Boeing Statement on Agreement With China for Next-Generation 737s
 
   The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA - News) is pleased to have signed the general purchase agreement today with China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group for 80 Boeing Next-Generation 737 airplanes.
ADVERTISEMENT
 
 
The 80 airplanes in the agreement combine with 70 airplanes agreed to in November 2005 to complete a planned 150-airplane purchase. The first 50 of those Next-Generation 737 airplanes were booked in December 2005 with an additional 20 booked in January 2006.

Boeing expects to finalize agreements for the 80 new orders with the individual Chinese airlines over the next few weeks.

The 737 is ideally suited for the Chinese market and represents a large portion of the country's fleet. Of the 542 Boeing airplanes in China's fleet, 366 are 737 family aircraft. The 737 family of aircraft comprises 41 percent of China's passenger airplanes.

China against US NSS report: spokesman
 
    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here Monday that China has made a strong representation against the United States for its wrong opinions on China in the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) report issued recently.

    Qin made the remark when answering a question on China's reaction to the U.S. NSS report which confirmed China's representation in Asian economic achievements but also interfered in China's internal affairs.

    Qin said the report on the one hand said China shares many common interests with the United States and the two countries should strengthen cooperation in fields of anti-terrorism and non-proliferation, but on the other hand, made irresponsible remarks to groundlessly reproach China's domestic and foreign policies, and interfered in China's internal affairs.

    "China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" with the above wrong doings of the United States and has made strong representations against the U.S. side," Qin said.

    He said China is a major force in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, and China has already decided its domestic and foreign policies and development direction.

 "That is to firmly take the socialist road with Chinese characteristics andpeaceful development road, and adhere to an independent foreign policy of peace. China is dedicating itself to building a peaceful, friendly, cooperative and harmonious world with other nations," Qin said.

    He said China has made great economic and social achievements since it started reforms and opening up 28 years ago. The living conditions of Chinese people have been greatly improved and the citizens have enjoyed an increasingly higher level of human rights.

    China carries out a national defense policy which is defensivein nature and its limited national defense strength is targeted for self-defense, Qin said.

    He said China has conducted economic and energy cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefits, and this is completely rightful and beyond reproach.

    "China's development has brought about unprecedented opportunities for the Asian-Pacific region as well as the world onthe whole, and contributed to maintaining world peace and common development," Qin said, adding that this is obvious to all and has been confirmed by the international community.

    On the Taiwan issue, he said he hopes the U.S. side will strictly stick to its commitments of adhering to the one-China policy, abiding by the three Sino-U.S. communiques and opposing "Taiwan independence".

    The Chinese government has a consistent, definite and firm policy in solving the Taiwan issue. China will make its utmost efforts to solve the issue in a peaceful manner, but will never tolerate "Taiwan independence" and will never allow anyone to secede Taiwan from the motherland under any name or by any means, said Qin, calling on the U.S. side not to make any wrong signals to the "Taiwan independence" activists.

    Qin said the development of constructive partnership of cooperation between China and the United States is in the common interests of both countries and the two peoples and at the same time conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

    "We ask the U.S. side to stop releasing remarks that are harmful to the healthy development of the Sino-U.S. relations, to mutual understanding and to regional peace, stability and development," said Qin.

    "We hope the U.S. side will take feasible measures to eliminate the harmful influence of the related remarks and opinions in the report and fulfill the consensus reached by the two state heads to fully promote the constructive partnership of cooperation in the 21st century with concrete acts, to safeguard the stable and healthy development of bilateral relations and the fundamental common interests of the two countries," Qin said.

US National Guard soldiers file $73m lawsuit against govt

 A group of Massachusetts National Guard soldiers sued the state and federal governments Wednesday, seeking tens of millions of dollars in living expenses since the Sept. 11 attacks that they say were never reimbursed.

    The lawsuit appears to be the first of its kind in the U.S. Army National Guard, which has faced heavy demands since Sept. 11, 2001, lawyers involved in the case said.

    The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by four soldiers, but it seeks to include hundreds of other guardsmen as a class action. It names the U.S. Department of Defense and the Massachusetts National Guard and seeks a total of $73 million in unpaid expenses.

    The soldiers, who are from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, say they traveled hundreds of miles to security postings -- such as Quabbin Reservoir, the Boston area's primary water supply -- and used their own money for gas, food and lodging, expecting to be paid back.

    But their requests for compensation were repeatedly denied until they were told by their commanding officers that they could be taken off their missions if they didn't stop asking for reimbursement, the soldiers say in their complaint. The response, they say, had a "chilling effect."

    "Plaintiffs concluded they could not seek the ... reimbursement compensation they felt they were owed, without extreme and negative repercussions on their military careers," the complaint reads.

    The plaintiffs say that if the soldiers had been reimbursed properly, the state would have paid out tens of thousands of dollars per day in expenses, based on a minimum of $126 per day for every soldier in the roughly 320 Guard jobs involved in the mission.

    The plaintiffs multiplied that daily cost by the 1,570 days of the post-Sept. 11 mission to get the $73 million estimate, said John Shek, their attorney.

    The Massachusetts National Guard was investigating the allegations and had no immediate comment, said spokesman Major Winfield Danielson.

(Agencies)
 

blogme blogchina chianblog blogcn cnblog zhongsou baidublog

gooblog publog ico gblog linu blogline blog blogcity monster overblog jroller

EU extends surveillance measures against bird flu 
 
The European Union (EU) on Wednesday extended requirements for the on-going surveillance of wild birds and poultry for avian influenza until the end of this year.

    The decision was backed by a committee of member states' experts, named the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) in EU's jargon.

    The EU executive European Commission will provide up to 2 million euros (about 2.4 million U.S. dollars) in co-funding for laboratory tests carried out on poultry and wild birds for avian influenza.

    EU member states must submit their national surveillance programs to the Commission for approval by February 7, after which the allocation of funds will be agreed.

    The Commission already provided nearly 1 million euros (about 1.2 million dollars) towards the costs of surveillance programs from July 2005 to the end of January 2006.

    This next phase of funding will cover the period from the start of February to the end of December this year.

    Under EU's surveillance program, around 25,000 wild birds have been tested for avian influenza and all samples have tested negative for the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.
 

China restates yuan to rise gradually 
 

    BEIJING, Dec. 13 -- China on Monday poured cold water on speculation that its bulging trade surplus could trigger a dramatic shift in currency policy, restating instead that the yuan is likely to keep rising only gradually.

    The German magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported on December 2 that China was preparing to revalue the yuan by 7.2 percent against the dollar on January 1.

    Talk that something was afoot was further fueled the next day when finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial countries urged China to make good on its commitment to a more flexible currency to help correct global economic imbalances.

    But asked about a possible revaluation or a widening in the yuan's trading band, central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan told reporters: "There is no such thing. It's nonsense."

    China revalued the yuan, also known as the renminbi, by 2.1 percent against the dollar on July 21 and swapped an 11-year-old dollar peg for a managed float that lets the currency rise or fall by 0.3 percent a day against the dollar.

    Chinese policy makers are conscious of the friction that the trade surplus is generating and are striving to reduce the economy's reliance on exports and related investments.

    The trade surplus tripled to more than $90 billion in the first 11 months of the year, and an influential official said that reducing the surplus should be one of Beijing's economic priorities next year.

    To that end, the authorities will boost imports of raw materials and high-technology goods while strengthening consumption, Liu He, a vice head within a policy-setting division of the central government, told an economic forum.

    China is also paving the way for a more flexible yuan by developing hedging instruments that banks and companies need to deal with increased currency risk.

    But Yu Yongding, an adviser to the central bank, said it was not clear how much currency policy could do to reduce the surplus.

    "If we are optimistic about China's economy, we cannot deny the premise that the renminbi will gradually appreciate. But how it appreciates and to what extent, and where the equilibrium exchange rate is, are very difficult questions to answer," Yu, a prominent academic who sits on the central bank's monetary policy committee, told the same forum.

    Yu, for one, is optimistic about the outlook for the economy, which grew 9.5 percent in 2003 and 2004 and will come close to that mark once again this year.

    "At the start of 2005, some people were predicting a slowdown in growth. That proved wrong. I want to make a bet that China will maintain economic growth around 9 percent in 2006," Yu said.

    In most countries, such a long period of strong growth would have ignited inflation by now. But in China, gluts stemming from overinvestment in many industries is keeping a lid on prices.

    Wu Jinglian, an economist with the Development Research Center, a think-tank under the State Council, said the failure to rein in capital spending had been the biggest flaw in executing the current five-year economic plan, which ends this year.

    Wu said the solution was for China to change its very development model by letting the market, not the authorities, have more influence over the allocation of capital: "There are some fields where the government should keep its hands off."

    Data from the National Bureau of Statistics underscored that inflation remains tame. Consumer prices in November rose 1.3 percent from a year earlier, up from 1.2 percent in October but below market forecasts of a 1.5 percent increase.

    While the cost of food and services rose, the price of cars and other consumer goods that are in abundant supply fell.

    "We still see strong service price inflation but some risks of core consumer goods price deflation," said Ben Simpfendorfer, a strategist with Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong.  Enditem

    (Source: China Daily/Reuters)
 
http://dingblog.blogdrive.com

Trade union members surpass 150 mln 
 

    BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The total number of China's trade union members has surpassed 150 million in 2005, up 9.7 percent year on year, the Workers' Daily reported here Monday.

    The number of trade union organizations at various levels has reached 1.174 million, up 15.1 percent over the previous year, sources with All-China Federation of Trade Unions was quoted by the paper as saying.

    Meanwhile, the trade union aid network has been set up in this year, the paper reported, saying that 310 aid centers for needy workers have been established and 1 billion yuan (about 125 million US dollars) has been distributed to needy workers by the end of last September.
 
http://dingblog.blogeasy.com

Greeks apologize to Shanghai tourists 
 
    BEIJING, Dec. 13 -- Greek authorities were all apologies when a group of 41 tourists returned to Shanghai on Sunday after a trip to Greece. The tourists were detained at customs for 25 hours when they tried to get into Athens two weeks ago.

    Greece blames the detention on computer problems, but the tourists seem more upset with their travel agency than the Greeks.

    "It is a huge misunderstanding," said Demetris Anninos, the Greek consul general in Shanghai. "We had a computer malfunction at customs and the time difference between Shanghai and Athens worsened the problem."

    The group arrived in Athens at 3pm on November 28, and were held at the airport until 4pm the next day. Anninos said a Greek official was sent to the airport to solve the problem. However, as the ministry of tourism in Athens was closed at the time, both the tourists and the Greek authorities had to wait.

    On the night of November 29, the tourists were treated to dinner by the Greece Tourism Organization. They also received a sincere apology from the president of the organization.

    "We did get apologies both in Athens and in Shanghai from the Greek authorities," confirmed by Liu Xiaode, one of the travelers. "Now it's the travel agency that really upsets us."

    The group tour was organized by the Shanghai Yangtze International Travel. According to Liu, the group was passing through Greek customs at four different windows when the first problems arouse.

    "The tour leader did not collect our visas," said Liu. " He also failed to offer the name of our hotel in Athens to the customs officers."

    Tour leaders are supposed to collect visas from every member of their tour group so that they can all pass customs at the same time. They should also know who organized the tour and where the tourists will be staying in Greece, according to Anninos.

    "We can guarantee such an incident will never happen again," he said. "We will continue to promote the tourism market between China and Greece."

    Anninos said Greece is also looking to add Mandarin speaking employees to its airports.

    The number of Shanghai locals visiting Greece is currently growing by about 10 percent a month. Enditem

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)
 
http://dingblog.ebloggy.com