set in October last year."For the first time since May, the trade surplus is under billion," customs said on its website.Exports rose 26.7 percent from a year earlier to 9.66 billion, while imports rose 27.6 percent to .17 billion, the government agency said. Import growth outpaced exports for the fourth month in a row.Experts said the surplus dropped due to policies put in place last year to curb exports. The authorities had introduced a raft of policies since early last year, including VAT cuts, to discourage exports of energy-intensive, polluting products."China's policies to encourage imports and cut the trade surplus are also helping a lot," Zhang Xinfa, an economist with Beijing-based China Galaxy Securities, said.As a result of the tightening policy, the processing trade last month was .85 billion, up 15.8 percent year on year. But the growth rate slowed by 9.9 points compared with the same period last year.The appreciation of the yuan also played a role in curbing exports."Many exporters are facing difficulties due to rising costs and the yuan's appreciation, and export momentum will ease in the coming months," Li Yushi, a researcher on trade with the Ministry of Commerce, said.According to Li Peng, spokesman for Asia Footwear Association, more than 1,000 shoe factories in Guangdong province closed down last year.The firms went bankrupt due to high costs driven by the removal of an export tax refund, a stronger yuan, rising raw material prices and labor costs, Li said.The stronger yuan also makes imports cheaper, which is one reason behind the strength seen in Friday's data, Zhang said.The European Union remained as China's largest trade partner last month, with bilateral trade of .28 billion, up 30.1 percent year on year.The EU was followed by the United States. Trade between China and the US last month increased by 12.2 percent year on year to .23 billion, despite looming recession in the US economy.China's trade surplus last year stood at 2.2 billion, with total trade volume hitting a new high of .17 trillion, up 23.5 percent from a year earlier.

TAIPEI, June 23 - Taiwan "presidential candidate" Ma Ying-jeou, who is from the main opposition party, has picked a "former premier" and economic expert as his running-mate for the 2008 election. Ma, from the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and one of two serious contenders for the "presidency", chose former "premier Vincent" Siew because of his experience, one of Ma's aide told Reuters. Siew, 68, served as "economics minister" from 1990 to 1993 and as "premier" from 1997 to 2000 under then "president" Lee Teng-hui. He now chairs the authoritative Chung-hua Institute for Economic Research. Siew ran unsucessfully for "vice-president" alongside KMT candidate Lien Chan in 2000, when opposition leader Chen Shui-bian swept to power, putting an end to half a century of Nationalist rule. Ma faces a close contest next year with Frank Hsieh, candidate of Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

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SHENZHEN: The first group of doctors from Taiwan took the National Qualification Examination for Physicians on Friday, three months after the Ministry of Health announced their eligibility to sit the annual test. The 262 medics were all tested in South China's Guangdong Province: 137 in Guangzhou, 120 in Shenzhen and five in Zhuhai. Cheng Hsiao-wei, who runs a cosmetic surgery clinic in Taipei, said he was a little nervous at the start of the exam but soon calmed down. "We don't have to operate medical equipment or take an oral test in Taiwan," Cheng told reporters after leaving the exam room at Shenzhen People's Hospital. Friday's exam focused on clinical procedures. It will be followed by a written test on medical theory in September. "There are many opportunities ahead as more and more Taiwanese are moving to or doing business on the mainland," Cheng said. "Therefore, the demand for Taiwanese physicians is also on the rise. But before entering the mainland market, we have to become familiar with the environment and learn from our counterparts there." Thomas Lin, a 33-year-old physician with the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, said he hoped the mainland would open up further to Taiwanese doctors. "It will be more attractive if we are allowed to open private clinics on the mainland after acquiring our qualifications, just like our peers from Hong Kong," Lin told China Daily. The government recently allowed permanent Hong Kong residents, who have practiced as physicians for at least five years and acquired the appropriate qualifications, to open private clinics on the mainland. "I think mainland residents will also welcome the increased competition with the entry of Taiwanese private clinics, which could help improve physicians' performance and services," Lin said. Since April, Taiwanese doctors have been allowed to apply for a one-year work permit for the mainland. At the end of the 12 months they can apply for a renewal. Wang Liji, an official with the Ministry of Health, said the decision to open up the qualification exam to Taiwanese doctors will encourage the establishment of Taiwan-funded medical institutes and open a new channel for the exchange of healthcare expertise across the Straits.

LAS VEGAS -- Three men enslaved more than 20 members of a Chinese acrobatic team, feeding them little, paying them next to nothing to perform and confiscating their passports and visas, US authorities said. A woman who worked as an interpreter for China Star Acrobats escaped late last month and contacted authorities, the FBI said. She told police she and 20 teammates -- including five teens ages 14 to 17 -- were being held against their will. Social workers interviewed 14 of them Friday, according to a criminal complaint. "They literally hugged the investigators when they arrived," said FBI spokesman David Staretz. You Zhi Li, 38, Yang Shen, 21, and Jun Hu, 43, were arrested this week on slavery charges. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 13. The acrobats said Li promised them 0 (euro220) to ,600 (euro1,174) a month to perform with the China Star Acrobats, a team that traveled and performed at schools across the United States. "It's a cultural program," said Anthony Wright, Li's court-appointed defense attorney. "Chinese folks get to come over here and learn about America." Prosecutors said the acrobats were forced to stay in Li's home, where up to six lived in each bedroom. Most had been brought to Las Vegas months ago. The acrobats told authorities they were fed minimal amounts of instant noodles, rice and vegetables twice a day. They said they sometimes had to perform twice a day, were awakened early and did not get to sleep until very late. According to the complaint, Li confiscated visas and passports and told them their phone calls home would be monitored. One girl who performed as a contortionist told authorities she was being paid (euro36) a month, while a boy who said he had been traveling with the troupe for two years said he received 0 (euro73) per month. The acrobats are now being provided shelter, food and medical attention, said Terri Miller, director of the Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery, a task force formed last year in the Las Vegas Valley.

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China, the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, will ban all forms of tobacco promotion by January 2011.A ban on tobacco advertising has been in place since 1996, but firms have managed to sidestep the rules and promote their brands in other more subtle ways such as sponsoring sporting events, or using their logos without mentioning "cigarettes" on television, radio and in newspapers and magazines.Xu Guihua, vice-president of China Tobacco Control Association, made the landmark announcement on Monday at a seminar in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. She said the country is committed to fulfill its obligations to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.China formally became a member of the convention last January.Xu said the nation lags behind other countries in efforts to control the use of tobacco, and the biggest problem is the lack of national regulations banning smoking in public areas.To date, fewer than half the cities have framed rules on smoking bans in some public spaces. Efforts to ban smoking in other areas such as karaoke parlors and restaurants have been stifled by unwilling owners and managers who fear a loss of business.Figures from the Ministry of Health show that China has an estimated 350 million smokers, almost a third of the world's 1.1 billion smokers.Cigarette makers spent more than 1.6 billion yuan (2 million) to promote their brands last year, according to China Youth Daily.In 2005 the government collected 240 billion yuan (.7 billion) in tobacco taxes.According to the WHO convention, tobacco products must carry prominent health warnings on the packaging.This measure needs to be implemented within three years from when China signed the convention.Within five years, China must fulfill it commitment to comprehensively ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.Last year, authorities found there were 231 instances of tobacco promotion considered illegal. The violators were fined a mere total of 1.23 million yuan (2,780).A senior official from China's State Tobacco Monopoly, who did not want to be named, said the administration was "actively taking measures" to fulfill its obligations to the convention.Regulations to further control tobacco promotion on the Internet were expected shortly, he said.Despite a willingness to cooperate, the official said tobacco producers were lawful enterprises, and it was not fair to "butcher the industry"."There is market demand for tobacco, people can choose if they smoke or not," he told China Daily.He said tobacco firms are using scientific and technological improvements in tobacco products to "lower" the harmful effects of smoking.However the WHO has long argued there is no way to make smoking healthier.Yang Yan, a researcher with Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said 12 percent of deaths in China are caused by tobacco related illnesses, and by 2025, that figure will climb to 33 percent.

A plan to rebuild part of the Yuanmingyuan (the old Summer Palace) Park has met with mixed public response.The park's management office said it is planning to rebuild a palace gate before the end of this year.Zong Tianliang, spokesman for the office, said the project will take a year to complete and will be "a loyal copy of the original gate".But many fear construction of the gate might destroy some the historic remains.Yuanmingyuan is regarded as a symbol to remind Chinese people of the shameful history of the 19th century when China was bullied by Western countries.What visitors see in the park today is mostly the ruins left from a fire that the British and French troops set after plundering countless treasures from the royal garden in 1860.More than half of the 2,300 netizens who responded to a poll on sina.com on Monday were against the rebuilding project.About 54 percent agreed that rebuilding the gate would destroy some historical relics, and protecting what "remains is the best solution"."Yuanmingyuan as it stands today is the best material for patriotic education. Rebuilding will not only cost money, but also probably make people forget part of history," a netizen said.However, 44 percent agreed it was necessary to restore the exquisite imperial garden to its former glory, described as a masterpiece in Chinese classical garden art.Researchers said the Yuanmingyuan, a general name for three royal gardens built and expanded in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), used to cover nearly 350 hectares and consisted of 100 buildings of different styles, including European and southern China."Rebuilding part of the garden and showing visitors the comparison can also educate people," another netizen said.Zong said the rebuilding is part of the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Planning project, which was approved by the municipal government and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2000.The planning agreed to rebuild no more than 10 percent of the original royal garden.Currently the park has only three rebuilt structures - a European-style maze, a pavilion and the palace gate of Qichunyuan.Some experts have said that a rebuilt Yuanmingyuan would still be incomplete without all its lost treasures. A bronze horse head looted from the garden was recently sold for .84 million and returned to China.