HOHHOT, June 30 (Xinhua) — China grasslands are still suffering severe desertification despite government funding of more than 10 billion yuan (144 million U.S. dollars) in the past eight years to protect and restore them, an agricultural official said on Monday.

    Liu Jiawen, deputy director of the grassland monitoring and administration center under the Ministry of Agriculture, told an international conference that the Chinese government had since 2000 launched a number of projects involving the restoration of grassland vegetation, the establishment of forage seed bases and grassland fencing.

    ”Conspicuous achievements have been made in these areas with the concerted efforts of local governments,” he said at the 2008 International Grassland and Rangeland Congress in Hohhot, capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

    One fifth of the country’s grasslands had grazing bans or rehabilitation periods to help restore degraded grasslands, said Liu.

    But he said the country’s grasslands still faced “rather severe” desertification due to human activities and global warming, which was largely believed to have caused frequent drought in some pasture areas.

    More investment and efforts were needed to protect the grasslands and develop them sustainably, he said.

    The weeklong conference, which opened on Sunday, has attracted more than 1,500 grasslands experts worldwide. They will discuss the use of grasslands and their protection.

    China has about 400 million hectares of grassland, or about 40 percent of its total land area. The grasslands in Inner Mongolia account for one fifth of the country’s total.

    NANJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — The Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze Road Bridge, the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge, was formally opened on Monday in east China’s Jiangsu Province after five years of construction.

    The bridge, linking the two prosperous cities of Nantong and Suzhou, runs 32.4 kilometers, with 8,146 meters spanning the Yangtze, China’s longest waterway. It has three lanes each way.

    You Qingzhong, provincial director of transportation, said the bridge, serving as a major land link between Jiangsu and Shanghai, was expected to ease navigation problems caused by ferries in the Yangtze estuary and to promote economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta.

    The bridge, 108 kilometers upstream from the Yangtze’s mouth, joins the national highway network on the both banks.

    ”The journey between Shanghai and Nantong now only takes one hour, but previously it took almost four hours, including the ferry trip,” said You. “With the bridge, it takes just seven minutes to drive across the Yangtze.”

    The bridge has undergone a month-long trail, which saw a daily flow of 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles, before Monday’s formal opening ceremony .

    ”The bridge’s quality and its management both have stood the test and we are confident of its future operation,” he said.

    Built at a cost of 7.89 billion yuan (1.15 billion U.S. dollars), it is the most complicated bridge project in China’s history, setting several technical records.

    It has the world’s longest span of 1,088 meters, usurping the previous record holder, the Tatara Bridge in Japan, which has a main span of 890 meters.

    ”The main navigational opening is 62 meters in height and 891 meters wide, which allows the passage of huge vessels with a cargo capacity up to 50,000 tonnes,” said Wu Shouchang, chief engineer of the construction headquarters.

    It also used the longest bridge cable of 577 meters, 100 meters longer than Tatara’s record.

    Its steel and concrete towers, the tallest bridge towers in the world, stand at 300.4 meters.

    ”The bridge is a good demonstration of China’s scientific achievements in bridge construction over the past years,” said Wu.

    BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — A joint initiative by foreign governments and international agencies was launched here on Monday to assist China’s ecologically fragile provinces to map out plans to cope with the climate change.

    The “Provincial Programs for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in China” are a joint initiative of the Chinese and foreign governments and international agencies, including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Government of Norway and the European Union (EU).

    Aimed at translating China’s National Climate Change Program into local action in priority provinces, the program is being funded with a contribution of 2 million U.S. dollars from Norway and 400,000 U.S. dollars from UNDP China, while the European Union is considering a further 2 million U.S. dollars in contributions.

    ”While new national policies have been enacted to set the vision and overarching direction for climate change mitigation and adaptation in China, more work is needed to translate such policies into on-the-ground action,” said Kishan Khoday, assistant country director and team leader for energy and environment with UNDP China.

    Fourteen provinces will be supported for development of local climate change strategies and policies to both reduce emissions and take adaptation measures, according to the NDRC.

    The Norwegian government will help seven provinces and autonomous regions, including Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, by improving industrial efficiency and pollution controls.

    The EU will assist seven provinces, including Heilongjiang and Shandong, to draw up action plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    The programme, which will last till the end of 2010, will also help develop plans for crop adaptation and increase water efficiency to mitigate the effects of warming on agriculture in Ningxia and Gansu, where climate change and water shortages threaten to undermine food security.

    On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the project will help local governments to find integrated ways to adapt to the adverse effects of the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which are the world’s second largest store of freshwater and are receding at a faster rate than any glaciers on the planet, said Sun Cuihua, an official with Climate Office of NDRC.

    The selected provinces all suffered from severe climate conditions and fragile ecological environments, which were prone to the adverse effects of climate change, said Su Wei, director of Climate Office with the NDRC.

    Dealing with the problems in priority provinces would help accelerate the spread of the actions plans nationwide, Su said.

    ”The risks from the future impacts of warming will vary between and within provinces. If measures are to have a real effect in the coming years, swift actions must be made at the local level to develop policies, partnerships and implementation capacities,’said Khoday.

    by Xinhua writers Lou Chen, Wang Li and Huang Yong

    WENG’AN, Guizhou, June 30 (Xinhua) — Violence that an official said could have involved up to 30,000 people in southwest China has quieted down, after crowds angered over a girl’s death torched government buildings.

    The incident began when about 300 people, including some who were dissatisfied with a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl, started to gather at about 3 p.m. on Saturday at the county government and public security bureau in Weng’an County of Guizhou Province, local government and police sources said. Thechaos subsided on Sunday morning.

    On Monday morning, order has restored to the county, in central Guizhou. Restaurants and roadside vendors opened business early as usual to offer meals. Downtown shops which were closed on Sunday were also reopened.

    But traces of the violence were noticeable in the county government buildings. Police sources told Xinhua that 20 cops were wounded in the violence, and witnesses said more than 30 protesters were wounded.

    A total of 20 burned vehicles were scattered in the yard of the Weng’an county government compound. Sections of the building of the county Communist Party committee had been gutted by fire, and a burned staircase was still smoldering. Dozens of government employees were clearing papers and other debris in the offices, doorways and on the stairs. About 100 armed policemen were patrolling the area.

    ”Although the incident has died down, I don’t feel absolutely safe now,” said Lu Xiaoli, a woman who owns a massage parlor near the public security bureau. “I was shocked by what happened. I hope the government can investigate, answer our concerns and restore security,” she said.

    The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng’an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.

    A police report said she had drowned, but her relatives contended that she was murdered. Some suspected that Li was raped and killed by people who had connections with local government officials.

    Wang Jiao, a girl who studied in the same class as Li, together with two other men, was among the last people to speak to Li before she died. They were taken away by police after the death, and released the next day.

    Vice county head Xiao Song denied connections between children of local officials and the girl’s death.

    But the police account proved difficult to accept for the girl’s family and their supporters. Li’s classmates and her landlord said she was a good student and couldn’t have killed herself.

    ”She was a quiet and nice child. She seldom hung out or played around. I don’t think she killed herself,” said landlord Liu Jinxue, who helped pull her body from the river. Li’s hometown was a rural township and she lived in a rented apartment in the county.

    Liu told Xinhua that the girl’s uncle, Li Xiuzhong, had several serious confrontations with the police, and was beaten by unidentified men in the street.

    The uncle was in a county hospital last week, but had since been transferred elsewhere, Xinhua learnt.

    Li’s grandmother Lu Xiuzhen said the girl’s father had departed for provincial capital, Guiyang, to petition the government and could not be reached. The mother had “gone mad” since the incident, she said.

    ”I demand the government thoroughly investigate the incident and give us a justifiable explanation,” she said.

    Sun Chengyong, a man who showed up among the crowd on Saturday, said the girl’s death was “abnormal and deplorable”, and he came along to show support for her family. One of the people in the crowd carried banners reading “Return justice to the people”, Xinhua reporters saw.

    The crowd swelled, eventually charging into the police building, witnesses said. Several vehicles and offices were torched. County officials said the government staff and police tried to persuade the crowd to leave and showed great restraint.

    Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Local residents told Xinhua reporters they had not seen or heard the police fire gunshots at the crowd.

    Vice county chief Xiao said the crowd reached as many as 30,000people at one point. Police sources said people who had no knowledge about the details of the girl’s death were incited to mob the buildings.

    The provincial Party Secretary Shi Zongyuan and governor Lin Shusen ordered local authorities to handle the incident properly according to law. The provincial government has set up a work team to handle the incident. It also sent 10 criminal investigators and forensic experts to reinvestigate the death.

    Local government employees were ordered to assist the family and classmates of the deceased girl.

    Provincial public security chief Cui Yadong, who is also a member of the standing committee of the provincial Communist Party committee, arrived in Weng’an to handle the incident. He said 14 people were detained on Saturday night.

    No information was available on the number of people still in police custody. Sources said some detainees were released after brief inquiries.

    The county public security bureau broadcast appeals for order to be maintained and demanded those who committed offences to turn themselves in.

    BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday that supervision over the use of hefty quake relief fund and materials should be intensified to guarantee they would be exclusively used for what they were intended to.

    ”We must ensure that the quake relief fund and materials will be veritably used for quake relief and the people affected by the earthquake,” Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told a workshop marking the 87th founding anniversary of the CPC.

    The meeting was attended by representatives of the Party’s grassroots organizations and members who had been honored for their roles in the rescue and relief campaign after the May 12 earthquake. Top leaders Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and others were also present.

    The death toll of the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake reached nearly 70,000, and more than 18,000 were reported missing Monday. Government relief fund totaled 54.72 billion yuan (about 7.82 billion U.S. dollars), while domestic and foreign donations hit 55.3 billion yuan in cash and goods.

    Hu told the meeting that education and supervision of Party members and leading officials in regard to clean governance should be strengthened, the system of punishing and preventing corruption further be improved, and efforts in the anti-corruption drive be increased.

    These measures are essential for the Party members and leading officials “to maintain their original political color, and be clean in doing their jobs and behaving themselves,” Hu said.

    He also promised that officials who “passed tests and showed extraordinary capability in the rescue, relief and rebuilding work” should be promoted to leading positions.

    Hu called on all the CPC members to study and practise the great “earthquake rescue and relief spirit” displayed by the local Communist heroes, which he summarized as “all people of one mind”, “unity in strength”, “fearlessness of hardship”, “people first”, and “respect for science”.

    ”The spirit was a concentrated display and new development of the national spirit of modern China,” he said.

    Hu attributed the major achievement of saving lives in the first stage of the earthquake relief campaign to the firm leadership of the Party, stressing that Party organizations at all levels and members played a vital role.

    The earthquake relief campaign was a test of the leadership and capabilities of the Party as well as a test for the capabilities of Party organizations and the nature of all Party members, he said.

    Now, he said, was the crucial period for achieving the goal of the country’s economic and social development as the earthquake relief effort entered into the stage of settling the affected people by restoring normal life and rebuilding homes.

    Hu urged the whole Party to display excellence in the earthquake relief, in order to maintain the Party’s flesh-and-blood link with the people.

    He urged Party organizations of all levels to increase their capabilities for handling emergencies, by establishing and perfecting the working mechanism with concentrated leadership, unified command, sensitivity in response, and high efficiency.

    BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) — China made strong representations to Japan on Monday about the so-called “aerial inspection” over the Diaoyu Islands by lawmakers.

    The leading official of the Asian Department of the Foreign Ministry summoned officials of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and protested at the Japanese government’s tolerating the so-called “aerial inspection” by several Japanese Diet members, disregarding China’s strong opposition.

    The official stressed the Diaoyu Islands had been Chinese territory since ancient times and China held indisputable sovereignty over the islands.

    The official demanded the Japanese side stop activities infringing China’s sovereignty so as to prevent such incidents happening again.

    According to Japanese media, Japanese Diet member Yukio Edano’s office confirmed that Edano and several other legislators took an aircraft of the Maritime Safety Agency to inspect the Diaoyu Islands on Monday.