Food Safety Emphasized

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi emphasized that international food safety issues should be settled through friendly consultation, instead of finger- pointing and groundless blaming.

Speaking at the High-Level International Food Safety Forum, she recognized that gaps exist between China and "advanced levels" of food safety monitoring around the world and called for international cooperation in this regard.

"I sincerely hope that developed countries can provide more help to developing countries to raise their standardization level, improve food production technology and strengthen food safety supervision," she said.

"We disagree with biased, incomplete reports and pure condemnation that are blind to the facts, and are opposed to setting trade barriers under the pretext of food safety issues and politicizing the issue."

Wu said that food safety was the highest priority of the Chinese Government and added that the country's efforts to improve food quality were paying off.

Stick to Energy Efficiency

The Chinese Government plans to spend 23.5 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) this year to raise energy efficiency and cut pollutant emissions, a senior finance official said recently.

The pricing regimes for energy and resources will also be reformed, and charges raised for wastewater treatment, said Zhang Shaochun, Vice Minister of Finance, at a national conference on energy efficiency.

Of the fund, 7 billion yuan ($947.2 million) will be earmarked as grants to encourage major energy-efficient projects, Zhang said.

Grants used to be disbursed based on the value of projects, but Zhang said the amount now will depend on how much energy projects can save.

During the 2006-10 period, energy-efficient technological upgrading is expected to save 130 million tons of coal equivalent, Zhang said.

Care for AIDS

China provided free anti-retroviral therapy for 37,497 AIDS patients between September 2003 and September 2007, the Ministry of Health said on November 27.

Also, 771 HIV-positive children received free treatment, the ministry said on its official website.

The government also promised free HIV consulting and screening, free therapy to interrupt mother-to-infant transmission, free infant HIV testing and financial assistance to orphans whose parents died of AIDS.

"By September this year, the free therapy program had expanded to 1,154 counties across China," the ministry said, adding that free HIV consulting and screening services had improved, with 4,293 disease control centers and public clinics providing services.

China had 183,733 officially registered HIV/AIDS cases in 2006, but experts from the Ministry of Health and international organizations estimated there were likely more 650,000 people living with the disease in the country.

Pollution Response Exercise

China's environmental watchdog and the Jilin Provincial Government jointly conducted a computer simulation of a river pollution emergency on November 26.

Using a geographic information system (GIS), an explosion was simulated at a chemical plant in Jiutai City of Jilin Province and 10 tons of pollutants spilled into the Songhuajiang River in an apparent bid to right the wrongs of a real-life incident two years ago.

In November 2005, 100 tons of polluted waste containing benzene spilled into the Songhuajiang River after a chemical plant explosion in Jilin. The incident forced cities along the river, including Heilongjiang's provincial capital Harbin, to cut water supplies to 3.8 million people for four days.

This time, albeit digitally, the chemical plant immediately stopped production, began the repair work and reported the accident to the local government, which lead to the incident being immediately resolved.

The Golden Fair

The China International Gold, Jewelry & Gem Fair - Shanghai 2007, organized by CMP China Ltd., China Gold Association and Shanghai STEO Exhibition Co. Ltd., will be held from November 29 to December 2 at Shanghai Exhibition Center.

Continuing last year's success, this year's event will attract over 150 exhibitors from nine countries and regions including the United States, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Nepal, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey and Sri Lanka, to feature their fabulous jewelry products.

Apart from individual exhibitors, the fair also features group pavilions, including one from Sri Lanka, and the unprecedented presence of Turkey.