| Newly Elected President
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(XINHUA) |
Zhang Xinsheng, initiator and Secretary General of the Eco-Forum Global—an unofficial, international high-end platform—was inaugurated as the president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Jeju, South Korea, on September 15. He is the first East Asian chairman in the 64-year history of the organization.
This year's IUCN World Conservation Congress was held in Jeju from September 6 to 15. More than 10,000 people from over 180 countries attended the conference to discuss 176 proposals.
Founded in 1948, the Gland, Switzerland-based IUCN is an organization aimed at protecting the natural environment. Currently it has more than 1,200 members, including over 200 government organizations and 900 non-governmental organizations from over 160 countries.
Zhang stated in his inauguration speech that he would work together with the members of the IUCN to make contributions to global environmental protection, the safety of the Earth and the development of humankind.
Fewer Chinese cities saw home price increases in August as the country continued efforts to curb rising property prices and speculation.
In August, 36 cities, down from 50 in July, recorded higher new home prices than a month earlier, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 18.
Compared with July, new home prices in 20 cities declined in August, up from nine in July, while 14 cities saw their new home prices unchanged, showed the NBS data from a pool of 70 cities.
However, on a year-on-year basis, 14 out of the 70 cities witnessed new home price increases of up to 1.3 percent in August.
Recent government policies to bolster a slowing economy, including interest rate cuts in June and July, helped boost the pent-up demand for housing and fuel expectations of price rises.
On September 17, China filed a case against the United States to the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO on its amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930 (GPX bill).
China claimed the bill is inconsistent with WTO rules on transparency and procedural justice and requested consultations with United States.
Shen Danyang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on December 19, 2011, in a dispute that the U.S. Department of Commerce did not have legal authority to launch countervailing investigations against non-market economy countries.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed the bill in March. It is believed to clear legal obstacles for the United States to impose punitive tariffs over "non-market economy countries."
The United States rapidly passed the GPX bill in less than three months with a retroactive period dating back to November 20, 2006, instead of correcting its wrongdoing in accordance with the verdict of the court, said Shen. The dispute involves 24 types of products worth about $7.23 billion, he said.
The People's Bank of China, the central bank, released a financial reform plan for the 2011-15 period on September 17.
The plan includes reforms regarding the marketization of exchange and interest rates and the convertibility of the yuan under the capital account, as well as plans to encourage more private capital to enter the financial sector.
Government intervention regarding small-scale financial activities will be reduced and the government's role will be further clarified during the reform process.
Authorities will encourage private capital to participate in the reform of banks, securities firms and insurance companies, as well as guide private capital to expand investment in financial organizations.
The government will also support private capital in setting up rural banks, credit companies and capital cooperatives.
By 2015, the value-added output of the country's financial industry will account for 5 percent of its GDP, while the value of direct financing by non-financial organizations will account for at least 15 percent of the total social financing value.
China's wind power capacity will see a growth of 15 to 18 gigawatts (GW) this year after the country became the world's leading wind power producer in 2011, according to a report released on September 18.
The report on China's wind power outlook, jointly released by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace, forecast that China's wind power sector will maintain this steady growth momentum.
China installed 17.63 GW of new wind power capacity in 2011, accounting for 43 percent of the world's total. The country remained the world's largest wind power producer with an accumulated capacity of 62.36 GW in 2011, representing 26.2 percent of the world's total wind power capacity, according to the report.
China hopes to have an accumulated on-grid wind power capacity of more than 100 GW by 2015 and 200 GW by 2020, said the National Energy Administration. | 
