BEIJING - An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale jolted Yingjiang County in Southwest China's Yunnan province at 12:58 am Beijing Time Thursday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
The epicenter, with a depth of 10 kilometers, was monitored at 24.7 degrees north latitude and 97.9 degrees east longitude, the center said.
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a state visit to Russia this year at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a press conference Monday.
Yang said last year China-Russia relations achieved a lot of good results, and leaders of the two countries reached consensus on further deepening China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination.
"China-Russia relations have been lifted to a higher level," he said.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, and the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination, according to Yang.
The two sides will seize the opportunities to further advance their strategic partnership of coordination, he said.
He said the two countries will work together to step up their cooperation on some key projects in such fields as economy and trade, high technology as well as their exchanges at the local level; to institutionalize the popular activities under the framework of National Year and Language Year between the two countries; and to step up their cooperation in regional and international organizations and enhance collaboration and coordination in addressing regional hot-spot issues.
Yang said that in a world China and Russia are good neighbors, friends and partners, trust and credibility form the foundation of all undertakings.
"This is a major conclusion we we have drawn from the growth of China-Russia relations. It is also an important guarantee for the sustained, coordinated and steady development of China-Russia ties," he said.
Yang made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.
BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The draft of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) was submitted Saturday to the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature for reviewing.
Following are key targets of the draft:
Economic targets
-- GDP to grow by 7 percent annually on average;
-- More than 45 million jobs to be created in urban areas;
-- Urban registered unemployment to be kept no higher than 5 percent;
-- Prices to be kept generally stable.
Economic restructuring
-- Rise in domestic consumption;
-- Breakthrough in emerging strategic industries;
-- Service sector value-added output to account for 47 percent of GDP, up 4 percentage points;
-- Urbanization rate to reach 51.5 percent, up 4 percentage points.
Innovation
-- Expenditure on research and development to account for 2.2 percent GDP;
-- Every 10,000 people to have 3.3 patents.
Environment & clean energy
-- Non-fossil fuel to account for 11.4 percent of primary energy consumption;
-- Water consumption per unit of value-added industrial output to be cut by 30 percent;
-- Energy consumption per unit of GDP to be cut by 16 percent;
-- Carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP to be cut by 17 percent;
-- Forest coverage rate to rise to 21.66 percent and forest stock to increase by 600 million cubic meters;
Agriculture
-- Annual grain production capacity to be no less than 540 million tones;
-- Farmland reserves to be no less than 1.818 billion mu.
Livelihood
-- Population to be no larger than 1.39 billion;
-- Life span per person to increase by one year;
-- Pension schemes to cover all rural residents and 357 million urban residents;
-- Construction and Renovation of 36 million apartments for low-income families;
-- Minimum wage standard to increase by no less than 13 percent on average each year;
Social management
-- Improved public service for both urban and rural residents;
-- Improved democracy and legal system;
-- Better social management system for greater social harmony;
-- More than 10 percent of all residents will be registered as community volunteers.
Reform
-- Encourage qualified enterprises to get listed in stock markets;
-- In-depth reform in monopoly industries for easier market entry and more competition;
-- Improved government efficiency and credibility
Related:
Full story
Highlights of China's 12th five-year plan
BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- A draft of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) was submitted Saturday morning to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, for reviewing.
Following are the highlights of the draft of the plan, which was distributed to the media prior to the opening of the Fourth Session of the 11th NPC.？？？？
BEIJING - Government officials who allow the use of pirated software in their offices will face censure amid a drive to promote authorized software.
All central government departments should ban the use of unauthorized software by May, Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the National Copyright Administration, said.
"Those who fail to meet the deadline will be criticized," he told China Daily.
A national conference was held on Monday in Beijing to help enforce the ban on unauthorized software in 147 central government departments, which demonstrated China's determination to strengthen intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.
Yan Xiaohong, vice-minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the conference that 12 teams will start a national inspection tour early next month to supervise the use of licensed software.
He asked all government departments to report to the National Copyright Administration on the use of licensed software.
The State Council, or the Cabinet, has ordered all central government offices to use licensed software by the end of May and all local government offices to do the same by the end of October.
Between October 2010 and Feb 10 this year, central government offices spent 41 million yuan ($6.16 million) purchasing or updating 53,915 sets of licensed software, said Wang.
The purchase of domestic software outnumbered overseas software by two to one in that span, he said.
"It's absolutely the offices' own choice, and we haven't issued any advice (regarding buying domestic or overseas software) to them," he added.
Statistics from the Government Offices Administration suggested that the central government has spent 1.3 billion yuan on licensed software since 2001 when the State Council started to enforce the use of licensed software.
Meanwhile, many local governments have taken steps to ensure that they use licensed software.
Qingdao in Shandong province, as the pilot city, has spent nearly 77 million yuan on 15,278 licensed software products, according to figures from the local government.
Qingdao and Microsoft reached an agreement in December, which enables its departments to access the technology giant's licensed products over the next three years.
The State Intellectual Property Office said in November 2010 that other major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian and Ningbo, have already met the target set by the central government to eliminate the use of pirated software.
A Ministry of Finance notice issued last December said central government departments will get budgetary backing from the ministry for software purchasing.
Yan, however, acknowledged that some departments have limited knowledge of licensed software.
Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that China's software industry revenue rose from 480 billion yuan in 2006 to 1.3 trillion yuan in 2010.
Applications for software copyright protection in China have almost quadrupled, from 21,500 in 2006 to 82,000 in 2010, the Copyright Protection Center said last month.
WASHINGTON - The United States and China reached agreement on export deals worth $45 billion including a major contract with Boeing, the White House said on Wednesday at the formal start of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit.
The agreements included China's final approval of a $19 billion contract to buy 200 Boeing aircraft for delivery between 2011 and 2013, which US officials estimated would support 100,000 American jobs.
"We value China's support for our products and its confidence in Boeing," said Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "With the outstanding support provided by the United States Government, this deal is a win-win for the Boeing-China partnership which is approaching its 40th anniversary.
Other deals involved Honeywell, Caterpillar and Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp.
Chinese officials told the Obama administration that Chinese companies had signed 70 contracts worth $25 billion in US exports from 12 states, US officials said.
Altogether, the Boeing and other deals will support an estimated 235,000 American jobs, they said.
