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LONDON -- China is set to make 2008 the year it asserts its status as a global colossus by flexing economic muscles on international markets and exhibiting its cultural richness, The Independent newspaper said on Tuesday."The world's most populous nation will mark the next 12 months with a coming-of-age party that will confirm its transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe's third-largest economy, its hungriest consumer and the engine room of economic growth," the daily said in an article.It said that China enjoys unprecedented levels of domestic consumption and showcases itself to a watching world with a glittering 20 billion pound ( billion) Olympic Games.China's trade surplus with the rest of the world will widen from 130 billion pounds (0 billion) in 2007 to 145 billion pounds (0 billion) this year, the paper said.The paper said China is set to grow in the next year by something like 10 percent and contribute more to world economic growth than the United States in 2008.The paper also expressed worries about the challenges China faces in social and economic life like the rich-poor gap and inflation.Culturally, China will remind the world of its rich legacy of music, dance and visual arts with a new wave of Chinese creativity in Britain, it said.The Chinese New Year on February 7 will herald the beginning of the largest-ever festival of China's culture in Britain with an accent on contemporary artists in fields from video art to neon signs.

WUXI: Premier Wen Jiabao has demanded a thorough investigation of the Taihu Lake crisis, which has affected the drinking water supply of about 2 million people. Efforts to protect the lake from further pollution are also to be scrutinized. "The pollution of Taihu Lake has sounded the alarm for us," Wen said in a directive to a symposium held by the State Council here yesterday. Taihu Lake, which was once a scenic attraction famous for its aquatic life, including shrimp, lily and water chestnuts, has been heavily polluted by industrial, agricultural and domestic waste. Wen said efforts had been made to reduce pollution in Taihu Lake in recent years. "But the problem has never been tackled at the root," he added. He asked participants in the symposium, including officials from central and local governments, environmental workers, scholars and researchers, to thoroughly investigate the Taihu Lake crisis so that concrete measures could be drawn up in response. Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan, who attended the symposium, told governments at all levels to work to prevent algae blooms and ensure the safety of drinking water. Zeng asked local governments to continue collecting the blue-green algae, intensify monitoring of water quality, ensure the water supply and divert more water from the Yangtze River to flush out the pollution. He also asked environmental watchdogs to strengthen supervision and punish factories that discharge pollutants into Taihu Lake. At the meeting, all towns around Taihu were ordered to establish sewage treatment plants. Chemical factories will have to meet a new water emissions standard by the end of June next year. Towns must set up sewage treatment plants and are forbidden from discharging untreated sewage into Taihu Lake or rivers in the Taihu valley. Existing plants must install nitrogen and phosphorus removal facilities before the deadline, according to the plan announced at the meeting. Chemical factories that fail to meet the new water emissions standard risk suspension. They will be shut down permanently if they fail to meet the standard by the end of next June. The new water emission standard for the Taihu area will raise the bar for sulfur dioxide emissions and chemical oxygen demand. China Daily-Xinhua

A shop assistant checks hundred yuan bank notes at a shop in Xiangfan, central China's Hubei province in this file photo. [Reuters]A senior U.S. Treasury official warned Congress on Thursday that a legislative drive to force China into letting its currency rise in value more quickly could backfire and do damage to the U.S. economy. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Sobel warned a House of Representative trade subcommittee that U.S. lawmakers risked creating a perception abroad that the United States is becoming "an isolationist nation" that does deserve foreign investment. "If the United States adopts currency legislation that is perceived abroad as unilateralist, investors' confidence in the openness of our economy could be dampened, diminishing capital inflows into the United States and potentially putting upward pressure on interest rates and prices," Sobel said. However, Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, objected to the administration's description of congressional proposals as protectionist, and other lawmakers testifying on Thursday argued China's "unfair" trade practices required a strong U.S. legislative response. Two Senate committees have already approved legislation that aims to equip Treasury with new tools to pressure China into letting its yuan currency rise faster in value, which U.S. manufacturers say is necessary to eliminate an unfair price advantage for Chinese-made goods. Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, said Congress should pass an even stronger bill -- such as one he has crafted with Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican -- that would allow U.S. companies to seek countervailing duties against China's undervalued exchange rate. "Passage of a weak bill will only lead to many more years of inaction by the administration, loss of jobs and loss of critical U.S. manufacturing capability. We need legislation that will lead to action," Ryan said. A Republican committee member, Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, said there was bipartisan support for taking a tougher line with China than Treasury has followed so far. "Be ready for the fact that there's a boiling point in the Congress coming from the people of America saying we need to do better than what's happened so far," Reynolds said. After the hearing, Levin told reporters that House leaders would decide when Congress returns in September the best way to proceed with China currency and trade legislation. "I think we will look at all options," including the Ryan-Hunter bill, Levin said. He expressed confidence that Congress could craft legislation that presses China on the currency issue without violating World Trade Organization rules. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has made clear that he does not want the additional legislative tools and that he prefers to seek a faster pace of economic reform in China through discussion, especially in a "strategic economic dialogue" that he initiated with Beijing last December. Sobel's appearance before the House subcommittee was a bid by Treasury to wave off more legislation in Congress, where anger at China has been mounting and has helped fuel the bid to force Beijing into faster currency appreciation. "We appreciate the frustrations of Congress with the slow pace of Chinese reform. Indeed, we strongly share those frustrations," Sobel said. "Yet we continue to believe that direct, robust engagement with China is the best means of achieving progress." Paulson has just returned on Wednesday night from his fourth trip to China since taking over Treasury just over a year ago. Again he was unable to persuade Chinese officials to offer any commitment to speed up currency reforms. Paulson told reporters in Beijing that Chinese officials whom he met, including President Hu Jintao, intended to move ahead with economic reforms including on currency but that the country's economic stability was critically important. The failure to get firm Chinese promises on currency has fed into a sense in Congress that China does not play fair on trade rules. Sobel said Paulson had "conveyed a strong message about the need for far more vigorous action by China to correct the undervaluation of renminbi (RMB), take immediate action to lift the RMB's value and achieve far greater currency flexibility." China's yuan is also known as the renminbi. David Spooner, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for import administration, echoed some of Sobel's worry that Congress's actions could rebound against the United States because they might violate global trade rules. "I must make clear that the Department of Commerce is deeply concerned that the other legislative proposals that have been advanced to date raise serious concerns under international trade rules," Spooner said, adding that could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation. Similarly, the U.S. Trade Representative's deputy general counsel, Daniel Brinza, warned that Congress needed to beware approving legislative proposals that did not comply with rules set by the World Trade Organization. Doing so would undermine U.S. credibility when it tries to persuade others to abide by WTO rulings, Brinza said.

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The second batch of quotas for qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII), a scheme for foreign players to invest in the A-share market, is likely to be about billion, an industry insider, who declined to be named, told China Daily on Friday. The source said that the second batch of QFII quotas was being discussed, and pending approval by the Chinese government, was likely to be about billion, not exceeding that of the last batch, which was billion. Hu Xiaolian, Deputy Governor of the central bank and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said earlier that related rules on the QFII scheme were being amended and the total QFII quota would certainly see an increase in 2007. However, she declined to give a specific sum. China has so far approved 52 overseas institutions as QFIIs to invest in the A-share market, of which 49 have got a combined investment quota of .995 billion from SAFE, near the upper limit of billion as stipulated previously. Industry insiders said the demand for QFII quotas was strong at present and more should be granted. "Despite the excessive liquidity in the A share market, the Chinese government should grant more quotas to QFIIs. Otherwise, they will find other ways, making it more difficult to supervise," She Minhua, an analyst with CITIC China Securities said. Meanwhile, the booming Chinese stock market is attracting more foreign financial firms to set up joint ventures in the investment sector. The Financial Times on Thursday reported that Nikko Asset Management, a QFII approved in 2003, has become the first Japanese fund firm to acquire a 20 per cent stake in a local firm, the Shenzhen-based Rongtong Fund Management Company. Nikko AM bought the stake from Shaanxi International Trust & Investment (SITI), for 3.8 yuan per share, valued at 475 million yuan, according to a statement by the Shenzhen-listed SITI.

BEIJING -- China will continue to spend more on education next year and spread the free nine-year compulsory education to urban children, said finance minister Xie Xuren.The government would continue to improve the funding system to guarantee free nine-year compulsory education currently enjoyed by 150 million rural children, while spreading it to their urban counterparts next year, Xie told an annual conference of the Ministry of Finance in BeijingStarting from the spring term, China would increase the funding for free textbooks used for the national compulsory courses, and the local governments would provide more money for free textbooks for local compulsory courses, he said. Local governments would also provide scholarships to cover the living costs of boarding students from poor families. The central government would provide half of the education funding for areas in Central and West China, while provincial governments in those areas would cover the rest of the costs.Local governments in East China would provide all education fees with some supplementary funding from the central government.Xie said the government would issue new standards for per capita expenditure of students in primary and middle schools, and put those standards into effect within the next two years.He said the allowance for maintenance and refurbishing of rural schools in Central and West China would also be raised with special financial support to high-altitude and cold areas.In addition, the government would continue free education for students taking courses for teaching careers at normal schools and provide scholarships for poor undergraduates and students at vocational schools.According to Xie, the first 11 months saw  557.8 billion yuan (about 74.3 billion US dollars) of fiscal expenditure used for education, up 32.7 percent compared with the same period last year.As a result of the implementation of scholarships for the poor, about four million college students and 16 million secondary vocational school students had benefited.

WASHINGTON - Senior officials from the United States and China are scheduled to hold a twice-yearly dialogue in Washington this week on bilateral and multilateral issues, AFP reported Monday, citing a statement by the US State Department. US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte and China's Executive Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo will lead their teams to the two-day US-China "senior dialogue" beginning Wednesday, said the statement. The dialogue is expected to cover the countries' bilateral relations as well as a range of key global issues, including security in Northeast Asia, energy and the environment, Iran and the conflict in Sudan's Darfur. The dialogue "is an important forum for both countries to discuss issues of strategic and political importance, including how to achieve our common goals," according to the statement. US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed in 2004 during a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) forum to hold the talks among their officials as part of efforts to improve ties. US-China ties are clouded by a variety of issues, including US accusations that China is keeping its currency undervalued. Currency concerns dominated a US-China "strategic" economic dialogue last month led by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson even as unveiled measures to boost trade and investment ties.Despite criticism from the US in particular, Chinese officials contend that currency reforms are moving as quickly as the developing economy and financial system will allow.

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People in the southern city of Guangzhou appear to be suffering mental problems at ever younger ages as they struggle to adapt to life outside the home and school, a source with the local health authority said.There are currently 43,803 registered cases of mental illness in the city. Up to 40 percent of them are between 16 and 25 years old, according to the Guangzhou health bureau."A decade ago, most people with mental illnesses were between 18 and 30 years old. But now they are five years younger," Zhao Zhenghuan, director of the Guangzhou Brain Hospital, said.Zhao attributed the situation to young people's "relatively poor social adaptability.""Children from single-child families receive a lot of care at home and school, but when they leave home and school, they find it hard to adapt to life. They easily develop mental problems such as anxiety and depression," Zhao said.Pan Jiyang, a psychologist with the first Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University in Guangzhou, Thursday called for "early treatment and mental education" for teenagers who are mentally ill.Not seeking helpPan said some 80 percent of people who suffer from mental illness do not seek help after their conditions are diagnosed."Delayed treatment at the early stage will lead to more serious conditions. Most parents just cannot believe their kids have developed mental problems," Pan said, adding that young mental patients could attempt suicide or commit crimes if they are not treated well.In one case, a 21-year-old student believed to be suffering from a mental illness stabbed six of his classmates at an IT college in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, last month.To better cope with the situation, the Guangzhou Teenager Service Center, a psychological treatment center affiliated to the Guangzhou Communist Youth League, has employed eight psychological experts.The experts will work with people suffering from mental illness through a hotline (12355).Meanwhile, nearly 100 psychologists will soon be deployed in communities, schools and work units to promote mental health among young people.

BEIJING - China welcomed Sudan's acceptance of a joint African Union- United Nations peacekeeping force for the country's troubled Darfur region. A Sudanese diplomat in Ethiopia confirmed on Wednesday that Sudan has accepted the mission after receiving assurances that a "hybrid" AU-UN force of 17,000 to 19,000 troops will not be open-ended and Sudan will remain in control of its borders. "China welcomes the deployment of a hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur and the joint statement," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site late Wednesday. "The facts have shown that dialogue and equal negotiation is an effective approach to political solution of the Darfur issue, and the consultation between AU, UN and Sudan is an effective mechanism," Qin said. China recently appointed a special representative for Africa to focus on Darfur, and has publicly urged Khartoum to give the UN a greater role in trying to resolve the conflict. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudanese leaders are accused of unleashing the pro-government Arab militia, the janjaweed, to fight them - a charge they deny.

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China will cooperate more with the European Union (EU) to develop safety and security criteria for products, a leading official from the top product quality supervision authority said Wednesday.To increase joint efforts to establish a product safety control system, the two sides have agreed to establish a joint information platform for industrial products, Wei Chuanzhong, vice-minister of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said."We will assess what it will take to set up a database for the platform by the end of this year," Wei said."The information platform will help solve problems arising from bilateral trade, providing a more effective way to push forward win-win trade development," Wei said.Wei made the remarks after the sixth annual meeting of the Negotiating Mechanism on Sino-EU Industrial Product and WTO/TBT (World Trade Organization/technical bar-riers to trade), which took place in Beijing Wednesday.Under the negotiating mechanism, which was launched early in 2002, China and the EU have set up 10 working groups covering trade issues in several industrial sectors, such as textiles, medical devices, electrical and mechanical devices, chemicals and cosmetics.He said a four-month product-safety inspection campaign launched by the AQSIQ is currently underway nationwide.Prior to yesterday's meeting, the EU also signed the first agreement for cooperation on pharmaceuticals and related products with the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, according to the delegation of the European Commission to China."We will not impose any discriminative supervision regulations on Chinese products exported to the EU market. Instead, we are willing to offer technological support to Chinese enterprises to ensure an effective control over product safety," Heinz Zourek, director general for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, said.

BEIJING -- China will strengthen anti-money laundering checks and monitoring at the securities and insurance companies to safeguard financial security, Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Friday.China's anti-money laundering efforts were in the initial stage and needed further improvement, Zhou told the fourth trans-ministerial meeting on anti-money laundering in Beijing.The government would work to amend the Criminal Law to improve the efficiency of anti-money laundering investigations, indictments and trials, he said.The government planned to clamp down on the money laundering and money-raising activities by terrorists at the non-financial sectors, including property, lottery and law offices.The People's Bank of China (PBOC) would set up an with the Customs Offices and put in place a declaration system for unregistered marketable securities on arrivals and departures, said Zhou.China was also committed to strengthening cooperation with the overseas financial intelligence centers and improving the mechanism to prevent and crack down on the illegal transnational fund flows, he added.