BEIJING: Chinese authorities closed a chemical plant being investigated for contaminating water supplies to 1.5 million people in the country’s east, state media said Saturday.
Biaoxin Chemical Company caused “massive” tap water pollution in Yancheng, a city in east Jiangsu province, forcing the closure of two out of three tap water plants, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Water supplies were restored after a five-hour shutdown Friday, Xinhua said.
source : jang.com.pk
WUHAN: President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said that Pakistan wants to benefit from Chinese experience and technology in the field of agriculture for enhanced production that will help his country in overcoming the grain shortage.
“I am very impressed with China’s development in Agri-sector and we want to emulate the same success in Pakistan,” President Zardari said here in his address to China Hubei-Pakistan Agriculture and Water Resources Cooperation Forum.
The president said that Pakistan and China have always enjoyed cordial relations and expressed the hope that his visit will further strengthen these ties particularly in the fields of agriculture and hydro electricity sectors.
He said the prime objective of his visit, the second in four months, was to learn from Chinese model of agriculture and development of hydro electricity projects.
source : jang.com.pk
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.
Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.
"But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.
T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said the global rights lobby was "shocked and extremely disappointed" by Clinton's remarks.
"The United States is one of the only countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues," he said.
"But by commenting that human rights will not interfere with other priorities, Secretary Clinton damages future US initiatives to protect those rights in China," he said.
Students for a Free Tibet said Clinton's remarks sent the wrong signal to China at a sensitive time.
"The US government cannot afford to let Beijing set the agenda," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of the New York-based advocacy group.
China has been pouring troops into the Himalayan territory ahead of next month's 50th anniversary of the uprising that sent Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in India.
"Leaders really need to step up and pressure China. It's often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after some years," Dorjee said.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to Clinton before her maiden Asia visit urging her to raise human rights concerns with Chinese leaders.
Before she left, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said human rights would be "an important issue" for Clinton and that she would "raise the issue when appropriate."
China has greeted President Barack Obama's administration nervously, believing he would press Beijing harder on human rights and trade issues than former president George W. Bush.
source : news.yahoo.com
CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez is vowing that Venezuela will provide China with all the oil it needs “for the next 200 years.”
Chavez spoke to a visiting delegation led by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. The two nations are expected to sign a series of accords on Wednesday.
Caracas sees China as a key partner in its strategy of diversifying oil sales away from the U.S., which buys about half Venezuela’s crude despite years of political tensions.
The South American nation aims to increase exports to China to 1million barrels a day by 2012, up from 330,000 currently.
Venezuela and China plan to build four oil tankers and three refineries in China capable of processing heavy Venezuelan crude.
source : jang.com.pk
BEIJING: China and the United States will resume military consultations this month that were postponed last year when Washington announced a planned weapons sale to Taiwan, state press said Sunday.
The defence consultations will be held in Beijing on February 27-28, the People’s Daily reported on its website, citing an unnamed official with the US Department of Defence. “We want to continue exchanges with China and are seeking positive cooperative ties,” the official was quoted as saying.
The defence talks will resume only days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to China from February 20-22 as the top envoy of the new administration of US President Barack Obama, the report said. The talks will take place once a year and could include discussions on the fight against global terrorism, it said.
China called off high-level military exchanges last October after the Pentagon notified Congress that it planned to sell 6.5 billion dollars of military hardware to Taiwan.
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