BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — During China’s 100-day campaign on work safety, 2.88 million companies spent 12.47 billion yuan (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) fixing potential work perils, as mine disasters and other work safety issues continued to plague the country.

    According to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), a total of 4.01 million hidden troubles were revealed, and 3.68 million among them had already been fixed as of this June.

    Among 114,000 “significant” ones, 102,000 had been fixed.

    SAWS’s campaign began this April when inspections took place a thigh-risk industries, such as coal mines and building sites in 17 provinces.

    As of June, more than 2,879,000 manufacturers had been involved.

    ”Checking these hidden work perils is a long-term task. It needs persistent cooperation,” said SAWS deputy director Liang Jiakun.

    In the latest coal mine accident in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, seven were killed while 29 are still trapped inside a flooded pit.

    Hydrological experts have been examining whether the source of the flooded water was connected to a nearby waterway.

    The mine has estimated reserves of 2.98 million tonnes of coal and can produce 190,000 tonnes annually. It is fully certified.

Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) on Thursday expressed strong discontent and firm opposition to a U.S. Congress resolution linking China’s human rights situation with the Beijing Olympic Games, saying the resolution was an attempt to politicize the Games.

    ”We express our strong discontent and firm opposition to the resolution, which linked such irrelevant issues as human rights, religious freedom, Sudan’s Darfur issue and the Myanmar issue with the Beijing Olympics, and criticized the Chinese government groundlessly,” said an official in charge of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NPC, China’s top legislative body.

    The official said that with the Beijing Olympics imminent, and in disregard of China’s repeated representations, the U.S. Congress on Wednesday stubbornly passed the resolution, which was pushed by a handful of “anti-China” lawmakers.

    The official said the Beijing Olympic Games was a sports event for the whole world, and the success of the Games was not only a dream of the Chinese people, but also the common wish of people of the world.

    ”The passing of the resolution at this time has fully exposed the attempt of the very few anti-China U.S. lawmakers to politicize the Olympics and their evil intention to disrupt and sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games,” said the official.

    ”Such a deed has violated the Olympic spirit and aim, and also violated the common wish of the world people, including the U.S. people,” said the official.

    ”We have the confidence and ability to make the Beijing Olympic Games a world sports event with distinctive characteristics and a high level. The attempt of the U.S. Congress anti-China forces will gain no popularity and be doomed to failure,” added the official.

    Also on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao rejected the resolution as the abominable conduct of a handful of “anti-China” lawmakers.

    ”Such a deed itself is blasphemy to the Olympic spirit, and is against the common wishes of people all around the world, including people of the United States,” Liu said.

    BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — Online businesses which make a profit in Beijing will be subject to the government’s business-licence regulation from August 1, which would make the national capital the first to pilot the e-commerce regulation in China.

    ”The administration will use technical measures to trace online shops that evade the regulation after the deadline, and close their online links,” said Wang Jing, the official in charge of special transaction monitoring with the municipal administration of industry and commerce.

    The administration issued a notice in June, requiring online shops to get business licences before August 1.

    It defined online taxpayers as those shops with online registration based in Beijing and making profits through Internet sales.

    Beijing’s new regulation excepted those online shops selling orexchanging personal use items from the real-name business registration, said Wang.

    China’s e-commerce has been on a fast track in recent years. Leading e-commerce portal Taobao.com saw transactions rise to 43.3 billion yuan (6.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007.

    The government’s online business regulation, however, has been criticized by e-businesses.

    Irritated shop owner nicknamed Duguqiubai said he would rather close his shop than get a business licence.

    ”Most online shops are small businesses that earn meagre profits. Taxes would devour our small profit margin,” said the netizen, who has a shop on Taobao.com selling mobile phones and phone cards.

    Another man, with the online name of Family at Lin’an, said that the regulation’s deadline would be a deadline with real meaning for his family, whose sole income came from the online store he opened. He said he is a handicapped man, who has a little hope of being employed.

    The administration official Wang said that the government has been fully aware of the Internet outcry, but would not make changes to the regulation.

    ”Online shops are after all private businesses. They should be treated equally with other private businesses,” Wang said.

    Professor Tao Hong, chairman of the research center of commerce under the Beijing University of Industry and Commercial, was in favor of the new regulation. He expected it to help clean the e-commerce market.

    But other scholars like Kan Kaili, a professor with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, held the opposite view.

    Kan said that the authority would have troubles to put the regulation into practice, since there are neither borders nor regions on the Internet. Online shops can easily change registration places to evade the regional regulation.

    BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will deliver an article at Qiushi (Seeking Truth) Magazine on August 1 stressing the issue of building and safeguarding the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

    The article, to be published on the fifteenth issue of the magazine, urged particularly China’s law enforcement and judicial organs to “learn and practise well the strategic plan made by the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on the promotion and improvement of China’s judicial work”.

    Zhou also called an in-depth study of these legal organs on President Hu Jintao’s requirements for judicial work put forward at a symposium held on December 25 last year, with the delegates of a national judicial meeting and China’s grand justice and grand procurator present there.

    He urged all judicial staff to implement well the mission of being the builders and defenders of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, with the extraordinary working effect and effective measures, to make more contributions for the development of the career.

    Qiushi is a fortnightly theoretical magazine run by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

    BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — China’s top oil producer, PetroChina, announced its shareholders had agreed at a Thursday board meeting to issue up to 60 billion yuan (8.6 billion U.S. dollars) of corporate bonds on the mainland market.

    The move was intended to “satisfy the operational needs of the company, further improve its debt structure, reduce financing costs and supplement working capital,” said the announcement.

    The proceeds from the bonds will also be invested in projects such as China’s second west-east natural gas pipeline, said the company.

    With an investment of 142.2 billion yuan, the pipeline is expected to pump natural gas from central Asia and western China to the country’s southern and eastern economic hubs by 2011.

    ”Soaring world crude prices cause sharply higher windfall taxes, while the government keeps domestic refined oil prices far below international levels, and the company plans to raise money by issuing corporate bonds,” said the company.

    With durations of up to 15 years, the bonds will be issued in one or several tranches and may have the same or different maturities, said the company.

    PetroChina is the listing company of China National Petroleum Corp. Its shares suspended trading on the Shanghai Stock market on Thursday because of the board meeting.

    BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — China’s gross output value of construction hit 2,266.5 billion yuan (331.2 billion U.S. dollars)in the first half, up 24.4 percent from the first half last year, according to figures from the China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

    From January to June, construction sites covered about 3.70 billion square meters, up 20.1 pct from the same period last year.

    The half-year income of Chinese construction companies totaled 2.07 trillion yuan (303.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 25.9 percent. Total profit reached 49 billion yuan (7.16 billion U.S. dollars), up 42.2 percent.

    The gross output value includes output, the value of construction projects, equipment installation projects, repair of buildings and structures, and manufactured non-standard equipment.