Opinion NewsUPDATED: 10:47, July 03, 2007 |
China's trade surplus reached 22.45 billion US dollars this May, 5.47 billion dollars more than in April, and next only to February in value. In the first five months, trade surplus accumulated to 85.72 billion dollars, up 83.1 percent year on year. "One Country, Two Systems", "Hong Kong's people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy in the authority over Hong Kong are familiar to all people. The "One Country, Two Systems" principle and the high degree of autonomy alone, can not subsist without the people of Hong Kong. People Daily Overseas Edition issues an editorial on Monday, or July 2, to greet the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, entitled "Great Concept, Successful Practice", and its detailed extracts are as follows: At the invitation of People's Daily Online, Xia Xueluan, a sociology professor at Peking University, Edith Sizoo, president of the Paris Panos Institute, and Jean-Paul Delattre, commissioner for the Charles Leopold Meyer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind mainly in charge of collaboration with China, visited the Strong China Forum on June 28th, and briefed netizens on the subject of the change in the cultural values of the Chinese and Europeans, from their own unique perspectives. On June 26th, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, by an overwhelming vote, passed a resolution urging Japan to apologize for forcing women to serve as sex slaves, known to the world as the "comfort women" issue during World War Two. Resolution 121 was approved 39-2. Russia is interested in partnership and cooperation, in the field of energy, with the countries of Southeastern Europe and all of Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 24th, at the Energy Summit of Southeast European Countries held in Zagreb, the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Hong Kong has followed a "wet and windy" road full of twists and turns in the past decade. Perhaps out of coincidence, the Asian Financial storm of a decade ago that started on July 2, 1997, the very second day after its return to Chinese sovereignty, engulfed most of East Asia and overwhelmed Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and a few other neighboring countries. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian King Abudula II, Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas£¬and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, held a meeting in the famous coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh, in order to resolve the Palestinian crisis. A US resolution has been passed by a Congressional Committee condemned Japan's role in forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives approved the resolution by an overwhelming majority of 39 to 2 on Tuesday, or June 26. The resolution has stirred the very sensitive nerve of the Japanese government, as it urges the Japanese prime minister not only to make public statement of apology but to refute Japanese officials' remarks for the denial of the issue on "sex slaves" or "comfort women" openly and explicitly. Furthermore, the resolution demands the Japanese government conduct the correct education in history among people across the nation. July 1, 2007 is the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to its motherland of China. How has One China Two Systems changed the economic and financial development of Hong Kong? Why could Hong Kong survive so many crises and challenges since after its handover to Mainland? How is the prospect of Hong Kong's economy in the years to come? In order to get answers, Yong Tang, a Washington-based correspondent of People's Daily, recently conducted an interview with Dr. Jeffrey A. Bader. What has been the genuine effect in a decade after Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty? This question has arrested not only the attention of people across China, but given rise to a flurry of discussion around the world. The World Wild Fund (WWF) last month issued organization's vision for 2050, drafted by 100 scientists and meteorologists in Geneva, Switzerland. The report points out that the world has enough sustainable energy and new technology to satisfy the world's increasing energy demand, while reducing CO2 emissions by sixty to eighty percent. To solve the excessive foreign exchange (forex) reserve problem, China is preparing to establish a state forex investment company. Besides creating important systems and making policies, whether should one hire an experienced manager (who is either foreign or Chinese), is also a very important and sensitive issue. Hong Kong has enjoyed a remarkable decade after its return to the motherland. Since the concept of an EU constitution was put forward in 2004, opinions have been mixed among EU member countries. Some countries said "yes" and some said "no". For instance, France and the Netherlands, two founders of European communities, opposed the adoption of the EU constitution. That was enough reason for Europeans to ask themselves why. Reflection on this issue lasted for two years, and governments of member states waited to see what kind of obstacles would be in store in the process of adopting the constitution. After thirty-six hours of marathon negotiations, on the early morning of June 23rd, the European Union summit in Brussels finally reached a "road map" agreement on a newly revised treaty to replace its failed constitution. The new draft inherited the constitution's spirit of enhancing efficiency in decision-making and giving the EU a bigger role in the international arena by retaining major goals including improving the mechanism for decision-making and giving more power to the highest representative of foreign affairs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating role as chair, declared that "we're moving out of stagnancy and reflection". The EU will again get back on the road. Javier Solana, the European Union (EU)'s high representative for the common foreign and security policy, and Ali Larijani, the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator, had a new round of talks in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon last Saturday, or June 23. Again, no substantial outcome came out of the talks as people had anticipated. And their talks are scheduled to continue in the next three weeks. Debates, with the China topic as themes, have been turned increasingly heated in the United States in the first half of the year. One faction in these debates attrobutes the initial ¡°decline¡± of the United States to the rise of China, which has become a threat of the further development of the U.S. How demagogic such views are as they have really gone too far indeed. As one of the three pillars supporting the development of world economy since World War II, the World Trade Organization (or WTO) is a UN specialized agency for international trade issues as the trade arm of the Bretton Woods system, with an importance parallel to the "monetary arm" (the IMF) and the "financial arm" (the World Bank). And as the head of this important institution, Mr. Pascal Lamy is also highly revered for his dual professionalism on the double tracks of politics (as former European Commissioner for Trade) and business (as CEO of Credit Lyonnais). On June 5th, China.com published an article titled "Attention: Microsoft Stealing Chinese state secrets,": which immediately became a hot topic for discussion. Is Microsoft's operating system, reported by Norton through the "back door":, built with a secret surveillance program on China by the United States government? Here, I will call it the "Backdoor": Incident. I think Microsoft should give us an explanation. The news on China's plan to build a road up to a base camp of Mount Qomolangma (known as Mt. Everest in the West) has drawn sustained media attention overseas. Quite a few Western media organs have voiced worries about the environment in their reports, whereas in India, China's giant neighbor to the southwest, there are also a lot of worries for the "security reason" in addition to those concerns about environment protection. Ranking officials of some Indian political parties openly claimed that China wants to erode Indian territories despite the irrefutable fact that the world's highest peak is located on the Sino-Nepalese border instead of being on the Sino-India border. Since the US Department of Commerce has issued a new regulation on controlling exports of high-tech products to China, experts believe that the progress on the trade surplus issue will be made in vain. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded, on Tuesday, that the US should be responsible for any negative consequences. China-US trade relations are facing new variables. Analysts believe that the US would rather forfeit in the trade deficit issue for reasons of "security." It has been difficult to avoid the issue during the fourth China-US strategic dialogue which began on Wednesday. On the 18th, Palestinian National Authority Chairman, Mahmud Abbas, announced the dismissal of the safety committee, originally set up with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in order to solve the issue of the command the security forces. Some "old debts" of the U.S. army in Iraq have been recently dug out again. Former U.S. army Major General, Antonio M. Taguba, who led investigations of detainee abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in the suburbs of Baghdad, broke his silence recently with a claim that he was forced by the Pentagon to retire from the army because he was "too enthusiastic" about the investigations. He also accused some senior commanders of being involved in the world-shocking scandal, especially then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who, Taguba is convinced, must have known the truth. Giving and receiving bribes are both crimes, but China's courts traditionally mete out heavy penalties to those who take bribes while letting off the people who give bribes as long as they confess. There are several explanations for China's economic achievements, but of all of them, a high rate of savings has been the most important factor. An article on China's Internet politics, published recently in the Learning Times newspaper, has aroused much attention on the Internet. The article explains that Internet politics refers to the phenomenon that the public can participate in politics and discuss politics through the Internet; while the politicians can communicate with the public through the internet. It also points out that the Internet has deeply changed the political environment in China and has provided a new method and channel for the development of democratic politics. Thus, it also calls on Chinese leaders to adapt to the development of Internet politics. Drastic changes in Gaza have shocked the United States. The media say the recent events indicated the failure of Israel's Palestinian policy, and are also natural outcomes of the Bush administration's six years of negligence. However, the U.S. and Israel seemed to have uncovered an opportunity from this incident, from which they can both avail themselves. Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, arrived in Washington to discuss and coordinate with President Bush, the two nations' new strategies within Palestinian. Six consecutive years of GDP growth above 12 percent. Double-digit increases in per capita net income for farmers and herdsmen four years in a row. At the invitation of People's Daily Online, ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to China, Sultanov Lamil, paid a visit to the Strong China Forum on June 14th, during which he talked freely about the issues of common concern; from Kyrgyzstan's policy on China to Chinese president Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to the central Asian country, and answered questions posed by netizens. |
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