the first session of the 12th national people’s congress

VOL. XXV No. 3 March 2013 Rs. 10.00

The first session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) opens at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China on March 5, 2013. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Chinese Ambassador to India Mr. Wei Wei meets Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid in New Delhi on February 25, 2013. During the meeting the two sides exchange views on high-level interactions between the two countries, economic and trade cooperation and issues of common concern.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping , on behalf of State Councilor Dai Bingguo, attends the dialogue on Afghanistan issue held in Moscow,together with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on February 20, 2013.

Chinese Ambassador to India Mr.Wei Wei and other VIP guests are having a group picture with actors at the 2013 Happy Spring Festival organized by the Chinese Embassy and FICCI in New Delhi on February 25,2013. Artists from Jilin Province, China and Punjab Pradesh, India are warmly welcomed by the audience.

Chinese Ambassador to India Mr. Wei Wei and Indian Minister of Culture Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch enjoy “China in the Spring Festival” exhibition at the 2013 Happy Spring Festival. The exhibition introduces cultures, customs and traditions of Chinese Spring Festival.

Chinese Ambassador to India Mr. Wei Wei(third from left) participates in the “Happy New Year “ party organized by the Chinese Language Department of Jawaharlal Nehru University on February 28, 2013. The party is held annually to celebrate Chinese Spring Festival.

Chinese Ambassador to India Mr. Wei Wei visits the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre based in Southern Delhi on March 6, 2013. The Centre was established in August 2008. During the past five years the Centre has already accepted 6.6 lakh visa applications.

NEWS FROM CHINA /MARCH 2013 3

CONTENTS

I. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOBRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIA

1. President Xi Jinping Gives Joint Interview To Media from BRICS Countries 42. Chinese President Says BRICS Cooperation Benefits World Economy 53. Chinese President Reiterates Policy of Peaceful Development 6

II. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONS

1. Xi Elected Chinese President, Chairman of PRC Central Military Commission 62. Li Keqiang Endorsed as Chinese Premier 73. Zhang Dejiang Elected Chairman of NPC Standing Committee 84. Yu Zhengsheng Elected Chairman of China’s Top Political Advisory Body 95. President Vows to Press Ahead with “Chinese Dream” 106. President Xi Pledges Resolute Fight against Corruption 107. China’s New Premier Presses Reforms as “Biggest Dividend” 118. More Opportunities for Sino-U.S. Trade, Investment: Premier 129. China’s Parliament Endorses New Cabinet Lineup 13

10. China’s Growth Target Set at 7.5% 14

III. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONSIII. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONSIII. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONSIII. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONSIII. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONS

1. Enhanced China-India Cooperation to Increase Common Interests: Chinese PM 152. Dai Bingguo Holds Telephone Conversation with India’s National Security Advisor Menon 163. Chinese Ambassador Wei Wei Visits Press Trust of India 16

IV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRSIV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRSIV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRSIV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRSIV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

1. Xi Jinping Holds Telephone Conversation with His U.S. Counterpart Barack Obama 172. China More Active in International Affairs 183. Japan Should not Escalate Tension over Diaoyu Islands 214. Russian Far East Eyes Closer Cooperation with China 225. China Proposes Cyber Security Talks with U.S. 236. Chinese Media Lambaste U.S. Hacking Allegations 237. Interpreting the Second Wave of Cyber Security Threats to China 24

V. DOMESTIC AFFAIRSV. DOMESTIC AFFAIRSV. DOMESTIC AFFAIRSV. DOMESTIC AFFAIRSV. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

1. An Upcoming Spring for Reform 262. Clean Your Plates! 293. Chinese Leadership Grips Future 324. National Treasure 35

VI. TIBET TODAYVI. TIBET TODAYVI. TIBET TODAYVI. TIBET TODAYVI. TIBET TODAY

1. Tibet Ranks Top of Residents’ Happiness List 372. Tibet Sees Sharp Poverty Reduction in 2012 383. “Self-Immolation Guide”: Desperate Insanity of the Dalai Clique 384. First Arrival in Yerpa 415. Yadong Revisited 44

4 NEWS FROM CHINA /MARCH 2013

I. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOI. CHINESE PRESIDENT GIVES A JOINT INTERVIEW TOBRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIABRICS COUNTRIES’ MEDIA

President Xi Jinping Gives Joint Interview To Mediafrom BRICS Countries

Before paying a state visit to Russia,Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of theCongo and attends the Fifth BRICS LeadersMeeting, President Xi Jinping gave a jointinterview to ITAR-TASS and RTR of Russia, e.SatTV of South Africa, Press Trust of India, ValorEconomico of Brazil and Xinhua News Agency ofChina in the Great Hall of the People on 19March. During the interview, he talked aboutChina’s policies and positions on China’sbilateral relations with relevant countries, China-Africa relations, BRICS cooperation and China’sreform and opening-up. The following is a partof the interview.

Xi Jinping: I will soon pay a state visit toRussia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republicof the Congo and attend the Fifth BRICS LeadersMeeting in South Africa.

I am delighted to give this joint interview tothe media from BRICS countries before the trip.Let me take this opportunity to extend, throughyou, my sincere greetings to the people of yourrespective countries.

This will be my first foreign visit as ChinesePresident. During the visit and the BRICSmeeting, I will exchange views with leaders ofthe aforementioned countries and other BRICScountries on developing bilateral ties,international and regional issues of mutualinterest and strengthening BRICS cooperation. Ihope that this visit will contribute to thefriendship between the Chinese people andpeople of these countries as well as the mutuallybeneficial cooperation between China and these

countries and push the BRICS cooperationmechanism to a new level. I believe that withthe joint efforts of all sides, my visit and the FifthBRICS Leaders Meeting will be a success.

Press Trust of India: China and India havehad long-standing exchanges. What policy willthe new Chinese leadership pursue towardsIndia? Will there be any change in China’sposition on the China-India boundary question?How will China and India enhance cooperationboth bilaterally and in international affairs?

Xi Jinping: China and India enjoy atraditional friendship. They are the two largestdeveloping countries in the world, and theircombined population exceeds 2.5 billion. Tojointly follow a path of peaceful developmentand development through cooperation meets thecommon interests of the two countries. It willalso do a great service to Asia and the world atlarge.

In May 2010, I had a very good meeting withPresident Patil during her visit to China. Weagreed that we need to fully tap the hugepotential of China-India cooperation and raiseChina-India relations to a higher level. In recentyears, with concerted efforts of the two sides,China-India relations have made importantheadway. We have strengthened our friendlyinteractions by properly handling differencesand seeking common development. China seesits relations with India as one of the mostimportant bilateral relationships, and iscommitted to pushing forward the China-Indiastrategic and cooperative partnership.


At present, both China and India arepursuing development at a faster pace. This hasoffered more opportunities for the two countriesto boost mutually beneficial cooperation. Weshould seize these opportunities and take solidsteps to bolster cooperation and exchanges in allfields and take China-India relations to a newheight. First, we should maintain strategiccommunication and keep our bilateral relationson the right track. Second, we should harnesseach other’s comparative strengths and expandwin-win cooperation in infrastructure, mutualinvestment and other areas. Third, we shouldstrengthen cultural ties and increase the mutualunderstanding and friendship between ourpeoples. Fourth, we should expand coordinationand collaboration in multilateral affairs to jointlysafeguard the legitimate rights and interests ofdeveloping countries and tackle globalchallenges. Fifth, we should accommodate eachother’s core concerns and properly handleproblems and differences existing between thetwo countries.

The boundary question is a complex issue leftfrom history, and solving the issue won’t be easy.However, as long as we keep up our friendlyconsultations, we can eventually arrive at a fair,reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement.Pending the final settlement of the boundaryquestion, the two sides should work together tomaintain peace and tranquility in border areasand prevent the boundary question from affecting

the overall development of bilateral relations.Press Trust of India: How do you see the

impact of rising emerging markets anddeveloping countries represented by the BRICScountries on the existing world architecture andglobal governance system?

Xi Jinping: A great number of emergingmarkets and developing countries, including theBRICS countries, have enjoyed fast economicgrowth. They have become an important forcefor world peace and common development, andplayed an important role in tackling theinternational financial crisis and boosting globaleconomic growth. This is in keeping with thetrend of our time towards peace, development,cooperation and mutual benefit.

The global economic governance system mustreflect the profound changes in the globaleconomic landscape, and the representation andvoice of emerging markets and developingcountries should be increased. In recent years,the G20 summits have played a prominent roleand the International Monetary Fund and theWorld Bank have carried out quota reforms.These are important steps in moving forwardreform of the global economic governance systemin the right direction. Emerging markets anddeveloping countries hope to see an improvedglobal economic governance system that bettermeets the needs of global productivity growthand facilitates common development of allcountries.

Chinese President Says BRICS Cooperation BenefitsWorld Economy

Beijing March 19 (Xinhua) — ChinesePresident Xi Jinping said on March 19 thatcooperation among BRICS countries is conduciveto a more balanced world economy and theimprovement of global economic governance.

“Many emerging markets and developingcountries, including the BRICS countries, haveenjoyed fast economic growth,” Xi said in a jointinterview with Xinhua and media outlets fromthe other four BRICS countries ahead of his first


Chinese President Reiterates Policy ofPeaceful Development

Beijing, March 19 (Xinhua) — ChinesePresident Xi Jinping said here Tuesday that Chinawill adhere to the path of peaceful development.

“China will unswervingly follow the path ofpeaceful development. In the meantime, we hopeall countries in the world will pursue peacefuldevelopment,” Xi said.

China, as its strength grows, will assume moreinternational responsibilities and obligations withinthe scope of its capabilities and make greatercontribution to world peace and development, Xi

said while receiving a joint interview by Xinhuaand media outlets from the other four BRICScountries ahead of his first foreign visits as Chinesepresident.

China hopes that countries and civilizationsaround the world will carry out exchanges on theequal footing, learn form each other and achievecommon progress, added Xi.

The Chinese president also urged all countriesto make united efforts to build a harmonious worldof enduring peace and common prosperity.

II. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONSII. NPC AND CPPCC 2013 ANNUAL SESSIONS

Xi Elected Chinese President, Chairman ofPRC Central Military Commission

foreign visits since his election as Chinesepresident last week.

He said the BRICS countries, namely Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa, havebecome an important force in safeguardingworld peace and promoting commondevelopment.

Commenting on the reform of the globaleconomic governance, Xi said it must reflect theprofound changes in the global economiclandscape, and the representation and the voiceof emerging markets and developing countriesshould be increased.

B e i j i n g ,March 14(Xinhua) — XiJinping, generalsecretary of theC o m m u n i s tParty of China(CPC) CentralCommittee, waselected presidentof the People’sRepublic ofChina (PRC)

and chairman of the PRC Central MilitaryCommission (CMC) on March 14,2013.

The plenary meeting of the first session of the12th National People’s Congress (NPC) also electedZhang Dejiang chairman of the NPC StandingCommittee.

Li Yuanchao was elected vice-president of thePRC.

Elected to vice chairpersons of the NPCStanding Committee were Li Jianguo, WangShengjun, Chen Changzhi, Yan Junqi, Wang Chen,Shen Yueyue, Ji Bingxuan, Zhang Ping, QiangbaPuncog, Arken Imirbaki, Wan Exiang, Zhang


Baowen and Chen Zhu.The post of secretary-general of the NPC

Standing Committee went to Wang Chen(concurrent).

Also elected were 161 members of the 12thNPC Standing Committee.

According to the rules of election andappointment adopted at the NPC session, theelections of chairman, vice-chairpersons andsecretary-general of the 12th NPC StandingCommittee, president and vice-president of thePRC, and chairman of the CMC are non-competitive.

And the elections of the NPC StandingCommittee members are competitive. This time,161 members were elected out of 174 candidates,bringing the 7-percent margin in the previouselection five years ago to 8 percent.

Also at the meeting, NPC deputies adopted amassive cabinet restructuring and streamlining

Hu Jintao (L) congratulates Xi Jinping at the fourth plenarymeeting of the first session of the 12th National People’sCongress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, March 14, 2013.Xi was elected president of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission ofthe PRC at the NPC session here on March 14. (Xinhua/PangXinglei)

plan which aimed to reduce bureaucracy andmake the government more efficient.

Li Keqiang Endorsed as Chinese Premier

Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Li Keqiang at the fifth plenarymeeting of the first session of the 12th National People’s Con-gress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital ofChina, March 15, 2013. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

Beijing, March 15 (Xinhua) — Li Keqiang wasendorsed as Chinese premier at the session of the12th National People’s Congress (NPC), thecountry’s top legislature on March 15.

Nearly 3,000 NPC deputies voted to approvethe nomination of Li, by newly-elected PresidentXi Jinping, as the candidate for premier at thelegislative session.

By approving Li’s nomination, the deputiescleared the way for Li to be appointed as premierby President Xi.

When the voted endorsement wasannounced, Li stood up and bowed to thedeputies, smiling. He shook hands with PresidentXi and former Premier Wen Jiabao.

After the NPC meeting, Xi signed his firstpresidential decree to appoint Li as premier.


Li becomes the seventh premier since the People’sRepublic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949,replacing Wen who had headed the State Councilsince 2003.

Born in 1955 in Anhui Province, he joined theCommunist Party of China (CPC) in 1976 andgraduated from Peking University with law andeconomics degrees.

After working as provincial leaders in Henan andLiaoning, he was elected to the Standing Committeeof the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committeein 2007 and appointed vice premier in 2008.

Li was reelected to the Standing Committee ofthe Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committeein November.

“The new premier bears an important but difficultmission,” NPC deputy Wang Yuzhi said. “We havehigh expectations of him and the new government.”

After a decade of fast economic growth, China’snational strength has notably increased but thecountry also faces a tough task to push forwardreform in key areas, Wang said.

Li is known for calling reform “the biggestdividend for China.”

Since being reelected in November as a seniorParty leader, Li has used different occasions to

facilitate reforms and showed toughness inadvancing complex ones.

“Reform is like rowing upstream. Failing toadvance means falling back,” he said at a symposiumon advancing comprehensive reforms.

“Those who refuse to reform may not makemistakes, but they will be blamed for not assumingtheir historical responsibility.”

At Friday’s meeting, the deputies also voted todecide on the country’s military leaders.

Fan Changlong and Xu Qiliang were endorsedas vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission(CMC) of the PRC, after the nomination by PresidentXi, also CMC chairman.

Chang Wanquan, Fang Fenghui, Zhang Yang,Zhao Keshi, Zhang Youxia, Wu Shengli, Ma Xiaotianand Wei Fenghe were appointed CMC members afterXi’s nomination.

General Fan, born in May 1947, and General Xu,born in March 1950, are both members of the PoliticalBureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee and vicechairmen of the CPC Central Military Commission.

The NPC deputies also elected Zhou Qiang aspresident of the Supreme People’s Court and reelectedCao Jianming as procurator-general of the SupremePeople’s Procuratorate.

Zhang Dejiang Elected Chairman of NPC Standing Committee

Beijing, March 14 (Xinhua) — Zhang Dejiangwas elected chairman of the 12th NationalPeople’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee onMarch 14 morning at the annual session ofChinese top legislature.

Zhang, born in 1946, is a member of theStanding Committee of the Political Bureau ofthe Communist Party of China (CPC) CentralCommittee.

Wu Bangguo (R) shakes hands with Zhang Dejiang afterZhang was elected chairman of the 12th National People’sCongress (NPC) Standing Committee at the fourth plenarymeeting of the first session of the 12th NPC in Beijing, capitalof China, March 14, 2013. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)


Yu Zhengsheng Elected Chairman of China’sTop Political Advisory Body

Former top political adviser Jia Qinglin (right) congratulates hissuccessor Yu Zhengsheng, who was elected chairman of the 12thNational Commission of the Chinese People’s Political ConsultativeConference on March 11. (China Daily)

Beijing, March 11 (Xinhua) — YuZhengsheng was elected chairman of theNational Committee of the ChinesePeople’s Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC), the top political advisory body,on March 11 afternoon.

Yu was elected at the fourth plenarymeeting of the first session of the 12thCPPCC National Committee, which washeld at the Great Hall of the People inBeijing.

Jia Qinglin, chairman of the 11thCPPCC National Committee, shookhands with Yu amid warm applause frommore than 2,000 members of the CPPCCNational Committee, after the electionresult was announced.

Yu was born in April 1945 in Yan’anof northwest China’s Shaanxi Province andgraduated from the Department of MissileEngineering at the Harbin Military EngineeringInstitute with a major in automatic control systemsof ballistic missiles.

He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC)in November 1964.

Yu had worked as technician and engineer forabout 16 years and later as Party and governmentofficials in several places.

From 2007 to November last year, Yu had beenthe Party chief of China’s financial and economiccenter Shanghai.

At the first plenary session of the 18th CPCCentral Committee held in last November, Yu waselected member of the Standing Committee of thePolitical Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

At Monday’s meeting, political advisors alsoelected 23 vice chairpersons of the 12th CPPCCNational Committee and 299 Standing Committeemembers.

Zhang Qingli was elected secretary-general ofthe CPPCC National Committee.

The newly elected chairman and vicechairpersons are aged 63.7 in average.

Among the vice chairpersons, 11 are CPCmembers including Zhou Xiaochuan, the centralbank governor. Four are from ethnic minoritygroups and two are women.

The Standing Committee members are aged59.4 in average, 65.2 percent of whom are not CPCmembers.

A total of 38 Standing Committee members arefrom ethnic minority groups and 36 are women.

The CPPCC is a patriotic united frontorganization of the Chinese people, serving as akey mechanism for multi-party cooperation andpolitical consultation under the leadership of theCommunist Party of China (CPC), and a majorsymbol of socialist democracy.

The CPPCC consists of representatives of theCPC and non-Communist parties, personages


without party affiliation, and representatives ofpeople’s organizations, ethnic minorities andvarious social strata.

It also has the representation of compatriots ofHong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, returned overseasChinese, and specially invited people.

President Vows to Press Ahead with “Chinese Dream”

Beijing, March 17 (Xinhua) — ChinesePresident Xi Jinping pledged on March 17 to makearduous efforts to achieve the “Chinese dream.”

“In face of the mighty trend of the times andearnest expectations of the people for a better life,we cannot have the slightest complacency, or getthe slightest slack at work,” Xi said at the closingmeeting of the National People’s Congress, China’slegislature.

“We must make persistent efforts, press aheadwith indomitable will, continue to push forwardthe great cause of socialism with Chinesecharacteristics, and strive to achieve the Chinesedream of great rejuvenation of the Chinesenation,” Xi said.

To realize the “Chinese dream,” China musttake the Chinese way, he said.

People of all nationalities must gain confidencein the theory, the road and the system of socialismwith Chinese characteristics, and forge valiantlyand unswervingly ahead along the right road, Xisaid.

To realize the Chinese road, we must spreadthe Chinese spirit, which combines the spirit of thenation with patriotism as the core and the spirit ofthe time with reform and innovation as the core,Xi said.

The Chinese people of all ethnic groups mustspread the great spirit of the nation and the greatspirit of the time, keep strengthening the spiritualbond of solidarity and the spiritual drive ofconstantly striving for improvement, and steptoward the future, always full of vigor and vitality,Xi said.

President Xi Pledges Resolute Fight against Corruption

Beijing, March 17 (Xinhua) — China’s newly-elected president Xi Jinping pledged on March 17to resolutely fight against corruption and othermisconduct in all manifestations and alwayspreserve the political integrity of Communists.

“All members of the Communist Party of China(CPC), especially the leading cadres of the Party,must consolidate their ideal and conviction, alwaysput the people above everything else, and exalt theParty’s glorious tradition and fine conduct,” Xi saidat a closing meeting of the country’s annuallegislative session.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC CentralCommittee and chairman of the CPC CentralMilitary Commission, was elected president of thePeople’s Republic of China (PRC) and chairmanof the PRC Central Military Commission onThursday.

“We must resolutely reject formalism,bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, andresolutely fight against corruption and othermisconduct in all manifestations,” Xi told almost3,000 legislators.

“We must always preserve the political integrity


of Communists and unswervingly strive for thecause of the Party and the people,” he said.

Xi stressed that the CPC is the core force in thegreat cause of leading and uniting the people ofall ethnic groups to build socialism with Chinesecharacteristics.

“We are shouldering the heavy task bestowedby the history and going through the test of thetimes. We must uphold the principle that the Partywas founded for the public good and that itexercises state power for the people, supervise ourown conduct and run the Party with strictdiscipline, enhance the Party’s art of leadershipand governance, and strengthen the ability to resistcorruption, prevent degeneration and ward offrisks,” he said.

While noting that achieving the grand goal

requires unremitting efforts, Xi called on allpolitical parties, social groups, ethnic groups, socialstrata and circles in the nation to be more closelyunited around the CPC Central Committee to fullyimplement the spirit of the 18th CPC NationalCongress and follow the guidance of DengXiaoping Theory, the important thought of ThreeRepresents and the Scientific Outlook onDevelopment.

“We must always be modest and prudent, defydifficulties and work hard, bury ourselves in workand forge ahead with determination so as toachieve new, greater victory in completing thebuilding of a moderately prosperous society in allrespects and advancing the socialist modernizationas well as make greater contribution to thehumankind,” he said.

China’s New Premier Presses Reforms as“Biggest Dividend”

Beijing March 17 (Xinhua) — Chinese PremierLi Keqiang on March 17 pledged to deepencomprehensive reforms in the country as theworld’s second-largest economy is seeking newmomentum for development other than its largeworkforce.

“However deep the water may be, we willwade into it because we have no alternative,” Litold a press conference after the closing of the firstsession of the 12th National People’s Congress,China’s top legislature, noting reform concerns thedestiny of the country and the future of the nation.

Known for calling reform “the biggest dividendfor China,” Li explained that he sees great roomfor improvement in the country’s socialist marketeconomy.

“There is great space for further unleashingproductivity through reform and there is greatpotential to make sure the benefits of reforms will

reach the entire population,” said 57-year-old Lias he met the press for the first time as China’spremier.

Li’s remarks came as some economists say theChinese economy has reached a stage wherereforms must be accelerated urgently as thedemographic dividend, defined as a largeproportion of the workforce in the entirepopulation, is starting to dwindling sharply in theworld’s most populous nation.

Since being elected in November as one of thetop leaders of the Communist Party of China, Lihas facilitated reforms and showed toughness inadvancing complex changes.

“Reform is like rowing upstream. Failing toadvance means falling back,” he once said at asymposium on advancing comprehensive reforms.

Li was endorsed as China’s seventh premierby the top legislature on Friday, replacing Wen


Jiabao.In pushing forward reform, the new premier

called for “courage, wisdom and tenacity” thatpolicymakers can absorb from the people to makesolid progress and pursue comprehensive reformsthat cover all sectors.

He outlined key tasks and priorities in drivingthe reform forward, including those areas forreform that will make immediate and sustainedimpact.

Li vowed to accelerate economictransformation, make full use of fiscal, financialand pricing and other policy instruments, andpursue reforms of the budgetary system to make itmore open, transparent, standardized andinclusive.

The government will welcome the public’seffectiveness in supervising governmentexpenditure and revenues, improve the structureof government spending, and tilt spending in favorof areas that will have a direct benefit for people’slives, Li said.

In reforming the country’s financial sectors, Lireiterated the government will carry out market-oriented reforms in interest rate, exchange rate ofthe yuan, develop a multi-tier capital market andraise the share of direct financing.

Driving economic transformation throughopening up is another key area Li hopes to pressahead.

“Looking ahead, our trade will continue togrow at a high speed in the years to come. Thatwill create enormous opportunities for the world

and help the Chinese enterprises to upgradethemselves in the course of fair competition,” hesaid.

To improve people’s well-being, Li noted, thegovernment needs to reform the incomedistribution system and narrow the gap betweenurban and rural areas that involves 800 millionrural residents and over 500 million urbanresidents, as well as bridge the gap betweendifferent regions.

While allowing more private capital to investin the financial, energy, railways and other sectors,the government will also reform the areas of socialsecurity, medical and pension insurance tocontribute to the labor mobility in the country,according to the premier.

Reforms will be carried out in social sectors topromote upward mobility, said the premier whohas seen a “quite low” share of rural students insome universities in China

“We need to gradually raise that proportionso as to give hardworking rural students hope,” Litold the televised press conference.

He acknowledged the difficulty in advancingreform as the nation has to shake up vestedinterests, which he said may be more difficult than“touching the soul”.

But his determination remains even though hehas to lead the government to navigate throughuncharted waters.

“In advancing reform, the important thing isto take action,” he said, “Talking the talk is not asgood as walking the walk.”

More Opportunities for Sino-U.S. Trade,Investment: Premier

Beijing, March 17 (Xinhua) — Chinese PremierLi Keqiang said on March 17 that moreopportunities in trade and investment betweenChina and the United States might emerge in the

years to come.Li, at a press conference after the conclusion

of the annual parliamentary session, cited therapid growth in the bilateral trade volume from


only 1 billion U.S. dollars three decades ago to morethan 500 billion U.S. dollars last year.

“I don’t believe conflicts between big powersare inevitable,” Li said. “Shared interests oftenoverride their disputes.”

Li said both China and the United States wouldbenefit from pursuing mutual benefits. “Trade andinvestment opportunities in the future wouldsurely be bigger than those in the past threedecades,” he said, citing the Sino-U.S. cooperationwould bring concrete interests to both Chinese andAmerican people.

Experiencing ups and downs, the bilateralrelations were developed anyway, which

suggested that the Sino-U.S. cooperation meet basicinterests of both sides and comply with the overallinternational trend of peace and development, Lisaid.

“The Chinese government, as always, highlyvalues the ties between the world’s most powerfulcountry and the biggest developing country,” Lisaid.

“We’re willing to construct, together with theObama Administration, a new type of relationshipbetween big powers,” he said.

“I’m not saying there are no disputes betweenus,” Li said. “As long as we respect concerns ofeach other, the two countries could achieve mutualbenefits which possibly shadow disputes.”

China’s Parliament Endorses New Cabinet Lineup

Beijing, March 16 (Xinhua) — The new lineupof China’s State Council, nominated by Premier LiKeqiang, was endorsed by lawmakers at theongoing national legislative session on March 16.

Zhang Gaoli, Liu Yandong, Wang Yang andMa Kai were endorsed as vice premiers, with YangJing, Chang Wanquan, Yang Jiechi, Guo Shengkunand Wang Yong as state councilors. Yang Jing wasalso appointed secretary-general of the StateCouncil.

Lawmakers also endorsed Li’s nominations ofministers, governor of the central bank andauditor-general at the sixth plenary meeting of thefirst session of the 12th National People’s Congress(NPC).

The following is the list of the newly appointedofficials:

— Wang Yi, minister of foreign affairs— Chang Wanquan, minister of national

defense— Xu Shaoshi, minister in charge of the

National Development and Reform Commission— Yuan Guiren, minister of education— Wan Gang, minister of science and

technology

— Miao Wei, minister of industry andinformation technology

— Wang Zhengwei, minister in charge of stateethnic affairs commission

— Guo Shengkun, minister of public security— Geng Huichang, minister of state security— Huang Shuxian, minister of supervision— Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs— Wu Aiying, minister of justice— Lou Jiwei, minister of finance— Yin Weimin, minister of human resources

and social security— Jiang Daming, minister of land and

resources— Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental

protection— Jiang Weixin, minister of housing and

urban-rural development— Yang Chuantang, minister of transport— Chen Lei, minister of water resources— Han Changfu, minister of agriculture— Gao Hucheng, minister of commerce— Cai Wu, minister of culture— Li Bin, minister in charge of the National

Health and Family Planning Commission


— Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’sBank of China

— Liu Jiayi, auditor-general of the NationalAudit Office.

China’s Growth Target Set at 7.5%

Beijing, March 6 (Xinhuanet) — A growthtarget of 7.5 percent and a greater focus onconsumption and economic reforms were some ofthe goals set out by Premier Wen Jiabao in akeynote address on March 6,2013.

An inflation target of 3.5 percent was set, belowthe 4 percent target of 2012, Wen said in his lastGovernment Work Report to the National People’sCongress.

The growth target is the same as last year’s,when GDP increased by 7.8 percent from a yearearlier, a 13-year low.

Economic growth in 2011 was 9.3 percent and10.4 percent in 2010.

The consumer price index, a main gauge ofinflation, rose by 2.6 percent year-on-year in 2012,compared with 5.4 percent in 2011.

Wen stressed the importance of boostingdomestic demand as a long-term strategy vital tosupporting development.

“We should use the power of consumption tounleash the potential of economic growth,” Wensaid and called for income distribution reform andthe narrowing of the income gap.

Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau ofStatistics, said, “the GDP growth target wasrational”, but he highlighted the importance ofincome growth.

“A key ingredient toward improvingconsumption is to ensure that incomes can keepup with stable growth,” Ma said.

Li Ruogu, chairman and president of theExport-Import Bank of China, said that the targetof 7.5 percent would not be difficult to achieve as

the policies are in place.“We won’t see a big fluctuation in the CPI this

year because the government has put moreemphasis on fighting inflation,” he said.

Li Yining, an economist at Peking University,agreed that economic growth should be about 8percent. “But the important thing is to improvethe quality of that growth.”

The government decided to continue aproactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetarypolicy.

A fiscal deficit target of 1.2 trillion yuan ($190billion) and a 13 percent growth in the broadmoney supply, or M2, were set.

“Our proactive fiscal policy should play abigger role in ensuring steady growth, advancereform and benefit the people,” Wen said.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’sBank of China, the central bank, said that theslower growth of M2 this year indicated that thegovernment aims to moderate the monetary supplyas the world’s main economies turn to monetaryeasing.

M2 is a broad measure of money supply thatcovers all the deposits and cash in circulation. Itregistered a year-on-year growth rate of 13.8percent by the end of December.

In January, the indicator grew by 15.9 percentfrom a year earlier, after lenders extended loans of1.07 trillion yuan, a record high of monthly newloans in nearly three years.

Liu Mingkang, former chairman of the ChinaBanking Regulatory Commission and a nationalpolitical adviser, said the monetary stance this year


would be tighter compared with last becausecapital inflow has become a realistic threat.

A forecast from JPMorgan said that the 2012GDP growth may stand at 8.2 percent, supportedby policy easing and a recovery in the housingmarket.

Zhu Haibin, chief China economist atJPMorgan, said, “The government needs to payattention to the investment boom risk this year,which usually happens in the first year after aleadership transition.”

III. CHINA-INDIA RELATIONS

Enhanced China-India Cooperation to IncreaseCommon Interests: Chinese PM

Beijing, March 15 (Xinhua) — China’s newPremier Li Keqiang told his Indian counterpartManmohan Singh in a telephone conversation onMarch 15 that enhanced bilateral cooperationwould contribute to enlarging the two countries’space for development and common interests.

Singh, over phone, congratulated Li on hisendorsment as Chinese premier, and said bilateralties over the past few years have seen acomprehensive development and continuousprogress in cooperation and exchanges in variousfields.

He also said the world has enough room forboth India and China to realize their common goalsfor development.

India is willing to work with the new Chineseleadership to explore the potential for mutuallybeneficial cooperation and make even greaterachievement in bilateral ties so that the twocountries could set an example for state-to-staterelations in the 21st century, Singh said.

Li thanked Singh for his congratulation, andpointed out that China and India are the twolargest Asian powers and developing countries,

which are also two ancient civilizations andemerging economies.

He said the two countries, by enhancing theircooperation, can expand their space fordevelopment, and increase common interests soas to facilitate a sustainable economic and socialdevelopment and help the world order and systemadvance in a just and reasonable direction.

This will promote better livelihood of more than2 billion people in the two countries, which bearsa great significance for the whole world, Li noted.

China will, as always, attach great importanceto its relations with India, and would like to workwith the country to promote their relations ofstrategic cooperation and partnership to a newstage.

Li was endorsed as Chinese premier Fridaymorning at the ongoing session of the 12thNational People’s Congress (NPC), the country’stop legislature.

Nearly 3,000 NPC deputies voted to approvethe nomination of Li, by newly-elected PresidentXi Jinping, as the candidate for premier at thelegislative session.


Dai Bingguo Holds Telephone Conversation withIndia’s National Security Advisor Menon

On March 11, 2013, State Councilor DaiBingguo held a telephone conversation withIndia’s National Security Advisor Shiv ShankarMenon, exchanging views on China-Indiarelations.

Dai said China attaches great importance toSino-Indian relations. Over the past 10 years, Sino-Indian relations have made great progress, whichbrings great benefits to the two countries and theirpeoples and makes important contributions to thepeace and prosperity of the region and the worldat large. The two countries have explored aneffective way of maintaining friendly co-existence,which has not only laid a sound foundation forthe future development of bilateral relations, but

also provided a good example for big powers andneighbouring countries to properly handledifferences and seek common development. We areconfident that with the joint efforts of both sides,China and India will embrace a better tomorrowfor their relations.

Menon agreed with Dai’s positive commentson bilateral relations, saying the development ofSino-Indian relations embodies the painstakingefforts of the leaders of the two countries andpeople from all walks of life, and the hard-wonresults should be cherished. The Indian side iswilling to make joint efforts with China to pushforward the strategic cooperative partnership.

Chinese Ambassador Wei Wei Visits Press Trust of India

On February 18, 2013, ChineseAmbassador to India Wei Wei paid a visitto Mr. M. K. Razdan, Chief Editor andCEO of the Press Trust of India, and heldan interaction with some of the senioreditors of PTI. The two sides held candidand in-depth exchanges on China-Indiarelations, discussed how media couldmake an impact on the development ofbilateral relations.

Mr. Razdan gave an overallintroduction about PTI to AmbassadorWei Wei. He also recalled his previousvisits to China and expressed hiswillingness for a future reporting visit to China.

Ambassador Wei Wei appreciated the positiverole PTI had played on reporting China-Indiarelations and China’s development, as well asenhancing mutual understanding between the two

peoples. He said that the current China-Indiarelations maintain a strong momentum, enteringthe threshold of a golden age, enjoy ample spaceand huge potential on bilateral cooperation. Media


is always been regarded as animportant factor on facilitatingbilateral relations by the Chinese side.Media from the two countries shoulddo reports on each other in a positive,objective and comprehensive way toproperly guide readers, and doeverything possible to add to themutual understanding and trustbetween the two countries. TheChinese Embassy in India wouldfurther promote two-way visits,exchanges and cooperation betweenmedia of the two countries tostrengthen mutual understanding, amity andfriendship between the two peoples.

Ambassador Wei Wei also answered concrete

questions raised by the PTI editors on China-Indiarelations.

IV. EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

Xi Jinping Holds Telephone Conversation withHis U.S. Counterpart Barack Obama

On the evening of March 14, 2013, ChinesePresident Xi Jinping held telephone talks with hisU.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

Offering his congratulations on Xi’s election asChinese president, Obama said the United Statesand China have conducted broad and in-depthcooperation over the past four years. Currently,U.S.-China relations are faced with a historicopportunity to chart a course for futuredevelopment, said Obama. The U.S. side hopes towork with China to maintain contacts betweenthe heads of state of the two countries andstrengthen communication and dialogue in a bidto promote steady development of bilateral ties in

a right direction and build a new type of inter-power relations based on healthy competitionrather than a strategic game, he said.

Obama said the U.S. side is willing tostrengthen communication and coordination withChina through mechanisms such as the U.S.-ChinaStrategic and Economic Dialogue to accommodateeach other’s concerns and to promote economicand trade relations. The U.S. side is willing tostrengthen cooperation with China to ensuresecurity, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacificregion, he said.

Xi expressed thanks for Obama’scongratulations. Xi said China and the United


States have enormous common interests, but alsodifferences. China firmly maintains and promotesthe development of China-U.S. relations, andwould like to work with the United States inenhancing mutual trust, expanding cooperation,handling differences, and maintaining high-levelcontacts, Xi said. He also said the two countriesshould jointly maintain and promote the sounddevelopment of a series of mechanisms, includingthe Strategic and Economic Dialogue and high-level consultations on humanistic exchanges, boostthe development of cooperative partnership, andfind a path for new-type of inter-power relations.

On bilateral economic and trade cooperation,Xi said the two sides should adhere to equaldialogue and candid communication, and shouldprevent politicizing economic and trade issues so

as to further consolidate the basis of China-U.S.economic and trade ties that are characterized bymutual benefits and win-win results. It will bringbenefits to the two peoples and will producepositive results on global economic development,said Xi.

He emphasized that as long as the two sidesfollow the spirit of mutual respect, openness andtolerance, China and the United States will be ableto achieve more in the Asia-Pacific region and toturn the Pacific into an ocean of peace andcooperation.

Xi and Obama also exchanged views on thesituation of the Korean Peninsula, cyber securityamong other issues. Xi expressed China’sprinciples and positions on those issues.

China More Active in International Affairs

Beijing, March 9 (Xinhua) — To activelyparticipate in international affairs and contributeto the building of the international system will bea priority of the diplomatic strategy of China’s newleadership, one top diplomat said on March 9.

Chinese leaders will become actively engagedin summits and top leadership diplomacy tofurther enhance China’s international image andraise its international influence, Foreign MinisterYang Jiechi said at a press conference on thesidelines of the first session of the 12th NationalPeople’s Congress (NPC).

China’s new president, to be elected at the NPCsession, is expected to make a debut on theinternational stage, with invited visits to Russia,Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo.

China and neighboring Russia, Yang said, seeeach other as a significant opportunity fordevelopment and a priority partner forcooperation.

The new president will also attend the fifth

leaders’ summit of BRICS countries, to be held fromMarch 26 to 27 in Durban, South Africa.

BRICS is an economic bloc representing five ofthe world’s leading emerging economies, Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa whichrepresent about 43 percent of the world’spopulation and about one fifth of the global grossdomestic product.

RELATIONSHIP WITH U.S., EU

The relations between China and the UnitedStates, the world’s top two economies, generallymaintained a momentum of steady developmentin recent years due to joint efforts from bothcountries.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. PresidentBarack Obama had successful exchange of visitsand met 12 times. Xi Jinping, general secretary ofthe Central Committee of the Communist Party ofChina, exchanged letters with Obama after he wasreelected to U.S. president.


“Leaders of the two countries reachedagreement that China and the United States shouldwork together to build a cooperative partnershipbased on mutual respects and mutual benefits andexplore the establishment of a new type of relationsbetween major countries,” Yang said.

China and the U.S. share the most convergentinterests and have the most frequent interactionsin Asia Pacific, he said, citing that China welcomesa constructive role of the U.S. in Asia Pacific, andthe U.S. should also respect China’s interests andconcerns in the region.

“The regional affairs in Asia Pacific should behandled by all countries in the region throughconsultations to promote peace, stability andprosperity in the region,” he said.

The relationship between China and theEuropean Union is one of the most importantbilateral ties in the world. This year marks the 10thanniversary of the establishment of thecomprehensive, strategic partnership betweenChina and the EU.

In the latter half of this year, the two sides willhold the 16th China-EU summit and discuss aninstitutional framework for their medium-to-long-term cooperation.

“We will also step up collaboration in such areasas urbanization, new energy sources, scientific andtechnological innovation and green development,”Yang said.

GOOD NEIGHBORLY RELATIONS

Neighboring countries became increasinglyimportant in China’s diplomatic setup.

In 2012, China’s trade with neighboringcountries exceeded the total that China had withEurope and the U.S. to reach 1.2 trillion U.S.dollars. The trade volume is further expected toincrease.

Besides the trade growth, China hasestablished strategic partnerships with mostneighboring countries. More than 100 high-levelofficial visits were made last year.

“It is not surprising to see 200 or even 300 suchvisits in the future. As neighbors, our relations willbe closer with more exchanges,” he said.

China will host an annual meeting of the BoaoForum for Asia next month in Boao, HainanProvince, in which state leaders of China and someforeign countries, as well as heads of internationalorganizations will attend.

China and the the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations have launched the largest free tradearea (FTA) among developing countries in theworld while the Shanghai CooperationOrganization has formed its first strategy formedium and long-term development.

The negotiations for an FTA among China,Japan and the Republic of Korea as well as theregional comprehensive partnership have beenlaunched.

On territorial disputes with some neighbors,Yang said China sticks to a firm stand of defendingits sovereignty and legitimate rights and interests,while hoping to properly handle and resolve thedisputes through negotiation in order to maintainregional peace and stability.

China has taken firm measures over the tensionover the Diaoyu islands. The Diaoyu Island andits affiliated islets have been China’s inherentterritory since ancient times, Yang said.

“The current situation has been caused by theJapanese side single-handedly. The root cause ofthe Diaoyu islands issue lies in Japan’s illegalseizure and occupation of China’s territory.

“The Japanese side needs to face up to thereality, take real steps to correct its mistakes andwork with China to properly handle and resolvethe relevant issues through dialogue andconsultations to prevent the situation fromfurther escalating or even getting out of control,”he said.

“We are willing to promote the strategic andmutual beneficial China-Japan ties on the basis ofthe four political documents signed by the twocountries,” the minister said.


Tensions on the Korean peninsula were onceagain heightened, after the Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea (DPRK) conducted its thirdnuclear test on Feb. 12. It conducted two nucleartests in 2006 and 2009.

The UN Security Council passed Resolution2094, demanding that the DPRK not proceed withfurther nuclear tests, give up any nuclear armsprogram, and return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The resolution also called for peaceful,diplomatic and political settlement of the currentsituation and a resumption of the six-party talkswhich began in 2003 but stalled in late 2008.

Yang said China holds that sanctions are notthe end of the UN Security Council actions, northe fundamental way of solving the KoreanPeninsula nuclear issue.

The only solution to the Korean Peninsulanuclear issue is to hold negotiations and addressconcerns of all parties in a comprehensive andbalanced way, he said.

“We call on all relevant parties to bear in mindthe larger interest, stay calm, exercise restraint, andrefrain from taking any moves that may furtherworsen the situation,” Yang said.

ADVANCING TOGETHER WITH AFRICA

China is committed to growing its relations withAfrican countries. Strategic partnership betweenChina and Africa has developed fast over the years,and the two sides are actively implementing thefollow-up actions to the fifth MinisterialConference of the Forum on China-AfricaCooperation.

The cooperation between China and Africancountries, nevertheless, has aroused suspicions andaccusations.

“We hope all parties can view the cooperationbetween China and African countries in anobjective manner, and respect the African friendsin choosing cooperative partners by themselves,”Yang said.

“If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if youwant to walk afar, walk together,” Yang cited anAfrican proverb to elaborate on the importance ofthe cooperation with African countries.

The cooperation between China and Africancountries is in line with African people’s aspirationfor stability and development in their owncountries, unity among African countries, andfairness and justice of the international order, Yangsaid.

China and Africa will further promotecooperation in such fields as investment andfinancing, assistance, African integration, civilianexchanges, peace and security in Africa.

Yang said many countries are now advancingtheir cooperation with Africa, and Chinawelcomes such cooperation.

Yang said China is willing to developcooperation with regional organizations such asthe Community of Latin American and CaribbeanStates, and promote establishment of the forumon China-Latin America cooperation.

CHINESE PROTECTION OVERSEAS

An increasing number of Chinese nationals andcompanies traveled abroad in recent years.

In 2012, Chinese mainland residents made83.18 million overseas trips and there are about20,000 China-funded enterprises overseas.

The Foreign Ministry and foreign missionshave, on a timely basis, handled several hundredthousand consular protection and assistancecases involving overseas Chinese nationals andagencies.

The ministry and consulates abroad handle 100cases of consular protection every day.

“All our efforts on this front are designed toensure our citizens to make happy trips overseasand take safe trips back home,” Yang said.

“We will continue to deliver high-qualityconsular services to overseas Chinese nationals andcompanies and try our best to serve and benefitthem,” he said.


NO CYBER SPACE WAR

A U.S. cyber security firm Mandiant releasedlast month a report which alleged that a secretChinese military unit in Shanghai conducted cyberattacks against U.S. companies.

The report was followed by a wave of Westernmedia criticism of hacking from China.

“Those reports may have caught eyes of many,but they are actually built on shaky ground,” Yangsaid.

“What is black is black, and what is white stayswhite. Anyone who tries to fabricate or piecestogether a sensational story to serve political

motives will not be able to black names of othersor whitewash themselves,” he said.

“Cyber space needs rules and cooperation, nota war,” Yang said, citing that China is vulnerableto cyber attacks and suffers such attacks most.

“We oppose to turn cyber space into anotherbattlefield, or capitalize on virtual reality tointerfere in other countries’ internal affairs,” Yangsaid.

“We hope irresponsible rebuke or criticism(against China) would end,” he said, adding thatthe Chinese government opposes hackingactivities.

Japan Should not Escalate Tension over Diaoyu Islands

Beijing, March 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese ForeignMinister Yang Jiechi on March 9 urged Japan totake real steps to correct its mistakes over theDiaoyu islands issue, and work with China toprevent the current tension from escalating or even“getting out of control.”

“We urged Japan to make concrete efforts toimprove its relations with China, and play apositive and responsible role to maintain the peace,stability and development in the region,” Yang saidat a press conference on the sidelines of theparliament’s annual session.

The Chinese foreign minister reiterated China’sposition over the Diaoyu islands, saying the DiaoyuIsland and its affiliated islands have been China’sinherent territory since ancient times.

“The current situation has been caused by theJapanese side single-handedly,” Yang said, notingthat “the root cause of the Diaoyu islands issuelies in Japan’s illegal seizure and occupation ofChina’s territory.”

He noted what the Japanese side has beendoing violates China’s territorial sovereignty, poses

a challenge to the outcome of the victory of theSecond World War and post-WWII internationalorder, greatly damages China-Japan relations andhas undermined the stability in this region as well.

“The firm measures taken by the Chinese sidehave shown the will and resolve of the Chinesegovernment and the Chinese people to defend ourterritorial sovereignty,” he said.

He said the Japanese side needs to face up tothe reality, take real steps to correct its mistakesand work with China to properly handle andresolve the relevant issues through dialogue andconsultations to prevent the situation from furtherescalation or even getting out of control.

He urged Japan to correctly recognize andreflect on the history and take that as an importantfoundation for the China-Japan relations.

The war of aggression waged by the Japanesemilitarists brought untold suffering to the peoplein China and other victimized Asian countries,Yang said, adding that only by respecting historyand showing remorse to that part of history canJapan develop good relations with its Asian


neighbors.A long-term, sound and stable China-Japan

relationship serves the fundamental interest of thetwo nations, he said.

“We are willing to promote the strategic andmutual beneficial China-Japan ties on the basis ofthe four political documents signed by the twocountries.”

Russian Far East Eyes Closer Cooperation with China

Moscow, March 4 (Xinhua) — Russia’s Far Eastregion expects to develop closer economiccooperation with China, says the Amur region’sgovernor.

Economic cooperation between Russian FarEast and China has yielded fruits, and Moscowhas been mulling more projects to boost bilateraltrade, Oleg Kozhemyako told Xinhua in a recentinterview.

“We plan to open a cable road to connect Heiheand Blagoveshchensk in the next two years. Thisis an unique project, first in the world,”Kozhemyako said.

Blagoveshchensk, the capital city of Amur, andHeihe of China’s Heilongjiang province, areseparated by a river.

There are a series of cooperation projectsbetween China and Amur and tourism hasboomed in recent years, the governor said.

“Many Chinese citizens visit the Amur region,currently the number exceeded 35,000,”Kozhemyako said.

Meanwhile, Russia welcomes more Chineseinvestment, especially in the industrial sector, andis ready to offer various tax benefits over the next10 years, the governor said.

So far, Chinese investors haven’t participatedin such areas as forestry, building material,construction and customer goods production inAmur, he said.

The region, the governor said, welcomesChinese investment in raw materials processing,gas and chemical production, and coal mining

among other sectors.Meanwhile, the region has been considering

more projects to attract Chinese investors into theenergy sector, such as building the Yerkovets heatpower plant, he said.

Russia has completed a 500 kw power line overthe Amur river, and power exports reached 2.6billion kw compared to the previous 800 millionkw. The governor estimated the total amount ofelectricity exported to China could reach 4 billionkw in the next few years.

Amur needs “serious investors” who come notto export raw materials only but to participate indeep processing, according to the governor.

“We will support those companies which planto proceed the harvest and not to support thosewho only want to grow and sell,” the governorsaid.

As director of an association in charge ofimplementing investment projects in the Far East,Kozhemyako said the region and Russia as wellwill strive to provide a safe and beneficialenvironment for foreign investors, he said.

He cited that a single state program and a lawon developing the Far East will be submitted tothe government in March, which would help createmore favorable conditions for Russia’s easternpartners.

It would also boost cross-border cooperationwith China, since half of the raw materials,electricity, fishery produced in the Far East willgo to China and Southeast Asia, Kozhemyakoadded.


China Proposes Cyber Security Talks with U.S.

Beijing, March 15 (Xinhua) — A ForeignMinistry spokeswoman on March 15 said Chinahopes to discuss cyber security with the UnitesStates.

“China resolutely opposes hacking of any formand would like to communicate with the UnitedStates on cyberspace security in a constructiveway,” Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing.

Hua’s comments came after newly electedChinese President Xi Jinping held telephone talkswith U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday,

with cyber security among their topics.According to Hua, Xi outlined China’s

principle and stance on the matter, saying the issueof cyber security is increasingly prominent and asecurity challenge confronting all countries.

It is in the fundamental interests of China, theUnited States and the international community tosafeguard peace, security, openness andcooperation of the cyberspace, the spokeswomansaid.

Chinese Media Lambaste U.S. Hacking Allegations

Beijing, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mediahave been outraged by allegations from the UnitedStates of hacking activities by China, lambastingthe U.S. for groundless finger-pointing.

The Beijing Daily, a broadsheet newspaper,carried a commentary in its edition which reducedthe U.S. accusations of cyber attacks by China aspracticing hegemony in the virtual community.

The commentary came after U.S. cyber securityfirm Mandiant on Monday released a report whichalleged that a secret Chinese military unit inShanghai was behind years of cyber attacks againstU.S. companies.

The report was followed by a wave of mediacriticism of hacking by China. The ObamaAdministration was reported to be consideringpossible fines and trade actions against China.

In response, the Beijing Daily commentaryargued the U.S. has always played the victim card.In fact, the U.S. is the country where most cyberattacks stem from and the country is responsiblefor the majority of computer viruses. Using aChinese slang term, the commentary said such amove is like “a thief yelling for help to catch the

thief.”The paper further questioned the true purpose

hidden behind the U.S. media trumpeting the“Chinese hacking threat.” It may allow the U.S.administration greater leeway in carrying outaggressive cyber attacks, and the media fanfaremight serve the purpose of wooing parliament’sbudget approval and public support, read thecommentary.

On Thursday, the Hong Kong-basednewspaper Wenweipo expressed similar concernsabout the “Chinese hacking threat.” The paper saidit aims at whipping up public support for the U.S.government and the military to wage a cyber war,besides the conventional purpose of containingChina as the “China threat” rhetoric does.

Ever since cyberspace became a new battle field,the American military has taken the lead toestablish cyber headquarters and recruit numeroushackers to carry out computer virus research anddevelopment and build a cyber war arsenal,Wenweipo said.

The American cyber security force is stillexpanding. The paper cited a report in The


Washington Post on Jan. 27, which quoted a U.S.defense department official as saying that the U.S.will increase the size of its cyber security forcefivefold over the next several years.

The Global Times, a national tabloid, carriedan article on Wednesday calling for China to standup to the U.S. finger-pointing, saying silence willonly invite more accusations.

The tabloid argued that there are too few publicreports of China being hacked by offshore forces,as many are held only within governmentauthorities.

Besides, it is always a government spokespersonwho does the complaining on the Chinese side,while it is an individual company or interestedparties that tell their stories of being attacked,

which makes the U.S. voices heard louder.The Global Times appealed to relevant

technology authorities of China to refute theAmerican accusations through fact findingresearch. It also encouraged victims of cyberattacks sourced to U.S. IP addresses to tell the worldwhat has happened to them.

Another Global Times commentary said, “Wedon’t believe the Chinese military is completelyunprepared in a cyber war, but we are convincedthat China will never act on the offensive side.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, at aregular press briefing on Wednesday, said thegroundless criticism from the U.S. is “irresponsibleand unprofessional, which will not help to solvethe problem.”

Interpreting the Second Wave of Cyber SecurityThreats to China

by Xu Peixi

Beijing, March 4 (Xinhuanet) — The U.S. hastwo times challenged China in the field of Internetgovernance. The first challenge came in the formof a speech delivered by former U.S. Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton on Internet freedom followingGoogle’s withdrawal from the Chinese mainland.The second came earlier this month as a privatesecurity firm, Mandiant, released a report accusingthe Chinese military of stealing U.S. intellectualproperty.

I have discussed the first attack in an earlierpublication. How to make sense of this newoffensive — a seemingly scheduled escalation —of the previous hostility in terms of both rhetoricand substance? Observers feel reluctant tocomment on the Mandiant report because they failto understand the technical details. However, it isfairly easy to make sense of this dispute by readingthe report itself and by some creative thinking

An important point to consider is that theChina-U.S. conflict over Internet governance canbe traced back to the first World Summit onInformation Society (WSIS) in Geneva, 2003. Chinainsisted on the role of state leadership in Internetgovernance, while the U.S. proposed marketleadership. Both countries had their own reasons.For China, the state plays an important role indevelopment and market issues. State authoritiesalso manage the media to maintain social stability.The U.S. will not loosen its grip over core Internetresources because it is a gathering place for amyriad of commercial interests.

The EU then offered to broker a deal betweenthe two parties. In June 2005, the EU Council ofMinisters outlined its position on Internetgovernance by proposing a new cooperation modelto solve conflicts over the management of theInternet’s core resources, namely the domain


names systems, IP addresses, and the root serversystem. This new cooperation model stated that“the existing Internet governance mechanismsshould be founded on a more solid democratic,transparent and multilateral basis, with a strongeremphasis on the public policy interest of allgovernments,” and should be based on twoprinciples ranging from “it should not replaceexisting mechanisms or institutions” to “it shouldcontribute to the sustainable stability androbustness of the Internet.” According to myEuropean colleagues, this proposal was raised tobridge differences between China and U.S.

When I was reading about this in 2005, I failedto see the value of the proposal itself and thesignificance of the role of EU in this grand disputebecause I disliked state interference. In retrospect,both the EU proposal and the EU’s role were aviable solution that accurately reflected the multi-stakeholder principle in Internet governance. Onewould expect that the U.S. would respondpositively to the EU’s stance because it clearlystated that the new model should not replaceexisting mechanisms, but U.S. simply said no.

Why was U.S. so afraid of a European role? In2005, Internet policy researchers did not fully graspthe reason why the U.S. preferred a G-2 mechanismwhen over 170 states and over 600 civil societygroups who wanted to share their concerns. Atthat time, Internet policy researchers believed theU.S. did not approve of the word “public” in theproposal. After all, European values of publicservice media are inconsistent with the Americanview of private media. In hindsight, I believe thatthe U.S. dismissed the EU proposal because it willlimit their power to manipulate public opinion.

This psychological mechanism worksparticularly well regarding free speech and cyberattacks. Holding leverage makes it easy for the U.S.to strike a deal with China alone. Microsoft, Cisco,Yahoo, Skype, Sun Microsystems are all big players.When there isn’t a deal, challenging China is justas simple, easy, and cheap. China can be made to

look like whatever scapegoat the U.S. public wants;it can be a hero saving world economy or it can bean aggressor coming to gobble the U.S. up. It isone of the few nations that U.S. foreign policyadvisers can still apply their public animosity skills.However, having the EU act as a middlemanwould complicate this game, so the U.S. rejectedthe idea

The only solution to the U.S.-China dispute overInternet governance in general, and cyber securityin particular, is for U.S. policy-makers to realizethat this is not a bilateral matter. Disputes like thisare transnational in nature and involve manystakeholders. The failure at the WSIS summits hascreated lasting complications. The Google/U.S.-China row is only a very small fraction of theoverall disputes, and this fraction is made visibleby American officials because it played into theirdomestic needs.

After the failures of the 2003-05 WSISnegotiations, the world was increasingly led byU.S. foreign policy makers and commercial mediacompanies. 2010 onwards has been particularlydisastrous. In January 2010, Hillary Clintondelivered a well-known speech at Newseumcalling for more Internet freedoms. In March 2010,Google showcased its formal withdrawal fromChina citing cyber attacks. In May 2010, thePentagon launched the U.S. Cyber Command, andin May 2010, the U.S. State Department gave 1.5million dollars to the so-called Global InternetFreedom Consortium directly affiliated with FalunGong. In June 2010, computer malware Stuxnet— widely believed to be created by U.S. and Israel— was discovered in Iranian and Indonesiancomputers. In May 2011, President Barack Obamasigned an executive order laying out cyber-warguidelines, and two weeks ago, Obama signed anew executive order to strengthen cyber defenses.Most recently, Mandiant released its report titled“APT1: Exposing One of China’s Cyber EspionageUnits”.


Motivated by U.S. attempts to weaponizeInternet, nations such as the U.K., South Korea,Germany and Iran followed suit to increase cyberwar capabilities. The more energy the U.S.wastes on accusing and attacking others, themore the world community feels threatened bythe U.S. monopoly on Internet governance. Themore other nations challenge the U.S. in forumssuch as ITU, the more U.S. state authorities and

businesses find it necessary to create a scapegoat.U.S. concerns ranging from creating jobs in thePentagon to bringing jobs home through tradewars will only hurt global economic growth. Itis not the way the world works. It is much adoabout nothing.

(The author is an associate professor with CommunicationUniversity of China.)

V. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

An Upcoming Spring for Reform

by An Gang

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of theCommunist Party of China, visits the home of impoverished villagerMa Maizhi on February 3. Xi presented school supplies to Ma’s childrenin the Bulenggou Village of the Dongxiang Autonomous County,northwest China’s Gansu Province (LAN HONGGUANG)

The National People’s Congress,China’s top legislature has finallycompleted the country’s leadershiptransition. The job performance of thenew leadership of the ruling CommunistParty of China (CPC), headed by XiJinping as general secretary of its centralcommittee, in the past months has beendescribed as a “dream start”—theChinese public has clearly seen theemerging fresh look of the newleadership in governing a state, deeplysensing a promising future for China aswell as an exciting and beautiful “Chinadream” for the people.

New Start for Reform

It is undeniable that Chinese societyunderwent a period of anxiety andfickleness marked by a public full of complaints,soaring grievances, acting on one’s own will andrebuking government aimlessly. All these signs

pointed to the rapidly growing rich-poor wealthgap and the damaged state of social justice. It isan unavoidable winding step in the course of


China’s development, however, which originatedfrom the variety of reform bottlenecks and theemerging middle-income trap, as well as beingdirectly related to the economic downturnworldwide.

Chinese leaders do not evade any problems orblock the public from expressing their will. Bydiscussing openly the major policies and theoriesas well as frequent base-level field investigationsand public opinion surveys, they fully demonstratethe resolve for top-down reform.

The series of moves of the new leaders afterthe 18th CPC National Congress have instilled inthe public a vivid feeling of the rhythms of reformfrom the top level.

During a visit to an exhibition on China’sdevelopment since 1840 in Beijing last November,Xi said, “Realizing the great renewal of the Chinesenation is the greatest dream for the Chinese nationin modern history.” He also emphasized thatspouting empty talk is harmful to the nation, whiledoing practical work can help it thrive. Xi’sremarks highlighted that people’s prosperity anda strong country are the two greatest common goalsof Chinese society. He also spoke of restoring thesocial cohesion of Chinese society.

A commentary article on the British websiteFtchinese.com remarked on the new look ofChinese politics that the right perception is aprecondition for the right action. It is true that thenew leadership has already taken action. OnDecember 4, 2012, the Political Bureau of the 18thCPC Central Committee held its first meeting aftertaking office. The meeting adopted a documentmaking explicit requirements on how PoliticalBureau members should improve their work stylein eight aspects, including reducing meetings,getting rid of superfluous language, shorteningtraffic control during officials’ visits, and exercisingthrift. The new regulations have sent a clear signalthat the top leadership sets itself as an example.

From December 7 to 11, 2012, Xi went to

Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan and Guangzhou insouthern Guangdong Province for fieldinvestigations, dubbed the “new southern tour,”signaling a continuation of the great course ofChina’s opening up and reform started by formerleader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s.Prior to Xi’stour, during a meeting on November 21, 2012, VicePremier Li Keqiang, who is expected take over thepremiership next month, said that opening up andreform is the biggest dividend of China’sdevelopment, in addition to being warmlywelcomed by the public. The moves of the new-generation leaders demonstrate clearly they willwaste no time knocking down barriers anddeepening the reforms in important areas withgreater political courage and wisdom.WithinChina, the public has keenly caught on to thepolitical signals by top-level officialdom andechoed it with action. Now, a new environmentfor reform with the positive interaction betweenthe public and high-level officials is takingunprecedented shape. Many greedy officials havebeen ousted by an online anti-corruption campaignlaunched by the public.Xi said openly that theParty should remain tough on corruption and crackdown on malfeasance by both low- and high-ranking officials. In the meantime, Xi orderedenhanced restraint and supervision on the use ofpower. Power should be limited within the cageof regulations, Xi said.A discussion about thedirection of China’s reform is underwaynationwide, which will help to reach consensuson promoting the steady progress of the reform.The discussion has underlined the importance ofpolitical restructuring and drawn an outline forimproving the style of the leadership and the rulingmode of the Party, assuring effective governanceof the country under the leadership of the Partyand safeguarding the rights and freedom peopleenjoy according to law.In the new decade, Chinawill abandon the “GDP first” principle and paymore attention to people’s livelihood. A more


comprehensive, balanced and sustainabledevelopment pattern will reconsolidate Chinesesociety and stimulate the development vitality andinnovation capacity of China, setting a new pathfor China’s development and reform.

Commitment to Peace

At a group study session held on January 28with members of the CPC Central CommitteePolitical Bureau, Xi said that China will remain ona path of peaceful development and explained howto pursue that path. Xi stressed first and foremostthat China should run its own affairs efficientlyand rely on its own strengths. Xi also said that thecountry will never surrender its legitimate rightsor sacrifice its core national interests.”No countryshould presume that China will engage in tradeinvolving our core interests or swallow the ‘bitterfruit’ of harming our sovereignty, security ordevelopment interests,” he added.China’s coreinterests are both multifaceted and wide-ranging.Raising and defining explicitly the conception ofChina’s core interests is one of the majorachievements in the theory and practice of Chinesediplomacy. A whitepaper entitled China’s PeacefulDevelopment released by the Chinese Governmentin September 2011 said that China is firm inupholding its core interests: state sovereignty,national security, territorial integrity and nationalreunification, China’s political system establishedby the Constitution and overall social stability, andthe basic safeguards for ensuring sustainableeconomic and social development.

China is at a special and crucial junctureapproaching the great renewal of the Chinesenation, during which the most important thing ismaintaining a trend of peaceful development. AsChina develops, it is increasingly necessary to showits determination and effectiveness in safeguardingits core interests. Meanwhile, safeguarding the coreinterests of the country relies on national strength

and will, the solidarity and maturity of the nationand the firmness and wisdom of its diplomacy. Nota single aspect can be ignored.With the growth ofChina’s national strength and the advancementof social transformation, Chinese diplomacy hasto take into consideration many more factors tomaintain its core national interest. The country’sdiplomatic efforts must rise to its defense. A grandstrategy with a comprehensive approach is needed,with a healthy dose of caution when pitting coreinterests against the overall development objectivesof China. Its diplomatic approach is not an either/or question between perceived “softness” and“toughness.”Handling disputes over territorialsovereignty and maritime rights properly is notcontradictory to China’s adherence to peacefuldevelopment. On the one hand, China firmlyopposes any behavior that impairs its territorialsovereignty and maritime rights; on the otherhand, China works actively to create a favorableatmosphere and conditions for peaceful solutionsto relevant disputes through dialogue andconsultation.From China’s reaction to the disputesover the Huangyan Island in the South China Seaand the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea in2012, we can conclude that China has heldconsistently to the principle of shelving disputesin favor of joint resource development.In the newera, peaceful development is still the banner ofChinese diplomacy and the extension of domesticdevelopment and reform. China will unswervinglypursue the road of peaceful development, with itsgrowing overall strength as a solid backing force.The fact that China has become increasinglypowerful shows that it has more capacity tomaintain its core and major interests and preventwars, which should not be misinterpreted tosuggest that China’s diplomacy will be tougher oreven go to war.

(The author is an op-ed contributor to Beijing Review)


Clean Your Plates!

by Yin Pumin

NO WASTE: A Beijing family shows clean plates after dining on the eve ofthe Chinese Lunar New Year on February 9 (XINHUA)

Urging conservation at thedinner table has become the clarioncall of an online campaign.

Millions of netizens across Chinare-blogged China Land andResources News Vice President XuZhijun’s mid-January appeal tocurb food wastage and appreciatethe virtue of being thrifty even intimes of plenty. Xu called for peopleto take uneaten food home afterbanquets.

Serving excessive amounts offood is rooted in China’s culture offace. The sociological concept,closely related to honor and prestige,is readily observable at banquets,where excessive portions represent the host’soverwhelming hospitality. A plenitude of uneatenfood enables the host to gain face. However, ifdiners finish everything on the table, the host maylose face, appearing stingy or lacking finances.

Beijing-based China Agricultural Universityestimates 200 billion yuan ($32 billion) worth offood goes to waste in China each year, enough tofeed approximately 200 million people.

After polling 2,700 diners in Chinese cities, theuniversity concluded that at least 8 million tons ofprotein, enough for the annual demands of 260million people, and 3 million tons of edible fat, closeto 130 million people’s annual consumption, werediscarded from 2007 to 2008.

Such figures are astonishingly high in a countrywhere 128 million people live on less than $1 aday. Official figures show that about 5 millionpeople in southwest China’s Guizhou Provincereceived government food aid last year.

Public Response

Xu’s online crusade to encourage cleanedplates and bagged leftovers began in April 2012but gained little traction until becoming the subjectof reporting by the China Central Television(CCTV) and Xinhua News Agency. The microblogof People’s Daily, China’s most-circulatednewspaper, deemed it an honorable act and a showof self-respect.

In late January, the Beijing Catering TradeAssociation, Beijing Cuisine Association andBeijing Western Food Association, along with 10franchise restaurants in the city, launched a jointanti-waste initiative garnering rapid response.More than 750 restaurants in Beijing haveannounced that customers are encouraged to ordersmaller portions and take home what they can’tfinish.

At the Meizhou Dongpo Sichuan Restaurant,special posters are put on the tables to remind


customers to order sparingly, while also pointingout that they are encouraged to take leftovers home.Instead of persuading customers to order a widerange of expensive dishes, waitresses would suggestmodest orders to be supplemented later if dinersare still hungry.

“We had 20 small-portion dishes before. Now,in order to answer the call to save food, we addedanother 10 half-portion dishes,” said Tao Dan fromthe Marketing Office of the Meizhou DongpoSichuan Restaurant.

“We can avoid wasting food on the one hand,and on the other hand, customers can order awider variety of dishes,” Tao said.

Tang Qingshun, Chairman of the Beijing FoodIndustry Association, said that a pilot program forthis campaign showed that the choice of small andhalf-portion dishes can reduce around 50 percentof the wasted food for family dinners.

Meanwhile, some restaurants offer rewards tocustomers who eat all their food or take away theirleftovers or hand out coupons to diners who donot squander their food.

“All these methods have proved effective andcan be promoted,” Minister ofCommerce Chen Deming said at anational meeting on January 28. Themeeting focused on measures toeliminate food waste.

Liu Qinglong, a professor at theSchool of Public Policy and Managementof Beijing-based Tsinghua University,was happy to see the change in attitudetoward food wastage, but he said thathe’s waiting to see how things pan outover the long term. He expressedconcern that the new move might beshort-lived and would fade away in theface of traditional cultural pressures.

“Ostentation and preserving facehave been part of Chinese culture forthousands of years,” Liu said, addingthat people don’t like to be seen taking

food home from restaurants for fear that neighborsand friends may think them stingy. He suggestedthat the government should introduce a media andsocial supervision mechanism to combat theseperceptions.

Yuan Longping, a renowned agriculturalscientist, has even called for criminalization ofnegligently squandering food.

“China has a large population and little arableland, and we scientists have worked so hard toimprove rice harvests. But after productionincreased, people wasted it,” Yuan said in aninterview with CCTV.

Official figures show that China’s grain outputin 2012 rose 3.2 percent to 589.57 million tons.However, import figures tell a story of a straineddomestic grain supply facing an increasingpopulation and expanding cities.

According to official statistics released inJanuary, China’s grain imports hit a record highin 2012 of 72.3 million tons, which means thatChina’s self-sufficiency rate on grain has plungedbelow 90 percent, a warning sign that the nationmay have a food security issue.

A waiter presents a half-portion dish side-by-side with its full-sizedcounterpart at a restaurant in Jinan, east China’s Shandong Province.Chinese food is served to be shared, so small portions are traditionallyless common (XU SUHUI)


The Chinese Government sets a95-percent bottom line on its grainself-sufficiency rate, according to anearlier white paper on food security.

Chen Daifu, a deputy at theNational People’s Congress (NPC),China’s top legislature, told Xinhuathat he and other lawmakersproposed a law to curb and preventfood waste, as well as punish thoseresponsible for wasting food.

A Government Campaign

The “clean plates” campaign isalso part of a drive by Chineseleaders to fight extravagance andadvocate thrift. Last December, thePolitical Bureau of the rulingCommunist Party of China’s (CPC) CentralCommittee released eight provisions requiringofficials to improve their work habits and refrainfrom excessive spending, especially spending onluxury banquets.

Many provinces have followed suit, launchingtheir own, more-detailed versions. Central China’sHenan Province has ordered that business mealsfor officials should feature no more than four dishes,and alcohol is prohibited. Southwest China’sGuizhou Province has set a time limit of 45 minuteson meals paid from the public purse.

Also in last December, the Central MilitaryCommission said that military banquets would bebanned, as would alcohol at receptions.

On January 22, Xi Jinping, General Secretaryof the CPC Central Committee, once again calledon all Party organs and members to maintain afrugal lifestyle and resolutely oppose all kinds ofextravagance, including luxury banquets.

The traditional idea of frugality should bepromoted among the entire Party, Xi said, addingthat all government organs, institutions, state-owned enterprises and non-profit organizationsas well as officials at various levels should work

toward putting an end to extravagance.As far as Xu is concerned, the transformation

from a non-government campaign to one withgovernment support highlights the need to curbwasteful habits. “The fight against food wastedby officials is a fight against corruption,” Xu said.

The latest example of the government’s effortscame on February 5, when the head of a state-owned enterprise was suspended from his post forattending a luxury banquet after one of the dinerswrote about the event online. CPC disciplineauthorities in Zhuhai in south China’s GuangdongProvince have ordered Zhou Shaoqiang, GeneralManager of Zhuhai Financial Investment HoldingsCo. Ltd., to step down after he exceeded thespending limit for an expensive dinner. Zhou and16 others attended a banquet at a local restauranton January 4 at a cost of 37,517 yuan ($6,022),including 12 bottles of pricey red wine.

In south China’s island province of Hainan,Wang Qun, Director of the Finance Bureau forQiongzhong, a poverty-stricken county, wassuspended from his post and placed underinvestigation after allegations of misusing publicfunds in restaurants, a disciplinary watchdog said.

NEW FASHION: Diners bag their leftovers at a restaurant in Shanghai onFebruary 6 (FAN JUN)


Investigators said Wang spent 15,000 yuan ($2,408)on three banquets for friends and colleagues inJanuary.

“We have found other governmentdepartments in Hainan are also involved in themisuse of taxpayers’ money on feasts and we willfind those who are accountable and punish them,”said Luo Zhijun, Deputy Director of the CPCHainan Provincial Commission for DisciplinaryInspection.

No Guarantees

Due largely to the national frugality campaign,many restaurants, especially high-end ones, havealready reported sharp declines in extravagantbanquets.

According to a survey conducted by the ChinaCuisine Association, as much as 60 percent ofrestaurants, mostly upscale ones, said manyreservations have been canceled since the end oflast year.

Chen Junhai, an executive at WangshungeRestaurant Group in Beijing, said that efforts toeradicate publicly funded extravagance had beena big blow to many high-end catering businesses.

About 30 percent of Wangshunge’s incomecomes from hosting luxury business banquets,Chen said.

In Tianjin, the number of banquets held bygovernment departments in the past monthdropped nearly 30 percent year on year, according

to Xing Ji, head of the Tianjin Catering TradeAssociation. Xing said that the average cost ofofficial banquets had also fallen by 50 percent.

In Haikou, Hainan, restaurants have reportedhuge losses from the cancellation of governmentbanquets. “Normally, business banquets accountfor 80 percent of our revenue at the end of eachyear, but the wave of cancellations has cast a bigshadow on our business,” a manager of a luxuryrestaurant in Haikou told People’s Daily.

The China Cuisine Association said that mostrestaurant owners are predicting a grim year for2013. About one third estimated that the growthrate would slip below 10 percent.

However, Jiang Ming’an, an anti-graft expertfrom Peking University, warned that despite theCentral Government’s orders urging frugality,some officials are able to create fake spendinginvoices to escape supervision. “The only measurethat could prevent them from over-spending orabusing their privileges would be to make publicspending transparent,” he said.

Zhang Zhixin, a professor of publicmanagement at the Capital University ofEconomics and Business in Beijing, said that stricterrules are essential to curbing extravagance.

“We should try to eliminate undocumentedspending by tightening our budgetary rules. Bydoing so corruption and unnecessary banquets canbe avoided,” Zhang said.

Chinese Leadership Grips Future

by Kerry Brown

The political calendar in China is somethingthat most non-Chinese don’t understand that well.Part of that is due to a lack of knowledge aboutthe structure of governance in the country. Theyknow there are ministries and they know there is

the Communist Party of China (CPC). They maywell have followed the buildup and outcome ofthe 18th CPC National Congress late last year andassumed that this was when all leadership changeswere made. But if you were to point out to many


Gui Qianjin, a 26-year-old college graduate working as a village official inthe Zhangping She ethnic minority group town of Guixi City, Jiangxi Prov-ince, conducts a field survey in a local village on February 19. The youngvillage official was elected deputy to the 12th National People’s Congress inMarch (HU CHENHUAN)

in Europe or North America thatthere are still important governmentchanges to be made at the NationalPeople’s Congress (NPC), this wouldno doubt cause confusion. Thequickest way to explain the functionof the NPC is to refer to it acting likea parliament.

What helps even more is toexplain that the NPC is in factspeaking directly to the governmentthrough the State Council, whichcollects the heads of ministries andexecutive government bodies. Thatmeans that when the NPC sits downeach year it is primarily discussinggovernment plans for the comingyear. That supplies the parallel to aparliament in other systems. It is thereto scrutinize and discuss proposals,and give some idea about what public opinion andgovernment intentions might be about issues thatneed to be decided.

Government Changes

The main issue for the NPC this year is to reveala bit more about what the new leadership will looklike in policy terms. The transition from the lastCPC Central Committee with Hu Jintao as generalsecretary to the new one under Xi Jinping occurredduring the CPC National Congress in Novemberlast year. But that was part of what we can call alonger transition. Now the main Party positions atthe Standing Committee of the Political Bureau,the full Political Bureau and the Central Committeehave been completed, it is time for governmentchanges. They will occur in the NPC. A newpremier will be announced, and some newministers and vice ministers. We can say by theend of this that full Party and government changes,at least centrally, will have been made. From theday the NPC closes we will have a largely newteam to get to know.

And getting to know them is important. Theeuro crisis might be receding, and the U.S. economygrowing a bit, but globally development remainssluggish. The tough times since 2008 arecontinuing. China’s role as an economic stabilizerduring much of this is as necessary now as it wasback in the days when Lehmann Brothers shockedthe world by collapsing and heralding the start ofa major financial implosion. China has continuedto account for a large proportion of global GDPgrowth. The decisions that the new governmentteam make on the economy, on the housing marketand interest rates in China will be as muchinternational as domestic in their significance.

During this NPC too we will want to see whatsort of specific reforms the government will wantto embrace socially as well as economically. Weknow that the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) is theoverarching macroeconomic blueprint, and that itcontains the key promises the government hasmade up to 2015. But from this point, we will alsostart to look at clues for what might be formulatedin the succeeding plan. The 12th one was called


the greenest that China has ever produced. ButChina’s water and air quality, its reliance on fossilfuels and its energy efficiency are going to remainhuge issues. Investment in clean and renewabletechnology likely needs to go up sharply.

So is investment in education. The previous fiveyears saw the proportion of GDP spent oneducation increase, with rural schooling inparticular getting attention. At the tertiary level, arising proportion of Chinese are now going touniversities. But the challenges of providingeducation across society from primary up totertiary level are going to persist, simply becausewithout this investment in human capital, thedesire to shift to a more service-oriented economy,and one where manufacturing is more specializedand in the higher value-added sectors, will not bepossible. The need for an increasingly well-educated workforce is going to intensify in thecoming years. It is likely therefore that this NPCwill have to look at committing more resources tothis critical area. The 12th Five-Year Plan and theprevious NPC session also looked at socialmanagement. Expenditure on public security likepolice is high, with the costs of arbitration betweendifferent contesting groups rising as their claimson land, or public goods, or other material assetsincrease. Investment in social infrastructure andways of delivering social cohesion will need tocontinue. The creation of a stakeholder societywhere people are able to take responsibilityincreasingly for their affairs is part of the journeytoward middle-income status for the country anda doubling of per-capita GDP by 2020. But havingsystems in society that can mediate betweendifferent income groups and create harmonyamong them is something that takes time. Inparticular, the discussions this NPC has aboutincreasing land rights, pensions or householdregistration reforms will be important. Each ofthese poses major policy challenges, which havebeen heavily discussed in the past. The main issuenow is to get some sense of where the new

leadership might wish to go with these reformsand how they build on the legacy of the last groupof leaders.

Austerity Politics

One of the moves made by the new leadershipin the Standing Committee of the CPC CentralCommittee Political Bureau since last November isto cut down on official expenditure. Officials havebeen told to restrict how much they spend onentertainment and banquets. They have been toldto economize on travel, domestically andoverseas.Austerity politics have been in existencein Europe and North America now for over fiveyears. Here, governments, whatever their politicalcomplexion, have a common problem. In theUnited States, fights are looming over the deficitbetween the president and Congress, with thegovernment due to spend over $3.5 trillion, andrevenues from tax and other income sources onlycoming in at $1 trillion less than this. Funding thismassive shortfall has become a political time bomb.In the UK, public spending continues to rise waybeyond government predictions, with a $90-billionincrease this year, at a time when tax revenues aregoing down.The Chinese Government’s financesare not in this position, but there is a sense in whicha more frugal period is here and in which thegovernment has to become more fiscally efficientand focused on economizing. What will be of mostimportance in the NPC for many observerstherefore will be some idea of where resources andexpenditure are likely to be committed in thecoming year, in which areas there are likely to beincreases, and in which (for instance capitalinvestment) there are likely to be reductions, or atleast a freeze. This is different this time because itwill be seen as representative of what a new andstill largely little understood leadership is aimingto do in the longer term.Finally, there is the issueof how the new leadership in the NPCcommunicates both domestically andinternationally. We are used to the ways in which


those leaders now retiring spoke and the sorts ofmessages they conveyed in their public language.During the NPC we are likely to see, for the firsttime, the new leadership speaking at length abouttheir ideas for the future and where China nowneeds to go, and see where these remain the sameas the previous leadership and where there mightbe developments or differences ofemphasis.Presentation is often dismissed too easily,with people being keen to say how much they valuesubstance. But at the end of the day, presentationdoes matter, in intellectually and, to some extent,cognitively persuading people to accept an

argument or at least think about it. The ways inwhich the NPC shows us officials, leaders andinfluential figures prioritizing challenges, seekingnew ways to approach issues and revealingsomething about their attitude toward policyinnovation are important. After all, a lot haschanged since last year, and this will be as good achance as any to assess what has happened, wherewe all stand, and in which direction we, Chinaand the world, are likely to go.

(The author is an op-ed contributor to Beijing Review andexecutive director of the China Studies Center at the Universityof Sydney)

National Treasure

by Bai Shi, Photos by Wang Xiang

The Palace Museum

To ensure public supervision plays a part inprotecting its precious artifacts, the Palace Museumof Beijing released a catalogue on its website onJanuary 1, publicly listing details of its collectionfor the first time in history.

According to an official statement, the listcovers 18 categories including bronze, gold andsilver ware, jade ware, enamel vessels,sculptures, and religious artifacts.

There are a total of 662,784 antiquepieces in the first catalogue. The listcontains brief information on preciousand general cultural relics, as well asceramic items. Information on the sevenother categories is due to be releasedsuccessively at a later date, thestatement said.

From 2004 to 2010, the PalaceMuseum sorted through its numerouscollections, aiming to update its GeneralCollection Catalogue. This is the fifth timeit has carried out such a project.

According to official records, by

2010, the museum housed a total of 1,807,558antiques in 25 categories while its huge storagefacilities safeguarded 1,684,490 additional piecesof precious treasure, including 115,491 generalrelics and 7,577 ceramic items.

To assist in its catalogue efforts, the museumheld many seminars and meetings in which experts


corrected previous faulty informationrelated to number, name and period.

First to Open

As an institutional first, thecatalogue will meet demands foracademic research and increase publicsupervision of the museum’s work.

At a press meeting on July 6, 2012,Curator Shan Jixiang stressed that themuseum would do its utmost toimprove services and up supervisionrelated to the compiling of the GeneralCollection Catalogue.

Shan was appointed curator inJanuary 2012, following a series of scandals thathit the museum.

On May 8, 2011, Shi Bokui snuck into anexhibition chamber and stole several objects.Surprisingly, the thief cheated seemingly rigoroussecurity systems before his arrest by Beijing policeon May 11. The robbery aroused public suspicionregarding security at the Palace Museum.

At the time, Rui Chenggang, a well-knownChina Central Television reporter, wrote via theInternet that Jianfu Palace of the museum wasrebuilt as a private club for entertaining richmembers, shaming the cultural legacy of the

museum. The club was subsequently closed downfollowing exposure.

Furthermore, on July 30 the same year, ananonymous ceramic collector revealed on amicroblog that a Ge Kiln (Song Dynasty, 960-1279)porcelain dish kept at the museum was seriouslydamaged by staff due to faulty testing procedureson July 4. With pressure from the public, themistake was finally acknowledged on the July 31.

The spate of incidents lead to unprecedentedcriticism, aggravate public mistrust and calls forgreater transparency.

For various reasons, the magnificent PalaceMuseum has been invaded bycommercialization over the pastdecades with fast-food restaurantsand stores occupying chamberswhile peddlers and shoddyexhibitions grace its grounds.

Shan vowed to strengthen theintegrity of the museum andimprove services as soon as heassumed his post.

The curator plans to restorehistorical architecture covering13,000 square meters and removeall commercial operations by 2016.At that time, around two thirds of


the museum will be open to the public.According to the museum head, about 60

percent of China’s precious antiques are collectedwithin the palace walls.

The Palace Museum was declared a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in 1987.

The Palace Museum

Established in 1925, the Palace Museum islocated inside the Forbidden City from where Ming(1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynastyemperors administered China.

Situated in the heart of Beijing, the PalaceMuseum is approached through Tian’anmenSquare. The royal dwelling derived its name fromits heavily restricted access. It was built from 1406to 1420 by Yongle Emperor (1403-20) who, uponusurping the throne, moved his capital northwardfrom Nanjing to Beijing. During nearly 600 years,24 emperors lived in and ruled from the palace.

Surrounded by 10-meter-high walls and a 52-meter-wide moat, the museum covers an area of720,000 square meters, offering visitors the chanceto experience traditional palace architecture, enjoytreasures kept inside, and learn of legends andanecdotes about the imperial family.

Once inside, tourists are greeted by a successionof halls and palaces spreading out on either sideof an invisible central axis. The buildings’ glowing

yellow roofs levitating above vermilion walls are amagnificent sight while the painted ridges andcarved beams all contribute to a sumptuous effect.

Representing 5,000 years of Chinesecivilization, alongside the 600-year history of theForbidden City itself, the museum is committed tothe preservation of the national patrimony andbecoming a world-class facility.

Although previously allocated inside forbiddenprecincts, the Palace Museum has becomeincreasingly accessible by means of digitaltechnology.

Its official website, established in 2001, isdedicated to spreading the cultural message of theForbidden City worldwide.

The Palace Museum mainly draws from theQing imperial collection. Magnificent architectureand vast holdings of imperial paintings,calligraphy, ceramics, and decorative objects makethe museum one of the most prestigious in Chinaand the world. Together with Tian’anmen Square,the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, it is a must-visit tourist attraction in Beijing.

As one of the most famous national heritagesin the capital, it attracts numerous visitors fromaround the world every year. The museum set arecord when it received 182,000 tourists on October2, 2012.

VI. TIBET TODAY

Tibet Ranks Top of Residents’ Happiness List

Tibet, the snow-covered holy land in southwestChina, topped a survey of residents’ sense ofhappiness in Chinese inland areas, with the mostsatisfying index of air condition.

The survey, “China Happiness Index Map”,conducted by Tencent.com together with 34 local

media involved 10mln voters from 34 provinces,cities and autonomous regions.

In the survey, Tibet was graded with 6.7 points(full marks for 10 points), followed by the NingxiaHui Autonomous Region with a score of 6.2 pointsand three other provinces including Hai nan,


Liaoning, Jiangsu Fujian ranking third with thesame score of 6.0 points. While Guizhou, Beijing,Shanghai and Guangdong, with 5.0 points, becamethe least happiness areas of Chinese inland.

Happiness index shows social systems andpeople’s life, and it is also the indicator of the socialdevelopment and people’s opinion.

The survey clearly showed that the “happinessmap” was affected by the pace of life, environmentand many other factors a city.

In the questionnaire, netizens were requiredto vote based on ten livelihood-related indexes,including income, security, commodity price, food,transportation, air condition, house prices,education, medical treatment and employment.

According to the statistics of the questionnaire,

air condition becomes the most satisfying index inTibet, followed by social security. 32.09 percent ofpeople were content with the climate of Tibet, and14.25 percent of people chose the social security.

During the survey, some netizens alsoexpressed their feeling about the happiness of Tibet.An Xin, a visitor to Tibet said, “Lhasa is a relativelyrelaxing and comfortable city. It is very pleasingto come here and enjoy the brilliant sunshine andclean air.”

A migrant worker in Tibet Lao Wang said,“Lhasa is the city with the most stable public orderin China, where people have a sense of securityand stability, and people living here feel verydependable.”

(From: China Tibet Online)

Tibet Sees Sharp Poverty Reduction in 2012

Lhasa, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — China’s Tibetautonomous region saw its impoverishedpopulation decrease by 130,000 people last year,local authorities said recently.

Through the efforts of the central and localgovernments, 130,000 poverty-stricken peoplehave overcome poverty, according to the regionalpoverty alleviation office.

Statistics from the office showed that thenumber of impoverished people in Tibet haddecreased to 583,000 by the end of 2012 from833,000 in 2010.

Chonyi Yarphel, director of the office, saidTibet has made great efforts to find effective ways

to alleviate poverty, including the establishmentof anti-poverty projects and job training programs.

The construction of family hostels and foodprocessing plants has proven to be a popularmethod of combating poverty, Chonyi Yarphelsaid.

The regional government has prioritized theallocation of poverty alleviation funding for borderareas, pastures and other areas with adversegeographical conditions, he added.

The impoverished population is expected todecrease by 128,000 this year, according to theregional poverty alleviation office.

“Self-Immolation Guide”: Desperate Insanity ofthe Dalai Clique

Beijing, March 6 (Xinhua) — The China TibetOnline, a multi-language media website dedicatedto providing news stories on Tibetans living in

China, has recently published a bylined opinionarticle on the “Self-immolation Guide,” producedby the Dalai Lama clique.


Following is the full text of the article in English:Recently, the Dalai clique published a “Self-

immolation Guide” on the Internet, openly incitingTibetans within the Chinese border to “carry outself-immolations according to the plan andprocedures.”

The “Self-immolation Guide” demonstrates asober attitude in scheming and arranging the cruelactions of self-immolations, which makes it standout among the many propaganda of the Dalaiclique, and thus soon get intensive spotlight.

The book is published in the name of one persononly for the “Tibetan government-in-exile” to avoidpublic condemnation toward its overtmanipulation of self-immolations. The allegedauthor of the “Instructions” is Lhamo Je, who hadbeen a “member of parliament” for two terms inthe “parliament” of the Dalai clique and now stillhas an important position in its “educationalsystem.”

The “guide” consists of four parts. The first partis an ideological mobilization which advocates theidea that self-immolators are “great and honorablefearless heroes” and that “both male and femaleheroes” should be ready at all times to sacrifice forthe “just cause.”

The second part gives detailed instruction onthe “self-immolation preparation,” including“picking important days and places,” “leavingwritten or recorded last words,” and “asking acouple of trustworthy people to help record videosand take photos.”

The third part introduces “self-immolationslogans” and instructs the self-immolators to shout“Free Tibet, let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet, andrelease political prisoners” and so forth, and asksthem to print out the slogans into leaflets to scatterthem on the spot so as to increase the impact.

The fourth part illustrates “other non-violentactivities” such as “shouting loudly the campaignslogans at schools and other populated places,”“making public speeches,” and “filing petitions tothe central government,” and points out that “it is

very important to launch various activities inpolitical, economic, religious and cultural fields.”

No matter from which perspective, this “Self-immolation Guide” can yet be regarded as “aremarkable piece of writing,” for it is tantamountto a “confession” of the Dalai clique which hascommitted the crime of manipulating self-immolations.

As the head of the “Tibetan government-in-exile” Lobsang Sangay has asked the Chinesegovernment to show evidence of the Dalai clique’smanipulation of the self-immolations, and“welcome” the Chinese government to sendgroups to Dharamsala to search for evidence, theyhave now made public the evidence by themselves.

The reliability of the evidence lies not only inthe source of the writer, a senior official of the Dalaiclique, but also in the confirmation of every itemof the contents listed by previous self-immolations.

In fact, almost every self-burning happened justlike what the “guide” had planned — some peoplevideotaping the scene, some people shoutingseparatist slogans, inciting and gathering othersto stop the government from taking rescue actions.

Sometimes the Dalai clique was able to hypethe burning cases with photos and personal dataof the self-immolators obtained only dozens ofminutes after the incidents.

The contents of the “last words” shouted bysome self-immolators are exactly the same as inthe “guide.”

According to Lorang Konchok, who haspleaded guilty of intentional homicide, he actedon the instructions of the Dalai clique to make useof his status and influence in the temple, andincited, instigated and coerced others to burnthemselves with the help of his nephew.

Before the self-burning happened, LorangKonchok recorded the individual and familyinformation of the self-immolators and took photosfor them. Once the self-immolation was committed,he sent the information immediately to the Dalaiclique via a cell phone.


The “guide” aims to “standardize andsystematize the self-immolation behavior so as tomanipulate it like an assembly line in the future,”and reach the goal to be “more efficient” as setdown by the Dalai Lama.

The “guide” also gives a slap in the face to someWestern forces. In order to contain and split China,for many years these forces have set the Dalai Lamaas a “non-violent” model that represents struggle.

After the self-immolation incidents, theycompletely disregarded the facts, denied the crimescommitted by the Dalai clique, and accused thepolicy made by the Chinese government of causingthe self-immolations. Furthermore, they evenshowed sympathy for and “concern” to thosecriminals who have been sentenced to jail in linewith Chinese law to encourage the self-immolationmanipulators.

The publication of the “guide,” which openlyadmitted the crime of the Dalai clique’s incitingand scheming self-immolations, its politicalmotivations as well as its future plans for continuedmanipulations, has not saved the faces of hisWestern masters.

Why did the Dalai clique publish the “Self-immolation Guide” at this moment? The reason isthat the extremists among them feel desperate.

According to the Canadian Sing Tao Daily, theDalai clique once instructed his followers earnestlyand tirelessly, “Suppose we resort to arms toachieve our objective, we need guns andammunition in the first place, but who will sellthem to us? If we find the seller, where can we getthe money? Even if we have money and get guns,how can these guns be transported to China andthrough which country’s border? The CIA onceair-lifted guns for us, which happened in the pastand will never happen again.”

The Dalai clique drew a lesson from its ownfailures: That seeking “Tibet independence”through violent activities publicly did not work,and it is better to adopt the “Middle-wayApproach,” which can deceive the world and seek

“Tibet independence” indirectly. However, thispolitical plot has not made any progress since itsexistence, and even the channel of contact and talkwith the central government was blocked bythemselves.

Up to now, the scheme of manipulating self-immolations has been worked out by racking theirbrains as “the highest form of non-violentstruggle,” which will be doomed. All of these makesome extremists more and more impatient, so theyhad to publish the “guide,” hoping this wickedfire can make some “achievements” before itextinguishes.

Another reason for the publication of the“guide” is that self-immolations have not achievedthe effect in the international community as theDalai clique had expected. Even if some Westernpowers always support the Dalai clique, they darenot take such a huge risk of losing politicalreputation or moral legality to openly supportmanipulating self-immolations, which is adisguised form of violence and terrorism.

The head of the “government-in-exile”lamented, “There was a self-immolation in Tunisiawhich was labeled the catalyst for the Arab Spring.How come we have been given less support thanwhat we witnessed in the Arab world?” reportedthe New York Times on Feb. 3.

A comment from the Chinese News Netrevealed the truth, “In fact, the self-immolationsof Tibetans have rarely received support from theinternational community.”

It is hard to imagine that how the internationalcommunity can support such brutal and inhumaneacts. The Chinese government does not createconditions to encourage Tibetans to self-immolate.Hence it cannot be condemned.

Western countries all understand thebackground of self-immolations, so they are alreadydoing the “Tibetan government-in-exile” a bigfavor by not condemning them.

The Dalai clique attempted to prompt more self-immolations through publishing the “guide” in


order to beg for more international compassion.This act has actually made the internationalcommunity recognize the ferocity and insanity ofthe Dalai clique clearly, and urged some Westernpowers to hold back when supporting the Dalaiclique.

The “guide” published by the Dalai clique wasan attempt in political blackmail, against theChinese government, but it turned out to be in vain.

If plotting “Tibet independence” failed in 1959through the military confrontation and armedrebellion, how will it be possible by inciting severalpoor people to burn themselves?

As a matter of fact, through the joint efforts ofall levels of local governments at the spots of theincidents, the frequency of self-immolations hasbeen curbed and the evidence of the Dalai clique’srole in manipulating such acts has been made clear.Many criminals, whose acts are detested by thelocal people, have been brought to justice.

All of these fully show the unpopularity of theDalai clique in China and the popularity of theChinese government. The government will win thebattle of anti-self-immolation as long as it does not

hold unrealistic hopes from the Dalai clique, norexpects some Western forces to be kind, but keepthe situation under control on the basis of its ownwork.

The Dalai clique’s fantasy that every self-immolation will exert some pressure on the Chinesegovernment will be highly counter-productive. Onthe contrary, every self-immolation case thatoccurred was an additional bloody crime the Dalaiclique committed on its own ethnic Tibetans.

Some people from the clique including theplotters of the “Self-immolation Guide” told thepublic repeatedly that self-immolation is a kind of“peaceful protest” and expected to get the sameattention as the vendors in Tunisia. Then pleaseteach yourselves by following the guide first likewhat the netizens have called for. If you dare notburn yourselves, please stop the folly as early aspossible.

Just as Lu Xun, a famous Chinese writer, saidthat people who are alive themselves have no rightto persuade others to die. So do it yourself first ifyou believe it is a good idea to die.

First Arrival in YerpaText & Photo by Jigme Phungyel

Yerpa means blossoming flowers in the localTibetan language. Indeed, from a distance, Yerpadoes look like a fully blooming flower by theNujiang River.

Yerpa is a small village in eastern Tibet andis located on the middle reaches of the NujiangRiver. This village is part of Linka Township, BaxoiCounty,Chamdo Prefecture. When we first arrivedin Yerpa, it was still inaccessible by road. Lookingat Yerpa from a hill five or six kilometers away,


we saw a village surrounded by lushgreenery and sitting quietly along thewinding Nujiang River.It wasunutterably peaceful and serene.

Our team headed to Yerpa to livethere for some time. Not too long ago,the government of Tibet AutonomousRegion made the decision that workteams should be dispatched from thefour levels of Tibet AutonomousRegion, prefectures (cities), counties,and townships to 5,451 executivevillages and neighborhoodcommittees in Tibet.The time of staywas temporarily set at three years.Cadres should have meals, work and live with themasses at the grassroots level so as to help themget rich. Our team, whose members were mostlyfrom the TAR Federation of Literary and ArtCircles, were sent to Yerpa. Eight colleagues fromthe Federation who were traveling with us weresent to Pulong Village and Niba Village in LinkaTownship. They arrived at their destinations beforeus and we traveled all the way to the end of themeandering road. Our team left the county town

The road condition from Linka Township to Yerpa Village is poor.

at nine o’clock in the morning and arrived in Yerpaafter six o’clock in the afternoon. The journey wasonly 90 kilometers.

It was at the end of October in late autumn.We saw from afar the peaceful villageoverwhelmed by greenery. It seemed fairly warm.

It was getting dark when the vehicle broughtour luggage and necessary materials for the lifethere. The township secretary and the head oftownship had come to see us off. We followed

them to the home of a village doctor namedChophel. He has a big house with a smallshop and a video room. These are placeswhere villagers gather. On the second floor,an old-fashioned cellphone could receivesignals at a certain spot and it was the“center of economic information” for thewhole village.We were quite relieved whenresting in the house. It is 70-80 squaremeters big and had four columns in themiddle. However, we did not know whatthe rest of the village looked like.

The next morning, after seeing off thetownship secretary and the head of

The five L-shape bungalows are the village committee.


township, we walked for severalhundred meters along a mountainpath under the guidance of somevillage cadres and arrived at thepolitical center of the village—thevillage committee.That place wasactually not yet in use. The door, builtof sun-dried mud bricks, was sealedwith pieces of wood.We removed thepieces and saw five L-shapebungalows. This was the building ofthe village committee, part of all thehouses built by the county for everyvillage. Village cadres could not workthere yet because the building was not equippedwith internal facilities. That was the home wherewe were about to live and work.

Village cadres gathered young men andwomen in the village at the end of the road to helpus move things up the hill. As we had visited theplace before and knew what it was like, theFederation, the county and every individualprepared everything, including a small powergenerator,folding beds, a steel stove burning wood,bedding, tables, chairs, kitchen utensils, oil, salt,soy sauce, vinegar, paper and pens. In other words,except for electricity and tap water, we tookeverything we could. People sent by the Federationto help us first started to install electrical wireswhile the village cadres helped us clean the house.We opened our cases in front of the curious villagersand took out various kinds of things they had neverseen. After two days of work, we finally had aplace to eat and sleep.

At night, I lay on the bed in the corner of thespacious room and listened to the light sound ofthe river flowing. I felt that my life in the city wasages ago. The noise, mixed feelings and ceaseless

The house is the home for the work team to live and work.

cellphone ringtones of the urban life have all gone.Occasionally, when the dzo of the villager Xiaduoliving next door was grazing, the bell on its neckwould make some sound, adding a musical noteto the rhythm of the river flow. What a tranquilnight! We did not have to think about what thisyear would mean to us. We were just enjoying thepresent.

Xiaduo was a woman in her fifties. She lookedolder than she really was and was in poor health.Later, she used a lot of our medicines. She had ason named Samdrup. He was in his twenties andwas the youngest party member in the village.Before we came, they were taking care of and usingthe village committee building. Samdrup lived inone room and the other rooms were full of chilipeppers, a widely known local specialty, bright redin color and with a strong spicy taste. After wemoved in, Samdrup stayed in one of the roomsand Xiaduo moved all the chili peppers to thatroom. Since then, we would try the chili pepperpowder made by Xiaduo every once in a while. Itwas indeed as good as everybody said. During theearly days in the village,Samdrup would chop the


firewood for us to use and then stacked it in anorderly manner in the corner of the room.

In the beginning, we were only familiar withXiaduo’s family and a few village cadres. We didnot know the names of all the other people andhuge language differences made it very difficultfor us to communicate. Endless lines of peoplebrought us gifts: yellow, juicy and sweetapples;black, sour yet tasty dried Tibetan pearswhich did not look good, but were said to havethe function of helping weight loss; walnuts;pepper; and chili peppers. We could only smile andtake out some sweets wrapped in colorful and non-degradable plastic bags to give villagers as gifts inreturn. Although inappropriate, that was the onlychoice because they would not take money.Gradually, our place became an exhibition hall of

local specialties and a grocery of dried fruits. Someteam members loved to eat the food.They werealways eating, and in the end, they started tocomplain that their cheeks hurt.

We went through all the intense work ofchoosing people, mobilizing people and preparingfor the trip from Lhasa. We experiencedstrangeness, freshness and uneasiness all along theway and finally we achieved a stable life. In theprocess, we felt huge contrasts in time and space.Some people felt fearful, some showedequanimity;others just wanted to take theirluggage and go home. For me, that kind of newlife was a whole new experience. Let alone the factthat I could try my best to do some practical workfor the village, I felt it was tempting to find outwhat I would experience in a year of uncertainty.

Yadong RevisitedText & Photo By Cheng Weidong

Yadong is the oldest border portin Tibet. It was also once the biggest.Starting from the mid-17th Century,Yadong gradually became a majorport for Sino-Indian trade and in theearly 20th Century, the volume oftrade here once reached onehundred million silverdollars,accounting for over 80percent by volume of the total Sino-Indian border trade. By the 1950s,over 1000 mules and some 700people passed through the borderport on a daily basis. At that time,India purchased wool, leather andyak tails from Tibet, sold clothing,

Monument to the Anti-British Heroes in Chumixiong valley of Pagri.


Pagri Grassland.

tobacco, soap, Rolex watches andeven automobiles to Tibet inexchange for bags of Chinese silvercoins. The Jeep once owned by theFourteenth Dalai Lama wasactually imported to Tibet throughhere. When dismantled it was firstcarried into Lhasa by caravans andthen assembled. The vehicle is nowkept in Norbulingka.

Since 1987, I have been toYadong four times.

Yadong Opened as a TradingPort

Yadong is located in thesouthern part of Tibet AutonomousRegion, in the valley on the southern slope ofthe middle section of the Himalayas at an altitudeof 2800 meters. It sits to the west of Bhutan andeast of India.There are 41 civilian externalroadways. On the map it is shaped like a wedgeinserted between the two countries. It is animportant military fort on China’s southwesternborder.

On March 19, 1888, the British forceslaunched their first invasion to Tibet. After thewar broke out, the Tibet local governmentdispatched over 10,000 monks and lay soldiersto the front line and engaged in several battleswith the British forces. The Tibetan army put upa heroic resistance,but because of its horriblyoutdated weapons and the compromises andconcessions of the Qing government, the Britishsuccessfully took Tselila and Yadong. Afterlosing the war, the Qing government was forcedto sign the Convention between Great Britainand China relating to Sikkim and Tibet and

Regulations Regarding Trade, Communicationand Pasturage , which was to be appended tothe forenamed convention. It required that “atrade port shall be established at Yadong, on theTibetan side of the frontier, and shall be open toall British subjects for purposes of trade from thefirst day of May, 1894”. So from May 1, 1894,the Qing government established Yadong as aborder port. Goods entering Tibet from BritishIndia, or vice versa, were exempted from dutyfor a period of five years commencing from thedate of the opening of Yadong and the firstcustoms district in Tibet was set up here by theQing government.

After that, thanks to its geographicproximity to Bhutan and India on three sides,businesses from India, Bhutan, and Nepalswarmed into Yadong. The border trade volumekept growing and the market became veryprosperous.Yadong gradually become a crucialtrade center for southwest China. In 1913, as


the Qing Dynasty collapsed, the port of Yadongwas completely shut down. Although the borderbetween Pagri town and Bhutan was then only64 kilometers long, there were no less than 15civilian routes to the Bhutan side, the shortestone was only seven kilometers long. Accordingto the town’s elders, in the past, Bhutanesepeople wearing traditional costume,could be seeneverywhere in Pagri. Each year between Apriland August, the 30-plus beds in the border trademarket hostel were always fully booked byBhutanese merchants. The mountain path linkingPagri, Xia Yadong and Chumbi Valley waspacked with caravans. Hostels and restaurantslined the streets. Board and lodging could alsobe found at the foot of the Natoi La Mountain.The moving caravans could see small shopsselling cigarettes,alcohol, sweet tea and meals.There were many Indians with metal trunks fullof bread, cakes, meat pies, or cigarettes on theirheads, or baskets filled with peanuts on theirbacks. They stayed just behind the caravans,always ready to provide them with the goodsthey needed.

The Reopening of Natoi LaMountain Pass

According to the elders of Yadong,before the trade port was closed, thetwo main streets of Yadong town werelined with shops and vendor’s stalls.At that time,there were 46 Indian, and26 Nepalese businesses in Xarsingma;12 Indian, 8 Nepalese, 9 Bhutanese,and one Sikkimese businesses in Pagritown. There were no customs then, soincoming and outgoing goods enjoyeda “no inspection, no registration, and

no taxation” policy,which continued until 1961.That is how Xarsingma town got its nicknameas “mini Hong Kong”.

In 1962, a conflict broke out on the Sino-Indian border. On October 1, 1963, Yadongborder port was offi cially closed, China andIndia both removed customs facilities from theirborder market, military forces came to guard theNatoi La mountain pass and barbed wire fencesblocked border trade access. Personal andeconomic exchanges between China and Sikkim/India were completely cut off.

Yadong is 460 kilometers from Lhasa, 410kilometers from Calcutta, India, 100 kilometersfrom Gangtok,Sikkim, and 300km fromThimphu, Bhutan. Historically, Yadong borderport was not only the biggest land border portbetween China and India, but also the best stateGrade-1 border port in Tibet. Natoi La mountainpass is also known as China’s No. 1 post in thesouthwest”. The Chinese and Indian sentry postsare only 27 meters apart.The border is actuallya wire fence. When tourists came,Indian sentries


would offer assistance or pose for photos withthem. There is also an international postoffice,which handles all classes of domestic andinternational mails.

On Apr. 11, 2005, Wen Jiabao, Premier ofthe State Council of the PRC, and ManmohanSingh, Prime Minister of India,met in New Dehli. Both partieswere pleased with theimplementation of thememorandum on the bordertrade at Natoi La mountain pass,and signed the Joint Declarationbetween the People’s Republic ofChina and the Republic of India.

On July 6, 2006, after 44years of closure, Natoi Lamountain pass, which linksYadong and Sikkim, reopened atlast. Natoi La border tradepassageway and border trademarket are both open seasonally each year for 3months, open trade days are from Monday toThursday.

The Opening of Rinchengang BorderTrade Market

Rinchengang is a village in Xia YadongTownship of Yadong County. It is 28 kilometersfrom Natoi La Mountain pass on the China-Indiaborder. The construction of YadongRinchengang border trade market started on Feb18, 2006, and was completed in June of that year.The total investment in the project was over 10million RMB. Its total land area was 4,606square meters, with spaces for indoor andoutdoor markets,parking lots, warehouses, office areas, hostel, restaurant,bank, post office and

joint inspection area. Just like the boom in tradeon the Sino-Russia, Sino-Vietnam, and Sino-DPRK borders, thousands of merchants wantedto be in Yadong to secure a place in this newmarket.

Statistics from Yadong County showed that

in 2006,there were a total of 1196 outboundChinese departures. In the 25 years since 1987, Ipersonally experienced the change from theblockade of Natoi La wire fence to the openingof Rinchengang border trade. I came back toYadong in 2007. Here is the piece I wrote then:

On July 10, 2007, Rinchengang border trademarket in Natoi La, Yadong, Tibet, celebratedits first anniversary.As a result of joint efforts byChina and India, the past 12 months had seenan improvement in the trade environment ofNatoi La border trade route and Rinchengangborder trade market, and a rapid growth in thetrade volume. The border trade market got offto a flying start. By the end of 2006, import andexport volume totaled RMB 1.5 million, amongstthis were exports of RMB 1.05 million, and

Dromolari Snow Mountain.


imports of RMB 0.45 million.Between May 1 and June 30, 2007,there were exports of RMB 270,620,and imports of RMB 180,000.

Several hundred people,including representatives fromChina and India, business owners,and border residents, drove on therough mountain road to the bordertrade market in dense fog, amid alight drizzle in the early morningtoday, to celebrate the firstanniversary of the Rinchengang border trademarket in Yadong, Tibet. It was a cordial andjoyous gathering. The Chinese and Indianrepresentatives sang and danced together, tocelebrate this happy occasion.

In 2012, when I returned to Rinchengang,the hustle and bustle of the market of five yearsago was still vivid in my head. This time, I wasable to stand next to the border and cordiallyshook hands with the Indian soldiers on the otherside of the fence.

Xarsingma: a Natural Green Oxygen Bar

In the land of Tibet, which is 1.2 millionsquare kilometers in size, Yadong is indeed aprecious example. It is blessed with moist air andabundant oxygen. The peaceful valley is filledwith trees, flowers,and rippling waters. Thereare other well-known mountain passes likeTselila and Drola in this Shangri-Lalike bordermountain town besides the famous Natoi Lamountain pass. The town is rich inCordyceps,fungus, mushrooms, and the rarecold-water fish…

The primeval forest in XiaYadong is regarded as a greentreasury on China’s southwestborder. It covers about 550 cubicmeters. It is 12 kilometers fromthe Yadong county seat. In termsof topography,Yadong County isa big hollow. Its altitude dropsdramatically from 4360 metersto 2000 meters. If we go furthersouth into the plains of India andBangladesh, we will see an evensharper drop in altitude. It formsa crack on the Himalayas

Farmers living in Pagri town.

Yadong County enclosed by green mountains.


stretching from west to east for several thousandkilometers, making way for the warm currentsfrom the Indian Ocean to flow in. Therefore theland of Yadong, Kangmar,Gyantse, andNyangchu River Valley are blessed with richnatural resources.

On the map, there are two other namesunder “Yadong”: Xarsingma and Chumbi. Infact, the name “Yadong” came from“Nadong”,which is at the foot of Natoi LaMountain, and nine kilometers from ChumbiValley. Rinchengang Village sits somewherenear the middle. Those who go past Natoi LaMountain can have a bird’s eye view of“Nadong” through the mountain pass. Later,people pronounced “Nadong” as “Yadong.”Historically, the area around Rinchengang wasknown as “old Yadong” or “Yadong”, while thevalley under Natoi La and Tselila Mountains wascalled “Yadong Valley.”

Yadong county government is located inXarsingma town, which is to the west of Bhutanand east of Sikkim,and north to the Gubumazhenmountains straddling the China-Bhutan andChina-India borders. The local elders said thatXarsingma in Tibetan means “east”. It is saidthat this land is endowed with fine meadows, amoderate climate and a variety of animals suchas dear.

There are only several hundred householdsin Xarsingma town. It enjoys a humid climate,extensive forest cover, and thick vegetation. Alot of economically important trees and medicinalplants thrive here. To make full use of easilyavailable local materials, homes are mostly builtof pine wood, except for a few Tibetanstyle stonehouses whose doors and windows are also madeof wood. These houses, doors, windows,

rails,and eaves are often decorated with hand-carved or hand-painted traditional Tibetanpatterns in bright colors. However, whatimpresses the visitors most are the flowers,whether it is in the little courtyard in front ofthe house, or on the balcony upstairs, or thenarrow windowsill… you can find flowers in fullbloom everywhere. Yadong River runs through Xarsingmatown.Snowmelt constitutes a major source forthe river, which is only dozens of meters widebut has a strong current. Yadong fish is a rarespecies with spots in seven colors.It is unique toYadong River. The China-India border is not farfrom here if we go downstream along the riverfrom Xarsingma town. Along the way there aremany wooden suspension bridges withdistinctive features and little log cabins paintedin a wide variety of colors with an immense, lushprimeval forest as a backdrop. Yadong Countyhas an extensive forest cover. In the past, thelocals made quite a fortune by felling trees, butthat has been banned since 2001.

When our car climbed the winding asphaltmountain road, the whole of Yadong valley,including Shang Yadong, Xarsingma and XiaYadong was in complete silence. The mountainsare all covered with green vegetationsome withlow bushes, others with tall trees. Waterfalls flowfrom the mountain, and streams ripple at thebottom of the valley. The merging of two streamsforms Yadong River: one from Khambu (whichis famous for its hotsprings) and the other fromPagri Plateau. The strong flow resulting from thehigh drop in water levels makes a pleasant,soothing sound. Whether it is day or night, thenatural rhythm and the pure, heavenly soundalways rings in my ears.


Tsering Dargye, Bai Wannian and TseringChodron… these names should all be familiar tothe Yadong residents of a certain age. They alllived through the tremendous changes inYadong. Now,some of them have already passedaway, others have been transferred to otherposts. The person I missed the most is my oldfriend Tsering Chodron.25 years ago, when Ivisited Yadong for the first time, it was TseringChodron who received me.She was a memberof the county party standing committee and headof the publicity department then. She invited meto her house for tea and that’s how we becamegood friends. Like many Tibetan ladies, she hasa hearty and outgoing personality,works hardand is generous to others. From then on,everytime I came to Yadong, I would go to see her.In2007, at the celebration for the first anniversaryof the opening of Rinchengang border trade, webumped into each other. She was hosting theevent as deputy director of Yadong,Rinchengang border trade administrativecommittee. That was our third meeting. The nexttime I returned to Yadong was in July 2012, andI learned that she had been retired for two yearsbut she still kept busy at home.Because all of herchildren were working out of town, her elderlymother needed to be taken care of. The firstcivilian residence I visited was in her house. The6.8 Richter scale earthquake in Sikkim damagedmany houses in Yadong to somedegree.Fortunately most buildings in the countyseat were still intact, Tsering Chodron’s houseincluded. Before leaving Yadong, I went to herhouse again, to pay a visit to her 80-year-oldmother, and take some of the opening ofRinchengang border trade, we bumped into eachother. She was hosting the event as deputy

Scenery of Shang Yadong.

director of Yadong, Rinchengang border tradeadministrative committee. That was our thirdmeeting. The next time I returned to Yadong wasin July 2012, and I learned that she had beenretired for two years but she still kept busy athome.Because all of her children were workingout of town, her elderly mother needed to betaken care of. The first civilian residence I visitedwas in her house. The 6.8 Richter scaleearthquake in Sikkim damaged many houses inYadong to some degree.Fortunately mostbuildings in the county seat were still intact,Tsering Chodron’s house included.Before leavingYadong, I went to her house again, to pay a visitto her 80-year-old mother, and take some more


pictures of the house.

Pagri: the Paradise in Yadong

At 4,360 meters above sea level,Pagri Town of Yadong County isrenowned as “the highest town inthe world”.Against the backgroundof snow-capped peaks and clear bluesky, the over 70 hectares of goldenyellow rape flowers on Pagri plateaulook nothing short of dazzling.Between Tuna Township and Pagritown, a 1000-square-kilometerlargealluvial plain was formed.

In terms of landscape, Yadongis a big hollow. However, due to the drasticdifference in altitudes, the land on two sides ofPagri has two distinctive climates. Pagri stationis one of the 16 meteorological stations sittingon over 4000 meters in Tibet, and the onlycounty-level meteorological station located in atown.

Every time I come to Yadong, it strikes mesomehow that Pagri is the defi nitive snow-covered plateau; maybe it is because of the widegrassland, herds of sheep and cows, the straighthighways, or the stone houses, and the Dromolasnow mountain (a sacred mountain to theTibetan people). It is true that we can see typicalplateau scenery in most of Tibet, but Yadong isa special place with characteristics of both typesof climates on southern and northern slopes ofthe Himalayas.Dram Valley, Gyirong Valley,Karma Valley, and Drenthang Valley are thefour unique valleys in Tibet with the lowestaltitudes, warmest climates, and richestbiodiversity.

The author(left) met his old friend Tsering Chodron(right) of 25 years ofacquaintance and her mother(middle).

Yadong is known as “nature’s garden”. Ifyou come here in late spring or early summer,flowers will greet you everywhere. By July orAugust, small wildfl owers on Pagri grasslandare in full bloom. Under the blue sky and whiteclouds, surrounded by snow-capped mountains,it is a beautiful scene: the grass is richly green,wildflowers nod in the wind, sheep and cattleenjoy their lives, herdsmen flip the whips andsing folk songs. In the forests in Yadong valleyand Xia Yadong, yellow, purple, red wildflowerscome marching out, among them are strikingbrightcolored wild poppies. You will be lost inthe natural beauty here. In autumn, the wholeYadong valley is tinted with deep red as gloriousas the sunset. Of course, with the lofty snowpeaks as background, the autumn colors inYadong valley are quite different from those ofother places.

Once we entered YadongthroughKangmar,the famous Dochen Tso appeared on our left. Itlies deep in the 4000-meterhigh plateau in Tuna


County, northwest of Dromolari SnowMountain. There are 34 lakes of various sizes inYadong, and Dochen Tso is the biggest andprettiest. It is a narrow alpine lake that receivesits crystalclear water supply from the snowmeltof the mountains. Because of the light reflectedby the snowy mountains, blue sky and whiteclouds, as the viewing angle changes, the laketakes on five different shades of colors:light blue,dark blue, light green, fresh green, and darkgreen. The highway circles the lake.

There are seven snow peaks to the east ofthe lake. Popular legend has it that those areseven fairies of the Himalayas. The highest oneis Dromolari Snow Mountain at the altitude of7314 meters. Mountaineers from China andoverseas have made some attempts to climb it,but have yet to ascend to the top. There areglaciers among the peaks, some glaciers are solong and that they almost reach the lake surface,quite a spectacular sight.

The highway has brought growth to Pagritown. Two-storey Tibetan-style stone houses hereare all equipped with big windows with woodenframes of black, red or yellow colors. On theoutside, the areas on the wall around the framesare also painted black.Pagri grassland in summeris green and covered with wildflowers. Herds ofsheep and large yaks roam the land.

Kambu spring, 40 kilometers from Yadongcounty seat and 27 kilometers from Pagri town,isa renowned therapeutic hot spring in Tibet. Inthe Tibetan scripture, the spring is called “thesecond best place for a recluse in the world”.Kambu Spring even enjoys the reputation ofbeing “capable of curing all kinds of diseases”.

It used to be frequented by the Dalai Lamas.There are 14 springs,each with its own separatespa pool and each with different temperatureand effects.Some can help cure different diseases,such as arthritis and skin disease. Themiraculous effectiveness of the spring attractsover a thousand tourists every year.

In Pagri, there was a significant sign by thehighway, which pointed to the remains of anancient fortress in Chumixiong Valley near TunaTownship, Yadong County. This was the site ofone of the bloodiest battles in the Tibetan-Britishwar. On March 31,1904, a Tibetan force of 1,400was stationed here to block the British force fromcoming through Yadong. The British tricked theTibetan forces into disarming, and besieged thefortress. Eventually over 1,000 Tibetans werekilled. The British drove straight in,forced theTibet local government to sign the Lhasa Treaty, then Yadong and several other places wereopened as trading ports.This event later becameknown as “the massacre of Chumixiong valley”.In 2004, to commemorate the centennial of theanti- British struggle, the government of TibetAutonomous Region built a Monument to theAnti-British Heroes in Chumixiong valley, as atribute to the Tibetans who sacrificed their livesin their brave struggle.

My trip to Yadong was coming to an end.The otherworldly beauty of Pagri, the Shangri-La-like Xarsingma, the handshakes and smileson both sides of the Natoi La wired fence,Rinchengang border trade and the exchangesbetween the people of two countries… All these wereprecious memories that I would treasure for ever.They also gave me plenty of reasons to believe thatYadong will have an even better future.


Form IV(See Rule 8)

1. Place of publication New Delhi

2. Periodicity of publication Monthly

3. Printer's name Mme. Zou Yonghong(Whether citizen of India?) No(If foreigner, state the country of origin) People's Republic of ChinaAddress Embassy of the People's Republic of China,

50-D, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri,New Delhi-110021

4. Publisher's name Mme. Zou Yonghong(Whether citizen of India?) No(If foreigner, state the country of origin) People's Republic of ChinaAddress Embassy of the People's Republic of China,


5. Editor's name Mme. Zou Yonghong(Whether citizen of India?) No(If foreigner, state the country of origin) People's Republic of ChinaAddress Embassy of the People's Republic of China,


6. Name and addresses of individuals who Embassy of the People's Republic of China,own the newspaper and partners or 50-D, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri,sharholders holding more than one percent New Delhi-110021of the total capital

I, Mme. Zou Yonghong, hereby declares that the particulars given above are true to the best of myknowledge and belief.

Date: March, 2013 Mme. Zou YonghongSignature of Publisher

PDF Version of this Issue is available at http://in.china-embassy.org

Postal Regd. No. DL-SW-16/4034/12-14R.N.I. No. 47440/88

March 2013

Villagers living happily in the newly built Pengjiacun Ecological Village in Baihe County, Shanxi Province of China. Their houses are built recently with the help of local government and are considered environment-friendly . (Xinhua/Liuxiao)

the first session of the 12th national people’s congress

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