BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's education authorities have banned employment of new substitute teachers, but denied a deadline for dismissing those still at work."Governments at all levels must ensure the inflow of qualified teachers and prohibit any school from taking on more substitute teachers," said Lu Yugang, deputy director of the personnel department of the Ministry of Education.Longtime employment of substitute teachers would not only impair the interests of students but also be unfair for the teachers as they are usually low paid, Lu said.However, the role of substitute teachers played and the contribution they made should not be forgotten, Lu said. "We cannot just tell them to leave the school and go home."Discussions about the future of substitute teachers have been featured prominently in newspapers and on websites in recent days, as it was reported all the substitute teachers would be dismissed in 2010.Substitute teachers are more often seen in poor places, mostly rural villages, as local governments could not afford to employ enough licensed teachers.By the end of 2008, China had about 311,000 substitute teachers, according to the ministry.Lu said the substitute teachers qualified for the job should be given opportunity to be formally recruited while those who were dismissed should be compensated.In recent years, substitute teachers have been gradually replaced by graduates from normal universities as the government invested more in the education in rural areas.
BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A cold front is expected to sweep the northern part of China over the next three days, bringing strong wind and a temperature drop, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said Sunday.Small to moderate snow or sleet is forecast in the northern and southwestern part of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, western Tibet Autonomous Region and the northeastern part of China.The cold front will cause a temperature drop of four to six degrees Celsius since Feb. 15 in central and eastern parts of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China and northeastern China.The central and the eastern part of China will see a temperature drop of three to five degrees Celsius.Areas in Hunan and Guizhou provinces would expect freezing rain over the following three days.The CMA also said the blizzard condition which had stricken eastern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces had eased to small to moderate snow or sleet.The National Meteorological Center had cleared the blizzard warning by 6 p.m. Sunday, 24 hours after the issuance, the CMA said.
JINAN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese vocational school blamed for staging cyber attacks on Google and other firms said Saturday the allegations are unfounded."Investigation in the staff found no trace the attacks originated from our school," Li Zixiang, Party chief at Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province, told Xinhua.Students of Lanxiang are still in their winter vacation, Li said.He said Lanxiang has no relationship and does not cooperate with the military, adding that school authorities do not have military backing.He also dismissed the suggestion of involvement of a "specific computer science class" taught by a Ukrainian professor."There is no Ukrainian teacher in the school and we have never employed any foreign staff," Li confirmed."The report was unfounded. Please show the evidence," he said.Li's remarks came after the New York Times reported Thursday cyber attacks on Google and other American firms have been traced to Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, which the report alleged has ties to the Chinese military.The report, citing unidentified investigators, said there is evidence suggesting a link between the attacks and a computer science class at Lanxiang taught by a Ukrainian professor.Lanxiang, founded in 1984, has about 20,000 students learning vocational skills such as cooking, auto repair and hairdressing.The computer science class offers basic courses about Photoshop, 3D drawing and Word -- not software engineering."It was not until 2006 that our graduates began to join the army. So far, 38 students have been recruited by the military for their talent in auto repair, cooking and electric welding," said Zhou Hui, director of the school's general office, who stressed it is natural for someone to join the army at a proper age.No comment was available from Shanghai's Jiaotong University.Google said on Jan. 12 it might pull out of the Chinese market, citing disagreement with government policies and unidentified attacks targeting Google's services in China.
BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Foreign-funded enterprises in China exported 494.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products in 2009.A document posted on the website of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said the figure made up 69.3 percent of the country's total exports of such products in the past year.Exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products by privately-owned enterprises totalled 106.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, down 8.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the document.State-owned enterprises only exported 92.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products, accounting for 12.9 percent of the country's total machinery, electrical and electronic products last year.The GAC document also said the majority of the country's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products fell into the category of processing and assembling trade.China's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products in the category of processing and assembling trade totalled 466.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, making up 65.4 percent of the country's total exports of such products.The country exported 713.1 billion U.S. dollars worth of machinery, electrical and electronic products last year, down 13.4 percent year-on-year. The exports contributed 59.3 percent to China's total exports in 2009.The European Union (EU), the United States of America and Hong Kong were the three major destinations for the China mainland's exports of machinery, electrical and electronic products last year.China exported 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars worth of products last year, down 16 percent from 2008, replacing Germany as the world's largest exporter.
XI'AN, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- A high-speed railway linking central China city Zhengzhou and northwestern city Xi'an, went into operation Saturday.The 505-km Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway, the first of its kind in central and western China, cut the travel time between the two cities from former more than six hours to less than two hours, said local railway authorities Saturday.The first train left Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, at 10:50 a.m. and arrived at Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, at 1:15 p.m., said Long Jing, head of the Xi'an Railway Bureau. With a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the high-speed Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train coded G2004 is about to leave Xi'an for Zhengzhou in Xi'an Railway Station, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Feb. 6, 2010.The train traveled at 350 kilometers per hour, said Long. A total of 14 trains would be traveling between Zhengzhou and Xi'an everyday, said Long.The first train from Zhengzhou to Xi'an departed from Zhengzhou at 11:25 a.m. and arrived at Xi'an at 2:01 p.m., said Niu Jianfeng, spokesman of the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau.The Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway, included in the country's "Mid- and long-term railway network plan", has been built since Sept. 25, 2005, with a total investment of about 35.31 billion yuan (5.17 billion U.S. dollars), said Niu. With a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, a high-speed Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train is on test operation en route from Xi'an to Zhengzhou, in Tongguan, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Feb. 4, 2010."The Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway will meet the growing demand of of passenger and cargo transportation in central and western China, and help promote local development," said Wang Yongping, spokesman of the Ministry of Railways.Henan is one of the major grain producers of China and an emerging economic and industrial powerhouse. This most populous province in China is also a major tourist attraction with a great number of sites of historical and cultural interests. Shaanxi boasts rich cultural resources and is endowed with rich natural resources such as coal, petroluem, and natural gas.The country's total railway coverage will be more than 110,000 kilometers by 2012 and 120,000 kilometers by 2020, according to the "Mid- and long-term railway network plan"."By 2012, it will take less than eight hours to travel by train from Beijing to most provincial capitals in China," said Long.
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua)-- China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Wednesday it would issue a batch of ten-year book-entry treasury bonds with a total par value of 26 billion yuan (3.8 billion U.S. dollars) starting on Thursday.The batch is the 7th of its kind the MOF has issued this year. The issue of this batch of T-bonds ends on March 29, according to a statement on the MOF's official website.The bonds would be traded on the interbank bond market and securities bond market from March 31.The bonds have a fixed annual interest rate of 3.36 percent, with the interests to be paid every half year, on March 25 and Sept. 25, respectively, according to the statement.The last interest payments and principals would be paid back together on March 25, 2020, statement said. Book-entry bonds are the bonds recorded in the investors' securities accounts called book entries. They can be traded on the open market, and their market prices can deviate from par value.
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MOSCOW, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russia and China have agreed to further tap cooperation potential so as to boost economic and trade ties despite the impact of the global economic crisis.The agreement was reached during a meeting on Thursday between Russian Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin and Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui on bilateral economic and trade ties, especially cross-border and regional cooperation.Basargin and Li agreed that the global economic crisis had a negative impact on bilateral economic cooperation, citing a sharp decline in two-way trade.However, they believed that the foundation for bilateral cooperation remained solid. In particular, bilateral investment and economic cooperation have gained strong momentum, and cooperation in such areas as energy, nuclear technology and high-tech have been strengthened.During the meeting, they also said that cross-border and regional cooperation had become an increasingly important part of the China-Russia strategic partnership of cooperation, and played a key role in facilitating regional development and improving the two peoples' welfare.An outline of regional cooperation between Northeast China and the Russian Far East Area and Eastern Siberia, approved by leaders of both countries in 2009, served as guidelines for deepening bilateral cooperation, they said, adding that both sides would cooperate closely and earnestly implement the document in a bid to achieve new accomplishments.They also discussed some specific issues related to cross-border and regional cooperation.
BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's tourism revenue rose 26.9 percent to 64.62 billion yuan (9.46 billion U.S. dollars) during the Spring Festival, the National Tourism Administration (NTA) said Sunday.China received 125 million tourists during the holiday period from Feb. 13 to 19, up 14.8 percent from the same period last year, a statement on the NTA website said.Of the tourism revenue, 4.6 billion yuan came from airlines while 2.83 billion yuan from railways. The tourists spent 26.51 billion yuan in China's 39 key tourism cities and 30.68 billion yuan in other areas.Among the tourists, 29.92 million stayed overnight and 95.13 million stayed for less than one day.
BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Principled consensus was reached between China, European Union Naval Force, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), China's Ministry of National Defense said on Friday.The consensus, outlining the shipping escort cooperation based on "areas of responsibility" in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC), was approved Thursday at the the plenary meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia in New York, said a statement from the ministry.Previously, China had suggested cooperation be based on "areas of responsibility" under the UN Security Council resolutions while EU, NATO and CMF proposed coordination guidelines of the IRTC.China and the three parties conducted rounds of consultations at the contact group meeting, international coordination meeting in Beijing and the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE) system meeting in Bahrain.The final principled consensus absorbed components of "areas of responsibility" in escort missions cooperation and the coordination guidelines of IRTC, showcasing concerted effort by all parties.China always takes a positive and open attitude towards international cooperation on shipping escorts, and would like to cooperate with countries and organizations in line with UN Security Council resolutions for peace and stability in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia waters, said the statement.