China News Digest 7

After a prolonged hiatus,China news returns :

1.Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha on Saturday inaugurated a bio-energy project that will provide an alternative source of energy and improve the local environment.
The project, which is part of a partnership between Sudan and China, has been established at al-Selait area, some 25 km east of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
It consists of many units for producing bio-fuel and energy for lighting purposes using local sources of animal waste."We have established 75 units of bio-energy in all parts of Sudan and they are operating satisfactorily," Chinese Ambassador to Khartoum Li Chengwen told Xinhua.

"This project is characterized by the fact that it is less costly and easier to use besides its guaranteed continuation. It helps farmers to develop agriculture and resolves the issue of wood cutting, which protects environment," the ambassador said.
The Chinese ambassador regarded the project as another good example of the deeply rooted and progressive China-Sudan ties in a way that served the interests of the two peoples.

2. China hoped Egypt could restore social stability and normal order at an early date, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Sunday.

3. China and Switzerland formally launched bilateral talks on a free trade agreement Friday. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chinese Commerce Minister Cheng Deming said the agreement talks between China and Switzerland have attracted huge attention and interest from the countries' leadership and business communities.Cheng expected a successful conclusion of the FTA negotiations. Cheng said a free trade agreement would enhance mutual trust between the two sides and promote economic development and closer ties between China and Switzerland.
China and Switzerland have seen fast-growing bilateral trade and investments for decade. In the past 10 years, China's exports to Switzerland have grown by 18 percent while Switzerland registered an even stronger 25 percent surge in exports to China.

Currently, China is the largest trading partner of Switzerland in Asia, while Switzerland ranks ninth among China's trading partners in Europe.

4.With a Chinese New Year concert held on Tuesday in the Golden Hall, China and Austria officially kicked off celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

It also marked the launch of Austria's Year of China.

Uyunqimg, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Barbara Prammer, president of the Austrian National Council, Chen Haosu, president of the the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), and Chinese Ambassador Shi Mingde attended the concert.

While addressing the audience, Prammer spoke highly of Austria-China relations. "Our diplomatic relations have gone through a very successful journey, and (are) unbelievably good," she said.

5.China to invest $608b in water projects :The country will invest 4 trillion yuan ($608 billion) into projects during the next decade to improve water conservation, Chen Xiwen, director of the office for the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's Leading Group on Rural Work, said on Sunday.The country aims to double its average annual spending on water conservation over the next 10 years compared to the 200 billion yuan investment in 2010, according to the document, also known as the No 1 document.

The government will also encourage loans to, and private investment in, the water sector to ensure funding for conservation, it said.
"Floods and drought in recent years have exposed weaknesses in water conservancy infrastructures," the document said, citing severe drought in Southwest China as well as severe flooding and mud-rock flows in many regions last year.

The document also said more efforts would be made to improve water quality and farmland irrigation, such as increasing areas under irrigation by 2.7 million hectares over the next five years.
The country aims to build effective flood control and drought relief systems by the end of 2020.The harnessing of major medium- and small-sized rivers will be completed during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).The country aims to maintain annual water consumption at below 670 billion cubic meters in the next five years.The central government will subsidize the maintenance of public benefit water projects in western regions and poverty-stricken areas.The problem of water not safe to drink in rural areas will be eradicated by the end of 2015.

6. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's statement "welcoming" China overtaking his nation as the world's second-largest economy points to a positive and strong change in future China-Japan relations, according to analysts. In his speech, Kan said "the world faces major changes that can be likened to a tectonic shift both in the national security and economic fields", and Asia is "the center of major tectonic changes".

Against this background, he said, the Japan-US alliance "is becoming even more important" and should continue to play a key role in the Asia-Pacific region.

"For Japan, its relationship with China, which is expanding its influence in Asia as it achieves remarkable economic growth, is extremely important," Kan added."Both Japan and China have an important responsibility to bear in the international community, and will need to enhance cooperation in a wide array of fields such as the economy, regional stability and the global environment," he said.Kan also has to follow the US, its important ally, which experienced positive changes in relations with China after President Hu Jintao's visit earlier this month, Shen noted.

"Japan will not choose to isolate itself out of the framework that China and the US have established," Shen said. Sino-Japanese relations soured since the September collision between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats in waters off China's Diaoyu Islands, which Japan also claims.

In the latest development, Japanese officials complained to a major US newspaper after it published a column saying that China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands "has a strong historical case", Japan's Mainichi Daily News reported on Friday.In the New York Times column published on Jan 20, op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof said: "My take is that China has a strong historical case in claiming the ... islands" known as the Diaoyu Islands.Japanese Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Satoru Sato claimed in a letter to the editor of the US newspaper, which was published on Thursday, that the islands are "clearly an inherent territory of Japan".