CRI 中国国际广播电台 2010-01-14(在线收听

Hello and Welcome to News and Reports on China Radio International

In This Edition

China joins the international community in sending rescue teams to assist with disaster relief in Haiti following a devastating earthquake.

Russia and the United States will restart talks on a new arms control treaty and try to reach a deal before the end of the year.

And railways in Beijing are expected to transport more than 20 million passengers during the coming Spring Festival travel season.

Hot Issue Reports

 

World Responds to Haiti Quake

 

Countries around the world are responding quickly to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti, after a devastating quake rocked the country.

 

China has sent rescue teams to assist with disaster relief in Haiti, including earthquake experts, construction workers and medical staff.

 

Hou Keshi, co-leader of China's national earthquake disaster emergency rescue team, said workers will first rescue people who have suffered severe wounds.

 

"All the team members have participated in many rescue missions. They are experts in first-aid treatment and surgery. The team comes with equipment for first aid that is efficient in such operations. We will first rescue the survivors onsite and transfer them to local hospitals if we can. If they are too seriously injured, we will carry out first-aid treatment on the spot the best way we can."

 

The Red Cross Society of China has announced it will donate one million U.S. dollars of emergency aid to Haiti.

 

Meanwhile, the United States has also promised to offer military and civilian aid to Haiti.

 

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton:

 

"The United States is offering our full assistance to Haiti and to others in the region. We will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. And our prayers are with the people who have suffered, their families and their loved ones."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro says his country will send a rescue team with 50 experts.

 

"President (Hugo) Chavez has ordered the experienced Simon Bolivar rescue team with 50 rescue experts to Haiti early tomorrow morning."

Canada, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Chile have also promised to help the quake-hit country.

 

Columbia says it is ready to receive refugees from Haiti.

 

The United Nations has confirmed that the headquarters of the UN mission in Haiti was seriously damaged and "a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."

 

Liu Xiangyang, Vice President of China's national earthquake disaster emergency rescue team, says eight Chinese peacekeepers in Haiti have been buried in the rubble, and 10 others are missing.

 

China has deployed 125 peacekeepers to Haiti, including six women.

 

UN Chief Calls for International Support in Wake of Devastating Haiti Quake


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued an urgent call to the international community to assist Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake that has devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation's capital.

 

Russia, U.S. to Resume Nuke Disarmament Talks in January

 

Russia and the United States will restart talks on a new arms control treaty and try to reach a deal before the end of the year.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the talks will begin this month.

 

"The talks on a new arms reduction treaty will resume. We reckon this will take place in the second half of January. The negotiating teams are doing homework now because a document of this size and significance should be judicially and even editorially checked to prevent different interpretations in the Russian and English texts. So the work is underway, and as soon as it is completed we'll announce the dates of signing."

 

The new deal will succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, also known as START-I (one), which expired on December 5th.

 

The former Soviet Union and the United States signed the START treaty in 1991. it obliged them to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.

 

U.S. president Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, agreed in July to cut the number of nuclear warheads each country has to between 1,500 and 1,675, and delivery vehicles to 500 to 1,000 under a new treaty.

 

NKorea Would Return to Nuclear Talks if Sanctions Lifted

 

North Korea's envoy to the United Nations says his nation is willing to conduct parallel talks on its nuclear program and on formally ending the Korean War, but only if all sanctions against it were lifted.

 

Ambassador Sin Son Ho described American and international sanctions as an expression of distrust that must be put aside before North Korea would rejoin talks to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

 

"We will return to the six party talks, certainly, if the sanctions are removed. How can we go to six party talks with sanctions. If have sanctions, sanctions have to be removed, we can return to the six party talks even now, immediately, that is our position."

 

He said starting talks to formally end the Korean War without first ending all sanctions would be impossible.

 

South Korea and the U.S. already have rejected a similar proposal outlined by North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Monday.

 

The allies insisted that North Korea take steps toward disarmament before any concessions on sanctions or a treaty would be made.

 

Wang Fan, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China's Foreign Affairs University, has been following the matter.

 

"Apparently, they did not accept the peace talk proposal because they did not trust North Korea. I think both sides should make an effort to improve the situation, try to modify the mechanism of the six-party talks, and discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula through a peaceful dialogue."

 

On Monday, North Korea called for talks with the United States on a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, Pyongyang said such a treaty would help revive the stalled six-party talks.

 

The Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean peninsula technically at war.

 

Light News

 

China Defines Gangland-style Organizations

 

The Chinese government has issued a white paper on gangland-style organizations in the country, specifying their various characteristics.

 

The defining document was issued by China's Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security.

 

Gao Jinghong, an official with a special department reasponsible for cracking down on organised crimes discussed the document at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

 

"Members of gangland-style organizations include organizers, leaders, main participants and other participants. The definition provides a more detailed basis for their conviction by judicial organizations."

 

Gao also says gangland-style organizations jeopardize society.

 

"The paper lists eight characteristics detailing how gangs jeopardize society, including how the gangs are formed, how they maintain control illegally, and their negative impact."

 

The Ministry of Public Security has made it a priority this year to target gangland-style organizations of all kinds that devour national resources, manage monopolies, and are involved in other kinds of crimes.

 

Insider Blames Market Tumble for Increase in Deposit Reserve Requirement Ratio

 

Major Chinese stock indexes fell the most in seven weeks Wednesday after the central bank asked lenders to set aside more reserves as record bank credit last year ignited fears of inflation and asset bubbles.

 

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 101.31 points, or more than 3 percent, to 3,173 points.

 

The Shenzhen Component Index lost more than 2 percent to close at 13,017 points.

 

Yang Chunli, chief analyst from China International Trust and Investment Corporation, explains why the markets tumbled.

 

"We had such signals before. For example, the decline of the loan amount, the public marketing operation by the Bank of China, and the dramatic jump in the interest rate of central bank bills. These are very clear signals. However, many investors are not so sensitive to the negative information, which resulted in today's situation."

 

The People's Bank of China, or PBOC, says it will raise the deposit reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points next Monday.

 

This is the first time since the end of 2008 that the PBOC has adjusted the ratio for the deposits that lenders are required to set aside. It is also the first increase in the ratio since June 2008.

 

The PBOC cut the bank reserve requirement ratio four times in the second half of 2008 to stimulate economic growth as the global financial crisis started to weigh on the economy.

 

Railway Stations Gear Up for Spring Festival Transportation Peak

 

As the annual Spring Festival draws near, hundreds of millions of Chinese studying or working outside their hometowns are starting to rush home for family reunions. Railways in Beijing are expected to transport more than 20 million passengers during the 40 days of the coming Spring Festival rush.

Official: Tibet Witnesses Great Development in Past Decade

Since the start of China's Western Development Plan a decade ago, more preferential policies and investment have poured into the Tibet Autonomous Region in the southwestern part of the country. Qiangba Puncog, the region's top official, says Tibet has benefited greatly from the 10-year plan.

Media Digest

Chinadaily: Infrastructure and Service Improvement Equally Important

The Ministry of Railways recently announced a new ID-based booking system to crack down on ticket touts during the annual transportation peak.

The system requires passengers to show their ID cards or other identification when purchasing train tickets at 37 stations in Guangdong, Hunan and Sichuan provinces.

An editorial in the China Daily says that while railway authorities have splashed out on transportation infrastructure projects, they also recognize the importance of investing in software to improve service.

It says that spending lots of money on building railways has become an effective way for the Chinese government to prop up badly needed domestic demand. However, the current capacity of railways is still far from enough to ensure that everyone can get their train ticket timely during the Spring Festival rush.

The author points out under such circumstances, the railway departments should tackle problems in its current operation to provide better service for customers. The new real-name ticket selling system is expected to root out scalpers to ease the ticket shortage for travelers.

It adds though the new system may cause longer lines at the ticket offices and during the time of boarding for its complicated procedure, railway authorities should not slow their pace to expand the pilot system nationwide. Instead, they should take it as a public call for better railway service that a massive investment in hardware alone cannot provide.

Beijing News: Put Students' Interests First When Combining Rural Schools

China's Ministry of Education has ordered local governments to slow down combining elementary and middle schools in various rural areas.

The number of elementary schools in China has been falling about 3.8 percent annually since 1978, while the number of middle schools has been dropping 2.6 percent each year.

An editorial in the "Beijing News" says closing down some rural schools or combining them with others is a good move. It shows a differentiated approach based on students' interests instead of rigid adherence to the policy.

The editorial argues that combining schools is right because the rural population will continue to fall as a result of the one-child policy, increasing migration and urbanization. But the problem is sometimes that the students themselves cannot get benefits. Some have to walk a long way to go to a new school, and some do not have dorm rooms. In some areas, old buildings have already been torn down before new ones are built.

The article argues that these problems have occurred because some local governments don't understand that the real meaning of the policy is to help rural children get a better education. In such a vast country as China, it is naturally not scientific to implement the policy without any differentiation.

The editorial suggests the central government undertake more research on the policy so it can issue more specific guidelines.
 

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/crizggjgbdt2010/105058.html