Extracts. Jiang Stresses Coordinated Social, Economic Development President Jiang Zemin Tuesday called for nationwide efforts to promote an all-round socioeconomic development, do well in the building of material and spiritual civilization and strive for a harmonious development of town and country and among different regions so as to keep the economic development in step with the development of population, resources and environment and realize sustainable economic and social development. "This is what the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics requires," he stressed. Joining the group discussions of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces at the on-going session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the President said that the policies and principles have been established; the blueprint has been drawn out; and the key lies in implementation, adding that "we must lead the people in translating the spirit of the Party's 15th National Congress and the Fifth Plenary Session of the 15th Party Central Committee into action and strive to fulfill all the major tasks set in the Tenth Five- Year Plan. He urged local officials to pinpoint their local advantages apart from studying the development trends of other regions, the whole country and even foreign countries in working on their own development plans. Officials at all levels, especially those in leading positions, should improve their style of work, go deep into realities, do solid work and mobilize the people of the whole country to work for the lofty cause of socialist modernization. China Concerned with Powell's Remark on Taiwan China Tuesday voiced strong concern and dissatisfaction over the use of the term "the republic of China" by US Secretary of State Colin Powell when referring to Taiwan in his recent remarks. China has made solemn representation with the US side over this issue, said foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao at the regular press conference. He pointed out it has been universally recognized that there's only one China in the world, Taiwan is just a part of the Chinese territory, and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China. The US side has stressed that the use of the term was just a slip of tongue by the Secretary of State and doesn't indicate any change in the One China policy pursued by the US. "We have taken note of the above explanation by the US side and hope that the US would guarantee no recurrence of similar cases," Zhu said. Nation Opposes Separation Both Taiwan and Tibet are inseparable parts of China's territory and the Chinese Government opposes any separation of the motherland in any form, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Zhu Bangzao made the remarks when commenting on a report that said the Buddhist association of Taiwan would invite the Dalai Lama to visit the island on March 31. "It is the common aspiration of all Chinese people to safeguard national unity and realize the reunification of the motherland,'' Zhu said, "And all attempts against the trend will not work.'' He said China was concerned that US Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to Taiwan as the `Republic of China' in a recent speech. Zhu said it is common knowledge that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of China; the government of the People's Republic of China is the only government representing China. "China expressed great concern and dissatisfaction with the use of the term `Republic of China' by Colin Powell,'' Zhu said. "The US side stressed it was a pure slip of the tongue and it does not indicate any change in the one-China policy.'' "We hope the US side will make sure this kind of incident does not happen again,'' the spokesman said. Zhu reaffirmed China's stance on opposing the US sale of advanced weapons and equipment, including the AEGIS missile destroyer and Patriot III anti-missile system, to Taiwan. If the US side insisted on the sale it would violate China's sovereignty, aggravate tensions across the Taiwan Straits and jeopardize Sino-US relations. When answering inquires on the explosion which occurred on March 6 in a village primary school in East China's Jiangxi Province, Zhu said "the result of investigations by local security organs proved it was a criminal case.'' Some foreign media had distorted the facts and even attacked the Chinese Government before the investigation results were released, Zhu said. **** New Five-Year Plan Gives Priority to Environmental Protection China has attached unprecedented importance to environmental protection and sustainable development in its 10th five-year plan for the 2001-2005 period, economic and environmental experts say. According to the plan, which is expected to be adopted by the National People's Congress (NPC) in session here since March 5, China will contribute 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to environmental protection spending, a remarkable rise over the 0.93 percent in the ninth five-year plan. A whole chapter of the draft plan is contributed to population, resources and environmental protection, while the whole plan is a clear embodiment of the sustainable development strategy. Zhu Zuoyan, an NPC deputy and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "The new five-year plan puts ecological construction on an unprecedented high plane. Major construction projects listed by the plan also stress their ecological benefits. This shows the government's strategic consideration for the nation's future and its responsible attitude towards the global ecological environment." Analysts point out that China will face huge economic and environmental pressures when it tries to attain the goal of becoming a medium-developed country by the middle of the 21st century, and will have to make greater efforts than developed countries in the West. Latest statistics show that sandstorms from the northwest have been causing an annual direct economic loss of 54 billion yuan for China over recent years, almost equivalent to the yearly agricultural production of Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. In the next five years, China is expected to launch comprehensive pollution treatment projects along the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Songhuajiang River. By 2005, 45 percent of the urban sewage water is expected to be treated, and 60 percent of industrial wastewater recycled. The development of the western regions, a major project on the five-year plan, also gives priority to ecological construction. The government has banned the felling of natural forests in the upper valley of the Yangtze River and in the middle and upper valleys of the Yellow River. With government support, 0.73 million hectares of hilly farmland have been converted into woodland and grassland so far, and 0.54 million hectares of barren hills afforestated. A total of 3.6 billion yuan will be spent this year to return 330,000 hectares of hilly farmland into woodland and grassland. And the effort is to last for at least 10 years. The West Gas for East Pipeline, an ambitious 140 billion yuan project on the five-year plan, will bring China's energy consumption into the age of natural gas. The South Water for North Project will divert water of the Yangtze River to thirsty areas in the north, and save the Yellow River, China's "Mother River", from drying up. "China's environmental protection work is a contribution to mankind," said Qu Geping, chairman of the Ninth NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee. A report of the World Association of Resources points out that China's energy-saving measures in the last two decades have cut its coal consumption by 400 million tons. "The 10th five-year plan describes a beautiful picture for us: a prospering economy, controlled population, well-preserved resources and a beautiful environment," said academician Zhu Zuoyan. **** EU Ministers Fail to Agree Legal Plan on Securities European Union (EU) finance ministers at their monthly meeting on Monday failed to reach an agreement over a plan to speed up financial services lawmaking but remained committed to its principles. The lawmaking proposal on securities received "a very warm welcome from" the 15 EU finance ministers, said the European Commission, the EU's executive body. "Everyone agreed with the broad principles but unfortunately there was no agreement on the small print," EU financial services Commissioner Frits Bolkestein told a news conference following the meeting. A group of so-called "wise men" headed by former Belgian central banker Alexandre Lamfalussy was set up last year to look at improving securities market regulation in the EU in response to growing consolidation among stock exchanges. Its final report focused on how the EU could speed up lawmaking processes to meet a self-set 2005 deadline for completing an integrated capital market in the 15-nation bloc. "It is important that we agree this before Stockholm," Bolkestein said, referring to the summit of European leaders in the Swedish capital later this month. Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said that senior EU treasury and central bank officials would meet to discuss the proposals again next Monday and, if they failed to resolve differences, ministers would meet again on the sidelines of the Stockholm summit on March 23 and 24. **** Motorola Cuts 7,000 More Jobs Motorola Inc. axed 7,000 jobs in its cellular phone division Tuesday, adding to the more than 9,000 positions eliminated companywide since early December. The world's No. 2 cellphone maker blamed the latest reductions on the cooling economy, which has put a big chill on industrywide sales and left it with a substantial inventory of unsold phones. With Tuesday's cuts, Motorola has reduced its work force by more than 10 percent as it careens toward the end of what it expects to be its first quarter with an operating loss since 1985. Analysts, while calling the actions necessary, said Motorola must still rid itself of an old bugaboo -- an inability to connect well with consumers on the lower-cost phones they prefer. Its failure to do so last year while the cellphone market and economy were still booming started its profit woes and caused it to slip further behind Finland's Nokia. Motorola gave no breakdown of the latest announced cuts but said they will affect manufacturing, engineering and administrative jobs throughout its worldwide cellphone operations. The bulk are to take place by July. Once they take effect, 12,000 workers in its once high-flying personal communications division will have been idled by the series of cuts. In a related move, Motorola announced Feb. 23 it was eliminating 4,000 jobs from its semiconductor business, which supplies computer chips for its phones. Motorola launched its latest restructuring late last year, barely two years after cutting 20,000 jobs and taking a $1 billion loss in 1998, the year Nokia overtook it. Its market share was only 13 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000 compared with 34 percent for Nokia, according to the Gartner Dataquest research firm. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
