Minister: China risks environmental disaster

Minister: China risks environmental disaster

(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 08:08

China must sharply improve environmental protection or it could face disaster following two decades of breakneck growth that have poisoned its air, water and soil, the country's top environmental official warned Saturday.

Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, speaks at a news conference in Beijing March 11, 2006. [newsphoto]

The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that more than half of China's 21,000 chemical companies are near the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which provide drinking water for tens of millions of people, and accidents could lead to "disastrous consequences."

"Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very weak," Zhou Shengxian said at a news conference during the annual meeting of the National People's Congress. "It's only delaying disaster."

China's cities are among the world's smoggiest, and the government says its major rivers are badly polluted, leaving hundreds of millions of people without clean drinking water.

'River thaw not to cause new pollution'

Russian and Chinese experts have concluded the thaw of the frozen Songhua River, where a severe toxic chemical spill happened last year, will not cause pollution again this spring, Zhou said.

The conclusion, made by nearly 1,000 experts after complicated tests and analysis in the past days, said that fish in the river and dairy products made by farms along the river can be eaten safely, said Zhou.

"I am very happy to hear that the conclusion of the supervision tests made by the Russian side is completely the same to ours.

"The final conclusion is that this spring, the Songhua River will not have a second incident of pollution," he said at a news conference during the annual session of China's parliament.

A blast at a PetroChina chemical factory on November 13, 2005, in Northeast China's Jilin Province, spewed at least 100 tonnes of toxic benzene into the river.

It formed an 80 kilometre-long slick, which slowly moved downstream as the river was icing, leaving 4 million people in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, without tap water for days.

The toxic slick reached neighbouring Russia in the middle of December, causing great concern over the safety of drinking water.

Many people have been worried about more pollution problems as the ice of the river begins to melt in warmer weather.

Water tests in Russia revealed the pollution presented no danger to people, Russian officials have been quoted by agencies as saying.

Zhou also revealed that the Chinese Government is making major efforts to avoid similar pollution incidents in the future caused by those chemical factories located along rivers and lakes.

China has more than 21,000 chemical enterprises and factories. At least half of them are built along the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, two "mother rivers" of China.

"The result would be terrible if incidents happened in these factories," Zhou told reporters.

A national investigation on these factories was carried out before the end of January.

The problems have been caused by China's rapid economic development, which has sometimes been at the expense of environmental protection, Zhou said.

"It is impossible to solve these problems overnight," he said.

His predecessor, Xie Zhenhua, resigned after the Songhua incident.

New guidelines have since been drawn up that clearly specifies the objectives, tasks and policy measures for environmental protection in the future.

The ability to protect the environment will become a vital measure as to whether officials at various levels are qualified or not in their roles, the guidelines state.

In 2005, nearly 30,000 environmental infringement cases were investigated and sanctioned. Among them, 2,609 enterprises were suppressed or closed down, and more than 300 people punished.

Top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao, have promised at the annual session that China is devoted to building an energy-saving and environment-friendly society in the coming five years and beyond.

The previous ignorance in environmental protection has made China pay a lot in the past several years. In the first four years of the State's 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), China invested a total of 600.6 billion yuan (US$72.3 billion) in pollution prevention and control.

Governor: Renminbi reform on sound track

Governor: Renminbi reform on sound track
By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:33

China will reform its foreign exchange system in an orderly way and will not bend to pressure from the US to float the yuan, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China.

China has its "own principles" to carry out its exchange rate reform and the current rate is appropriate, Zhou told reporters at the sideline of the annual session of National People's Congress (NPC) on Saturday.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China [newsphoto/file]

In response to the recent fall of the yuan on the international market, Zhou said it was mainly determined by the supply and demand force in the market. He said that the dollar was a little stronger against the euro and the yen, thus affecting the yuan.

Zhou said that although the main theme of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in April is about the global economic disparity, discussion with the US on bilateral issues would be also unavoidable, without elaborating whether currency reform will be involved.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow again urged China to float its exchange rate on Friday. There are reports that he is under mounting pressure from the US lawmakers to label China a currency manipulator in a report due in April. US President George W. Bush also said that he would adopt further movement to press China to appreciate its currency soon.

The yuan has floated less than one per cent since the central government revalued it and discarded its peg on the greenback on July 21 last year.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in this year's government report that China will improve the system of managed floating foreign currency exchange rates and keep the Renminbi exchange rate basically stable at an appropriate and balanced level.

FM: Ambassador to Japan 'excellent'

FM: Ambassador to Japan 'excellent'
By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:33

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing praised China's ambassador to Tokyo on Saturday, describing him as an "excellent and experienced" diplomat.

Wang Yi speaks to reporters in Beijing in this August 29, 2003 photo. Wang was then a vice foreign minister. [newsphoto]

China's ambassador to Japan Wang Yi ignored Japanese Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Shotaro Yachi's repeated calls on Wednesday, saying he was busy, it has been reported.

"Wang Yi is a senior diplomat, he is loyal to his country and devoted to the cause of Sino-Japanese friendship development," Li said, singing highly of Wang's ability to deal with unexpected matters.

Surrounded by reporters from home and abroad, Li made the comments on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress.

Japan wanted to lodge a protest after Li, in his annual press conference on Tuesday, commented on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which hosts many World War II war criminals.

Yachi eventually talked to Wang over the phone late on Wednesday afternoon, and the two officials had heated exchanges.

However, Wang did visit the Foreign Ministry on Thursday to lodge a protest over Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso' comment on the same day, referring to Taiwan as a "law-governed country."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday on its website, claiming Aso's comment as "brutal interference in China's internal affairs and territorial sovereignty." It said the Chinese side was "shocked and infuriated," and had expressed a strong protest to diplomats from the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

'Our living legacy must be guarded'

'Our living legacy must be guarded'
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:30

Call it "tangible" progress: Authorities yesterday pledged action, and legislators sought earlier legislation, for better protection of intangible cultural heritage, especially by stopping treasures being spirited away from the country.

Vice-Minister of Culture Zhou Heping [Xinhua/file]

"Some foreigners have been collecting traditional costumes and ornaments, rare utensils and other articles in China's ethnic minority regions; they have procured so much that some even say that we have to go to their countries to study Chinese folk culture," said Vice-Minister of Culture Zhou Heping.

The ingenious craftsmanship, especially the skills passed on from generation to generation, inherent in these cultural symbols have made apparel and utensils an integral part of China's intangible cultural heritage, the official told China Daily.

Intangible cultural heritage is defined by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization) as "the practices, representations, expressions, as well as the knowledge and skills, that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage."

For example, Zhou said, the unique attire and adornments of the Miao ethnic minority in Southwest China's Guizhou Province have been taken away by foreign visitors "in large numbers" in recent years.

Since the 1980s, some foreign scholars have been fascinated by the traditional Miao costumes with rich designs and silver adornments in the remote southeastern part of Guizhou. They took home some pieces, generating great interest overseas in the clothing.

A "procurement corps" has gradually formed, with middlemen purchasing the apparel in the province paying a nominal price which is a fortune for the poor folk according to Ministry of Culture sources.

A private museum in France boasts a collection of at least 180 pieces of rare traditional Miao apparel, 108 of them from southeast Guizhou, Chongqing-based Times & Truth News reported.

"The loss of such treasures constitutes a threat to preserving our minority and folk culture," Zhou said. "It must be checked."

To preserve intangible cultural heritage, experts have chosen 501 examples from more than 1,300 contenders throughout the country, including craftsmanship and festive rituals, to be put on a State-level protection list to be announced soon, the vice-minister said.

Regulations are needed to ensure that stipulated items on the list are forbidden from being taken out of the country, he said.

"It needs the joint efforts of the ministry, the customs and public security, as well as increased awareness of society to help stem the losses," Zhou added.

Li Kuinan, a national lawmaker, said yesterday that a provisional rule must be put into place as soon as possible to curb further outflows of the "treasures."

Ultimately, the country has to make a law on safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage at the earliest possible time, said Li, a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, which ends its session tomorrow.

Li told China Daily that she and 30 other deputies had submitted a legislation proposal in which they called for special departments at State and local levels to be created, and funds earmarked, to prevent increasing globalization and modernization from eroding such legacies.

Individuals who contribute to collecting, maintaining and popularizing intangible cultural heritage should be rewarded, the lawmakers said in their proposed bill.

Both Zhou and Li said special attention must be paid to rural areas, which is the natural habitat of most of the country's intangible heritage, when China implements a massive revival strategy for the countryside.

"By no means should the rural regions commit the same error as the cities where development was achieved mostly at the cost of many traditions fading away and legacies eroded," Zhou said.