BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told visiting King of Jordan Abdullah II Bin Al-Hussein on Wednesday that China is ready to consolidate and advance the friendly relationship with Jordan.

    Jordan is an important partner of China in the Middle East and the relationship has been growing steadily over the years, Wen said.

    As the two countries celebrated the 30th anniversary of diplomatic links, the visit by King Abdullah symbolizes the importance that Jordan attached to developing bilateral relations, Wen said.

    Wen said China and Jordan had seen rapid expansion of trade and economic cooperation, noting that Chinese companies had contributed to Jordan’s economic and social development through mutually beneficial cooperation in construction projects.

    China would continue to encourage good companies to invest in Jordan so as to strengthen cooperation in service trade and contract projects, the premier said.

    China would promptly complete all aid projects to high standards in Jordan so they would become symbols of friendship between the two countries, he added.

    Wen said China would adopt active measures to increase imports from Jordan in order to resolve their trade imbalance.

    King Abdullah expressed the wish that the two countries carry out closer cooperation to bring about an even better future for relations. Jordan welcomed and would facilitate Chinese companies to invest in the country. Jordan would improve coordination with China in a bid to expand the scope of trade and economic cooperation and ensure the smooth progress of large cooperative projects.

    The king arrived in Beijing on Monday for a four-day state visit. He met with President Hu Jintao on Tuesday afternoon.

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    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan met here Wednesday with Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security advisor to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

    Cao spoke highly of the current China-U.S. relations, saying the sound and stable development of bilateral relations is conducive to the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples as well as to the world peace, stability and prosperity.

    Cao also expressed satisfaction with the development of the relations between two armed forces.

    China will make joint efforts with the United States to promote understanding, narrow differences, and expand exchanges and cooperation so as to advance the constructive and cooperative bilateral relationship, Cao said.

    Cao also briefed Brzezinski on China’s military construction and its position on the Taiwan issue.

    Brzezinski said the U.S.-China relationship is one of the most important in the world and the two countries have witnessed closercontact in various fields in recent years.

    He hoped the two sides could expand military exchanges in the future and there is still much room for further cooperation between Chinese and U.S. armed forces.

    Brzezinski is here for academic exchanges at the invitation of China Institute for International Strategic Studies.

    Besides Beijing, Brzezinski has visited Chongqing in southwest China, and will visit southern China’s Guilin and central Luoyang cities.

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    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland on Wednesday warned it would take “necessary measures” if “Taiwan independence” forces continued to push their activities.

    If “Taiwan independence” forces clung to their course, the mainland “will definitely take necessary measures to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and protect our nation’s core interests”, said Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

    The priority is to prevent the Taiwan authorities, headed by Chen Shui-bian, from promoting a “referendum” on Taiwan’s bid to enter into the United Nations, and fight secessionist actions for “de jure independence”, Yang said.

    ”We will never compromise on the issue of secession and never accept ‘Taiwan independence’,” he said at a press conference.

    Yang also expressed strong opposition to Taiwan’s development of nuclear weapons, in response to a journalist’s question on Chen Shui-bian’s remark that Taiwan would not develop nuclear weapons, but needed to improve its defense capability.

    ”We have noticed the reports,” Yang said. “We are uncompromisingly against Taiwan’s development of nuclear weapons or nuclear weapon capability in any form.”

    The report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) by Hu Jintao set the tone for the mainland’s policies on Taiwan, Yang said.

    ”We will never waver in our commitment to the one-China principle, never abandon our efforts to achieve peaceful reunification, never change the policy of placing our hopes on the people of Taiwan and never compromise in our opposition to the secessionist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’,” he quoted Hu’s report as saying.

    In his report, Hu for the first time talked about a peace agreement across the Taiwan Strait, calling for discussion of a formal end to the state of hostility between the two sides on the basis of the one-China principle.

    The mainland is willing to talk with any political party in Taiwan that agrees that both sides of the Strait belong to one and the same China, Yang said.

    The mainland will also continue working on issues concerning the interests of Taiwan compatriots, including promoting trade, charter flights and tourism across the Strait, he said.

Mainland against Taiwan’s development of nuclear weapons in any form

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland expressed strong opposition to Taiwan’s development of nuclear weapons in any form, a mainland spokesman said here Wednesday.

    Yang Yi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the comment at a press conference in response to a journalist question on Chen Shui-bian’s related remark that Taiwan will not develop nuclear weapons but needs to improve its defense capability.   Full story

Mainland hopes to restore cross-Straits talks under 1992 Consensus

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland hopes to resume talks across the Taiwan Straits based on the 1992 Consensus highlighting the one-China principle, said a mainland official here Wednesday.

    ”We haven’t changed our stance to stick to the 1992 Consensus, say no to ‘Taiwan independence,’ seek stability and peaceful development across the Straits and protect the interests of people on both sides,” said Yang Yi, the spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.   Full story

Mainland remains committed to promoting coss-Strait tourism

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland will continue to push Taiwan to allow mainland residents to visit the island despite the deadlock in cross-strait tourism negotiation, a mainland official said on Wednesday.

    ”To allow mainland tourists to visit Taiwan is our established policy…And we will, as always, continue to push for the early realization of it,” Yang Yi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said.  Full story

Official: Spying on Chinese mainland will be punished

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — All activities aimed at harming the Chinese mainland will be punished, said a Chinese mainland official in Beijing on Wednesday, in response to a question from a Taiwanese journalist about the alleged detention of a Taiwanese person by the Chinese mainland authorities on Internet spy charges.

    Spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Yang Yi said Taiwan’s intelligence agencies have been spying on mainland China on a large scale through the Internet over the past few years, which “has resulted in serious consequences.”  Full story

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    NANNING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) - Chinese and Southeast Asian businesses will put 6.15 billion U.S. dollars to jointly build machinery, building materials, consumer electronics, farm produce, foodstuffs and other projects, the organizers of the fourth China-ASEAN Expo said here Wednesday.

    This figure represented a 5.28 percent increase from the previous China-ASEAN Expo, said Li Jinzao, deputy director of the organizing committee.

    Agreements on a total of 182 international economic cooperation contracts were signed during the four-day exposition, an annual business gathering between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), involving a combined investment of 6.15 billion U.S. dollars, Li said.

    The ASEAN regional bloc groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

    Traders of the two sides also signed 1.42 billion dollars worth of contracts over the past four days, up 12.1 percent year on year.

    Guangxi in South China, as host of the exposition, reported trade deals with ASEAN countries valued at 430 million dollars and 99 investment projects involving a total input of 3.61 billion dollars, including 81 projects to be funded and built in China by ASEAN businesses and 18 projects Chinese companies will operate in ASEAN countries, said Li at a press conference at the end of the exposition.

    The largest sum of investment signed was a contract for Thai rice export to Shenzhen City of China, which involves 110 million dollars.

    According to Li, also vice chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the number of Chinese and ASEAN companies and institutions participated in the exposition increased 4.9 percent to 1908.

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    By Xinhua writer Wu Qiong     

    BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Beijing has begun to provide weather forecasts tailored for heating in cold weather in a move to reduce energy consumption and pollution in the city.

    The Beijing Meteorological Bureau initiated the service on Tuesday ahead of the heating season, which usually runs from Nov. 15 till next March in Beijing.

    Cities in northern China, as in Beijing, normally provide public heating services for residents when the winter comes, with facilities, including big boilers, connected to each household with supplies of hot water circulating in the pipes.

    The public heating system in Beijing aims to keep indoor temperatures above 16 degrees Celsius, but some people complain the temperature is too high when it gets warmer as the daily heating temperature is fixed all through the heating season.

    A new system with more than 100 monitoring spots across the city has been set up to make it possible to tune heating systems with appropriate figures, said Ding Deping, head of the specific forecast department of the municipal bureau.

    It would provide indoor and outdoor temperatures of residential areas and wind speeds, along with data such as water temperatures into and out of boilers, for the bureau to analyze and make forecasts, said Ding.

    Ding said heating service providers and individual households could tune the heating temperatures based on forecasts of the boiler’s water temperatures a few days ahead of time.

    The monitoring system covers major residential areas of the city, including outer suburbs.

    The bureau has been providing trial services for dozens of heating units in Beijing since the winter of 2003, Ding said.

    The new service could slash energy consumption for heating in Beijing by five percent each year, which translated into savings of about 100 million yuan annually on estimates of Beijing’s yearly spending of two billion yuan (267.7 million U.S. dollars) on heating, said Ding.

    He said services, including the heating index and temperature forecasts within one to three days, would be immediately available for staff at the Beijing District Heating Group, which provided heating for one third of the city, and enterprises and communities that provide regional services.

    Individuals could tune their own heaters at home according to a heating index published in the media, which would range from the minimum level to the highest fifth grade based on factors such as the temperature, sunlight, wind speeds and humidity.

    Some Beijing residents in new residential areas are not provided with public heating system, but with household heaters, and they can easily tune the heating temperatures freely at home.

    The reduced energy consumption would also mean a “bluer” sky for Beijing during the winter, as many city boilers are coal fired, which causes heavy pollution with sulfur dioxide emissions.

    Beijing has been replacing coal-fired boilers to lessen pollution and aims to have more than 40 percent of the area provided with natural gas by the end of this year, and 50 percent by 2010.

    The capital has come up with a series of campaigns to improve the air quality since the beginning of this year for the 2008 Olympic Games.

    From Aug. 17 to 20, about 1.3 million cars were banned from the city roads each day to test the effect on air quality for the Olympic Games.

    The municipal government cut metro ticket prices by more than 30 percent, and offered discounts up to 60 percent on bus tickets earlier this year, to encourage public transport use.

    Beijing Shougang Group, China’s leading steel manufacturer, has pledged an output reduction of more than 70 percent from July to September next year to ensure the Olympics can enjoy better air quality.

    The municipal meteorological bureau has also beefed up its efforts this year to ensure more accurate weather forecasts during the Games.

    China has successfully launched its second professional geostationary orbit meteorological satellite, Fengyun-2D (FY-2D), on Dec. 8 last year to provide better weather forecast services for the Games.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage

    LE’AN, Jiangxi, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — A miner was rescued Wednesday, but the search continues for nine others missing three days after flooding in a coal mine in east China’s Jiangxi Province.

    The rescued miner, Huang Guigen, 45, was making noises in the tunnel and crying for help when he was found at 2:30 p.m., said rescuers.

    The flooding that occurred around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday at Lingxian coal mine, a township-owned mine in Le’an County of central Jiangxi, trapped 10 people including Huang.

    Huang, who was able to talk and walk after being trapped for 83 hours, said he was working alone when the flooding occurred and the area he was in was not flooded.

    Rescuers said six trapped miners who were working on the same working surface could still be alive, but the situation of the other three was still unknown.

    More than 100 rescuers are still searching for the nine trapped miners.

Hu: China will continue to play constructive role in Middle East

[China]Ambassador: China’s growth brings opportunities

[World]Clinton publicly opposes Attorney General nominee

[Biz]Hong Kong stocks end at another record high

[Health]Early autism detection strongly recommended

[Popular]Katharine Hepburn tells her stories from the stage