BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) — The Ministry of Information Industry announced on Tuesday that China exported 130.98 million cellphones in the first five months this year, up 26.5 percent from the same period last year.

    Domestic brand exports reached 16.953 million phones, about 13 percent of the total, up 49.6 percent from the same period last year.

    The figures indicated that CDMA cellphones were mainly sold abroad. In the first five months, 27.4 million CDMA cell phones were exported, about 84 percent of the total, up 52.8 percent from the same period last year.

    ZTE Corporation, a leading provider of telecommunications equipment, recorded the fastest export growth. It exported 4.85 million CDMA cellular phones, about 18 percent of the total.

    MACAO, July 24 (Xinhua) — Macao’s light metro and bus services will transport some 500,000 passengers a day in 2011, local media reported Tuesday.

    The Macao Post Daily quoted Lau Si Io, secretary for Transport and Public Works, as saying that the light metro system alone is expected to handle 200,000 passengers a day in 2011.

    ”There will be a huge demand for public transport services in the future, following Macao’s economic development and the growth in the visitor numbers,” the official was cited as saying.

    The region has a population of 520,000.

    BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) — China on Tuesday branded Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian a “schemer” for his attempt to push Taiwan into the United Nations, saying that “Taiwan independence” activities are doomed to fail.

    The Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council made the remarks in a statement following the UN rejection of Taiwan authorities’ application to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan.

    A spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday the UN Office of Legal Affairs had rejected the application for UN membership by Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, which was conveyed by the permanent representatives of two member states, according to a statement issued on the UN’s Chinese-language website

    The spokesperson said the decision was made in keeping with resolution 2758 of the UN General Assembly, which determined that the United Nations abides by the one-China policy.

    The rejection proved “the international community recognizes that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China”, the statement issued by the two Chinese offices said.

    ”The secessionist move of applying for UN membership under the name of Taiwan will not change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor will it change Taiwan’s international status,” the statement said.

    The statement said any issue involving China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be determined by China’s 1.3 billion people. “This is an issue of basic principle and we leave no room for compromise.

    ”We remain committed to pushing cross-Strait relations toward peace and stability, but we are also prepared to curb all adventures aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’,” the statement said, adding China would never allow Taiwan secessionists to separate Taiwan from China under any name or with any means.

    The Taiwan authorities under Chen Shui-bian must shoulder serious consequences if they continued to turn a deaf ear to the warnings and denouncements of the international community and recklessly moved for “Taiwan independence”, the statement said.

    Taiwan authorities on July 19 sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, raising an application for “joining the UN in the name of Taiwan.

    The application to join the UN and another move for a UN membership referendum were secessionist schemes pushed by the Taiwan authorities under Chen Shui-bian, the statement said.

    After failing to win support for the moves, Chen was forced to say they would not change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and were not against his “four nos” promise — no declaration of “Taiwan independence,” no reference of the “two states” in the constitution, no change of the province’s name and no referendum on “Taiwan independence”.

    However, in the UN application Chen had asked his subordinates to claim that Taiwan was an independent sovereign state and had never been a part of China, the statement said.

    All Chen’s activities proved he attempted to change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, the statement said.

    ”With 2008 Taiwan leadership election coming, Chen continues his secessionist provocation for the sake of himself and his party, regardless of the interests of 23 million Taiwan compatriots,” the statement said. “Chen is a complete schemer and saboteur who would not hesitate to sacrifice peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Asia-Pacific region.”

    NANJING, July 24 (Xinhua) — The swollen Huaihe River, China’s third longest river, has entered a critical period of flood control, officials said on Tuesday.

    Officials with the flood control headquarters of Jiangsu Province said the rainy season would end in two days, but dikes faced an increased risk of breaches after weeks of pressure from high water levels.

    The officials estimated the level in the Jiangsu section of the Huaihe River would remain dangerously high for at least the next 10 days.

    The level of Hongze Lake on the lower reaches of the Huaihe rose one centimeter to 13.78 meters at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 28 centimeters above the danger line.

    Fifteen billion cubic meters of water has been discharged from Hongze Lake since July 4, but another 13 billion cubic meters were coming in from the upper reaches of the Huaihe River.

    Jiangsu provincial government has dispatched 150,000 people to patrol the dikes since the beginning of July. The province has invested 67 million yuan (8.8 million U.S. dollars) in reinforcing 400 dikes.

    CHENGDU, July 24 (Xinhua) — The body of Australian climber Andrew Clem Lindenmayer, who went missing in Mount Gongga in southwest China’s Sichuan Province in May, has been found, local officials said on Tuesday.

    The news came one day after the Sichuan Mountaineering Association confirmed the discovery of the body of Christine Boskoff, a renowned U.S. climber, in Genyen Mountain.

    Villagers found a body on July 19 at Riwuqie peak 4,600 meters above the sea level. It has been identified as that of Lindenmayer, Guo Changping, an official with the Ganzi prefecture government, said on Tuesday.

    The body was lying face down and his clothes and luggage were untouched, said Zheng Xianfeng, another prefecture official.

    Lindenmayer, 48, wrote his last e-mail to his wife on April 18, saying he was planning to travel to Mount Gongga. He was reported missing in May.

    His wife had gone to Riwuqie peak to identify the body, said Zheng.

    She had wanted to bring the body back to Australia, but later agreed on cremation at Riwuqie peak since it was too dangerous to move the body from the steep slope, Zheng said.

    Local police would go to the site on Friday to investigate the cause of Lindenmayer’s death.

    The Ganzi prefecture government had requested seven towns in Kangding county to mobilize villagers to look for Lindenmayer since June.

    Last month, searchers looking for the Australian found a body believed to be that of a Japanese mountaineer who disappeared 26 years ago.

    A 12-strong mountaineering team from Hokkaido, Japan, set out to climb Mount Gongga in May 1981, but eight members disappeared after a fall when the team was moving to an area 7,450 meters above sea level.

    Gongga — Tibetan for “highest snow-capped mountain” — attracts both tourists and mountaineers to its soaring peaks and panoramic scenery. It has more than 20 peaks above 6,000 meters, the highest at 7,556 meters.

    Eight teams comprising a total of 24 climbers have made successful ascents of the mountain between 1957 and 1999. But more than 20 people, including four Chinese, 14 Japanese, one French, one American, one Swiss and the Australian Andrew Clem Lindenmayer died on the peak.

    Gao Min, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, called on foreign climbers to register with the association before heading to the mountains.

    ”Many foreigners just climb the mountains in Sichuan without registration, so that they don’t know the uncertain weather conditions and complicated geology well enough,” Gao said.

    Eight of the 10 foreigners who died while climbing Sichuan’s mountains since November 2005 failed to register with the association, said Gao.

    Gao said the association would offer climbers advice on local guides, weather conditions and camping sites if they registered.

    BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) — Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China announced on Tuesday its net profit is likely to jump more than 100 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2007.

    The country’s second largest life insurer said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the investment earnings rises and growth of insurance and banking businesses contributed to its profit increase.

    The Shenzhen-based insurance firm said its net profit stood at 3.945 billion yuan (521.0 million U.S. dollars) in the first six months of last year. The earnings per share reached 0.64 yuan when its total capital was 6.195 billion shares before the initial public offering of 1.15 billion shares in the first half of the year.

    China’s double-digit economic expansion has pushed the insurance premiums to record huge growth.

    Chinese insurance firms saw first half premiums from original insurance contracts jump by 20.7 percent year-on-year to 371.83 billion yuan (49.1 billion U.S. dollars), the China Insurance Regulatory Commission announced.

    The Chinese government has recently raised the insurers’ investment cap in domestic stock markets from five to ten percent of their assets to let them cash in on more higher earnings investment opportunities on the stock markets.

    Share price of Ping An Insurance slumped 0.91 percent to finish morning trade at 82.70 yuan on Tuesday.