Commander Honored
Luan Enjie, Chief Commander of China's lunar probe project, has been named an Outstanding Contributor to the Chang'e 2 Lunar Probe Project. Two hundred other staff who participated in the huge project were also given the title
Outgoing WTO Envoy
Sun Zhenyu, China's ambassador to the WTO, has ended his nine-year tenure as China's first envoy to the WTO and returned to Beijing on December 21
Mathematics Forum President
Shing-Tung Yau, a professor at Harvard University and academician of the American Academy of Sciences, has become the president and advocator of the First Sanya International Mathematics Forum

"This treaty will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them."

U.S. President Barack Obama, commenting on the U.S.-Russian arms control treaty ratified by the Senate of the United States on December 22

"Maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsula is in the interest of both the South and the North of the Peninsula, as well as other parties. We strongly appeal to the parties involved to exercise maximum restraint, to act in a responsible manner and avoid increasing tensions."

Wang Min, Chinese Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, on the latest developments of the situation on the Korean Peninsula

"Despite uneven progress in Afghanistan, next summer's planned withdrawal will be more than a token reduction and the United States will be out of the country by 2014."

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, making a bold promise on U.S. troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan on December 19

"The total value of China's imports and exports are expected to exceed $2.9 trillion in 2010, an historic high."

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan, speaking at a press conference on December 17

"We have no choice but to keep friendly ties, and I come to Nanjing in that spirit."

Uichiro Niwa, Japanese Ambassador to China, during his visit in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, where more than 300,000 civilians were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops between December 1937 and January 1938

"China supports measures taken by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to stabilize Europe's debt crisis. China has also taken steps to help European nations combat the sovereign debt crisis."

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, at the opening of the third China-EU High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue in Beijing on December 21

"Local authorities must learn from the November 15 high-rise fire in Shanghai, to ensure safer places to live and work in for the people. The fire will forever be remembered by people, and forgetting it means missing a major chance to correct our mistakes."

Party Secretary of Shanghai Yu Zhengsheng, stressing learning lessons in the wake of a big fire in the city
 
FAIR PLAY On December 18, Wang Yuquan (left), a resident in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province who survived the catastrophic 8.0-magnitude earthquake in May 2008, uses a lottery machine to decide on the scheme for distributing homes in a rebuilt community to his fellow villagers (YU PING)
Timely Subsidies
China will raise the pensions for retired enterprise employees and increase living allowances for college students from impoverished families, against increased inflation
Grim Prospects
China is expected to meet its pollution control targets for the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), but challenges will be "fairly arduous" in the next development period, Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian said
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HOMECOMING MARKED
A flag-hoisting ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of Macao’s handover to China is held at the Golden Lotus Square in the special administrative region on December 20 (CHEONG KAM-KA)
ANCIENT DANCERS
A visitor takes pictures of wood sculptures dating back more than 1,000 years at an exhibition of music relics in the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on December 20 (LUO XIAOGUANG)
SEASON’S GREETINGS
On December 21, rural children in Chongqing who are separated from their parents working in cities mail New Year postcards to their parents (ZHOU HENGYI)
FESTIVAL DELICACY
Beijingers consume dumplings, a traditional treat for winter solstice in north China, in a restaurant on December 22 (WANG DAN)
 
RAIL ENDEAVOR The Yichang-Wanzhou Railway begins operating on December 22. The railway, linking Yichang of Hubei Province and Wanzhou District of Chongqing, is considered one of China's most expensive rail projects. The railway shortens the original travel time by five to nine hours (ZHAO JUNCHAO)
A Boost to Imports
An active import policy will help satisfy Chinese demand for production factors as the country transforms its economic development model and updates its industrial structure
RMB Bond Index
Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd. will launch the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Offshore RMB Bond Index on December 31, the first offshore renminbi bond index in Hong Kong
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Speeding Right Along
China's auto market remains bullish, dispelling worries over a possible slowdown. Vehicle sales across the nation grew a robust 26.9 percent in November from a year ago to reach nearly 1.7 million units
Loading U.S. Assets
For China, there are two ways to fend off risks about its asset safety—slow accumulation of foreign exchange reserves and diversifying government bonds from other countries
IPO Craze
The latest example is Beijing-based technology outsourcer iSoftStone that on December 14 debuted on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $141 million from its sales of 10.83 million American depositary receipts
more>>
  • Nuclear Security Summit
    Leaders pose at the first ever Nuclear Security Summit on April 13. On April 12-13, representatives from 47 nations—mostly heads of state or government—convened in Washington, D.C. to address non-conventional nuclear threats.

    Before the summit, on April 8, the United States and Russia signed the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to cut stockpiles of deployed strategic nuclear weapons. On December 22, the U.S. Senate ratified the new START treaty (LI XUEREN)
  • The New Frontiers of Terrorism
    Yemeni soldiers stop a motorcycle at a checkpoint in Sanaa on February 4.

    The Yemeni wing of Al Qaeda gained prominence in 2010, forcing the United States to intensify counterterror efforts in that country. The threat of terrorism continued to loom large, as evidenced by suicide bombings in Moscow subway stations, mail bomb attacks in Europe and frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan (XINHUA/AFP)
  • The Leaks Heard Around the World
    The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, speaks to the media after being granted bail in London on December 16.

    Throughout 2010, the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks disclosed classified diplomatic cables and thousands of U.S. military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and triggered worldwide controversy (XINHUA/AFP)
  • Tensions on the Korean Peninsula
    South Korean soldiers prepare for a landing exercise on a beach southwest of Seoul on November 28, as part of a U.S.-South Korea joint military drill.
    Tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated following the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, which killed 46 sailors. While Seoul claimed the vessel was torpedoed by North Korea, Pyongyang denied the charge. Eight months later, on November 23, North Korea shelled the Yeonpyeong Island, home to more than 1,000 South Korean residents, killing two marines and two civilians. Pyongyang claimed it was responding, after South Korean shells fell on its side of a disputed maritime border during a military exercise (XINHUA/AFP)
  • New Spat Over Diaoyu Islands
    A Chinese trawler (right), which collided with Japanese patrol ships in waters off the Diaoyu Islands on September 7, docks at a port in Okinawa two days after the incident.

    Japan returned the fishermen and trawler after repeated and strong representations by China, but detained the Chinese captain for 17 days and vowed to handle the case in accordance with domestic law. On December 18, the city assembly of Ishigaki in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan decided to mark January 14 as the day of the Japanese "pioneering" of the Diaoyu Islands. These moves damaged relations between China and Japan, who have long been at odds over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands (JI CHUNPENG)
  • Natural Disasters
    Residents search ruins in Port-au-Prince on January 26. A devastating earthquake rocked the Haitian capital on January 12, killing more than 200,000 people.

    This year has seen numerous natural disasters. The eruption of a volcano in Iceland caused air travel chaos across Europe in April. In July, heavy rains triggered the worst flooding in Pakistan's 63-year history, leaving one fifth of the country under water (XINHUA/AFP)
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