Extracts. China Hopes Bush Extends Good Ties China believes the US policy towards China previously followed by the two major political parties will continue after George W. Bush assumes the presidency. Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan made the comment Friday during a meeting with former US Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger. Tang said Sino-US relations are currently at an important juncture. "Developing relations with China is a common theme between Republicans and Democrats in the US. Administrations of each party all adhere to the one China policy," Tang was quoted as saying by a foreign ministry spokesman. Tang said he highly values the progress achieved by the two states in the development of bilateral relations in the past decade. During the Republican administration of President Nixon, China and the US opened the gate to developing relations and made a historic breakthrough in bilateral relations, Tang said. In addition, he said that during the Democrat administration of President Carter, China and the US established diplomatic relations and in the later administrations of presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, Sino-US relations have witnessed further development. "We believe that after Bush's election as president, the US bipartisan China policy will continue," Tang said. The foreign minister said it is important to maintain stability and develop Sino-US relations. We are looking forward to working with the new US Government to promote the development in a sustained, sound and stable manner based on the three China-US Joint Communiques, Tang said. Stressing that the Taiwan question has always been the most important and sensitive question in Sino-US relations, he said the US Government should honor previous commitments. It should support the peaceful reunification of China, which is of vital importance to overall Sino-US relations and for stability in the Taiwan Straits. Eagleberger said that the US shoulders, as does China, responsibility for improving and developing bilateral relations. Eagleberger said the US-China relationship is now the key and most important of all its bilateral relations. He said that he would make every effort to improve and develop Sino-US relations.(China Daily) **** Ministry Declares War on Gangsters Cracking down on gangsterism will be a major task for the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in the next two years, said a high-profile official from the ministry, showing the ministry's firm determination to eradicate criminal gangs. Jia Chunwang, minister of public security, made the statement at a teleconference held last week in Beijing. Together with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Justice, Jia's ministry has declared war on criminal activities involving gangs. The MPS hopes that such activities will be brought under control within the two-year timeframe. Cai Shaoqing, an expert on the history of gangsterism in China, from Nanjing University, estimates that there are currently tens of thousands of gang members in the country. Such criminal activities "severely endanger public security and constitute a menace to peaceful life," the MPS says. Gang members always employ atrocious means by which to tyrannize common people and have become local dictators in some places. Some gangs even collude with overseas counterparts, according to an official with the MPS. In some places, cases of government officials conspiring with criminal gangs have also been reported. Police sources also indicate that many criminal groups in Beijing involve students aged between 14 and 16. Most crimes committed by gangs are serious offenses such as robbery, kidnapping, trafficking in narcotics and smuggling. In September, the police in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality shattered a gang which made a series of bank-robberies in Chongqing, Wuhan, and Changsha. The gangs are being charged with murdering 28 people and severely injuring 21 others in tens of cases since 1992. (China Daily) **** West Municipality Stresses Pollution Control The mega city in southwest China Chongqing has intensified its efforts to control pollution by shutting down four industrial polluting sources on December 15 in the city. The four polluting sources that were closed down were an old cement mill, an asphalt refinery, a chemical pulp manufacturing workshop of a copperplate paper mill and two old generator units of the Chongqing Power Plant. Situated in the upper reach areas of the Yangtze River, China's largest, Chongqing has long been famous for its long-term foggy weather all year around. Foggy weather makes frequent appearances in the city due to huge daily emissions of industrial soot and dust, which intermingle with rich vapor rising from two rivers, the Yangtze and its tributary Jialing River confluent at Chongqing. In recent years, the city's government issued the Chongqing Environment Protection Regulation, the Regulation on Controlling Pollution by Coal and Sulfur Dioxide and other pollution-control regulations. "Although these old enterprises had made significant contributions to local economic development, they must have to be closed down to reduce industrial pollution and improve the city's ecological environment," Bao Xuding, mayor of the city, said. Chongqing is one of major cities in the Three Gorges Reservoir, the world's largest, which is under construction. It is essential for the city to improve its environment in order to be a "garden- like" city, the mayor added. _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. 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