BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Yahya Bin Mahfoodh Bin Salim Al-Manthri, president of State Council of the Sultanate of Oman, will head a delegation to visit China from Sept. 4 to 10 at the invitation of Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), according to the sources from the NPC on Friday.

    HONG KONG, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong stocks continued its bull run Friday as investors bought into major blue-chip shares like China Mobile, propelling the Hang Seng Index to its highest closing in history.

    The benchmark Hang Seng Index surged 499.6 points or 2.13 percent to its best closing at 23,984.14, breaking the previous record of 23,582.66.

    The index opened 0.43 percent slightly higher at 23,565.16 and widened its gains in the afternoon session. At one point the blue-chip index shot up for the first time above 24,000 level to all-time high 24,089 but narrowed its gains towards closing.

    The China Enterprise Index, which tracks the performance of 41 Chinese mainland companies listed in Hong Kong, also surged 2.88 percent to its record closing at 14,338.84 after it tested an all-time high 14,181.45.

    Turnover rose to 113.11 billion HK dollars (14.52 billion U.S. dollars) from Thursday’s 95.87 billion HK dollars (12.3 billion U.S. dollars).

    Investors rallied their confidence in the stock market ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on benchmark interest rate and the U.S. President Gorge W. Bush’s scheduled statement on aids to the country’s credit affected mortgage holders.

    China Mobile, the country’s biggest mobile phone operator and the market’s top company measured by capitalization, remained the market’s major driven force by roaring 3.82 percent to 106 HK dollars, propelling the index by 172.64 points alone.

    China’s Banking and finance shares were other major contributors to the index’s gains. China Construction Bank, the country’s third-largest bank, surged 4.15 percent to 6.53 HK dollars, adding another 35.25 points to the index’s gains.

    Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s biggest lender, climbed 2.63 percent to 5.08 HK dollars.

    Bank of China, the country’s second largest lender, jumped 3.35 percent to 4.01 HK dollars.

    China Life, the biggest insurer in China, advanced 1.89 percent to 37.65 HK dollars.

    Hong Kong Exchange advanced 4.52 percent to all-time high 143.5 HK dollars.

    HSBC, the market’s second largest stock measured by capitalization, added 0.65 percent to 139.7 HK dollars.

    Property sectors were also stronger. Cheung Kong, one of Hong Kong’s largest house developers controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, rose 2.41 percent to 114.7 HK dollars. SHK Properties rose 3.59 percent to 104 HK dollars. Hutchison added 1.31 percent to 77.55 HK dollars.

    Oil producers all rose. CNOOC, China’s largest offshore oil producer, soared 3.36 percent to 9.53 HK dollars. PetroChina, or China’s largest oil producer, went up 0.35 percent to 11.4 HK dollars. Sinopec, Asia’s biggest oil refiner, moved up 0.47 percent to 8.5 HK dollars.

    China Cosco, the country’s largest shipping conglomerate, once jumped to all-time high 18.5 HK dollars before roaring 4.35 percent to close at 18.22 HK dollars.

    Aluminum Corp of China or Chalco, the country’s largest aluminum refiner, rocketed 10.39 percent to 21.35 HK dollars. Jiangxi Copper rebounded 5.38 percent to 18.02 HK dollars. Chalco and Jiangxi Copper were once considered much cheaper than their trading prices in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and investors were eager to buy in advance of the funds inflows from China’s mainland.

    China Netcom, one of the two fixed-line telephone operators in China, disappointed investors by falling 0.84 percent to 18.84 HK dollars. (7.8 HK dollars = 1 U.S. dollars)

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — U.S. President George W. Bush said on Thursday China’s rapid economic growth has provided a “good opportunity” for the United States as well as other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

    ”Is China an issue for the world? Absolutely. But I don’t view it as a negative issue, I view it as an opportunity to work with one of the really significantly growing economies in the world,” Bush said during a round-table interview with Asian media on the eve of his visit to Australia next week.

    ”First, I view that a growing middle class in China is good for U.S. exporters; it provides opportunity,” said the U.S. president, who will attend the 15th economic leaders’ informal meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, scheduled to be held in Sydney on Sept. 8-9.

    ”By the way, it’s not only good for U.S. exports, it’s good for Australian exporters, and it’s good for Japanese exporters, and it’s good for Singaporean, Malaysian — anybody who is making a product somebody wants, it’s just a good opportunity,” he added.

    On U.S.-China relations, Bush stressed that it is important for the two countries to have a strategic relationship that allows for engagement and helps both to deal with issues such as trade deficits.

    In response to a question, the president dismissed the notion that Washington has been distracted from engagement in Asia because of the war on terror and issues like Iraq.

    He said relations between the United States and the Asia-Pacific region have never been better. “This just doesn’t happen without work,” he said.

    As to the upcoming APEC meeting, Bush said he was looking forward to discussing trade with other leaders of APEC economies.

    He said his first priority for trade at the meeting will be on the Doha round of talks and hoped leaders at the APEC meeting will express their desire to see the Doha round succeed.

    BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese police have uncovered the country’s largest ever alleged on-line pyramid selling scheme, involving 170,000 people and 1.36 billion yuan (180 million U.S. dollars).

    The scheme, operated under the name of “Swiss Mutual Fund”, required each investor to pay 8,000 yuan (1,052 dollars) and promised to pay back 400,000 yuan (52,000 dollars) in 30 months.

    In May, authorities of Tai’an City, Shandong Province, learned about the “Swiss Mutual Fund” and began investigating.

    They found the so-called “fund” had never been registered at the hina Security Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) or the People’s Bank of China (PBC), and concluded it was illegal.

    The People’s Procuratorate of Taishan District of Tai’an City has charged Wei Lixin and Chen Yong for operating a pyramid selling scheme.

    The Chinese authorities have been taking hard line against pyramid selling schemes of different kinds.

    The Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign against pyramid selling from July 16 to Aug. 15, identifying 600 schemes involving 1.7 billion yuan (224 million dollars) nationwide, with more than 3,300 organizers and core members arrested in 14 provinces and cities.

    In 1998, the government banned pyramid selling. In 2005, the Provisions on the Prohibition of Pyramid Scheme were published and put into effect.

    BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — PetroChina and Sinopec, China’s two biggest oil companies, may continue to cut gasoline exports in September following a huge reduction in August, the China Securities Journal reported on Friday.

    The two oil giants may even halt gasoline exports next month, the newspaper cited an anonymous market source as saying.

    The two firms took the action in response to the call of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, made early this month to strictly control refined oil exports and maintain price stability.

    The combined refined oil exports of the two companies fell below 100,000 tons in August, but the cuts would have little impact on their profits, considering their monthly output of almost 4 million tons, the newspaper quoted an unnamed international oil dealer and domestic securities analyst as saying.

    International oil prices have crept upward since June, at one stage breaking the 78 dollars a barrel mark, according to the NDRC.

    The high prices have strained domestic supplies as many small local refineries suspended production to avoid losses and China also relied nearly half of its oil consumption on imports.

    An official with the NRDC said it had ordered the two giants to refine oil at full capacity and keep a reasonable gap between wholesale and retail prices to maintain price stability.

    Analysts said the government took the action amid worries that any hikes in refined oil prices would further push up the already high inflation triggered mainly by food price rises.

    China’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, hit 5.6 percent in July, almost double the government target of 3 percent for the whole of 2007.

    BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — China’s quality watchdog on Friday introduced the nation’s landmark recall systems for unsafe food products and toys amid efforts to improve product safety.

    The two regulations, following the introduction of recall system for defective automobiles in 2005, went into effect on Friday.

    The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) stated the recall systems were culmination of recent regulations on the supervision of product quality and food safety promulgated by the State Council, or cabinet.

    The regulations state clearly that producers must take the prior and major responsibilities for preventing and eliminating unsafe food and toys. This would push them to enhance product safety awareness and step up efforts on quality management, the AQSIQ stated.

    The regulations require manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers, and report to the quality control authorities when product defects are found.

    The regulations, however, did not specify how the producers should notify the vendors and customers.

    The vendors should also stop sales and notify their suppliers or producers when the products are found with safety problems.

    The producers are subject to fines of up to triple the product value and vendors to fines from 1,000 to 50,000 yuan for failure to do as required, Liu Zhaobin, chief of the AQSIQ’s department of policy and regulation.

    The manufacturers are also ordered to take all necessary timely measures, including replacing or refunding to mitigate the effects brought about by unsafe food and toys.

    The producers should launch timely investigations into and evaluation on the defects, and when necessary, the quality watchdogs at and above the provincial levels should supervise.

    Food producers are required to set up archives recording all information on food production and sales and ensure that root causes of safety problems can be found immediately.

    Toy firms should stop production and sales and recall products when defects are found in their toys even if they meet the nation’s quality safety laws, regulations, and compulsory standards.

    The government took all the measures after the safety of China-made products became a major concern at home and abroad with frequent product safety scares.

    The scares ranged from ducks and hens that were fed cancer-causing Sudan Red dye to make their egg yolks red, to pet food made of melamine-tainted wheat protein that killed scores of dogs and cats in the United States.

    The AQSIQ acknowledged that the recall systems supplemented China’s legal system on product safety supervision and management.

    The recall systems, coupled with market access systems, would help to strengthen the government’s supervision of product safety and tackle product safety emergencies more effectively.

    ”The recall systems are common international practices and I’m sure they will be supported and welcomed by the customers,” Liu said.

China takes measures to enhance product quality, food safety

    BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — The Chinese government has taken six measures in one month to ensure food security and reliability of Chinese products, said Li Changjiang, head of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, on Monday in Beijing.

    The State Council had held a national work meeting on product quality and food safety, at which Premier Wen Jiabao spoke, the first such meeting in seven years, said Li.  Full story

White paper: China builds food safety law regime, technological guarantee system

    BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) — China has established a complete law regime and technological guarantee system for food safety, said a white paper on China’s food safety issued by the Information Office of the State Council on Friday afternoon.

    The white paper, first of its kind, said China now has a complete law regime providing a sound foundation and good environment for guaranteeing food safety, improving food quality and regulating food imports and exports.  Full story