AsiaMedia Staff Writer Ryan Finstad wrote: Chinese premier is unusually candid about anti-secession, economic reform and foreign relations. From the Asia Pacific Media Network: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held an unusually candid press conference following the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 14. The premier fielded questions on a variety of […]
From People’s Daily Online: The international community has continued to express support for the adoption of the Anti-Secession Law by China’s legislature, which is intended to prevent Taiwan’s secession from China. In a letter to the Chinese ambassador to Tonga, Tongan Foreign Minister Sonatane Tu’akinamolahi Taumoepeau-Tupou reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the one-China policy and […]
From Press Interpreter: On March 5, 2005, in presenting a working report to the National People’s Conference, Premier Wen Jiabao announced that starting this year, as part of a nationwide effort to alleviate poverty, the government would waive some grade-school fees for students from impoverished families – including the cost of books, miscellaneous expenses, and […]
From the Taipei Times: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (Ê∫´ÂÆ∂ÂØ∂) said that China “cannot” abolish the death penalty due to the country’s “national conditions,” but outlined hoped for regulations on how the state imposes capital punishment. “China is reforming its judicial system, including taking the right to review the death penalty to the Supreme People’s Court,” […]
From Asia Times: …While most of the NPC session was humdrum on the face of it, the combined policy initiatives the 3,000 delegates endorsed are comparable in their significance to the reform measures introduced by Deng Xiaoping. They signal the coming of age of the new leaders, president and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao and […]
From China Economic Net: It is high time for China to bring water pollution under tight control, says a Chinese lawmaker. “Statistics available from the Ministry of Water Resources showthat more than 70 percent of China’s rivers and lakes have been polluted to varying extent,” said He Shaoling, a deputy to the National People’s Congress […]
From The New York Times: China’s leaders announced last week at the annual National People’s Congress that they will give themselves legal authority to attack Taiwan if they decide that the disputed territory has ventured too far toward independence. It was their boldest ultimatum to date, backed by China’s rapidly modernizing military. But the banner […]
From the Press Interpreter: “A large group of ministry-level officials have been added as members of the CPPCC [Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference]; after the “two meetings,” will corresponding personnel restructuring emerge in related departments of the State Council? “Since Ann Tse-kai [An Zijie] passed away, only one person from Hong Kong SAR”Henry Ying Tung […]
From AsiaNews/SCMP: Tibetan monks, Xinjiang Muslims, but also non violent dissidents, farmers and members of underground religious communities are among those arrested. Youth crime climbs by 19.1 per cent. China’s courts were not idle in 2004. More than 800,000 people were arrested last year for endangering state security or for being involved in activities regarded […]
From AP, via The Washington Post: They’re smart, energetic, urbane – and powerless. China’s communists permit no real opposition but allow the existence of eight other parties that serve as advisers, nominal critics and cheerleaders. None challenges the communists’ policies or their monopoly on power, and members say that suits them just fine. “The Communist […]
From the Financial Times: Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, laid out his government’s agenda for the next year at the start of the annual National People’s Congress with a speech stressing action to address economic inequalities, inefficiencies and imbalances. Mr Wen struck a confident note in an address to the NPC, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, touting the […]
As part of their China Week, the BBC gives a run-down of Taiwanese press reactions to the proposed anti-secession law which is being discussed in the current NPC meeting: Taiwan’s papers are full of advice for the government ahead of a controversial move by China’s National People’s Congress to approve an “anti-secession” law, which would […]
From AFP, via Yahoo! News: China’s explosive economic growth of recent years has come at such a heavy cost to the environment and its citizens’ health that the authorities can no longer afford to ignore the consequences, analysts say. With its land and water resources largely ruined and air quality that puts six Chinese cities […]
From Reuters.com: China’s premier vowed on Saturday to wo2k for peaceful reunification with self-ruled Taiwan, seeking to dispel alarm at an anti-secession law that could heighten regional tensions. In his annual address to the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing’s Soviet-era Great Hall of the People, Wen Jiabao also pledged to keep the world’s seventh-largest […]
More on the NPC meetings, from BBC NEWS: China has announced an increase of more than 12% in its defence budget, to be approved by a session of its parliament that opens on Saturday. The rise comes as parliament is set to debate a so called “anti-secession law”, aimed at curbing any bid by Taiwan […]
From Reuters, via the Washington Post: Chinese security forces took up position in Beijing by the tens of thousands on Friday as delegates gathered for the annual session of parliament, ready to crush any display of dissent… President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have focused on narrowing the gap between rich and poor since […]
Howard French reports in the New York Times that the gathering of legislators and top political leaders offers a chance to measure the state of the art of Web censorship. The authorities set the tone earlier this week, summoning the managers of the country’s main Internet providers, major portals and Internet cafe chains and warning […]
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