CANBERRA, April 30 (Xinhua) — Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Wednesday Chinese investment has a role to play in the Australian economy.

    The Australian government welcomed foreign investment and did not discriminate in terms of the source country, Swan told the Skynews.

    Swan’s comments came after China’s largest iron ore trader, Sinosteel Corp, appeared to have done a deal to buy West Australian miner Midwest Corp.

    ”As it goes to individual takeovers, I don’t make comments about those at all,” the minister said.

    ”Chinese investment has got a role to play in this country but we’ve made it very clear when it comes to foreign investment from Chinese government entities that we will apply our national interest criteria as we do in all other cases.

    ”We think it’s important that investment is competitive, that investment is non-strategic, and that investment is in our national interest”, he said.

    Midwest’s board has recommended shareholders accept Sinosteel’s1.36 billion dollars (1.27 billion U.S. dollars) takeover offer. But it is unclear whether the directors, who own 16 percent of the company, will accept the deal for their own shareholding. Sinosteel already holds 19.89 percent of Midwest. 

Wei Lai, president of China Cartoon Century, delivers a speech yesterday in Hangzhou at a forum during the 4th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival that lasts from April 28 to May 3, 2008.(Photo: China Daily.com)

    BEIJING, April 30 — China’s cartoon and animation industry has developed rapidly in the past 30 years, but it needs more to catch up with advanced countries, said experts at a forum held in Hangzhou yesterday.

    Animation art is found almost everywhere, in technological applications, product demonstrations and commercial promotions, said Wang Ying, general manager of CCTV Animation.

    Imaginative power plays a key role in the prosperity of the cartoon and animation industry, he said. “Imaginative power should be applied not only in artistic creation of animation, but in the industry’s operations too.”

    Only with imaginative power can industrial operations become a reality, Wang Ying said, citing the example of the Disney World. “Without imaginative power, Disney World wouldn’t exist.”

Vesna Dovnikovic, secretary-general of the International Animated Film Association, delivers a speech yesterday in Hangzhou at a forum during the 4th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival that lasts from April 28 to May 3, 2008. (Photo: China Daily.com)

    To play up the role of imaginative power in industrialization of cartoons and animations, he said, “Imaginative power applied in artistic creation is a gorgeous leather, and that used in industrial operation is the flying wings.”

    Echoing the same view, Wang Jing, CEO of Great Dreams Cartoon Corporation, said China has latecomer advantages in promoting industrialization and cross-industry development of cartoons and animations.

    He said in contrast to European and American countries, China’s creativity industry grows simultaneously with its agriculture, manufacturer and digital new media, making industrialization and cross-industry operations much easier.

    To boost industrial operation of China’s cartoon and animation industry, both reorganization of enterprises and a revamp of the industry are essential, said Wei Lai, president of Beijing-based China Cartoon Century.

    Reorganizing enterprises includes integration of talents, resources, channels and capital, said Wei.

    In terms of an industry-wide revamp, he said, it is necessary to integrate resources of advantaged brands, enhance cross-industry alliance and partnership, resort to powerful venture capitals, and swiftly form industry clusters.

    To further promote the development of China’s cartoon and animation industry, more efforts should be put in education, conferences and international exchange of experts and artists, said Vesna Dovnikovic, secretary-general of the International Animated Film Association.

    (Source: China Daily)

    BEIJING, April 30 — More than 90 percent of women who hold PhD degrees are finding it difficult to find a husband in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

    According to a recent survey, only 7 percent of these women said they had no difficulty.

    The survey conducted by a local media interviewed several hundred PhD holders online last month.

    The traditional idea of seeking a husband of similar educational qualification, and missing the best years of life due to studies, were the major reasons given by the women.

    They were also looking for men earning at least 8,000 yuan (1,143 U.S. dolalrs) a month.

    (Source: China Daily)

    BRUSSELS, April 29 (Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) has decided to extend its anti-dumping duty against Chinese leather shoes to Macao, which the EU alleges was used by Chinese shoemakers as a transit for re-exports to Europe.

    The measure, approved by EU governments in Luxembourg Tuesday, aims to prevent Chinese shoe exporters from evading a 16.5-percentanti-dumping duty, the EU said.

    It accuses China’s leather shoes exporters of shipping goods via Macao and also assembling them in the special administrative region to dodge anti-dumping duty, a charge that has been firmly rejected by Chinese shoemakers such as Aokang Group, and European retailers.

    The EU imposed a two-year 16.5 percent anti-dumping duty on Chinese leather shoes in October 2006 following calls for protection of its own shoemakers, mostly in southern Europe.

    China’s Ministry of Commerce has said the EU’s anti-dumping policy will contravene the lawful rights of Chinese shoemakers and will not enhance the competitiveness of their EU counterparts.

    The extension of duty will take effect in the coming days, after details of the measure are published in the EU’s official journal.

    ZHOUCUN, Shandong, April 30 (Xinhua) — Most passengers injured in the train collision on Monday in east China’s Shandong Province were still in hospital and 60 were critical, health authorities said on Wednesday.

    Of the 416 people injured, 39 had been discharged, 39 others were transferred to hospitals elsewhere for treatment while 338 remained hospitalized in Shandong, said a health department spokesman in Zibo City.

    Without elaborating, the official said the 60 critical cases all included high paraplegia.

    Zhang Shi, a passenger who suffered head and neck injuries and a broken elbow, underwent an operation at the No. 148 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army in Zibo.

    He refused to be photographed. “He hopes our parents won’t find out about his injury anytime soon,” said his younger brother, who flew in from Shanghai to look after him.

    About 300 Zibo citizens voluntarily donated blood. By Tuesday afternoon, more than 30,000 milliliters of donated blood had been delivered to the 23 hospitals where the injured passengers were being treated.

    Four French nationals injured in the accident have been sent to Beijing for treatment. They were taken to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), one of the country’s best facilities for treating bone fractures.

    The four, including 54-year-old Pascal Boisson, his daughter Joanne, 22, his son Pierre Emmanuel, 14, and his girlfriend Robin Naurence, 42, were traveling to Qingdao from Beijing on board the high-speed train T195. It derailed and crashed into another train in Zibo’s Zhoucun District at 4:40 a.m. on Monday.

    At least 12 cars from the two trains derailed in the accident and 70 people were confirmed dead, among whom 50 were identified.

    A preliminary investigation suggested the train from Beijing was running at 131 kilometers per hour at the time of the accident, while the speed limit of that section was 80 kph. It happened just three days before the May Day holiday, when millions of Chinese holiday makers will travel by train.

    BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) — Regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is an important policy of Chinese government in handling ethnic affairs.

    The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, established in 1947, is the first autonomous region for ethnic minorities in China. It was followed by the Xinjiang Uygur, Guangxi Zhuang, Ningxia Hui and Tibet autonomous regions.

    Regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in China means that, under the unified leadership of the state, regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of ethnic minorities live in compact communities. In these areas, organs of self-government are established for the exercise of autonomy.

    China is a united multi-ethnic state with a long history. Almost all the central authorities of the feudal dynasties adopted a policy of “rule by custom” towards the ethnic minorities. Under this policy, the political unification of the country was maintained while the ethnic minorities were allowed to preserve their own social systems and cultures.

    The first National People’s Congress that convened in 1954 included the system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, issued in 2001, explicitly stipulates the “system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities is a basic political system of the State”.

    Through 2007, China had established 155 ethnic autonomous areas. Of these, five were autonomous regions, 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties.

    Among the country’s 55 ethnic minorities, 44 have autonomous areas covering 75 percent of the total ethnic minority population.

    The sixth census in 2005 showed China had a population of more than 1.3 billion. Han people accounted for 90.56 percent and ethnic minorities 9.44 percent. Compared with the 2000 census, the population of ethnic minorities increased by 15.88 percent, much higher than the Han’s 2.03 percent.

    After 61 years of this system and 30 years of reform and opening-up, rapid economic and social progress have been made in these autonomous regions, accounting for 64 percent of the country’s total area.

    In 2006, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the five autonomous regions and Yunnan, Guizhou and Qinghai, three provinces densely populated by ethnic minorities, exceeded 2 trillion yuan (289 billion U.S. dollars), an annual increase of 13.2 percent from 2002.

    In 2006, the number of impoverished people decreased from 132.2 million to 121.1 million.

    Starting in 2007, the country had allocated 180 million yuan annually to develop its frontier counties where many ethnic minorities reside.

    By the end of 2007, the nine years of compulsory education for children had been realized in 330 counties in western China, making up 88.7 percent of the total counties in western China.

    The implementation of this policy is critical to enhancing the relationship of equality, unity and mutual assistance among different ethnic groups, to uphold national unification and to accelerate the development of places where regional autonomy is practiced and promoting their progress.

    After 61 years, the autonomy system has proved a wise choice to promote harmonious relations between people of various ethnic groups. The government will stick to this system, an important component of the country’s political mechanism, and bring peace and prosperity for all Chinese.